Media Priming in a Multi-Party Context: A Controlled Naturalistic Study in Political Communication

This study investigates media priming effects in the context of a Summit meeting of European Union (EU) leaders. It differs in four ways from most previous non-experimental priming studies: (1) it provides survey data accompanied by a content analysis of the news, (2) it compares priming effects on evaluations of a number of political leaders, who differed in their visibility in the news, (3) it involves an issue with low salience, and (4) it studies priming effects in the context of a European Parliamentary democracy. The study involves a two-wave panel study (before and after the Summit) on a representative sample of 817 Dutch adults, and a content analysis of the newspaper and television news in the 8 weeks leading up to the Summit meeting. The study shows that media priming effects occur only for the politicians who appeared visible in the news in connection with the issue. The media priming effects were not significantly moderated by political attentiveness or by political knowledge. We also explore the aggregate level consequences of priming for the popularity of leaders, and demonstrate that, as a result of media priming, two politicians became more popular, despite having received a bad press.

低收入群体政治心态与政治安定研究情况分析

低收入群体政治心态与政治安定既是一个理论问题 ,又是一个社会现实问题。研究这一问题 ,积极探索各种协调和处理的途径及方法 ,与我们党以人为本、执政为民的执政理念、科学的发展观是相一致的 ,也有助于构建社会主义和谐社会 ,最大限度地实现社会公正。而对这一问题的切合实际的科学理解 ,可以深化对政治稳定的认识 ,同时也可以促进科学研究的国际化与本土化融合。     

Professionalization of Political Communication

Abstract

Americanization of Western European election campaigns has frequently been discussed, particularly in the media, but rarely defined. This article argues that the concept of professionalization better encompasses the process of change that can be observed in electoral communication. Professionalization is here regarded as a process by which the political actors adapt their strategies to changes in society and in the political system as well as to changes in the media system. The campaign of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) for the 1998 Federal Election is here described as an example of professionalized electioneering.     

Grey Power: Towards a Political Economy of Older Voters in the UK

The impact of age on voting behaviour and political outcomes has become an issue of increasing interest, particularly in the UK. Age divides in voter turnout and political preferences have led to claims that age is the ‘new class’. In this article, we contrast existing ‘cultural backlash’ and political economy explanations of the age divide in politics, and challenge the view that older people are predominantly ‘left behind’, culturally or economically. We show that older people have distinct material interests, related to housing wealth and pensions’ income, that are visible in their political preferences. We argue for the development of a new political economy of age.     

Mass Political Behaviour: Is There More to Learn?

Research progress in voting studies and party competition, the mass media, work on social movements, interest groups and collective action, is reviewed for the last decade. Theoretical impetus in applied work seems weak in British studies; sub-fields of research are being pursued in isolation. In electoral studies at least there are signs of over-specialization and loss of valuable interconnections with the mainstream of political science. A number of pathways for improving the state of the art are identified, focusing on a renewal of theoretical input, the correction of some 'system biases', greater methodological pluralism and more integration of demand-side and supply-side studies.     

The Moral Minority: Evangelical Protestants in Northern Ireland and Their Political Behaviour

It has long been asserted that strong evangelical religious beliefs underpin strong unionist and loyalist political attitudes in Northern Ireland. Although recent literature has argued for a wide diversity of political attitudes amongst evangelicals, this has not been quantified. Based on analysis of the 1991 Northern Irish Social Attitudes Survey and the 1998 Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey, this article argues that evangelicals are attitudinally different to other Protestants in Northern Ireland. However, their distinctiveness arises from their conservative moral attitudes and not, as widely claimed, from stronger unionist political values. Indeed, in terms of party identification, in 1991 evangelicals were less likely than other Protestants to support the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). And although there has been a small shift towards the DUP over the course of the 1990s, it is not due to any strengthening of the unionism of evangelicals, but rather the increasing importance of moral conservatism in predicting voters' party choice in Northern Ireland.     

A Comparative Analysis of Political Communication Systems and Voter Turnout

This article explores how political communication institutions affect cross-national differences in voter turnout in democratic elections. It demonstrates how the structure and means of conveying political messages—gauged by media systems, access to paid political television advertising, and campaign finance laws—explain variations in turnout across 74 countries. Relying on a "mobilization" perspective, I argue that institutional settings that reduce information costs for voters will increase turnout. The major empirical findings are twofold. First, campaign finance systems that allow more money (and electioneering communication) to enter election campaigns are associated with higher levels of voter turnout. Second, broadcasting systems and access to paid political television advertising explain cross-national variation in turnout, but their effects are more complex than initially expected. While public broadcasting clearly promotes higher levels of turnout, it also modifies the effect of paid advertising access on turnout.     

政治沟通视角下的地方治理——地方政府沟通指数的测算与分析

政治沟通是政治生活的重要内容,但在治理评估研究中却长期被忽视。地方政府沟通指数将政治沟通纳入地方治理评估过程,以"平台—政府—民众"为框架构建指标体系,以全国338个地级及以上城市为研究对象,实现对各级地方政府沟通水平的测算和排名。从测算结果看,当前我国各级地方政府与民众在不同层面上开展沟通,但呈现较为明显的不均衡、不充分特点。作为衡量地方政府与民众沟通的重要指标,地方政府沟通指数不同程度地受到地理条件、人口规模、经济发展水平、政治资源配置等因素影响。通过构建和测算地方政府沟通指数,既可为我国的地方治理评估引入一个新的分析视角,也对提升地方政府沟通能力具有启示意义。     

Expertise and Bias in Political Communication Networks

Citizens minimize information costs by obtaining political guidance from others who have already assumed the costs of acquiring and processing political information. A problem occurs because ideal informants, typically characterized by the joint presence of political expertise and shared viewpoints, are frequently unavailable or rare within the groups where individuals are located. Hence, individuals must often look beyond their own group boundaries to find such informants. The problem is that obtaining information from individuals located beyond their own groups produces additional costs. Moreover, the availability of ideal informants varies across groups and settings, with the potential to produce (1) context‐dependent patterns of informant centrality, which in turn generate (2) varying levels of polarization among groups and (3) biases in favor of some groups at the expense of others. The article's analysis is based on a series of small‐group experiments, with aggregate implications addressed using a simple agent‐based model.     

政治文明研究综述

一、社会主义政治文明提出的背景及意义 众多学者认为,社会主义政治文明思想的提出顺应了历史潮流和时代的要求,反映了中国共产党开拓创新的意识,具有重大的现实意义和深远的历史意义。 首先,建设社会主义政治文明的思想是以江泽民同志为核心的中央领导集体对马克思主义政治学理论和邓小平民主政治建设理论的丰富和发展。“政治文明”一词,马克思于1844年11月在《关于现代国家的著作的计划草稿》中就提出了,但是没有明确界定。多数学者认为,我国过去没有提出社会主义政治文明的概     

关于低收入群体的政治心态

在全面建设小康社会的过程中 ,低收入群体的政治心态是全国经济、社会、政治运行的晴雨表 ,关系到改革、发展与稳定大局 ,关系到地区和全国的长期政治安定。研究低收入群体的政治心态 ,可从其现实表现入手 ,分析其不同类型 ,研究其深层原因 ,把握其变化趋向 ,从而采取促进其积极变化发展的对策。这样做的目的 ,在于维护长期的政治安定与和谐 ,加速实现全面建设小康社会的目标。     

Public Opinion, Political Communication and the Internet

In contemporary society public opinion is generally mediated by the mass media, which has come to encompass the Habermasian 'public sphere'. This arena is now characterised by the conflict between market and democratic principles, by competing interests of politicians and the media. The presentation of information for debate becomes distorted. The opinion of the 'public' is no longer created through deliberation, but is constructed through systems of communication, in conflict with political actors, who seek to retain control of the dissemination of information. The expansion of the internet as a new method of communication provides a potential challenge to the primacy of the traditional media and political parties as formers of public opinion.     

Event-Driven Political Communication and the Preadult Socialization of Partisanship

This study investigates political communication as a mediator of the socializing effects of major political events. We earlier found that presidential campaigns are occasions for increased crystallization of partisan attitudes among adolescents (Sears and Valentino, 1997). But what drives the socialization process during the campaign? Either the campaign saturates the media environment with political information, socializing all adolescents roughly equally, or greater individual exposure to political information is necessary for significant socialization gains during the campaign. The analyses utilize a three-wave panel study of preadults and their parents during and after the 1980 presidential campaign. Here we find that adolescents exposed to higher levels of political communication experience the largest socialization gains, that the socializing effects of political communication are limited to the campaign season, and that communication boosts socialization only in attitude domains most relevant to the campaign. We conclude that both a high salience event at the aggregate level and high individual levels of communication about the event are necessary to maximize socialization gains.

     

Measuring the Impact of Community Engagement on Policy Making in the UK: A Local Case Study

Innovative attempts to involve citizens in policy making have been one of the defining features of the New Labour government in the UK. In this article, we examine the nature and impact of community engagement mechanisms within the flagship regeneration programme—the New Deal for Communities. Through interviews with practitioners, analysis of survey data and participant observation of governance boards we examine the methods and impact of initiatives to engage residents in policy making. While it is apparent that innovative strategies have been put in place to engage and empower communities in local policy making, this has not always been matched by the development of tools for measuring the impact of involvement or for scrutinizing the policy development and decision-making process. More people may have got involved, but little is known about precisely what effect their involvement has had upon policies at the local level. Consultation, or just publicizing what is happening and community involvement in decision-making are often conflated, and there is only a limited attempt to delineate and quantify the impact of each. It is also evident that information gathered as a result of some community engagement initiatives is not easily linked to policy development and is not always utilized in the policy process. For community involvement to become a meaningful and sustainable aspect of local policy making, an appropriate infrastructure needs to be developed to ensure that the decision-making process is transparent and accountable, and that the input from citizens genuinely informs decision-making.     

Making a Crisis out of a Drama: The Political Analysis of BSE Policy-Making in the UK

Political analysis presents the episode of BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) as a crisis, a policy failure and a policy disaster, revealing fundamental problems with the political and administrative system in the UK. Associated with this finding is the view that trust in government has been damaged by the failure to communicate fully the potential risks to the public of eating beef. These conventional judgements are challenged here, on the basis of an exploration of the episode, the findings of the official inquiry into BSE, and the relationship between risk and trust. I conclude that the drama over BSE and variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease does not amount to a crisis, a failure or a disaster, and cannot serve as a critique of the UK political system. Instead, the complexity of the case suggests that it is an intractable policy problem.     

Politics and Constitutional Reform in Canada: A Study in Political Opposition

Political opposition in a federal system is particularly richand complex, involving not only political parties and pressuregroups, but constitutionally sovereign governments as well.This article examines political opposition in a federation througha case study of the mobilization of opposition to the CanadianConstitution Act. Introduced by the federal government in 1980,the Act proposed a series of important changes in the powersof Canada's ten provinces. The resistance offered by a numberof provinces, the two opposition parties holding seats in Parliament,and a handful of interest groups were sufficient to secure significantchanges in the Act. The analysis presented here demonstratesthe key role of provincial governments—and especiallyof provincial premiers—as oppositional actors, while indicatingthe importance of the courts and intergovernmental conferencesas sites where political opposition expresses itself in a federation.     

Group Formation and Political Conflict: Instrumental and Expressive Approaches

We construct models of the endogenous formation of politicalgroups designed to capture some of the key features ofpolitical and social conflict. We draw on the `citizencandidate' approach and consider both instrumental andexpressive approaches to understanding group formation andconflict between groups. We argue that the inclusion ofexpressive elements into the analysis of political groupsprovides both new insights and a better fit with certainaspects of the realities of political conflict.     

低收入群体的政治心态与政治安定问题考察

在全面建设小康社会的现阶段 ,低收入群体的政治心理及政治行为处在一种主流积极与支流消极的矛盾状态 :既对总体的经济社会发展和党的各项政策措施持肯定、认同、赞成的态度 ,又对自身状况和相关社会问题表现出不满 ;既比较清醒地认识到稳定对国家和全体社会成员的极端重要性 ,又在涉及自身的具体利益和相关社会问题上或多或少地影响着稳定。真实而准确地掌握和估价该群体的政治心态与政治安定问题 ,需要从实际出发 ,从各种热点、焦点问题的不同向度进行实证的调查、统计和分析 ,得出科学而有参考价值的结论