Political steering: how the EU employs power in its neighbourhood policy towards Morocco

Although the European Union’s engagement beyond its borders is ultimately about power, the concept remains under-utilized in empirical analyses of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). This article therefore proposes political steering as an analytical framework to conceptualize and track the empirical use and entanglements of diverse forms of power, highlighting genuine soft mechanisms. These bind actors to discursive practices because formalized sanctions or institutions are absent. This case study of the EU’s human rights and rule-of-law promotion in Morocco reveals how such soft mechanisms are intertwined with indirect steering mechanisms to achieve technicalization of policy reform at the governmental level and parallel politicization at the societal level.     

Public Opinion Polls,Voter Turnout,and Welfare: An Experimental Study

We experimentally study the impact of public opinion poll releases on voter turnout and welfare in a participation game. We find higher overall turnout rates when polls inform the electorate about the levels of support for the candidates than when polls are prohibited. Distinguishing between allied and floating voters, our data show that this increase in turnout is entirely due to floating voters. When polls indicate equal levels of support for the candidates, turnout is high and welfare is low (compared to the situation without polls). In contrast, when polls reveal more unequal levels of support, turnout is lower with than without this information, while the effect of polls on welfare is nonnegative. Finally, many of our results are well predicted by quantal response (logit) equilibrium.     

Markt oder Schließung? Zu den Ursachen der Steigerung der Einkommensungleichheit

This article examines which factors contribute towards the increase in the income inequality that can be observed in Germany since the 1990’s. While economists believe that the qualification of employees is becoming more and more important for the generation of income inequality, sociologists conceive social closure, implemented in institutional structures, class conflicts and mechanisms of discrimination, as responsible for rising inequality. Analyses of “Gehalts- und Lohnstrukturerhebung”-data show that closure mechanisms are especially important in West Germany, while qualification-related factors enhance inequality in East Germany.     

Die Metamorphosen der AfD-Wählerschaft: Von einer euroskeptischen Protestpartei zu einer (r)echten Alternative?

Within a very short time the German party “Alternative für Deutschland” (AfD) was able to position itself as a representative of neglected groups and taboo issues. At the occasion of the federal election 2017, the party received more than ten percent of the votes and is now represented in the German Bundestag. However, it still remains unclear if the AfD will establish itself in the German party landscape in the long-run. Until today, the development of the AfD is marked by continuous quarrels about political positions and leaders. These conflicts and the associated changes may have an important impact on the party’s prospect of establishment. Of particular interest is whether the AfD already has a loyal electorate or the party is primarily elected by volatile voter segments motivated by protest and anti-party-sentiments. Applying a longitudinal perspective the article outlines that the party’s success depends heavily on volatile voter segments. However, a certain increase of loyal voters has also been observed – albeit on a low level.     

Lean models,complex realities: elite interactions in post-conflict democratisation at the local level

Abstract

This article argues that accounting for the complexity of interaction in post-conflict democracy promotion is important to understand how interactions influence post-conflict democratisation. Using the case of democracy promotion in Kosovo, the article uncovers two aspects in interaction processes where accounting for complexity is particularly useful: domestic goals and actor constellations. Taking into account the variety of domestic goals helps to understand how democratic reforms are subverted by domestic elites for the sake of their own domestic agenda. Disentangling the complexity of actor constellations demonstrates that interaction dynamics are shaped by the leverage and the number of international actors involved in the negotiation. The article draws on fine-grained local-level data from Kosovo to illustrate the argument.     

One-Sided Discussions: Deliberation in Weblogs during the 2009 National Election

Against the backdrop of the 2008 Obama campaign, participatory online tools were one main component of parties' campaigning strategy in Germany 2009. They used a wide variety of online tools to communicate directly with the voters. While political actors reiterated to accentuate the discursive potential of such tools, sceptics questioned whether such instrumental campaign communication can facilitate sound political discussions. The article analyses whether or not the internet fostered citizen participation during the 2009 national election campaign for the German Bundestag. A content analysis of the posts and comments in the weblogs of the major parties, CDU and SPD, was conducted. Results reveal that participation took place only on a very low level. Furthermore, the few comments published (370 in four weeks) failed to meet basic requirements of deliberation such as objectivity or argumentativity. Moreover, both parties actively prevented a free discourse as single comments may not have been authorised.