Hungary’s radical right 2.0

In the digital age, the Internet is an important factor in the emergence and success of political parties and social movements. Despite growing evidence that extremists of all stripes use the virtual world for their purposes, research on this topic still lacks a wide array of empirical data, case studies, and theoretical background. In particular, Facebook, as the most important social networking site, is a new tool for political parties and movements to mobilize followers. The article explores how the extreme-right party Jobbik uses this tool more successfully than other Hungarian parties or Western European extreme-right parties. Comparing the growth in followers highlights this success, and a look at how it generates likes helps to explain it. The article argues that Jobbik uses Facebook in a sophisticated way and suggests that this “likable” attitude helps to attract young and first-time voters.     

Does voter polarisation induce party extremism? The moderating role of abstention

This article contributes to the literature on representation by examining how the ideological polarisation of the electorate affects parties’ programmatic positions in multiparty systems. The main argument is that parties face incentives to adopt more extreme positions when the electorate becomes more ideologically polarised and the share of non-moderate voters is higher. The reason is that by adopting moderate positions parties will prompt their non-moderate core constituents to sit out the election. This risk is conditioned by voters’ propensity to abstain. A higher (lower) propensity to abstain means that parties alienate a larger (smaller) share of their core constituents when adopting a moderate position. Parties therefore respond to greater voter polarisation by adopting more extreme positions, but the effect declines as voters’ propensity to abstain decreases. An empirical analysis of parties’ programmatic positions in 11 Western European countries between 1977 and 2016 strongly supports this expectation.     

Where the whole city meets: youth,gender and consumerism in the social space of the MEGA shopping mall in Aktobe,western Kazakhstan

ABSTRACT

The shopping mall entered Central Asia's commercial sector as a result of the economic transformation of post-Soviet space. Constructed near the centre of the city, the shopping mall overwrites the urban landscape, dominating it as a symbol of modernity. It functions as a gateway of global consumerist culture to the Eurasian steppe. Using the MEGA shopping mall in Aktobe, in western Kazakhstan, as an example, this article shows that the building acts as a stage for the construction of a new social and cultural space. This study focuses on the ways in which young women interact with the mall's spaces. The mall turns out to be a playground not only for children, but also for the whole younger generation, who come to this unique place to see and be seen. The mall became a hot spot of youth culture in the post-socialist worker's city by offering more than a mere shelter from dust and snow storms on the steppe. The available amenities made it a favourite place for meeting, consuming and dreaming. Young women especially are attracted to MEGA to experience the newest fashions and build social relationships.     

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.     

A New Way to Compare Horizontal Connections of Policy Sectors: “Coupling” of Actors,Institutions and Policies

This paper proposes an innovative framework to compare the coordination of policy sectors in an encompassing way. Building on recent contributions to the literature, this paper proposes a typology to analyze the coordination of policy sectors from a comparative perspective. To this end, the paper adapts Karl Weick’s concept of coupling to the comparative analysis of public policies, particularly to horizontal relations of policy sectors. The paper argues that it is possible to distinguish four forms of sectoral coupling: tight coupling, loose coupling, de-coupling and non-coupling. In order to demonstrate the usefulness of this typology for empirical research, the paper applies coupling to analyze the relations of the healthcare and public health sectors. To conclude, the paper discusses the possibilities and limits of the typology, and suggests other examples the approach could be transferred to.     

Observer Sensitivity and Early Radicalization to Violence Among Young People in Germany

Social Justice Research - Personal sensitivity to injustice from either a victim or an observer perspective shapes political attitudes and actions. Yet, little is known about the link between...     

Integration,functional differentiation and problem‐solving in multilevel governance

The European Union (EU) is currently facing unprecedented challenges to its problem‐solving capacity, such as those represented by pressing transnational crises and by bottom‐up criticisms towards the European integration process. Moreover, the EU is said to compensate its weak input legitimacy with an enhanced problem‐solving capacity. However, the notion of problem‐solving itself has remained remarkably vague in the multilevel governance (MLG) literature. This symposium analyses problem‐solving in different MLG settings. In this introduction, we identify procedural and operational notions of problem‐solving in MLG, and present a structural framework to guide the comparative analyses of multilevel systems along the dimensions of political integration, functional differentiation and decentralization. The contributions to the symposium illustrate how structural elements of different multilevel systems shape both the policy‐making process and the politics of problem‐solving within these systems. In doing so, they pave the way for further comparative research.