Book reviews

The paper discusses two well-organized Nordic gender conferences—one in Bergen and one in Gothenburg—which, however, were remarkably different in character. While the local Norwegian conference opened windows to the world outside the Global North, the windows were kept only ajar at the national Swedish meeting.     

The Value Priorities of the Political Elites: A Test of the Postmaterialist Thesis in the Puerto Rican Legislature

The postmaterialist thesis has spurred a large body of literature and debates, yet postmaterialism has not been studied among political elites. Empirical studies of the legislatures and legislators of Latin American nations in general and Puerto Rico in particular, moreover, are sorely lacking. This article examines postmaterialist values among Puerto Rican legislators. It finds that Puerto Rican legislators have high levels of postmaterialism and that they order the components of the postmaterialism scale in ways similar to those of the mass publics of other countries, including those of Latin America. More important, the postmaterialist scale proves of little use in explaining the positions legislators take on a host of issues, many of which are closely associated with postmaterialism. An alternative explanation is that the scale really measures attachment to democratic norms.     

Some Talk,No Action (Yet): Interdependence,Domestic Interests and Hierarchical EU Governance in Climate Policy

This article analyses why Switzerland has so far remained outside the European Union's emissions trading system (EU ETS), the centerpiece of the EU's efforts to combat climate change. In doing so, it contributes three insights to the literature on the EU's external governance. First, it shows that interdependence is of limited explanatory power in predicting EU–Swiss interactions. Secondly, it identifies domestic interests in the non‐member state, Switzerland, as the key factor in explaining the EU's external governance structures concerning emissions trading. Thirdly, it highlights the EU's limited flexibility in dealing with third countries in areas where its internal governance mode is hierarchical. The article presents a hypothesis about the future development of emissions trading in Switzerland and discusses implications for both the external governance literature and the development of global carbon markets.     

A rhetorical view of isms: an introduction

ABSTRACT

The article highlights the prominence of ism concepts in everyday and scholarly languages worldwide and presents a conceptual history and rhetorical perspective on how to study them. It also serves as an introduction to this special issue, which contributes to linguistically oriented research on political ideologies and transnational intellectual history. Although isms have gained some attention in connection with the study of ideas in history, political ideologies and theoretical discussions on analytical categories in scholarship, they have rarely been the main target of research. By focusing on the rhetorical use of ism concepts as a whole, the article directs new attention to the rhetorical potential of the use of isms in political controversies, the translation of isms and the alleged universal character of isms. The article suggests a new way of analysing political ideas, ideologies and analytical categories by applying a contextually sensitive understanding of the ism as words and their rhetorical use. It also presents an agenda for the study of isms globally.     

Isms,ideologies and setting the agenda for public debate

ABSTRACT

This article presents a long-term account of isms from antiquity to the present. It discusses the spread of isms into nearly all spheres of life and why isms are still perceived as ideological. Based on a combined analysis of word frequencies in large digital libraries and more detailed contextual discussions of patriotism, liberalism, nationalism and totalitarianism, the article studies the emergence of isms and their potential transformation from pejorative labels to concepts of group-identification and analytical categories. Isms have been highlighted as future-oriented concepts on which modern political ideologies were built from the early nineteenth century on. Isms have also been identified as being collectively responsible for the twentieth-century experience that has been conceptualized as totalitarianism. While elaborating the notion of isms as ideological future-oriented ‘concepts of movement’, the article points out their crucial role in forging historic roots for these modern ideologies as well as for religious and cultural phenomena. By emphasizing the rhetorical potential in using isms as words of abuse, forging traditions for isms and claiming universal applicability to isms, the article provides insight into the constant renegotiation of the relationship between ideologies and isms, a phenomenon that has gained increased topicality in recent decades.     

The Mix of Media Use Matters: Investigating the Effects of Individual News Repertoires on Offline and Online Political Participation

In contemporary high-choice media environments, people increasingly mix and combine their use of various news media into personal news repertoires. Despite this, there is still limited research on how people compose their individual news repertoires and the effects of these news repertoires. To address this and further our understanding of how media use influences political participation, this study investigates (a) how people combine the use of offline and online media into personal news repertoires and (b) the effects of different news repertoires on both offline and online political participation. Based on a two-wave panel study covering the 2014 Swedish national election, this study identifies five news repertoires, labeled minimalists, public news consumers, local news consumers, social media news consumers, and popular online news consumers. Among other things, the results show that social media news consumers are more likely to participate in politics both offline and online.