“Journalism ideology” and its influence on the producers of Radio Sonder Grense radio current affairs

In the same way that people can have a political or a personal ideology, their professional identities and how they practise a craft or an occupation may be influenced by what can be labelled as a “professional ideology”. Through conducting interviews with the producers of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) Afrikaans radio programmes Monitor, Spektrum and Naweek-Aktueel, this article reports on research which showed that there is indeed such a thing as a “journalism ideology”. The interviews focused on how “internal influences” – such as a journalist's background and training, newsroom routines – and “external influences” – such as the audience – influenced the decisions they made in choosing news stories and producing content. This “journalism ideology” influences the producers and in turn the news content of these current affairs programmes that are listened to daily by almost two million listeners. The conclusion drawn from the study is that, although the participants’ “journalism ideology” largely determines the news stories for their programmes, structural forces, newsroom routines and organisational constraints often dictate their actions. Finally, although all the participants saw themselves as “watchdogs of democracy”, internal pressures within the SABC could endanger that role.     

An empirical test of presidentialism's effect on party competition

This article argues that party competition in legislative elections is partly a function of presidential elections. Previous research on spatial competition has assumed that parties are competing in parliamentary regimes, where the only election of concern for parties and voters is the legislative election. However, in presidential regimes, presidential elections lead to relatively centrist positioning of candidates, and coattail effects from the presidential elections help shape the legislative elections. Using data from the Comparative Manifestos Project, I show that the major parties of the left and right in legislative elections are ideologically closer to each other in presidential regimes than major parties in parliamentary regimes.     

Ideological change and the economics of voting behavior in the US, 1920–2008

This paper tests the proposition that voters advance a more liberal agenda in prosperous times and turn more conservative in dire economic times. A reference-dependent utility model suggests that, with income growth, the relative demand for public goods increases and the median voter is more likely to vote Democrat. With slowing income growth, the median voter derives increased marginal utility from personal income—making taxation more painful—and is more likely to vote Republican. Ordinary and instrumented analyses of a new time series for the US median voter are encouraging of this income growth model. This work links voting behavior to economic business cycles and shows that ideological change is endogenous to income growth rates.     

“生态问题意识形态化”批判

“生态问题意识形态化”是由“生态主义意识形态化”发展而来的,是“后意识形态”时代生态问题工具化、生态问题解释权精英化、生态问题与新自由主义意识形态联系紧密化的反映,是“绿党政治”发展后期右翼支持者与环保主义者巨大对立造成的生态问题孤岛的体现,是气候问题在当前争议愈演愈烈的映照,是对当前生态问题更深层次的探讨。我国在面对当前“生态问题意识形态化”倾向时,更应该坚守生态文明建设理念,走出符合中国特色的生态文明建设之路。     

American Republican Religion? Disentangling the Causal Link Between Religion and Politics in the US

Recent research in American political behavior has examined at length the link between evangelical Protestants and the Republican Party. These works however do not consider the idiosyncratic nature of religiosity in the US, and insist on treating religion as an ‘unmoved mover’ with respect to political contexts. The question posed herein is: during the participation of religious communities in partisan politics, should we expect politics to eventually constrain religious behavior? Motivated by a political social identity approach, I use American National Election Study panel data and structural equation modeling techniques to explore the untested possibility that religious and political factors are linked through reciprocal causation. Conditional upon religious and temporal context, findings highlight the causal impact of ideology and partisanship in shaping religious behavior.     

社会主义社会产生和发展的两种方式与马克思主义意识形态建设——从马克思主义革命理论的产生到科学发展观的形成

社会意识形态在漫长的形成和发展中,往往都经历社会发展的“常态”与“非常态”的发展过程。当代中国社会主义的意识形态建设,无论是从外部资本主义的发展,还是中国内部社会主义的发展来分析,已进入了一个“常态”发展阶段。与19世纪马克思主义产生的外部和内部环境、20世纪社会主义产生和发展的世界环境不同,当代社会主义不仅面对着资本主义的常态化发展,而且面对着自身的常态化发展。社会主义的意识形态建设,必须正视这些方面的“常态”内容,充分吸收这些常态化的制度建设、社会建设的成果,作为意识形态建设的基础和根基。当代中国共产党思想理论建设取得的成果———科学发展观正是以此为基点的建设性收获。     

Discordant dreams: the spirit of the times in contemporary South Africa

In a time of ferment in the national mood, the large body of literature on the rationale and emotions of specific subgroups in South Africa today invites a synthetic account of ideologies and zeitgeist considered together. It is argued that these phenomena are rooted in material processes and that combinations of these discourses are used by people. Patriarchy, neoliberalism, the ANC state, and Christianity are considered as ideology; the “colonial unconscious” is considered as a structuring principle of the fractured presentation of zeitgeist. This includes the ideological popular discourse of whiteness; a single broad social spirit of blackness, though within this are subclusters of survival, retraditionalization, religion, “insurgent yet dependent citizenship,” and loyal citizenship. The common spirit of democratic South Africa is outlined. Lastly, using Hamilton’s account of “public deliberation,” the extent and location of critical public debate is discussed, and linked to the issue of ressentiment. The implication of these forces for the future is finally considered.     

European Professors as Public Intellectuals

Historically, European economists, compared to their American counterpart, were more involved in public discussions of policy. In this paper it is argued that this has likely changed. The chief reasons seem to involve the European imitation of the academic ethos that is more prevalent in America. Features of this academic ethos include a more formalist orientation in graduate programs and an academic incentive system wherein professional journal publication is paramount and public discourse is relatively devalued. I suggest there is an inescapable ideological dilemma in addressing the costs and benefits of professors’ neglect of public discourse. The ideological character of academics compared with our own political sensibilities affect whether we want academics to influence public discourse or not. I use the history of academics as public intellectuals in Sweden to substantiate the change, and I use new data on Swedish social science academics to see whether those who participate in public discourse tend to have certain political and social views.

Bridging the Ideological Divide: Trust and Support for Social Security Privatization

Using a pair of national surveys, this article analyzes the individual-level sources of public support for Social Security privatization. Given the inherent risks associated with privatization, we argue that the political trust heuristic affords untapped theoretical leverage in explaining public attitudes toward privatization. We find that, among certain individuals, political trust plays an instrumental role in structuring privatization preferences. Political trust increases support for privatization, but only among liberals. This heterogeneity in trust’s impact is best explained, we argue, by the unbalanced ideological costs imposed by the potential privatization of Social Security. Among liberals, embracing privatization requires the sacrifice of core values, thereby making political trust a potent consideration. Political trust is inconsequential among conservatives because supporting privatization requires no comparable sacrifice for them.

Personalized politics: Evidence from the Czech and Slovak Republics

What role do political party leaders play in individual vote choice? Recent literature argues that leaders are increasingly important for decisions at the ballot box. Moreover, scholars suggest leaders may be particularly consequential in volatile, under-institutionalized party systems, like those of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Accordingly, we investigate the extent to which leader evaluations matter for individual voting decisions, and whether these evaluations are more consequential than ideological proximities between voters and parties. We also explore whether leaders matter more for leader-centered, ideologically blurry, and populist parties. Through a comparison of the 2017 Czech and 2020 Slovak elections, we find that leader evaluations are strongly associated with voting decisions and that these evaluations tend to be more consequential than ideological proximity. We also show that leaders are more important for parties with strong “brands” – those that have most differentiated themselves from their competitors.