The times they are a-changin’: party campaign strategies in the 2018 Italian election

Abstract

The 2018 Italian election produced striking results, with both a historic success for the two challenger parties (League and M5S) and massive defeats for the two mainstream parties (PD and FI). This article analyses party campaign strategies and their consistency with the opportunity structures provided by the configuration of Italian public opinion. Relying on issue-yield theory, original survey data were collected for both issue support and priority among Italian voters, and party emphases on issues in the electoral campaign – through Twitter data. The findings indicate a generalised ideological inconsistency of the constituencies of the main parties, while campaign strategies appear much more ideologically consistent. Moreover, it is found that parties focused mostly on conflict-mobilisation strategies, rather than on problem solving. Finally, the article shows that, in general, parties acted strategically, by aligning their campaign to the available opportunities, although with relevant variations across parties.     

Working the Spaces in between: A Case Study of a Boundary‐Spanning Model to Help Facilitate Cross‐Sectoral Policy Work

Since the 1990s, ‘joined‐up government,’ ‘whole‐of‐government,’ and ‘horizontal governance’ approaches have emerged in many industrialized countries, resulting in the devolution of government functions to diverse policy networks. From these shifts, complex systems of networked actors have emerged, involved in designing, implementation, and influencing policy. Arguably, networked approaches to policy may solve some problems. However, as with all paradigm shifts, new problems have emerged. Specifically, skill and knowledge gaps have opened up, reflecting the need for new collaborative and networked relationships that can increase the capabilities and agility to work in these ways. In response to these gaps, we developed the Power to Persuade initiative. Power to Persuade is an annual symposium and online forum, aimed at deepening knowledge and awareness of current problems faced by policy networks, and providing the skills and knowledge to overcome them. In this paper, we discuss how Power to Persuade works within the spaces in between as a vehicle for relationship building and better policy.     

Effects of Work Boundary Strength on Employees' Emotional Exhaustion:The Mediating Role of Role Stress

Based on organizational support theory and “stressor-strain-outcome” model, this study constructs a moderated mediation model to research the mechanism between workload boundary and employees’ emotional exhaustion. Using a questionnaire survey, the results show that there is a U-shape relationship between the workload boundary and the employees’ emotional exhaustion; and this relationship is mediated by employees’ role stress. Furthermore, boundary flexibility moderates the U-shape relationship between workload boundary and employees’ role stress. This means that the boundary flexibility can help reduce the negative effects of the workload boundary on the employees’ role stress, and compared with too strong and too weak workload boundary, the reduced negative effects are the most appropriate when the workload boundary is in the middle. Lastly, workload flexibility moderates the mediation effects of employees’ role stress.     

The House of Lords: The Working of the Electoral Process in the 1999 Act of Parliament

This article investigates the working of the 1999 Act of Parliament in relation to the electoral process. One of the more controversial measures in the 1999 Act was the preservation of the representation of the hereditary element in the House of Lords. In the 2007-2008 session of Parliament, Lord Avebury introduced the House of Lords (Amendment) Bill, to repeal this electoral process, and Lord (David) Steel of Aikwood introduced the House of Lords Bill, which had provisions to the same effect as Lord Avebury's Bill. The working of this electoral process is therefore likely to be a topic of debate in the 2008-2009 session of the House of Lords. We suggest that there are three possible options to deal with the likely future issues for this electoral process. These we present as a contribution to a wider debate on the way forward for this constitutional issue.     

朝日“绑架问题”上的日本外交方针分析

朝日"绑架问题"历经小泉内阁、安倍内阁、福田内阁,已成为朝日邦交正常化的重大悬案之一。针对日益僵化的"绑架问题",小泉内阁以"绑架问题不解决,日朝邦交不会正常化"为基本原则,回避历史问题,企图完全以"对话和压力"的外交方针来解决"绑架问题"。而安倍内阁则继承和"发扬"小泉的上述方针,一味地强调以"压力"来解决"绑架问题"。福田当选日本首相以后,多次表示一揽子解决日朝间的历史问题和"绑架问题"的意愿。     

A Broad Alliance of Civil Society Organizations on Climate Change Mitigation: Political Strength or Legitimizing Support?

One hundred and one very different organizations joined together prior to the election for the Norwegian parliament in 2013 in order to make climate change mitigation the most important issue in the election campaign. The alliance (CE2013) agreed on six political demands relating to mitigation. In this article, we categorize the 101 organizations and discuss their identity and objectives according to these demands. The analysis demonstrates that even though a broad variety of organizations joined the campaign, their commitment was rather weak. Few of the organizations justify their involvement in CE2013 by all six political demands, hence demonstrating that climate change mitigation is a valence issue.     

What can a government do? Government issue ownership and real‐world problems

Despite major interest in issue ownership, what shapes it remains a puzzle. In his pioneering work on issue ownership, John Petrocik emphasises the importance of a party's performance. Recent research acknowledges this by pointing to the role of real‐world problems and incumbency for issue ownership. However, if performance truly matters, it should be difficult to understand the impact of such problems without taking into account the government's response to it. Based on novel data on issue ownership, policy development and government attention across five issues in nine countries over time, the analysis shows that the government's issue‐handling reputation is associated with the policy development, and the government's attention to the problem is important for this association. This is especially true for parties with no history of issue ownership on the issue and if the government is a coalition or in minority.     

Migration diplomacy in the Global South: cooperation,coercion and issue linkage in Gaddafi’s Libya

Despite a recent resurgence in research on the politics of migration, foreign policy analysts have yet to approach cross-border population mobility as a distinct field of inquiry. Particularly within the Global South, scant work has theorised the interplay between migration and interstate bargaining. This article proposes the framework of migration diplomacy to examine how mobility features in states’ issue-linkage strategies, in both cooperative and coercive contexts. Drawing on Arabic, French and English primary sources, it empirically demonstrates the salience of its framework through an analysis of Libya’s migration diplomacy towards its Arab, African and European neighbours under Muammar Gaddafi.     

朝核问题视角下的东北亚安全

冷战后,自从朝核问题出现以来,东北亚的安全局势发生了巨大的变化,朝核问题已然成为东北亚安全的焦点与核心。基于东北亚的区域特点和安全形势,朝核问题的地区解决方式应该是比较稳妥、长远、符合现实的,同时需要地区内主要大国的推动以及双边与多边机制的结合,重要的是在区域的核心点上将朝鲜纳入国际社会的发展轨道。然后,在这些原则基础上去探索东北亚安全机制建构的路径。     

浅谈疾控机构电子文件与电子档案管理的问题及对策

分析电子文件与电子档案在管理工作中存在的问题。方法:介绍一些相应解决对策。结果:当前电子文件已成为疾控机构档案管理工作不可缺少的重要组成部分,但是还存在一定的问题,针对存在的问题,提出了几点对策。结论:只有认清电子档案与纸质等载体档案的异同,才能做到对电子档案管理提出正确的要求,不妨碍电子档案自身的特殊性,创建自己的管理方法、技术和标准,是档案资料管理工作者所面临的新课题。