Popular Mobilizations in Lebanon: From Anti-System to Sectarian Claims

In Lebanon, the Arab uprising is often analyzed through the lens of the side effects the Syrian uprising had on the country thanks to the massive refugee influx and involvement of Sunni and Shia Lebanese in Syria’s battleground. In fact, popular mobilizations happened prior to and during the current crisis as two different types of effects of the Arab uprisings at large. First, in late 2010 emerged an anti-sectarian movement that brought up an anti-system claim in line with other Arab social movements targeting authoritarian regimes and corruption. Second, the Sunni radical mobilization that started in Saida in 2011 around the popular Imam Sheikh Assir gathered resentments toward the Shia leading party Hizbullah as involved alongside the Syrian regime and, surprisingly, adopting an active minority mobilization strategy. Both movements conducted demonstrations of different types (from classic marches to on-road sit-ins) starting from a completely opposite perspective and in a very different environment: when the anti-sectarian mobilization faded, the sectarian one rose. This article will try to address the historical process of both mobilizations and assess their differences in light of several mobilization theories. It intends to raise questions about the types of actors involved, their discourses and justifications, and the contextual local and political environments.     

Political participation,personality, and the conditional effect of campaign mobilization

Why are some people more responsive to campaign mobilization than others? I argue that the composition of a person's core personality makes some people more responsive to mobilization cues than others. However, the degree to which personality alters the effectiveness of mobilization also depends on the type of political participation for which people are being mobilized. I explore the determinants of political participation by looking at the interaction between the Big-5 traits of agreeableness, conscientiousness, and emotional stability and the intensity of campaign environments. This paper demonstrates that despite the possible ameliorative effect mobilization has on unequal patterns of political participation, an enduring source of participatory inequality may very well be rooted in a person's core psychological structure.     

A scientific approach to measure public political participation in Pakistan

Public political participation is an exhaustive subject in the democratic system that is contributing as a tilled land since the birth of democracy. It has a wide range of frequency, but voting is one of the easiest among all forms of public participation. Despite the easiness of voting, Pakistan ranks 164th in terms of voter turnout among 169 countries of the world. The voter turnout of the second largest Muslim democracy and the fifth largest among all the democratic states was recorded as 45.3% in the 2013 general election, which was less than India’s (59.4%) and even Bangladesh’s (58.2%). More than half of the population in Pakistan does not think it is its duty to cast its vote. The present study is an effort to investigate public political participation through six independent variables: democratic political party, party mobilization, security, accessibility, leadership image and moderating factor citizen distrust, and a useful sample size of 1884 was collected across the country. SPSS version 24.0 was used to measure the data. The results show significant and positive relations among the dependent and independent variables, while citizen distrust negatively moderates the dependent and independent variables of the study.     

多元竞争环境下的马来西亚政治生态

本文旨在分析马来西亚近期政治生态中的若干重要变化,并对竞争环境下马来西亚政治行为体的行为规律进行探讨。本文认为,马来西亚的政治生态正处在从威权政治向多元竞争型政治的快速转变过程中,政治上的生存—发展策略主要是绩效竞争、政治结盟、话语动员。     

组织嵌入与功能调适:执政党基层组织研究

中国共产党的基层组织体系是独具特色的。由于组织禀赋和政治使命的要求,执政党运用基层组织嵌入社会的方式,获得强大的动员和组织力量。改革以来的社会变迁,为执政党的基层建党策略提出新的问题。在新的社会背景下提高基层党组织活力,需要培育和统筹发展多重政治功能,包括动员、组织、利益聚合与协调等。在各种利益冲突的复杂社会环境中,基层党组织应当着重发育利益协调功能。在利益协调中促进社会和谐,提升基层组织活力,为执政党谋求政治支持。     

A look into the mirror: Preferences,representation and electoral participation

Voting Advice Applications (VAA) are often praised as tools helping users to find their best matching candidates or parties. Using such tools, so the claim goes, might trigger a positive impact on electoral participation. We show that the relationship between VAA usage and the intention to take part in elections indeed exists. The mechanism through which users are drawn to the polls or, inversely, detracted from taking part in the elections is, however, primarily working through the extent with which users' preferences overlap with those of the political parties running in the campaign. The further users find themselves away – in terms of this overlap – from the political parties, the higher the probability of a VAA deterring this user from participating.     

利益表达、资源动员与议程设置——对于“闹大”现象的描述性分析

在当前社会转型时期的利益冲突中",闹大"已经成为公民抗争的重要逻辑。本文以近年来大量具有闹大特点的社会事件为研究对象,从理论上归纳了闹大的发展过程,概括和抽象了闹大的逻辑,并在公民与政府关系的框架下,从利益表达、资源动员和议程设置三个方面对闹大的功能性作用进行了深入的描述性分析。从利益表达的角度分析,闹大主要涉及到谁来表达、如何表达以及表达了什么的问题;从资源动员的角度分析,闹大的主要问题是动员的对象、动员过程的特征和动员的机制等问题;从议程设置的角度分析,闹大则与公民成为问题的界定者、问题是如何引起政府官员的注意的以及由谁用什么办法来解决问题等密切相关。闹大是透视公共治理状况的一面镜子。对闹大的描述性分析有助于深入把握和理解当前我国公共治理的规律和逻辑。     

试谈先秦时期军事动员

先秦时期,"国之大事,在祀与戎"[1],各种战争此起彼伏,一些统治者和军事家十分重视战争的动员问题,采取的途径主要有思想动员、利益刺激、军事刑罚、情感激励等.这些途径对当时产生了重要影响,就是在今天仍有较高的军事指导价值.     

能力短缺条件下的双边动员博弈——政府维稳与“公民闹大”及其关系

政府维稳与公民闹大已经成为当代中国公共治理的重要旋律。两者都是为了解决能力短缺问题所采取的行动策略,其目的是要动员、整合和利用资源,以实现彼此的目标。在政府与公民关系的框架下把握基于维稳与闹大所形成的关系,从资源及其动员的角度分析政府维稳与公民闹大的动员机制及其行动逻辑,揭示这种博弈关系发展所带来的公共治理的负面后果,不仅可以为我们理解纷繁复杂的公共治理现象提供一个清晰的框架,也有利于把握政府及其官员与公民的行为逻辑。     

情感与网络抗争动员——基于湖北“石首事件”的个案分析

本文打通个人层次与社会层次联系,从微观层面展现当代中国网络政治抗争动员的一般图景,以克服资源动员理论对中国网络政治抗争动员机制解释的不适应问题。湖北"石首事件"个案分析表明,情感在网络政治抗争动员过程中发挥着决定性的作用。从个体层次看,事件对网民的情感刺激决定了网民对事件的解读方式,从而直接影响公共话语建构和网民的社会认同。从社会层次看,网民情感反应根植于社会文化之中,社会文化框架决定着政府与网民互动的模式,直接决定网络政治抗争动员框架的建构。打通个体分析层次与社会分析层次的联系是理解情感影响下的社会认同建构是根本,也是理解当代中国网络政治抗争的根本。分析情感对网络政治抗争动员的影响有利于深入理解网络社会运动的内在机理,也有利于政府科学应对网络集体行动,促进政府与公众的良性互动。