Party strategies and electoral competition in post-Communist countries: Evidence from Poland

Poland's major post-Communist party, the SLD, was an electorally successful legacy party during the 1990's. An analysis of Polish National Election Studies data and data from a separate study of new firm creation in Poland indicates their success was built on two important and related factors. One is the growth of new firms, which stimulated the growth of a centrist constituency who voted for parties supporting economic reforms. Second, the SLD adapted to this constituency by themselves becoming more economically liberal, as documented by Grzyma?a-Busse (2002). A conditional logit model of voter choice in the 1997 and 2001 elections relates votes to the distance between voters' preferences on economic policies and the positions of the competing parties. From this analysis we estimate that if the SLD had remained an ideological non-reformist party as did the KS?M in the Czech Republic and the CPRF in Russia it would have been a far weaker party as measured by vote and seat shares. Without the new firm creation, an ideological SLD cum KS?M could have been electorally successful as was the CPRF. The paper concludes by contrasting the the Polish, Czech and Russian post-Communist parties and extending the implications of the results to other developing and industrial economies faced with the need for structural change.     

Economic globalization and voter turnout in established democracies

This paper asks whether international economic integration negatively affects electoral turnout. The theoretical model builds on the premise that economic integration constrains the ability of national governments to shape outcomes. Citizens are conscious of such constraints and take them into account when considering the costs and benefits of casting a vote in national elections. The result is a lower inclination to vote under conditions of high economic integration. Consequently, aggregate turnout is lower the more internationally integrated a national economy is. Analysis of aggregate data for parliamentary elections in 23 OECD democracies over the period 1965–2006 robustly supports this hypothesis. The empirical estimates suggest economic globalization as a central cause of the general decline in turnout within established democracies.     

构建和谐社会必须坚持和完善中国共产党领导的多党合作和政治协商制度

中国共产党领导的多党合作和政治协商制度是有中国特色的社会主义政党制度,也是我国的一项基本政治制度。多党合作和政治协商制度的产生和形成是由我国社会历史发展条件决定的,有其社会经济基础方面的客观必然性,也是与中国共产党及各民主党派的主观努力分不开的,它的巩固、发展和完善在新的历史条件下也有着重要意义。     

网络极化现象研究——基于四个中文BBS论坛的内容分析

本文试图把"极化"这一概念引入网络政治传播的考察中,主要针对四个中文BBS论坛(强国深水、猫眼看人、天涯杂谈和新浪杂谈)政治讨论中的极端化态度分布状态进行描述与比较。结果显示,态度极化现象与论坛群体和特定的议题类别紧密相关。其中激进派聚集的论坛更容易出现极化;涉及"政府"的议题更容易在激进的论坛中出现极化,而在温和派占据主流的论坛则呈现非极化状态。同时,发帖积极性越高的ID越容易出现态度极化的现象;而且,网民的意见同质化程度越高,则群体极化的程度也就越高。     

政治腐败与我国传统文化

当前中国政治腐败现象的存在与中国传统文化糟粕的影响不无关系。分析这种文化的影响具有重要的现实意义。     

比较法概念的批判与重构

比较法的概念问题是比较法所有问题中的原点性、基石性问题。比较法学家在这一问题上形成了五种有代表性的观点,但这些观点都存在着各种各样的内在缺陷。本文提出,比较法是一门研究世界总体法律格局及其变化的学科。这一新的比较法概念和模式,可以为比较法开辟了新的发展方向和理论空间。     

Does moral rhetoric fuel or reduce divides between parties and non-copartisan voters?

Political parties at times use moral appeals to voters outside of their support base, i.e., non-copartisan voters. Yet, morality is typically considered a divisive force in politics. Does moral rhetoric actually alleviate or exacerbate divides between parties and non-copartisan voters? The paper addresses this question by focusing on non-copartisans’ attitudes towards the party. Insights from previous work on moral persuasion and attitudinal bias suggest a conflicting picture. On the one hand, moral rhetoric is likely to make morally aligned non-copartisans more favourable towards the party. On the other hand, moral rhetoric is unlikely to make even the morally aligned favourable towards the party. In fact, moral rhetoric may further push away non-copartisans with pre-existing hostility. Using original, representative survey experiments from Britain, the paper finds that moral rhetoric can increase favourable attitudes and that it does not further promote hostility. Morality in party competition does not necessarily fuel division.     

The local party voter: A localist anti-establishment voter?

In several countries, local parties have increased their share of votes in local elections. This development has received limited scholarly attention compared to the immense interest paid to the fates of national level anti-establishment parties. Against this backdrop, we ask if something distinct characterizes those who choose to vote for genuinely local alternatives compared to other anti-establishment voters. Sweden is taken as the case in focus, a country where local parties have grown in numbers and strength throughout the past three decades. We view local parties as a part of a broader ‘anti-establishment’ family, and we explore if their voters a) are similar to those who vote for the most pronounced anti-establishment party in Sweden (Sweden Democrats), or b) if local party voters are a distinct anti-establishment category in their own right. Drawing on a survey data from 49 Swedish municipalities, we find that local party voters indeed distinguish themselves from both Sweden Democrat's voters and voters for the old and established parties, thus making them a distinct anti-establishment voter category of their own. These voters distrust their local politicians but at the same time are civically engaged.     

The Danish legislators database

Elections determine the composition of legislatures, but the study of legislative representation has long been hampered by limited individual-level data on legislators. Recent innovations have vastly increased opportunities for studying legislators, but often have limited historical coverage. We introduce the Danish Legislators Database (DLD), a database of members of Denmark’s parliament, Folketinget, for every electoral term since its inception in 1849. Relative to most existing databases, the DLD is rare in covering the entire history of a parliamentary body going back more than 170 years. The DLD thus enables analyses of parliamentary representation with full temporal coverage. We describe the development and content of the DLD and present a set of analyses illustrating the potential uses of the database in the study of representation.     

Electoral colorism: Candidate skin color and list placement in Ecuador

To what extent does candidate skin color influence party list placement in proportional representation systems? While candidate skin color is increasingly understood to play an important role in politics, the extent to which it shapes electoral opportunities and outcomes remains unclear. In this paper, we investigate whether party elites in list proportional representation systems place darker-skinned candidates in lower, less advantageous list positions than their lighter-skinned copartisans. Drawing on party lists from Ecuador’s 2021 National Assembly elections and an original measure of candidate skin color, we find evidence that candidate skin color is a significant determinant of list placement. This finding indicates that party lists reinforce color-based inequalities in political representation and reveals that a candidate’s skin color shapes their chances of winning elected office.