Issue ownership attack: how a political party can counteract a rival’s issue ownership

Abstract

A central part of representative democracy is that voters evaluate political parties based on how competently they handle issues, so-called ‘issue ownership’. Since issue ownership is a central ingredient in the vote choice, rival parties often try to influence how voters evaluate a competing party. This is an issue ownership attack. However, despite intense scholarly interest in issue ownership, the understanding of how parties shape issue ownership is very limited. Therefore a new theoretical model is tested here to understand issue ownership attack. Using several survey experiments, the analysis shows that a mainstream party can counteract another mainstream party’s issue ownership by reframing the issue and by blaming the party for its performance, but not by changing its own position on the issue. Hence, the study not only advances the understanding of issue ownership stability and change but also brings important insights on how parties influence voters.     

Regionalism in Crisis: GCC Integration without Democracy

ABSTRACT

At the core of “disembedded regionalism” in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is an incapacity to foster more representative forms of politics that are responsive to citizens. Instead, elite-to-elite relations are a salient feature that characterises Gulf politics. A radical re-reading of Jürgen Habermas and John Rawls, applied to the GCC in the first two decades of the 21st century, confirms that top-down management of politics is conducive to conflict and disintegration as against integration, marginalising the agenda of multi-level governance within the subregion. Set against the backdrop of the current blockade/crisis, this critical rendition throws into sharp relief the non-democratic brand of GCC regionalism.     

Scripted Messengers: How Party Discipline and Branding Turn Election Candidates and Legislators into Brand Ambassadors

Political parties with strict party discipline are well-placed to demand that their election candidates and legislators promote the party brand. The franchise-franchisee relationship causes representatives to relinquish individual expression in exchange for centralized party messaging. This article looks at how a strategic desire for party unity combines with internal brand management to turn lower-ranking politicians in a parliamentary system into party brand ambassadors. Our Canadian case study draws on in-depth interviews with party leaders, Members of Parliament, political staff, candidates for office and prospective candidates. The implications for representative democracy in a Westminster system are considered, including the representational constraints for racial and sexual minorities.     

Can non-democracies support international democracy? Turkey as a case study

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a rise of interest in the concept of autocracy promotion, with scholars questioning whether the efforts by authoritarian governments to influence political transitions beyond their borders are necessarily pro-authoritarian. An extension of this question is whether some authoritarian governments may at times find it in their interest to support democracy abroad. This article aims to answer this question by focusing on the case of Turkey. It argues that, despite its rapidly deteriorating democracy since the late 2000s, Turkey has undertaken democracy support policies with the explicit goal of democratic transition in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region during the Arab Spring and, while not bearing the intention of democratic transition, has employed democracy support instruments in the form of state-building in sub-Saharan Africa since 2005 to the present day. Based on original fieldwork, the article finds that non-democracies can turn out as democracy supporters, if and when opportunities for strategic gains from democratisation abroad arise. The article further suggests that even in those cases where strategic interests do not necessitate regime change, a non-democracy may still deploy democracy support instruments to pursue its narrow interests, without adhering to an agenda for democratic transition.     

中国城市社区协商民主实践创新:定位、特征与时代意义

21世纪以来,随着"中国特色社会主义协商民主"概念的提出,协商民主作为一种民主形式和制度安排,已经成为当代中国特色社会主义民主政治的重要内容。在政府改革的逻辑中,城市社区协商民主是作为中国协商民主体系的多层次形态之一而被纳入改革视域的。伴随着国家对基层认识和管理方式的不断深化,推进城市社区协商民主已经成为中国民主政治制度中不可或缺的组成部分。因此,深化对我国城市社区协商民主的定位、主要特征与时代意义等重要问题的认识,将有助于推进基层社区协商民主实践的进一步发展,完善中国特色社会主义协商民主体系。     

Issue yield,campaign communication,and electoral performance: a six-country comparative analysis

Abstract

This article develops and tests a model that explains election outcomes on the basis of party strategy. It employs a new comparative dataset linking representative mass surveys from six European countries with Twitter analysis of campaign activity. The expectation is that parties whose issue agendas exploit electoral opportunities while avoiding risks will be rewarded at the polls. These risks and opportunities are modelled using issue yield, a general framework summarising public support, electoral alignments, and party credibility. Empirically, the article traces a three-step process: (1) the configuration of electoral risks and opportunities (which is captured through public opinion surveys) guides party communication (measured with Twitter data), and to the degree that (2) parties design their campaigns strategically (identified through issue yield), this in turn (3) improves their electoral performance (measured using official statistics). The analysis explains some of the most salient election outcomes of recent years.     

基层党建引领社区治理的实践进路与制度变迁

加强和创新社区治理是新时代的重要命题。党建引领社区治理存在着对社区党员人文关怀不足、基层党建与居民自治脱节、党建引领共驻共建单向性、基层党组织权责不匹配等问题。党建引领社区治理机制创新,在需求、技术、文化素质、激励机制和资源五大方面构建党建创新制度。要以增强党的组织力为核心,以社区组织间、党员和居民间关系的调适为基础,以邻里互助、居民自治、共驻共建为重点,以构建社区复合治理为目标,实现社区党建与社区治理的有效衔接,推动社区复合治理模式的生成。     

What parties want from their leaders: How office achievement trumps electoral performance as a driver of party leader survival

Rational choice theories of political behaviour start from the premise that parties seek policy, office, and votes. In accordance with this premise, previous research has shown that electoral performance and office achievement independently affect party leader survival. However, we know little about how goal attainment interacts across these two domains. This paper proposes a novel hypothesis stating that intrinsic goals (office) dominate over purely instrumental ones (votes). As a result, the impact of electoral performance on party leader survival should be conditional on office achievement. Using data on over 500 party leaders in 14 parliamentary democracies between 1965 and 2012, we show that electoral performance and office achievement strongly affect leadership turnover. However, we also demonstrate that the electoral performance effect disappears when parties enter or exit office at the same time. These results constitute the best direct evidence to date that parties prioritise office achievement over electoral success.     

Behind COVID-19: Deepening Poverty in Cuba

The article explores the Cuban government's reaction to COVID-19, emphasising its control of the press and the role of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR). The main question is whether the health crisis could empower or weaken the government vis-à-vis civil society.     

行政诉讼中必要参加诉讼第三人权利救济制度之完善

行政诉讼中对必要参加诉讼第三人的权利救济,虽然在修改前后的《行政诉讼法》及其相应司法解释中都有涉及,但是无论在实体还是在程序方面,均存在较多的问题。这不仅给必要参加诉讼第三人的权利救济带来一定的困难,也成为许多行政案件案结事未了,甚至行政案件申诉、上访、信访率高的重要原因之一。要建立起一套完整的行政诉讼必要参加诉讼第三人权利救济制度体系,以下几个问题值得关注:必要参加诉讼第三人申请参加诉讼未获准,应当赋予其上诉权;没有申请参加诉讼,法院应当通知其参加;遗漏必要参加诉讼第三人的案件,二审法院并非一律发回重审;应赋予被遗漏的必要参加诉讼第三人提起再审之诉的权利;应当赋予必要参加诉讼第三人管辖异议权;必要参加诉讼第三人在终审前都可以参与诉讼程序;参照原被告举证责任完善必要参加诉讼第三人的举证责任制度;强化行政诉讼生效裁判执行中必要参加诉讼第三人的权利保障。