Prisoner Disenfranchisement Policy: A Threat to Democracy?

The right to vote is one of the fundamental principles of democracy. However, full suffrage of the adult population has not been realized in many present-day democracies. Internationally, millions of prisoners (and ex-offenders in some nations) are disenfranchised. Being excluded from the civic process is a threat to democracy. In this article, I argue that removing a prisoner's right to vote can lead to inequality and injustice that is counter to democratic ideals. By contrast, enfranchisement of prisoners can promote their rehabilitation and social reintegration, and can have a real impact on the political climate of a nation. I also discuss the arguments for and against prisoner disenfranchisement, explore public opinion on this issue, and track recent legislative changes to disenfranchisement policy internationally. Areas for future psychological inquiry are highlighted.     

Propagating the New Zealand ideal

From 1829 to the 1860s, Edward Gibbon Wakefield applied domestic ideas of reform to the British Empire and successfully mobilized public opinion in favor of continued British imperial endeavors. Through a widespread dissemination of literature, Wakefield and his New Zealand Company reshaped British imperial ideas. The success of the Company's organized public and political campaign encouraged settlers to travel to New Zealand and mobilized public opinion in favor of the colonization of New Zealand. The Company's renewed propaganda in the mid-1840s saved their own efforts, and also changed the public and political discourse of imperialism. By the late 1840s, newspapers, journals, and Parliamentary Debates were no longer discussing if colonization should occur, but rather what British colonial practice should include.     

Informing Debate or Fuelling Dispute? Media Communication of Reconfiguration in Scotland's Rural Maternity Care

Public reaction to the UK's ongoing health sector reform often results in dilution of policy‐makers’ goals. Public participation in health service decision‐making is advocated in policy, but precisely how to do it and what role public opinion should have in formulating reform strategy is ambiguously described. Public opinion is formed through many influences, including media reporting. This paper examines how reconfiguration at a rural maternity unit at Caithness General Hospital in Wick, Scotland, was communicated in national and local media and considers potential implications of media communication on public participation in policy decision‐making. Content analysis of arguments for and against change revealed a high level of reporting of commentators against change in regional newspapers. Qualitative analysis identified emergent themes about how maternity service reconfiguration was portrayed. These included framing opposition between management and local people, and change drivers receiving superficial coverage. Findings suggest that media portrayal of the public role in change may promote an adversarial rather than a participative stance. More finely tuned understanding of the relationship between the reporting of change and public reaction should be attained as this could affect how planned social policy evolves into actual practice.     

Breaking down ideas and institutions: the politics of tax policy in the USA and the UK

As the existing comparative policy literature suggests, both ideational and institutional analyses have clear analytical value in their own terms but, under many circumstances, it is the combination of the two perspectives that allows for a full understanding of policy trajectories. In this article we suggest that, to improve our understanding of how ideas and institutions interact to produce change, it is important to break down these two overly broad concepts. This is because beyond general arguments about how ‘ideas’ and ‘institutions’ interact, students of public policy should itemize ‘ideas’ and ‘institutions’ into more focused, and empirically traceable, subcategories while recognizing the changing and contingent nature of their interaction, over time. To illustrate this, we turn to the politics of tax policy in the United States of America and the United Kingdom, tracking developments from the rise of the New Right and an aggressive income tax cutting agenda, personified by President Reagan and Prime Minister Thatcher, through to the revived debate about the legitimacy of increasing taxes on those earning the highest incomes that emerged in the era of austerity that followed the Great Recession of 2008.     

Institutional evolution and abrupt change: Reforming the administration of social assistance in Finland

Historical institutionalist studies have explained institutional change as resulting from critical junctures that interrupt long periods of stability or from endogenous, incremental evolution. Building on these theories, discursive institutionalists have focused on the roles of agency, ideas and discourse as explainers of change. Combining these approaches, this article analyses Finland’s decision in 2014 to transfer the administration of basic social assistance from municipalities to the central government. This study demonstrates that institutional change can be both abrupt and evolutionary. Due to sudden, exceptional political circumstances, the decision in question was made quickly and under pressure, circumventing possible veto players. However, it was possible only because of the incremental, endogenous change that had occurred in the way in which social assistance was administered at the municipal level. It enabled a change in political discourse, which eroded the credibility of the ideational frames that policy actors had previously utilised to reject the centralised model.     

Changing policy,changing attitudes? Public opinion on employment relations in New Zealand, 1990–2008

Abstract

Did significant policy shifts in employment relations in the 1990s lead to equally large changes in the attitudes of New Zealanders towards employment relations? Have policy modifications made since 1999 further shaped public perceptions? This paper explores the role of policy feedback in influencing public opinion towards employers and unions and towards government responsibility for jobs and wages. Using data from New Zealand public opinion surveys, most notably the New Zealand Election Study (1990–2008), the paper finds some evidence that policy feedback has occurred in the employment relations arena, but the impact is not as strong or consistent as we might expect. As such, New Zealanders do not completely endorse the ‘there is no alternative’ arguments of neoliberalism, but they do not have an overwhelming desire to return to Keynesian demand-management employment policies.     

Trust,distrust, and the end of politics-as-we-knew-it: the mood of the nation prior to election 2017

ABSTRACT

New Zealand’s party-political system has, in the past, undergone significant transformations. And recent political events around the world have been marked by anti-establishment distrust, electoral disruption and the rise of populist parties. So the present article asks if this country could be on the verge of similar disruption, and whether there is a mood among the public that could precipitate a phase of populism. An online survey run in May 2017 by Stuff.co.nz and Massey University (supported by comparable opinion polls) is used to investigate this. In spite of significant levels of dissatisfaction and desire for changes, the survey did not reveal a mood for disruptive or systemic political change in the short term. Nonetheless, political fragmentation of the kind seen in proportional systems in Europe could occur in New Zealand in the long term.     

Personal Values and Public Opinion*

Objective. Social science considers values a key motivator of human behavior, yet studies of values in public opinion have tended to focus on more limited political values. I investigate how a general theory of human values ( Schwartz, 1992 ) shapes public opinion. In one dimension, individuals are motivated by a desire for independent thought and action versus conformity to traditional social norms; in the second, individuals are motivated by a desire to care for others versus control or achieve superior social status over them. Methods. Statistical analysis of the European Social Survey, nationally representative surveys in 15 western European nations. Results. Human values are systematically related to a citizen's left‐right self‐identification, displaying appropriate sensitivity to party system context in Scandinavia, and explaining attitudes toward ethnic minority immigration, even when controlling for reasonable alternate explanations. Conclusion. Personal values along these two dimensions of social conflict merit further attention as sources of public opinion.     

Framing public policy: The impacts of political sophistication and nature of public policy

This empirical research investigates how political sophistication moderates framing effects on public opinion and attitudes. It explores when framing effects occur and who could be immune to such framing. Experimental results with multivariate analyses indicate that political sophistication enhances or reduces framing effects in shaping public views and stances, subject to the nature of public policy. When a public policy is promoted that is perceived as an easy issue, framing effects are significant for individuals who are less politically sophisticated. Alternatively, when a hard issue is presented, opposite results are observed. Framing effects are insignificant in promoting an ideological issue regardless of a person's political sophistication.     

The Nature of the Political Reconsidered

I present an immanent, and explanatory, critique of reflections on the nature of politics and of power within political science. I argue that these reflections are problematic, to the extent that they presuppose an actualist conception of the political, and that this is generated by an empiricist way of thinking on the one hand and a constructivist way of thinking on the other. I show how re‐defining politics, power, and the political on the basis of a dialectical critical realist ontology resolves these problems and, thereby, allows us to understand the conditions for social change and the relationship between the political and the economic. My argument has two, important implications: first, that the proposal that those who study politics professionally should celebrate philosophical diversity is dangerous–at least if it makes it difficult to sustain a distinct, emancipatory form of political inquiry; and, second, that the nature of social reality justifies the need both for specialized forms of inquiry, such as politics and economics, and integrative forms of inquiry, such as political economy.     

论政治文化传统与印度外交思想的二元性

作为一个具有悠久历史的文明古国,印度外交思想的雏形在其传统政治文化中就能找到渊源。印度政治文化不仅囊括具有现实主义取向的"考底利耶主义"与激进的"斯瓦拉吉"思想,也包含具有崇高道义法则的"法胜"思想与"非暴力"思想。本文从历史、地理、宗教精神及广义的文化等五个方面探讨印度二元性政治文化的来源,并阐述这种政治文化的特征。在政治文化传统的影响下,印度形成了独具特色的外交思想。     

Online news diffusion dynamics and public opinion formation: A case study of the controversy over judges’ personal opinion expression on SNS in Korea

On the Internet, the line between news and opinion becomes blurred in terms of content and form. In this sense, the processes of news diffusion on the Internet and online public opinion formation are integrated. This study selects one Korean example about the private tweet of a judge about government social network service (SNS) regulation and analyzes citation networks from one news/opinion to another news/opinion. By relying on social network analysis (SNA) methods, this study examines how news/opinions diffuse and how they interact and influence each other's ideological frame within agencies sharing the same ideology and between agencies whose ideologies contrast. The results show that public discourse on the Internet is clearly polarized and fragmented along political ideological lines. Additionally, the findings show that the winner is the conservative bloc because it succeeds in achieving within-bloc solidarity and ensures the resonance of news frames with the cultural values of Korean society. Implications for these findings in modern democracy are also discussed.     

帝都，国都，故都--近代北京的空间政治与文化表征（1898-1937）

近代北京的空间变迁与当时政治、文化背景密切相关。从帝都到国都再到故都,在城市现代化的历史进程中,北京政治地位、城市身份的变化与文化传统影响了城市空间变迁的路径。帝都空间结构的解构,国都的空间开放、公共空间的开辟、消费和娱乐空间的转型,故都的文化游览中心建设,都受北京特定政治环境与文化传统影响。北京保守的政治观念与地域文化传统抑制了其现代化改造,使近代北京呈现出传统与现代相交叠的空间形态。     

Pope John Paul II and Catholic Opinion Toward the Death Penalty and Abortion*

Objective. Research on opinion leadership examines the convergence of opinion between elites and masses on issues of public policy. I examine the confluence of opinion between Pope John Paul II and American Catholics on the death penalty and legalized abortion. Method. I use data from three nationally representative opinion surveys and one statewide survey conducted prior to John Paul's death. Results. The results support the supposition that Catholics who esteemed the pope are more negative in their evaluations of the death penalty and abortion. Conclusions. John Paul II, as leader of the Catholic Church, may have influenced Catholic opinion on political issues.     

从洛克到休谟：论英国政治社会思路的转向

从洛克到休谟,英国政治社会的思路发生了重要转向。洛克从基督教的信仰结构中构建自由宪政的根基,但为后世的党派之争埋下了激进的种子。休谟从经入史,经史结合研究政治社会,在历史中寻找事物变易的轨迹和哲学推理的经验基础,开辟了英国新的自由传统。本文以对洛克和休谟的思想诠释为出发点,重返英国政治社会的经典问题,借此来为理解英国社会理论中更为丰富的面向提供某种线索,也为中国现代转型问题提供某种治学启发。     

‘Broad consensus across the divide’: rhetorical constructions of climate change in mainstream news media

The links between science and policy are navigated prominently in the media. The internet provides a forum for discussion of climate change, allowing lay people to enter the debate. In this paper, rhetorical analysis was used to analyse online news articles and comments from the public following two major climate-related decisions in New Zealand. This analysis demonstrates how arguments regarding climate change are built and defended. Identifying strategies invoked by those that occupy a majority or minority position within public discourse on climate change reveals how such arguments take on rhetorical force, providing the basis for establishing claims and counter-arguments. Understanding the rhetorical constructions of such positions can reveal why particular arguments might gain power, opening the way for a more knowledgeable and informed positioning of individuals, organisations, and scientific knowledge to emerge in public debates on climate change.     

Gray Peril or Loyal Support? The Effects of the Elderly on Educational Expenditures*

Objectives. Do large concentrations of elderly represent a “gray peril” to maintaining adequate educational expenditures? The gray peril hypothesis is based on an assumption of instrumental self‐interest in political behavior. In contrast, we argue that loyalty to community schools competes with economic self‐interest and that older citizens are heterogeneous in their preferences. Methods. We test these arguments and their implications for public school finance using a data set of more than 9,000 school districts. Results. The data show that longstanding older residents represent a source of support for educational expenditures while elderly migrants lower spending. Further, this divide among the elderly and their impact on policy outputs depends on how states finance local public education and on aspects of state and local tax policy. Conclusions. Elderly concentrations are a financial asset for a school district unless the senior community includes a large number of new arrivals. The design of tax policy can have enormous impact on the depth of political cleavages and their ultimate impact on public policy. The results are consistent with the idea that loyalty—an emotional bond between residents and their community's institutions—competes with and often trumps instrumental self interest.     

Neoliberalism,Inequality and Politics: The Changing Face of Australia

Since the early 1980s Australian public policy has undergone the most major transformation since Federation. This transformation has been underwritten by two key principles: liberalism – the view that citizens are autonomous individual actors whose interests are best served when they are free from coercive government interventions into individual action; and marketisation – the belief that free markets are arenas which best enable individual autonomy and produce efficient economic outcomes. These principles define ‘neoliberalism’ or ‘hard liberalism‘. After summarising the major policy changes identified with neoliberalism in Australia, the paper introduces a new research project that examines its impact on socioeconomic inequality, gender inequality and politics and culture. Inspection of relevant data indicates that there are important trends in inequality, public opinion and political behaviour that warrant this investigation.     

Leadership and Listening: The Reception of User Voice in Today's Public Services

Over the last decade leadership has become a watchword in public service provision, especially in its association with the seemingly ubiquitous ‘delivery’ agenda. As leadership styles change in response to developments in the contemporary public service environment, it has become imperative for service providers to find ways to listen to service users. However, listening is itself widely recognized as an underdeveloped public sector competency. This article addresses the relationship between leadership and listening. Using findings from recent research, it identifies a ‘listening gap’ in public services, before pointing to ways in which this gap might be better understood and subsequently narrowed. In doing so, it seeks to present new ideas about the essential balance between ‘leadership’ and ‘listening’, and how this can be struck in today's public service environment. First, the nature of the user voice is examined. By talking to service users who have communicated their views in different ways in each of three different services (housing, social care and leisure), the article seeks to understand the nature of users' ‘projects’ in the expression of their views. These projects are compared with those of public service leaders. Second, the congruence (or incongruence) of these projects is considered through a comparison of the world views of both users and leaders. Finally, aspects of the context are considered in the discussion of the way public service organizations might go about defining the relationship between leadership and listening.     

广州城市居民气候变化风险认知分析

气候变化风险认知是指个人或群体对以气候变暖为特征的气候变化的客观认识以及对已受到或将受到这种风险影响或损失的可能性的评估与判断,主要包括气候变化风险事件认知、风险源认知、风险后果认知以及风险责任认知四个方面。广州城市居民气候变化风险认知的问卷调查结果显示,公众对气候变化风险源的认知普遍高于气候变化风险事件;公众对气候变化风险后果的认知程度较高,对＂危及子孙后代＂、＂灾难性＂的风险后果认同率最高;政府、企业在应对气候变化中的责任最大。