Credibility or Credulity? Examining Political Organization-Public Relationships in an Election of Interloping Candidates

ABSTRACT

This national online survey (N = 493) examined the political organization-public relationship (POPR) that voters perceived with their own political party and their opposing political party, as well as voters’ assessment of the credibility of candidates running for president during the primary season of the 2016 election. Results indicated that although credibility assessment of one’s own party’s candidate was much as expected, POPR with the Democratic Party was generally stronger than that with the Republican Party. Data showed no evidence that a poor POPR with one’s own party would drive voters to support interloper candidates. We conclude by reflecting on the importance of POPR with the opposing party and what weak relationships may mean for parties in the long term.     

Super PACs and Strong Relationships: The Impact of Digital Interaction on the Political Organization–Public Relationship

Contributing to the development of digital political public relations scholarship, this study examines the political organization–public relationship cultivated via social media. Using Twitter as a vehicle, this posttest-only experimental design looked at whether interaction with a political organization facilitated a relationship. Furthermore, the study examined whether that relationship might manifest into political support. Results indicate active engagement (tweeting at an organization), even for a short term, increases the sense that there is a real conversational exchange, enhancing the organization–public relationship. Internal political disposition such as political cynicism, political information efficacy, or strength of ideology in some cases can help predict organization–public relationship.     

Promoting Women's Political Representation

REALIZATION of the goals set in The Nairobi Forward-Looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women is not just the job of governments and political parties. Nongovernmental organizations, such as women's federations, can play a big role. The women's federation in Tianjin has set a good example in this respect. Tianjin, one of China's three     

Reassessing Corporate Image—An Examination of How Image Bridges Symbolic Relationships With Behavioral Relationships

Abstract

In this study we examine corporate image by identifying how image congruency might exert an impact on a public's beliefs, attitudes, and behavioral intentions toward an organization in a time of crisis for that organization. An experiment was conducted to test the research questions, and the results of the study revealed that a corporation that presented image congruency with a public's expectations could maintain public approval when there was no crisis. In the event of a crisis, however, image congruency might also protect the company via an indirect route. Given image congruency, a public's behavioral intentions toward the corporation seemed to remain consistent regardless of situational changes.     

How Political Is the Personal? Gender Differences in the Level and the Structure of Political Knowledge

ABSTRACT

In this research note we report on the results of an experimental study among 469 respondents in Belgium. The study shows that the familiar gender differences in political knowledge can be substantially reduced when including more questions on female politicians. Using confirmatory factor analysis and item response theory measurements, we can observe that the structure of political knowledge is identical for women and men implying that women and men do not have different conceptions of what constitutes the political domain. Both for women and men, “personal items” (in this case: The correct name of the new baby of the female vice-prime minister) were shown to load strongly and one dimensionally with the more traditional institutional political knowledge questions. It seems that women and men respond in the same manner to information about the personal lives of politicians.     

Women’s Political Firsts and Symbolic Representation

ABSTRACT

The extent to which politics is still a “man’s game” is made evident every time a top political office has a female holder for the first time. These incredibly revealing moments may give a new social meaning to women in politics—women’s political presence—and women and politics—gendered social constructions about women’s capacity to rule. This article explores the types of gendered mediation underpinning the representation of first-ever women serving in historically male-dominated political offices in Spain. It shows that gender media frames are pervasive, which may lead to an effective annihilation of women’s symbolic representation.     

The Political Economy of “Transnational Business Feminism”

This article traces the emergence of a politico-economic project of “transnational business feminism” (TBF) over the past decade. This project – which is being developed by a coalition of states, financial institutions, the UN, corporations, NGOs and others – stresses the “business case” for gender equality by arguing that investments made in women can (and should) be measured in terms of the cost savings to families and communities, as well as in terms of boosting corporate profitability and national competitiveness. This article uses a feminist historical materialist framework to argue that TBF is facilitating the further entrenchment of the power of corporations to create “expert” knowledges about both “gender” and “development.” Using the Nike-led “Girl Effect” campaign as an example, it is argued that TBF is promoting a naturalized and essentialized view of women and gender relations that ignores the historical and structural causes of poverty and gender-based inequality. It is also helping to reproduce the same neoliberal macroeconomic framework that has created and sustained gender-based and other forms of oppression via the global feminization of labor, the erosion of support for social reproduction and the splintering of feminist critiques of capitalism.     

Political leadership – the key for explaining post-communist diversity

This article focuses on the evaluation of recent research on post-communist political regime diversity in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. It offers a snapshot of the literature which looks for explanations for this diversity in four sets of factors: pre-communist and communist legacies, transitional institutional choices, political leadership, and foreign influence. The findings are based on the political evolution of three countries: Slovakia, Belarus, and Macedonia. They are representative for all post-communist countries both in terms of regime trajectory and regional location. The author concludes that post-communist political regime diversity can best be explained when the political leadership in general and the top politicians’ ideology, in particular, are placed at the centre of the analysis. This explanation correlates well with all types of post-communist regime, whether democracy, dictatorship, or intermediate regime. The other factors – legacies, institutional choices, and foreign influence – at best, may act only as reinforcing variables in some cases.     

Do Yuppies Matter? Competing Explanations of Their Political Distinctiveness

"Yuppies"—young urban professionals—have often beenportrayed as an important new political force. Using data fromthe 1972–1985 cumulative General Social Survey data file,this article tests various explanations of the political distinctivenessof yuppies. The findings call into question the assumption thatyouth, urbanity, and professional status combine to form a distinctyuppie political culture above and beyond what would be expectedon the basis of an additive combination of these factors. Forthis and other reasons, the political importance of the yuppiephenomenon appears to have been overstated.     

Muslim Political Activism or Political Activism by Muslims? Secular and Religious Identities Amongst Muslim Arab Activists in the United States and United Kingdom

Scholarship on Muslim political mobilisation in the West has developed as an important counterpoint to public discourse, which has tended to cast Muslims as a threat to social cohesion, liberal democracy, and national security. But even as scholarly literature has shed light on civic participation among Muslims, it has sidelined the diversity of political identities and values that motivate them. Most, if not all, Muslims in the West find their identities politicised in some way, but the question of whether this leads to a consensus amongst Muslims about the role of religion in public life often remains unexamined. In this article we draw on interviews with seventy-eight activists in Britain and the United States who are both Muslim and Arab to complicate ideas about the political mobilisation of Muslims in the West. Respondents, we show, are far from unified in their views on religion as a basis for political action and mobilisation. Some are keen to place Islam squarely in mainstream political spaces; most, however, are insistent that Islam should remain a private faith and identity and that political mobilisation should take place under the aegis of Arabness or other ‘secular’ identities. Using theoretical perspectives on the public sphere, we explain the complexity of our respondents' political identities and activism. Our overall aim is to broaden perspectives on the ways in which people from Muslim backgrounds participate in public, political life in Western contexts.     

Can Family Relationships Explain the Race Paradox in Mental Health?

Biomedical research consistently finds that Blacks have worse physical health than Whites, an expected pattern given Blacks' greater exposure to psychosocial stress, poverty, and discrimination. Yet there is surprising lack of consensus regarding race differences in mental health, with most scholars finding similar or better mental health outcomes among Blacks than Whites. Past research often attributes this “race paradox in mental health” to the notion that Blacks have stronger family networks than Whites, yet few studies have explicitly tested whether stronger family relationships among Blacks (if they exist) can account for these findings. Using data from the 2003–2005 National Survey of American Life (N = 4,259) revealed that minimal race differences in family relationships fail to explain the race paradox in mental health. The results have implications for mental health measurement, the provision of culturally appropriate mental health care, and how scholars understand the nature of family relationships among Black Americans.     

What's Playing in the Organizational Theater? Collusive Relationships in Management

This article takes as its point of departureconcepts derived from couple therapy to betterunderstand collusive relationships in organizations. Aswe examine these dysfunctional workplace relationships— these interpersonal gridlocks —four main types of collusive superior subordinateinteraction patterns are identified — thenarcissistic, the controlling, the paranoid, and thesadomasochistic — and the consequences of each such dyad in organizationsare explored. In conclusion, the paper presents a numberof recommendations on how to recognize the presence ofsuch collusive arrangements (taking leadership behavior as a point of departure) and suggestspreventive steps that can be taken.     

Examining the Quality of Adolescent–Parent Relationships Among Chilean Families

The purpose of this study was to examine if adolescents’ reports of warm and harsh parenting practices by their mothers and fathers varied as a function of demographic, youth and their mothers or mother figures’ individual and family characteristics. Data are from 707 community-dwelling adolescents (mean age = 14, SD = 1.4) and their mothers or mother figures in Santiago, Chile. Having a warmer relationship with both parents was inversely associated with the adolescents’ age and positively associated with adolescents’ family involvement and parental monitoring. Both mothers’ and fathers’ harsh parenting were positively associated with adolescent externalizing behaviors and being male and inversely associated with youth autonomy and family involvement. These findings suggest that net of adolescent developmental emancipation and adolescent behavioral problems, positive relationships with parents, especially fathers, may be nurtured through parental monitoring and creation of an interactive family environment, and can help to foster positive developmental outcomes.     

Step In or Stay Out? Parents' Roles in Adolescent Siblings' Relationships

We studied parents' direct involvement in adolescent sibling relationships, including parents' reactions to sibling conflict and their time spent in the company of the sibling dyad. Participants were 185 White, working‐ and middle‐class families; firstborns averaged 15 and secondborns averaged 13.5 years of age. In separate home interviews mothers, fathers and both adolescents described their personal and family relationship qualities and experiences. In a series of 7 evening phone calls, family members reported on each day's activities including the time they spent and their companions in 63 daily activities (e.g., do dishes, play sports, talk on phone). Analyses revealed 3 general conflict reactions by parents: (a) noninvolvement (e.g., tell siblings to work out problem themselves); (b) intervene (e.g., step in and solve problem); and (c) coach (e.g., give advice about how to solve problem). We found mother‐father differences in conflict reactions and time spent with siblings; differences in parents' direct involvement as a function of the gender constellation of the sibling dyad also were evident. Direct involvement was linked to sibling relationship qualities and explained variance beyond that accounted for by an index of indirect involvement, that is, parental warmth. Further, parents' orientations toward autonomy were linked to the indices of involvement such that parents with stronger autonomy orientations were less involved, and parents' orientations explained variance in their involvement beyond that explained by adolescent characteristics.     

The Influence of Parental Separation and Divorce on Father–Child Relationships

ABSTRACT

Using a risk and resilience theoretical framework, this study examined the influence of parental divorce during childhood on father–child relationship quality in young adulthood. Relationship quality was measured using nurturant fathering and modified father involvement scales, and self-reports of current amount of face-to-face and verbal father–child contacts. Comparisons on these measures were made between 107 young adults from intact and 96 from divorced family backgrounds. The divorce group was also examined in isolation to explore how divorce-related factors—including structural, early contact, and interparental relationship factors—predict young adults' perceptions of their father–child relationship. Results demonstrate young adults from intact family backgrounds report a comparatively stronger father–child relationship. Among divorce group participants, structural factors (higher father socioeconomic status and joint custody) and early contact (greater percentage of time spent with father postdivorce) were predictors of higher scores on combined nurturant fathering and involvement measures. Greater early contact and stronger interparental relationship factors (low conflict and high contact and cooperativeness) similarly predicted current contact.     

Trust in K.E. Løgstrup's Lutheran Political Ethics

This article discusses the treatment of trust by Danish theologian and philosopher K.E. Løgstrup (1905-1981). In order to contextualize Løgstrup's position, I first present some significant analyses of trust in philosophy and the social sciences. I then outline the Lutheran character of Løgstrup's political ethics against the background of Luther's view on government. Whereas Luther regards the political order as God-given, Løgstrup sees basic trust as a given precondition for various kinds of socio-political trust. He thus represents a Lutheran line of thought that can contribute to contemporary political discourse.