Volume 28, Issue 5, October-December 2023
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The Full Employment Road to Socialism: The Job Guarantee Movement of the 1970s and the Challenge to Capitalism
Reading a ‘porous’ nation: Sri Lanka and the remnants of its civil war
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Multi-level legislative representation in an inchoate party system: Mass-elite ideological congruence in Brazil
Party Politics, Ahead of Print.
Research has suggested that fragmented political systems, incohesive parties, and weak programmatic links between voters and legislators can undermine the effectiveness of ideological legislative representation. Using Brazil's national and state assemblies, we examine the potential for voter-elite congruence in a legislative environment considered weak in programmatic representation and highly fragmented by a decentralized political structure. Focusing on 2005–2014, we use mass and elite survey data from the National Congress and 12 state assemblies to estimate deputies' and respondents' ideal points on a common left-right scale. Despite many potential barriers to ideological representation, we find an aggregate pattern of congruence between voters' and politicians' ideological positions during this period, with stronger voter-deputy correspondence for state deputies on average. These patterns are confirmed by a dyadic analysis of deputy and voter characteristics. However, we also find weaknesses in party-level ideological congruence for the major parties—for voters on the left and party supporters on the right. The findings suggest that, while the party system did not prevent overall ideological representation, it may have hindered important aspects of party representation.
Research has suggested that fragmented political systems, incohesive parties, and weak programmatic links between voters and legislators can undermine the effectiveness of ideological legislative representation. Using Brazil's national and state assemblies, we examine the potential for voter-elite congruence in a legislative environment considered weak in programmatic representation and highly fragmented by a decentralized political structure. Focusing on 2005–2014, we use mass and elite survey data from the National Congress and 12 state assemblies to estimate deputies' and respondents' ideal points on a common left-right scale. Despite many potential barriers to ideological representation, we find an aggregate pattern of congruence between voters' and politicians' ideological positions during this period, with stronger voter-deputy correspondence for state deputies on average. These patterns are confirmed by a dyadic analysis of deputy and voter characteristics. However, we also find weaknesses in party-level ideological congruence for the major parties—for voters on the left and party supporters on the right. The findings suggest that, while the party system did not prevent overall ideological representation, it may have hindered important aspects of party representation.
The Government of Emergency – Vital Systems, Expertise and the Politics of Security
The strategic ambiguity of the radical right: A study of the Danish People’s part
Party Politics, Ahead of Print.
Though radical right parties are easily identified by their strong nationalism and anti-immigrant sentiment, significant confusion surrounds their positions on core economic issues, such as taxation and redistribution. This uncertainty may reflect an electoral strategy in which these parties intentionally blur their positions to avoid taking stances on economic issues that divide their target constituencies. Existing research on position blurring and the radical right focuses exclusively on expert surveys and party manifesto statements, providing little information about voter-level perceptions of these parties. This study directly investigates public perception of the positions of the Danish People’s Party, one of the most successful radical right parties in Europe. The study finds strong evidence that the DPP draws on a voter base with below average political awareness, allowing it to more easily recruit voters on opposing sides of economic issues by obscuring its own positions.
Though radical right parties are easily identified by their strong nationalism and anti-immigrant sentiment, significant confusion surrounds their positions on core economic issues, such as taxation and redistribution. This uncertainty may reflect an electoral strategy in which these parties intentionally blur their positions to avoid taking stances on economic issues that divide their target constituencies. Existing research on position blurring and the radical right focuses exclusively on expert surveys and party manifesto statements, providing little information about voter-level perceptions of these parties. This study directly investigates public perception of the positions of the Danish People’s Party, one of the most successful radical right parties in Europe. The study finds strong evidence that the DPP draws on a voter base with below average political awareness, allowing it to more easily recruit voters on opposing sides of economic issues by obscuring its own positions.
Institutionalising the Exception: Homeland Security Section 102(c) Waivers and the Construction of Border Barriers
Tweeting apart: Democratic backsliding, new party cleavage and changing media ownership in Turkey
Party Politics, Ahead of Print.
Turkey plunges headlong into democratic backsliding under Erdoğan’s presidency. The country was a forerunner in the decline of democratic standards in a decade from 2010 to 2020. In the first part of the article, we investigate how this democratic erosion suspends Turkey’s long-standing traditional party cleavage between religious conservatism and secularism. By tracing individuals who follow the members of the Turkish parliament on Twitter, we attach the deputies to their followers with the help of the correspondence analysis. We illustrate that, as the ethnic identity divide remains significant, democracy-authoritarianism cleavage becomes the main party split that brings the supporters of an ideologically diverse group of opposition parties closer. In the second part, we conceptualize the democracy-authoritarianism divide as the main cleavage in Turkish party politics after 2017 to shed light on how the AKP’s different tactics of capturing traditional media generated a partisan media landscape.
Turkey plunges headlong into democratic backsliding under Erdoğan’s presidency. The country was a forerunner in the decline of democratic standards in a decade from 2010 to 2020. In the first part of the article, we investigate how this democratic erosion suspends Turkey’s long-standing traditional party cleavage between religious conservatism and secularism. By tracing individuals who follow the members of the Turkish parliament on Twitter, we attach the deputies to their followers with the help of the correspondence analysis. We illustrate that, as the ethnic identity divide remains significant, democracy-authoritarianism cleavage becomes the main party split that brings the supporters of an ideologically diverse group of opposition parties closer. In the second part, we conceptualize the democracy-authoritarianism divide as the main cleavage in Turkish party politics after 2017 to shed light on how the AKP’s different tactics of capturing traditional media generated a partisan media landscape.
Aesthetics and Politics of Dalit Women’s Writings Within Indian Pedagogic Practices
Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Volume 15, Issue 1_suppl, Page S56-S66, August 2023.
With a postmodern shift and with the emergence of Dalit women’s standpoint, the feminist discourse itself has witnessed significant changes. The ‘double marginalization’ which Dalit women have been subjected to because of their caste location has graded down the monolith of gender identity. The emergence of Dalit women’s standpoint has also reworked how aesthetics and politics on Dalit women’s writings have been taken up within the Indian pedagogic practices. These new pedagogic engagements include processes such as the inclusion of newer curriculum and courses on Dalit writings, translation work of Dalit writings and the inclusion of theoretical works on Dalit women writings within the curriculum. This paper aims to understand the aesthetics and politics of Dalit women’s writings, particularly in the Hindi-speaking belt of India, and the interaction of such writings within the select Indian pedagogic practices. Through the select pedagogic practices the paper will explore the new kinds of discursive engagements that are done with these Dalit women’s writings per se. The paper will explore the absence/presence of Dalit women’s writings and also explore how the ‘representation’ of these writings is taken up within the mainstream Indian pedagogic practices. The paper further explores the popular spaces in which Dalit women’s writings have flourished and the tensions that exist, between what gets included and what remains excluded from the pedagogic practices, when it comes to Dalit women’s writings. The paper also explores the new aesthetic sensibility and the politics that have played a dynamic role in the emergence of Dalit women writings, and how the existing pedagogic practices have perceived them.
With a postmodern shift and with the emergence of Dalit women’s standpoint, the feminist discourse itself has witnessed significant changes. The ‘double marginalization’ which Dalit women have been subjected to because of their caste location has graded down the monolith of gender identity. The emergence of Dalit women’s standpoint has also reworked how aesthetics and politics on Dalit women’s writings have been taken up within the Indian pedagogic practices. These new pedagogic engagements include processes such as the inclusion of newer curriculum and courses on Dalit writings, translation work of Dalit writings and the inclusion of theoretical works on Dalit women writings within the curriculum. This paper aims to understand the aesthetics and politics of Dalit women’s writings, particularly in the Hindi-speaking belt of India, and the interaction of such writings within the select Indian pedagogic practices. Through the select pedagogic practices the paper will explore the new kinds of discursive engagements that are done with these Dalit women’s writings per se. The paper will explore the absence/presence of Dalit women’s writings and also explore how the ‘representation’ of these writings is taken up within the mainstream Indian pedagogic practices. The paper further explores the popular spaces in which Dalit women’s writings have flourished and the tensions that exist, between what gets included and what remains excluded from the pedagogic practices, when it comes to Dalit women’s writings. The paper also explores the new aesthetic sensibility and the politics that have played a dynamic role in the emergence of Dalit women writings, and how the existing pedagogic practices have perceived them.
Locating Kashmiriyat in Ancient History: Tracing the Genealogy of Kashmir’s Syncretic Culture
Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
The discourse on Kashmiriyat (or Kasheryut) was majorly invoked in the late twentieth-century Kashmir by diverse, often conflicting, ideological strands to legitimize their respective political positioning in the context of post-1947 political stirrings in Jammu and Kashmir. However, the discourse has remained shrouded in ambiguity owing to the multiple, disparate meanings and connotations attached to it. More commonly the term has been understood to imply a syncretic culture of Kashmir devoid of religious fundamentalism and exclusion.KLSo far as the historicity of Kashmiriyat is concerned, the existing scholarly writings on the discourse have tried to locate its origins in the medieval times when the interaction and subsequent synthesis occurred between Hinduism and Islam in Kashmir; a mystic manifestation, Rishism, is often referred as the best example of this ideational formation. However, the paper attempts to argue that while the idea of Kashmiriyat as syncretic culture of Kashmir devoid of religious fundamentalism holds ground, it cannot be clearly steered away from a particular religious affiliation altogether. Secondly, this paper challenges the existing historicity and ideational trajectory of Kashmiriyat and instead attempts to trace its genealogy to Kashmir’s ancient past.
The discourse on Kashmiriyat (or Kasheryut) was majorly invoked in the late twentieth-century Kashmir by diverse, often conflicting, ideological strands to legitimize their respective political positioning in the context of post-1947 political stirrings in Jammu and Kashmir. However, the discourse has remained shrouded in ambiguity owing to the multiple, disparate meanings and connotations attached to it. More commonly the term has been understood to imply a syncretic culture of Kashmir devoid of religious fundamentalism and exclusion.KLSo far as the historicity of Kashmiriyat is concerned, the existing scholarly writings on the discourse have tried to locate its origins in the medieval times when the interaction and subsequent synthesis occurred between Hinduism and Islam in Kashmir; a mystic manifestation, Rishism, is often referred as the best example of this ideational formation. However, the paper attempts to argue that while the idea of Kashmiriyat as syncretic culture of Kashmir devoid of religious fundamentalism holds ground, it cannot be clearly steered away from a particular religious affiliation altogether. Secondly, this paper challenges the existing historicity and ideational trajectory of Kashmiriyat and instead attempts to trace its genealogy to Kashmir’s ancient past.