International Political Science Review / Revue internationale de science politique

vLex
Publisher:
Sage Publications, Inc.
Publication date:
2021-09-06
ISBN:
0192-5121

Issue Number

Latest documents

  • Industry comparative advantage and support for redistribution: A cross-country cross-industry analysis of the political economy of trade

    A fundamental insight of various trade theories is that trade does not have a universally negative effect on different business activities in different countries. Rather, trade’s impact varies concomitantly with the specific country and activity considered. This empirical note expands prior work linking trade to redistribution preferences by using sectoral comparative advantage to incorporate the notion that trade may hurt the prospects of a specific group in one country (e.g. workers in a highly tradeable or offshorable industry) but will simultaneously benefit this same group in another country. We expect that individuals in industries with a weaker (stronger) comparative advantage suffer (benefit) more from trade and are therefore more (less) in favour of redistribution. Empirical results confirm this expected effect of comparative advantage on redistribution preferences. We conclude that considering countries’ comparative (dis)advantage in certain activities provides a deeper and more general understanding of the political consequences of trade.

  • Does world system theory rein in social media? Identifying factors contributing to country mentions on X

    This article examined how social media content has shaped the representation of countries for publics around the world. Based on world system theory, the study investigated the underlying predictors of country mentions on X (formerly Twitter) in 2018. It confirmed that countries with greater economic power – or higher status in the world system – received more mentions. Furthermore, countries with larger populations were mentioned more frequently as were countries that experienced major conflicts. The findings from structural equation modeling shed new light on the interrelationships that drive the social media representation of individual countries and delineated an integrated Model of Country Mentions on X. These findings have implications for global leaders, policymakers, and social media firms.

  • Voter reaction to the government’s refusal of natural disaster assistance: Experimental evidence from Turkey and India

    How do citizens respond to their government’s decision to accept or reject foreign assistance in the face of a natural disaster? While the increased frequency and intensity of natural disasters necessitate international cooperation for effective response, there have been numerous instances where states have declined foreign assistance offers due to reputation concerns. In this article, we focus on the domestic audience dynamics of such behavior. Drawing on experimental survey data from Turkey and India, two middle-income countries with geopolitical ambitions and recent experience in refusing foreign assistance, we find that accepting foreign assistance during natural disasters leads to higher evaluations of government performance, though this positive effect is driven by opposition voters only. Incumbent voters, conversely, solidify their support for the government regardless of its decision toward foreign assistance. The domestic political effects of government decisions in response to aid offers are largely independent of the identity of the country offering assistance.

  • Democracy as a cause of semi-presidential regimes: On reverse causality between democracy and semi-presidential establishment

    This article re-examines the relationship between democracy and semi-presidential regimes. While numerous scholars have traced the effects of semi-presidential regimes on democracy, few have addressed the risk of reverse causality, namely, that democracy influences the establishment of semi-presidential regimes. This article uses statistical analyses to test whether the level of democracy in a country affects its choice of semi-presidential regime subtype: a premier–presidential or a president–parliamentary. Including all semi-presidential regimes from 1919 until 2015 and controlling for other conditions such as colonial legacy, the level of development and regime diffusion, our results confirm the hypothesis. The higher the level of democracy – the higher the probability of a premier–presidential regime. Our results underline that democracy is a highly influential cause of the type of semi-presidential regime chosen, a conclusion that places a question mark on the self-evident use of the semi-presidential subtypes as an independent variable.

  • Do bilateral investment treaties help post-coup countries attract foreign investment?

    Studies of international investment treaties have debated whether these agreements independently increase foreign investment flows. This article contributes to the debate by contextualizing the impact of bilateral investment treaties on post-coup domestic political environments. We argue that these treaties enable capital-receiving countries to live up to their commitments of investment protection and promote foreign investment when signatories’ capacity for investor protection has been compromised by the political turmoil of coup events. Using a sample that covers 81 countries between 1970 and 2017, we find that bilateral investment treaties are positively associated with foreign investment in post-coup countries, and that this association is strongest in the immediate years following the coup and attenuates gradually over time. This finding potentially lends support to theorizations of bilateral investment treaties as substitutes, rather than complements, to domestic institutions in fostering investment activities.

  • Do populists practise what they preach? Intra-party democracy in populist parties

    Populist parties are often described as highly centralised and personalistic, with low levels of party institutionalisation. However, there have been few empirical studies to assess the features of decision-making processes within this party family. This study aims to address this gap by examining the extent to which the internal distribution of power varies within populist parties. The Political Party Database is used to systematically compare Eastern and Western European parties in terms of intra-party democracy and the powers given to party leaders. The results suggest that although populist parties differ from non-populist parties in that they grant more power to their leaders, they are less likely to rely on plebiscitary and deliberative decision-making processes. In addition, the findings reveal that while the degree of leadership centralisation and plebiscitary decision making varies by region and ideological background, there are no differences between older and new populist parties.

  • Policymaking under tough economic times: Parties, policy issues and the adoption of programmatic policies

    To what extent is partisan ability to shape policies affected by an economic downturn? Based on the analysis of the fulfilment of 2,412 election pledges in Italy (1996–2018), this article demonstrates that governing parties prioritize different types of promises in tough economic times compared to normal or growing periods. Despite the presence of important constraints, parties have incentives to still try to carve out space for (some of) their policy preferences. In addition, results suggest that the effect of the economic context on pledge fulfilment is contingent on: (a) the policy issue; and (b) parties’ political affiliation.

  • Are men and women contacted differently by electoral campaigns? A cross-national examination of gender gaps

    Although a large literature investigates cross-national differences in party mobilization, little is known about cross-national gender differences in electoral campaign contacts. Using the Comparative Study of Electoral System Module 4, which includes data from 2011 to 2016 and 32 countries, I find gendered patterns in reported contacts across different activities performed by campaigns. I test two potential explanation for these variations: electoral systems and women’s political participation. First, I find that women’s likelihood of reported contacts increases to a greater extent than men’s when electoral systems provide incentives for campaigns to increase their contact rates, decreasing and even reversing gender gaps. Second, I find limited support regarding the impact of the percentage of women in legislatures on gender differences in reported electoral campaign contacts.

  • Taking intra-executive politics into public arenas? Analysis of presidential speeches in six semi-presidential European countries

    Although public communication is a key aspect of political leadership, there is no systematic comparative research on the speeches of presidents in European semi-presidential countries. In such regimes, constitutionally weaker presidents are tempted to use the public podium for increasing their influence, potentially igniting intra-executive quarrels that debilitate decision-making. To gauge this general dynamic, this article analyses the official speeches of Czech, Finnish, French, Polish, Portuguese and Romanian presidents between 2000 and 2020. It first explores the ‘politicalness’ of presidents’ public activity through the general tone and the share of references to economy in the speeches. It then examines how societal conditions, party-political dynamics and public opinion impact the tone and content of presidential addresses. Presidents largely adopt a positive or neutral tone even during cohabitation or economic downturn, but occasionally intervene in issues under the government’s jurisdiction. The results highlight the complex and precarious nature of semi-presidentialism.

  • Blind spots in the study of democratic representation: Masses and elites in old and new democracies

    Preference congruence between masses and elites lies at the heart of the study of democratic representation. In this article, substantiated by a meta-analysis of 154 studies published between 1960 and 2022, we show that the literature on mass–elite congruence has increased exponentially in the past decade. Despite the growing academic interest, the publications mainly focus on Western Europe and leave two critical blind spots. First, at the mass level, little attention has been paid to distinguishing between voters and non-voters and between independents and partisans. Second, at the elite level, presidents have been overlooked, including those studies examining presidential or semi-presidential democracies. In this article, we demonstrate the existence of two blind spots with a meta-analysis, explain their significance for political representation and test the extent to which they affect mass–elite congruence measurement. The article contributes to the comparative study of representation by illustrating how filling in these two blind spots is necessary to ensure a reliable and comprehensive assessment of mass–elite congruence.

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