COVID-19 Information Manipulation and Political Support in Russia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry Hale
Keyword(s):  
Political Support ◽  
Information Manipulation

Ein Ende mit Schrecken – Frankreich nach den Wahlen

2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (188) ◽  
pp. 495-504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felix Syrovatka
Keyword(s):  
Political System ◽  
Political Support ◽  
The Political ◽  
Parliamentary Elections ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
Economic Transformations ◽  
Crisis Of Representation ◽  
Election Results ◽  
Deep Crisis

The presidential and parliamentary elections were a political earthquake for the French political system. While the two big parties experienced massive losses of political support, the rise of new political formations took place. Emmanuel Macron is not only the youngest president of the V. Republic so far, he is also the first president not to be supported by either one of the two biggest parties. This article argues that the election results are an expression of a deep crisis of representation in France that is rooted in the economic transformations of the 1970s. The article analyses the political situation after the elections and tries to give an outlook on further political developments in France.

Character and Competence at the Top: Gerald Ford Becomes President and Pardons Richard Nixon

Public Voices ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 63
Author(s):  
Terry Newell
Keyword(s):  
Leadership Skills ◽  
Moral Character ◽  
Political Support ◽  
Trust In Government ◽  
The Public ◽  
Richard Nixon ◽  
Public Purpose ◽  
Approval Rating ◽  
Public Approval ◽  
Public Leaders

On August 9,1974, Gerald Ford took the oath as president when Richard Nixon resigned in the wake of Watergate.   Ford's inaugural remarks and the actions that followed, aimed at restoring trust in government and gaining the legitimacy he needed to confront national problems, rested on both his character and his leadership talent.  His public approval rating soared.  Thirty-one days later, Ford spoke to the nation again, announcing his pardon of the disgraced former president.  That speech and the actions connected to it also depended on Ford's character and leadership skills.  Yet, his approval plummeted, dooming his prospects to win the 1976 election. This one-month period offers important lessons for public leaders who want to both be good and do good.  Ford succeeded in the first speech and failed in the second.   The ability to articulate a transcendent public purpose, persuade the public in a compelling way, and master the art of building political support proved decisive in both cases.   Also decisive was his character and the way he sought to call forth the moral character of the nation.   

Information mechanics

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandip Tiwari
Keyword(s):  
Information Flow ◽  
Irreversible Processes ◽  
State Machines ◽  
Science And Engineering ◽  
Von Neumann ◽  
Principle Of Maximum Entropy ◽  
Information Manipulation ◽  
Classical Quantum ◽  
Physical Laws ◽  
Principle Of Maximum

Information is physical, so its manipulation through devices is subject to its own mechanics: the science and engineering of behavioral description, which is intermingled with classical, quantum and statistical mechanics principles. This chapter is a unification of these principles and physical laws with their implications for nanoscale. Ideas of state machines, Church-Turing thesis and its embodiment in various state machines, probabilities, Bayesian principles and entropy in its various forms (Shannon, Boltzmann, von Neumann, algorithmic) with an eye on the principle of maximum entropy as an information manipulation tool. Notions of conservation and non-conservation are applied to example circuit forms folding in adiabatic, isothermal, reversible and irreversible processes. This brings out implications of fluctuation and transitions, the interplay of errors and stability and the energy cost of determinism. It concludes discussing networks as tools to understand information flow and decision making and with an introduction to entanglement in quantum computing.

The Politics of Social Investment

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silja Häusermann ◽  
Bruno Palier
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
East Asia ◽  
Family Policy ◽  
Political Support ◽  
Second Step ◽  
South East Asia ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Middle Classes ◽  
The Social ◽  
Specific Substance

Recent research on the development of social investment has demonstrated reform progress not only in different regions of Europe, but also in Latin America and South-East Asia. However, the specific substance of the social investment agendas varies strongly between these regions. Why have social investment ideas and policies been more developed in some regions and countries than in others? Building on the theoretical framework of this volume, our chapter suggests that the content of regional social investment agendas depends on policy legacies in terms of investment vs consumption-oriented policies and their interaction with structural pressures. In a second step, we argue that the chances of social investment agendas to be implemented depend on the availability of political support coalitions between organizational representatives of the educated middle classes and either business or working-class actors. We illustrate our claims with reference to family policy developments in France, Germany, and Switzerland.

Institutions and Political Support

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaun Bowler
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Institutional Reform ◽  
Institutional Arrangements ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Political Support ◽  
The Political ◽  
General Expectation ◽  
Using Data

This chapter analyzes to what extent variation in political institutions affects political support. The chapter observes that the existing research is not always clear on which institutions should produce what kind of effect, although a general expectation is that institutional arrangements improve political support when they give citizens an increased sense of connection to the political process. In general then, we should expect institutions that strengthen the quality of representation to strengthen political support. This general expectation is specified in six hypotheses that are tested using data from the ESS 2012. The chapter demonstrates that electoral systems that provide voters with more choice about candidates, multiparty governments, and “responsive” legislatures, correlate positively with political support. However, compared to other macro-level factors and individual characteristics, the effects of political institutions on political support are modest. The chapter concludes that the prospects for institutional reform to strengthen political support are limited.

Media Malaise and the Decline of Legitimacy

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Van Aelst
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Political Support ◽  
Level Of Education ◽  
Political News ◽  
Negative Tone ◽  
Election News ◽  
Over Time

This chapter analyzes media malaise theories and their consequences for legitimacy. These theories argue that the increasing availability of information through new and old media and increasingly negative tone of media are to blame for declining legitimacy. The chapter examines these claims by providing a systematic review of empirical research on media and political support. It first investigates whether news coverage has become more negative over time, and then examines the micro process that might explain the link between media coverage and political support. Empirical evidence suggests that where coverage has become more negative, this occurred before the 1990s and has levelled off since, and is concentrated primarily in election news. Negative political news does have a modest impact on political support once controlled for level of education, but that effect can be positive and negative, depending on the medium, the receiver, and the indicator of political support.

Social Capital and the Development of Political Support in Europe

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Hooghe ◽  
Anna Kern
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Basic Assumption ◽  
Voluntary Associations ◽  
Political Trust ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Political Support ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
The One ◽  
Democratic Norms

This chapter evaluates the claim that the decline of legitimacy is due to a decline of social capital. The idea that voluntary associations play an important role in establishing social cohesion and political support is a traditional insight in the field of political sociology. The basic assumption is that voluntary associations function as a training ground for democracy, where citizens involved acquire democratic norms and skills that they subsequently apply in their relation with the political system. If this argument is correct, political support should be at least partly influenced by citizens’ participation in civil society organizations. Using European Social Survey data from 2006 and 2012 the authors demonstrate that there is a clear and significant correlation between social involvement on the one hand and satisfaction with the working of democracy and political trust on the other, which largely survives the introduction of a range of control variables.

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