scholarly journals Populism in Bulgaria Between Politicization of Media and Mediatization of Politics

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lilia Raycheva ◽  
Dobrinka Peicheva

<span style="font-family: BookAntiqua; font-size: 8pt; color: #231f20; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: BookAntiqua; font-size: 8pt; color: #231f20; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-family: BookAntiqua; font-size: 8pt; color: #231f20; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;">Populism as a political position and rhetorical style is nowadays an object of comprehensive research and multi-faceted social discussions. The strong critical attitude of populists towards the status quo, towards what they regard as the chimera of democracy, is generally intertwined with the function of the media as a corrective factor with regard to government authorities. The development of mankind in the present is characterized by transformation trends in technological, economic, and social spheres. These trends impact the political environment as well. The challenges of the economic crisis, as well as the migration processes are strengthening the position of euro-skeptics and revitalize the development of populism. The present text is focused on the developments of political populism in Bulgaria. The political environment in the country is characterized by almost permanent merge of political entities, which gradually escalates the use of populist approaches, styles and rhetoric. Research attention to this political phenomenon is determined by the success of some newly formed populist parties during the new century, gradually winning considerable numbers of seats in the parliament. The use of populist phraseology is evident among all political parties in the country, whether left- or right-oriented. Bulgarian political actors of a populist trend – including political leaders and parties – have mixed, oftentimes changing, characteristics. this populist phraseology is transmitted to audiences mainly through the media. It has to be noted that the dynamics of the pre-election campaigns during the period of democratization since 1989 has been developing alongside demonopolization, liberalization and transformation of the media system. Deregulation of the radio and TV broadcasting sector dragged on, giving way to the development of two mutually bound processes – politicization of the media and mediatization of politics. The paper is structured in three methodologically interconnected parts, presenting: an overview of the process of politicization of the media and mediatization of politics in Bulgaria; an analysis of the political populist trends in the country; a discussion on the connections between populism and the media.</span></span></span><strong></strong>

2013 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Chaqués Bonafont ◽  
Frank R. Baumgartner

AbstractSpain's newspapers are characterised by strong partisan identities. We demonstrate that the two leading newspapers nonetheless show powerful similarities in the topics of their coverage over time. The media system is strongly related to the policy process and it shows similar levels of skew (attention focuses on just a few topics) and friction (attention lurches rapidly from topic to topic) as others have shown for policy processes more generally. Further, media attention is significantly related to parliamentary activities. Oral questions in parliament track closely with media attention over time. Our assessment is based on a comprehensive database of all front-page stories (over 95,000 stories) in El País and El Mundo, Spain's largest daily newspapers, and all 7,446 oral questions from 1996 to 2009. The paper shows that explanations of friction and skew in governmental activities should incorporate media dynamics as well. Political leaders are clearly sensitive to media salience.


2017 ◽  
Vol 69 (4) ◽  
pp. 483-505
Author(s):  
Mladen Lisanin

Due to turbulent circumstances and controversial heritage in regard to the breakup of ex-Yugoslavia, regional position of Serbia is, within academic as well as the wider public, most often observed in the context of its relations with the ?new? neighbors - the states that have emerged from the breakup of the former common country. This is in part because of constant tensions in the relations with ex-Yugoslav states, but also due to the political agenda of Western actors, which sets the framework for regional integration processes through the concept of ?Western Balkans?. Foreign policy relations of Serbia with its ?old? neighbors (most notably, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria, given that Albania has a distinct status as a de facto interested party in the dispute regarding the status of Kosovo and Metohija), nonetheless, remain at least just as important element of Serbia?s regional position. It is the author?s intention to point towards determinants of the foreign policy of Serbia, as factors that work, or are visible, through relations with Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. This will be observed in the context of bilateral and multilateral, formal and informal foreign policy connections and relations. The conclusion, in the form of a recommendation, is that international political dynamics in the ?Western Balkans? should not completely avert research attention away from Serbian relations with its non-Yugoslav neighbors.


1970 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 307-326 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth R. Libbey

POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS IN DEMOCRATIC STATES HAVE USUALLY COME into existence as the manifestation of a principle of political philosophy or as the result of a compromise among forces with different aspirations for the polity. Often both factors have been involved. Certainly the consequences for political behaviour of introducing any particular structure have been of concern to its architects, but many of these consequences are unforeseeable and the actual impact of an institutional change or the character of a formal role may in time become quite different from that intended.For a political actor, such as an individual, an interest group or a party, formal structures are given attributes of the political environment. Along with the more diffuse qualities of the political culture, they constitute the framework within which political actors must compete for influence over public policy. This framework, both formal and informal, is uneven in its effects on the fortunes of the various political forces. It favours some approaches and some groups more and in different ways than it favours others. The British Labour Party, with its concentrated voting strength, is disadvantaged by the single-member district/plurality electoral system, while its counterpart in Germany is able to maximize its strength in a system of proportional representation.


2019 ◽  
pp. 1222-1236
Author(s):  
Flaminia Saccà

In the last decade, Italy has gone through some deep changes in the political sphere. The fall of the Berlin Wall had forced political parties from opposite sides to re-organize themselves: their targets, ideologies and projects. At the same time, these historical events have been shortly followed by a major national bribe scandal that invested the main political leaders who had governed the Country for half a century. As a result, the last turn of the past Millennium has left a strongly politicized Country with no acknowledged leaders, no clear ideologies, no traditional, recognizable parties. It is in those years that Berlusconi's new venture gained votes and success. The fracture between political organizations, leaders and citizens though, became unhealable. The younger generations seemed to be the ones who suffered the most from political apathy or, worse, distrust. So we wanted to investigate who were the young politicians who, in these times of crises, had chosen politics as an important part of their lives. We have carried out two different surveys in different years and we found that political parties were changing deeply and radically. That their role in the political socialization of young political actors had become very thin. That candidates began to be chosen amongst the affluent few or, at least, amongst those whose personal fame and social/professional/family network would guarantee their party at least a dowry of votes that could make the difference in times of elections. But this method would not guarantee cohesion nor government stability.


Journalism ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 146488492095950
Author(s):  
Jefferson Lyndon D Ragragio

Editorials are a political force used by news media to fulfil its watchdog function in fragile democracies like the Philippines. However, they also serve as a platform to invite a more positive reading of strongman administration. Against the backdrop of media populism, the article will problematize how the Fourth Estate articulates its political stance by examining the tensions and complexities in editorials. It will highlight the ways the media deals with subjects and stories surrounding Rodrigo Duterte. Through an analysis of editorials of four leading dominant news outlets (Bulletin, Inquirer, Rappler, and Star), three meta-thematic categories of media frames are uncovered. First, character degradation frames delineate how the media denounces the ties of Duterte with other political actors, particularly the Marcoses and China’s Xi. Second, pro-establishment frames echo the optimistic mantra of the government amid crisis. And third, non-editorial frames exhibit the failure of media to publish watchdog-inspired editorials. Each of these categories has underlying frames that are indicative of the democratic potential, or lack thereof, of news media.


Author(s):  
Peter Franz

The trend of cities, serving as a location for universities and research institutes, to take into consideration new strategies utilizing this location factor for growth-oriented urban development can also be observed in Germany. An overview of the quantitative preconditions shows that many German cities dispose of favorite preconditions for such a knowledge city strategy. An analysis of the policy arena comes to the result that the political actors are confronted with the task of a complex multi-level-policy where networking skills become essential. A comparison with the policy conditions in the U.S. makes it quite clear that especially the German universities have the status of semi-autonomous actors complicating negotiating and coordinating activities between city and science representatives. First examples of deregulation show that these hurdles can be overcome in the future.


2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (7) ◽  
pp. 1641-1656 ◽  
Author(s):  
Uwe Volkmann

It is a long-established commonplace in any debate on immigration that immigrants should integrate into their receiving society. But integrate into what precisely? Into the labor market, into the legal order, into the political system, into a national culture whatever this might comprise? The Article tries to approach the question from the legal point of view and looks for hints or clues in the constitution which might help us with the answer. For this purpose, it explores the general theory of the constitution as it has been shaped by its professional interpreters as well as by political actors, the media and the public. The main intuition is that “constitution” is not only a written document, a text with a predefined, though maybe hidden meaning; instead, it is a social practice evolving over time and thereby reflecting the shared convictions of a political community of what is just and right. Talking about constitutional expectations toward immigrants then also tells us something about ourselves: about who we are and what kind of community we want to live in. As it turns out, we may not have a very clear idea of that.


Author(s):  
Stefaan Walgrave ◽  
Peter Van Aelst

Recently, the number of studies examining whether media coverage has an effect on the political agenda has been growing strongly. Most studies found that preceding media coverage does exert an effect on the subsequent attention for issues by political actors. These effects are contingent, though, they depend on the type of issue and the type of political actor one is dealing with. Most extant work has drawn on aggregate time-series designs, and the field is as good as fully non-comparative. To further develop our knowledge about how and why the mass media exert influence on the political agenda, three ways forward are suggested. First, we need better theory about why political actors would adopt media issues and start devoting attention to them. The core of such a theory should be the notion of the applicability of information encapsulated in the media coverage to the goals and the task at hand of the political actors. Media information has a number of features that make it very attractive for political actors to use—it is often negative, for instance. Second, we plead for a disaggregation of the level of analysis from the institutional level (e.g., parliament) or the collective actor level (e.g., party) to the individual level (e.g., members of parliament). Since individuals process media information, and since the goals and tasks of individuals that trigger the applicability mechanism are diverse, the best way to move forward is to tackle the agenda setting puzzle at the individual level. This implies surveying individual elites or, even better, implementing experimental designs to individual elite actors. Third, the field is in dire need of comparative work comparing how political actors respond to media coverage across countries or political systems.


2011 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik Albæk ◽  
Christian Elmelund-Præstekær ◽  
David Nicolas Hopmann ◽  
Robert Klemmensen

Abstract Previous studies have shown that experts appearing in the media are increasingly speculating about trends and developments rather than presenting their own research. With respect to political journalism, this raises the question of whether increased use of expert sources has also led to an increased focus on process relative to substance in election news coverage. The study, conducted in 1998 and 2007, surveys what types of experts are referred to in the election coverage, what topics the experts comment on (in particular whether they focus on substance or process), and whether the number and types of experts as well as topics have changed over time. As expected, there is an increase in newspapers’ references to experts in their election campaign coverage. However, contrary to our expectations, in both 1998 and 2007, there is an equal number of articles referring to the election campaign’s political content (i.e., they mentioned the topics promoted by the political actors during the campaign) and to the political process. And extremely few articles included meta-discussions.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Venera Nauryzova ◽  
Umit Kairova

The article examines the history of the development of the Constitution and the status of constitutional values, the rule of law. The foundations of the constitutional reform have been determined. The political system of the state is clearly spelled out in our constitution. At the same time, this law for the first time describes the core of the political system - the presidential system. Today we can say that our Constitution and laws allow us to stimulate creativity and entrepreneurship. This norm defines the main purpose, the scope of public relations to be regulated by constitutional laws, laws, Presidential Decrees, regulations of government agencies of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Attention should be paid to the role, meaning and features of the Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan as the main document of the country. In addition, it tells about the adoption of our Constitution, its achievements, measures to prove that Kazakhstan is a legal state. As soon as the draft of the new Constitution was published in the media for public discussion, it can be said that in fact the whole country began its work. It is said that the Constitution of the Republic is the initiator of a new stage of constitutional development, which has a high legal force and stability, strengthens and regulates the basic social relations in the field of legal status of citizens, civil society institutions, state organizations and government agencies.


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