JournalTOCs

Comparative Political Studies
Journal Prestige (SJR): 3.772

Citation Impact (citeScore): 3
Number of Followers: 248

Hybrid journal * Containing 1 Open Access article(s) in this issue *
ISSN (Print) 0010-4140 - ISSN (Online) 1552-3829
Published by Sage Publications

[1086 journals]

Consequences of Authoritarian Party Exit and Reinvention for Democratic
Competition
- Authors: Anna Grzymala-Busse
  Abstract: Comparative Political Studies, Ahead of Print.
  How do the successors to authoritarian ruling parties influence subsequent democratic party competition' The existing literature does not distinguish among these parties, nor does it differentiate among the distinct strategies of their adaptation to the collapse of authoritarian rule. As a result, the impact of these parties on democracy has been unclear and difficult to discern. Yet, using a novel data set with observations from postcommunist Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin America, I find that the exit of authoritarian ruling parties from power and their subsequent reinvention as committed democratic competitors are powerfully associated with robust democratic party competition. Mixed effects regressions and estimates of treatment effects show that authoritarian exit and reinvention promote the success of democratic party competition.
  Citation: Comparative Political Studies
  PubDate: 2020-02-17T06:18:25Z
  DOI: 10.1177/0010414019897683
Globalization and Willingness to Support the Poor in Developing Countries:
An Experiment in India
- Authors: Sera Linardi, Nita Rudra
  Abstract: Comparative Political Studies, Ahead of Print.
  Does an individual’s exposure to aspects of globalization impact their willingness to redistribute to the poor' We hypothesize that the “glitter” of foreign direct investment (FDI) in developing countries leads relatively better-off citizens to perceive that the poor now have more opportunities and are thereby less deserving of help. Findings from an experiment across three states in India reveal that subjects lower their financial support for the poor upon learning a foreign firm in a low-skilled sector is located in the vicinity. Text analysis of subjects’ responses supports the mechanism underlying our hypothesis: FDI reduces support for redistribution when subjects believe that foreign firms offer the uneducated poor higher wages and increased job opportunities.
  Citation: Comparative Political Studies
  PubDate: 2020-02-07T04:34:56Z
  DOI: 10.1177/0010414019897686
A Tournament Theory of Pork Barrel Politics: The Case of Japan
- Authors: Amy Catalinac, Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, Alastair Smith
  Abstract: Comparative Political Studies, Ahead of Print.
  How do politicians motivate voters to turn out and support them' We posit that incumbents construct tournaments between groups and distribute rewards to groups based on the levels of electoral support provided. We test our propositions in Japan, where incumbents can discern relative levels of support provided by municipalities in their districts and influence spending in ways that reward certain municipalities over others. Using new data on approximately 3,300+ Japanese municipalities in 1980 to 2000, we show that when municipalities are ranked according to their levels of support for Liberal Democratic Party winners in their district, those at higher ranks get larger rewards, the difference in size of the reward increases at higher ranks, and those in districts where municipalities vary more in size also receive larger rewards. Our findings support the theory and help explain other features of Japanese politics, including why pork tends to flow to relatively unsupportive districts.
  Citation: Comparative Political Studies
  PubDate: 2020-01-27T06:00:42Z
  DOI: 10.1177/0010414019897677
Great Expectations, Financialization, and Bank Bailouts in Democracies
- Authors: Jeffrey M. Chwieroth, Andrew Walter
  Abstract: Comparative Political Studies, Ahead of Print.
  Accelerating financialization and rising societal wealth have meant that democratic governments increasingly provide bailouts following banking crises. Using a new long-run data set, we show that despite frequent and virulent crises before World War II, bank bailouts to protect wealth were then exceptionally rare. In recent decades, by contrast, governments have increasingly opted for extensive bailouts—well before the major interventions of 2007–2009. We argue that this policy shift is the consequence of the “great expectations” of middle-class voters overlooked in existing accounts. Associated with the growing financialization of wealth, rising leverage, and accumulating ex ante financial stabilization commitments by governments, these expectations are suggestive of substantially altered policy preferences and political cleavages. Since the 1970s, when severe banking crises returned as an important threat to middle-class wealth, this “pressure from below” has led elected governments to provide increasingly costly bailouts with no historical precedent.
  Citation: Comparative Political Studies
  PubDate: 2020-01-24T04:38:36Z
  DOI: 10.1177/0010414019897418
Building Credibility and Cooperation in Low-Trust Settings: Persuasion and
Source Accountability in Liberia During the 2014–2015 Ebola Crisis
- Authors: Lily L. Tsai, Benjamin S. Morse, Robert A. Blair
  Abstract: Comparative Political Studies, Ahead of Print.
  How can governments in low-trust settings overcome their credibility deficit when promoting public welfare' To answer this question, we evaluate the effectiveness of the Liberian government’s door-to-door canvassing campaign during the 2014–2015 Ebola epidemic, which aimed to persuade residents to voluntarily comply with policies for containing the disease. Combining data from an original representative survey of Monrovia during the crisis with variation in the campaign’s reach and using multiple identification strategies, we find that the informational campaign was remarkably effective at increasing adherence to safety precautions, support for contentious control policies, and general trust in government. To uncover the pathways through which the campaign proved so effective, we conducted over 80 in-depth qualitative interviews in 40 randomly sampled communities. This investigation suggests that local intermediaries were effective because their embeddedness in communities subjected them to monitoring and sanctioning, thereby assuring their fellow residents that they were accountable and thus credible.
  Citation: Comparative Political Studies
  PubDate: 2020-01-21T06:35:05Z
  DOI: 10.1177/0010414019897698
The Unintended Consequences of Democracy Promotion: International
Organizations and Democratic Backsliding
- Authors: Anna M. Meyerrose
  Abstract: Comparative Political Studies, Ahead of Print.
  Since the end of the Cold War, international organizations (IOs) have engaged in unprecedented levels of democracy promotion, and research overwhelmingly links them to positive democratic outcomes. However, this increased emphasis on democracy has more recently been accompanied by rampant illiberalism and a sharp rise in cases of democratic backsliding in new democracies. What explains democratic backsliding in an age of unparalleled international support for democracy' Backsliding occurs when democratic institutions are weakened or eroded by elected officials, resulting in an illiberal or diminished form of democracy. I argue that IOs that support democracy unintentionally make backsliding more likely by neglecting to promote democratic institutions other than executives and elections, increasing executive power, and limiting states’ domestic policy options, which stunts institutional development. I find membership in IOs associated with democracy promotion makes backsliding more likely, decreases checks on executive power, and limits domestic policy options and party development in new democracies.
  Citation: Comparative Political Studies
  PubDate: 2020-01-21T06:34:25Z
  DOI: 10.1177/0010414019897689
On the Social Construction of Legal Grievances: Evidence From Colombia and
South Africa
- Authors: Whitney K. Taylor
  Abstract: Comparative Political Studies, Ahead of Print.
  Leveraging comparisons within and across cases, this article investigates legal mobilization for social rights in Colombia and South Africa. This kind of rights contestation represents a new phenomenon, in which both ordinary citizens and judicial actors have come to view problems related to access to health care, housing, education, and social security through the lens of the law. Research on legal mobilization has tended toward one-sided examinations of this complex phenomenon, focusing primarily on either legal claims-making or judicial decision-making, and neglecting to fully theorize the relationship between the two. Drawing on an analysis of rights claims and 178 interviews, this article aims to correct these imbalances. In doing so, it offers a generalizable model that accounts for the social construction of legal grievances and the development of judicial receptivity to particular kinds of claims, and explains both the emergence and continuation of legal mobilization for social rights.
  Citation: Comparative Political Studies
  PubDate: 2020-01-17T06:38:00Z
  DOI: 10.1177/0010414019897685
Protests of Abundance: Distributive Conflict Over Agricultural Rents
During the Commodities Boom in Argentina, 2003–2013
- Authors: Jorge Mangonnet, María Victoria Murillo
  Abstract: Comparative Political Studies, Ahead of Print.
  Whereas the scholarship on rural contention mostly focuses on austerity and busts, we study protests by agricultural export producers in times of high agricultural prices. Aware of price volatility, farmers seek to take advantage of cycles’ upswings to maximize their income and resist sharing the rents generated by higher prices. When farmers lack the formal political influence to avert redistribution, they are more likely to protest as their tax burden increases although they benefit from higher prices. Their strongest protest tool is lockouts, which halt commercialization activities and have significant economic consequences, but require coordination by farmer associations. Membership homogeneity and lower exposure to state retaliation by these organizations heightens contention. We test this argument using a local-level data set on rural lockouts across Argentine departments between 2003 and 2013, a time of high prices for Argentina’s key export commodity: soybeans. We complement our empirical strategy with in-depth, semi-structured elite interviews.
  Citation: Comparative Political Studies
  PubDate: 2020-01-17T06:30:21Z
  DOI: 10.1177/0010414019897417
Candidacy Eligibility Criteria and Party Unity
- Authors: Jochen Rehmert
  Abstract: Comparative Political Studies, Ahead of Print.
  Extant research suggests that candidate selection methods can be consequential for party unity in legislative voting. Yet thus far, only variations in the selectorate and the degree of centralization have been examined. This article argues that Candidacy Eligibility Criteria (CEC), too, have implications for party unity. I theorize that with stricter formal requirements, parties avoid adverse selection and ensure the nomination of committed candidates. By using roll-call vote data from 16 industrial democracies, candidate surveys and an original data set consisting of nearly 500 historical party constitutions, I show that parties demanding prior membership and nudging aspirants to maintain networks within the party tend to be more unified in parliamentary voting. Moreover, their candidates, too, express greater loyalty when compared with parties without formal CEC. Thus, this article contributes to the literatures on party unity and on candidate selection by showing how certain party rules, hitherto neglected, affect party unity.
  Citation: Comparative Political Studies
  PubDate: 2020-01-13T05:12:08Z
  DOI: 10.1177/0010414019897700
Opting Out of the Social Contract: Tax Morale and Evasion
- Authors: Néstor Castañeda, David Doyle, Cassilde Schwartz
  Abstract: Comparative Political Studies, Ahead of Print.
  We examine the individual-level determinants of tax morale in low-capacity states, specifically Latin American countries, where the social contract is often perceived as fractured. We argue that individuals in such states perceive the social contract as an agreement to which they can opt in or opt out. Those who choose to opt out prefer to substitute state-provided goods for private providers, rather than pay for public goods through taxes or free ride to receive those goods. Through a list experiment conducted in Mexico City, we demonstrate that willingness to evade taxes is highest when individuals have stepped outside of the social contract. More traditional indicators of reciprocity—such as socioeconomic status and perceptions of corruption—are not significant. We bolster our experimental results with observational data from 17 Latin American cities; those with access to employer-sponsored insurance are more willing to evade tax.
  Citation: Comparative Political Studies
  PubDate: 2019-11-04T06:19:09Z
  DOI: 10.1177/0010414019879956
The Co-optation of Dissent in Hybrid States: Post-Soviet Graffiti in
Moscow
- Authors: Alexis M. Lerner
  Abstract: Comparative Political Studies, Ahead of Print.
  Hybrid leaders seek job security. To stay in power, it may be intuitive that they respond to dissent with a heavy hand. However, these leaders are subject to accountability and concerned with legitimacy and therefore must consider the optics of their decisions. By co-opting a previously independent avenue of communication and its leadership, the state eliminates challengers, curates its public image through trusted social leaders, and reinforces control without resorting to repressive methods that may backfire. Based on a decade of fieldwork, data collection, and expert interviews, I evidence the co-optation of dissent via thematic, spatial, and material shifts in political public art, crafted between the 2012 and 2018 Russian presidential elections. As it consolidated power during this time, the Putin administration co-opted critical graffiti artists and flooded out those unwilling to cooperate, replacing subversive and anonymous anti-regime graffiti with Kremlin-curated murals, particularly in the city center.
  Citation: Comparative Political Studies
  PubDate: 2019-11-01T05:24:22Z
  DOI: 10.1177/0010414019879949
Living in Fear: The Dynamics of Extortion in Mexico’s Drug War
- Authors: Beatriz Magaloni, Gustavo Robles, Aila M. Matanock, Alberto Diaz-Cayeros, Vidal Romero
  Abstract: Comparative Political Studies, Ahead of Print.
  Why do drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) sometimes prey on the communities in which they operate but sometimes provide assistance to these communities' What explains their strategies of extortion and co-optation toward civil society' Using new survey data from Mexico, including list experiments to elicit responses about potentially illegal behavior, this article measures the prevalence of extortion and assistance among DTOs. In support of our theory, these data show that territorial contestation among rival organizations produces more extortion and, in contrast, DTOs provide more assistance when they have monopoly control over a turf. The article uncovers other factors that also shape DTOs’ strategies toward the population, including the degree of collaboration with the state, leadership stability and DTO organization, and the value and logistics of the local criminal enterprise.
  Citation: Comparative Political Studies
  PubDate: 2019-10-30T04:53:58Z
  DOI: 10.1177/0010414019879958
Communist Legacies and Left-Authoritarianism
- Authors: Grigore Pop-Eleches, Joshua A. Tucker
  Abstract: Comparative Political Studies, Ahead of Print.
  Communist regimes were avowedly leftist authoritarian regimes, a relative rarity among autocracies. The growing literature on regime legacies would lead us to expect that postcommunist citizens would be more likely to exhibit “left-authoritarian” attitudes than their counterparts elsewhere. Finding that this is the case, we rely on 157 surveys from 88 countries to test if a living through Communism legacy model can account for this surplus of left-authoritarian attitudes. Employing both aggregate and micro-level analyses, we find strong support for the predictions of this model. Moving beyond previous legacy studies, we then test a variety of hypothesized mechanisms to explain how exposure to communist rule could have led to the regime congruent left-authoritarian attitudes. Of the mechanisms tested, greater state penetration of society is associated with a strong socialization effect and religious attendance—and in particular attending Catholic religious services—is associated with weaker socialization effects.
  Citation: Comparative Political Studies
  PubDate: 2019-10-30T04:53:39Z
  DOI: 10.1177/0010414019879954
Transparency, Elections, and Pakistani Politicians’ Tax Compliance
- Authors: Rabia Malik
  Abstract: Comparative Political Studies, Ahead of Print.
  A growing literature on political accountability focuses on the extent to which voters electorally punish politicians when provided with credible negative information about politicians’ actions. Whether politicians respond to information provision by changing their behavior—thus appearing accountable to voters—is an integral part of this puzzle but has received comparatively little attention. I address this gap by exploiting an unforeseen decision by the Pakistani government to publicly release legislators’ past income tax payments, and measure the effect of the information provision on their tax payments in the following year. Using new data on politicians’ asset ownership and tax payments in a difference-in-differences research design, I provide strong evidence that the pressure to decrease tax evasion was highest for competitively and directly elected legislators. These heterogeneous effects are not explained by differences between legislators or electoral constituencies, supporting the hypothesis that electoral incentives condition legislator responsiveness to information shocks.
  Citation: Comparative Political Studies
  PubDate: 2019-10-21T06:04:21Z
  DOI: 10.1177/0010414019879964
Mixed Judicial Selection and Constitutional Review
- Authors: Lydia Brashear Tiede
  Abstract: Comparative Political Studies, Ahead of Print.
  Almost half the constitutional court judges worldwide are selected by a mixed selection system, whereby a specific number of judges are selected by different government institutions. What are the implications of this selection method and its variations for judges’ individual choices on constitutional review cases' An examination of vote choice on the Chilean and Colombian constitutional courts indicates that judges’ decisions to strike down laws are explained more by their and other colleagues’ institutional selector than their political party associations. The results call into question traditional judicial behavior models by suggesting that judges with different selectors have distinct voices when adjudicating constitutional questions which in turn enhances the deliberative process. However, the results also raise concern that certain selecting institutions may have a more significant voice in vetoing legislation than afforded them in the regular legislative process.
  Citation: Comparative Political Studies
  PubDate: 2019-10-21T06:02:41Z
  DOI: 10.1177/0010414019879961
Patterns of Regime Breakdown Since the French Revolution
- Authors: Vilde Lunnan Djuve, Carl Henrik Knutsen, Tore Wig
  Abstract: Comparative Political Studies, Ahead of Print.
  We present a temporally fine-grained data set on regimes, defined as the formal and informal rules essential for selecting leaders. The data set comprises more than 2,000 regimes from 197 polities, 1789 to 2016. We highlight how the frequency of breakdowns and particular modes of breakdown have followed cyclical rather than monotonic patterns across modern history. The most common breakdown modes, overall, are coups and incumbent-guided regime transformations. Furthermore, we report robust evidence that low income, slow or negative growth, and intermediate levels of democracy predict a higher likelihood of regime breakdown. Yet, by running change-point analysis we establish that breakdown risk has cycled substantively across periods of modern history, and the aforementioned explanatory factors are more clearly related to breakdown during certain periods. When disaggregating different breakdown modes, low income is related to, for example, breakdown due to popular uprisings, whereas intermediate democracy levels clearly predict coup-induced breakdowns and incumbent-guided transitions.
  Citation: Comparative Political Studies
  PubDate: 2019-10-17T06:04:48Z
  DOI: 10.1177/0010414019879953
Populism as a Problem of Social Integration
- Authors: Noam Gidron, Peter A. Hall
  Abstract: Comparative Political Studies, Ahead of Print.
  We argue that support for parties of the radical right and left can usefully be understood as a problem of social integration—an approach that brings together economic and cultural explanations for populism. With comparative survey data, we assess whether support for parties of the radical right and left is associated with feelings of social marginalization. We find that people who feel more socially marginal—because they lack strong attachment to the normative order, social engagement, or a sense of social respect—are more likely to be alienated from mainstream politics and to support radical parties. We also find an association between indicators for recent economic and cultural developments often said to affect social status and feelings of social marginalization, especially among people with low incomes or educational attainment. We conclude that problems of social integration and subjective social status deserve more attention from scholars of comparative political behavior.
  Citation: Comparative Political Studies
  PubDate: 2019-10-17T06:03:28Z
  DOI: 10.1177/0010414019879947
The Dilemma of Dissent: Split Judicial Decisions and Compliance With
Judgments From the International Human Rights Judiciary
- Authors: Daniel Naurin, Øyvind Stiansen
  Abstract: Comparative Political Studies, Ahead of Print.
  The mutual dependence between courts and their compliance constituencies is a fundamental feature of judicial power. Actors whose rights and interests are reinforced by court decisions may use these as legal ammunitions while contributing to ensuring that court decisions are effectively implemented. We argue that judgments that contain dissenting opinions are less powerful in this regard, compared with unanimous decisions. The reason is that dissent reduces the perceived legal authority of the judgment. Using data from the international human rights judiciaries in Europe and the Americas, we provide evidence of a negative relationship between judicial dissent and compliance. Our findings have important implications for questions relating to the institutional design of courts, for courts’ ability to manage compliance problems, and for understanding the conditions for effective international judicial protection of human rights.
  Citation: Comparative Political Studies
  PubDate: 2019-10-17T06:02:28Z
  DOI: 10.1177/0010414019879944
The Dynamics of Labor Militancy in the Extractive Sector: Kazakhstan’s
Oilfields and South Africa’s Platinum Mines in Comparative Perspective
- Authors: Allison D. Evans, Rudra Sil
  Abstract: Comparative Political Studies, Ahead of Print.
  This article investigates why, in two very different regimes, similarly high levels of labor militancy are evident in Kazakhstan’s oilfields and South Africa’s platinum belt. It also explores the common dynamics leading up to the massacres at Zhanaozen (2011) and Marikana (2012). The hypothesis-generating most different systems comparison highlights the challenges of labor relations where extraction at fixed sites combines with volatile prices and shareholder pressures in a globalized economy to raise the stakes for business, labor, and state. Also significant are blockages in existing channels for bargaining linked to quiescent unions. These jointly necessary conditions account for increased militancy in extractive industries in Kazakhstan and South Africa. To account for the Zhanaozen and Marikana massacres, timing and sequence are considered. Both standoffs came later in the strike wave, prompting impatient state and business elites to criticize the protests as “criminal” acts, and priming security personnel to employ violent repression.
  Citation: Comparative Political Studies
  PubDate: 2019-10-17T06:01:28Z
  DOI: 10.1177/0010414019879715
When Does Information Influence Voters' The Joint Importance of
Salience and Coordination
- Authors: Claire Adida, Jessica Gottlieb, Eric Kramon, Gwyneth McClendon
  Abstract: Comparative Political Studies, Ahead of Print.
  Scholars argue that access to information about a politician’s programmatic performance helps voters reward good performers and punish poor ones. But in places where resources are made conditional on collective electoral behavior, voters may not want to defect to vote for a strong legislative performer if they do not believe that others will. We argue that two conditions must hold for information about politician performance to affect voter behavior: Voters must care about the information and believe that others in their constituency care as well. In a field experiment around legislative elections in Benin, voters rewarded good programmatic performance only when information was both made relevant to voters and widely disseminated within the electoral district. Otherwise, access to positive legislative performance information actually lowered vote share for the incumbent’s party. These results demonstrate the joint importance of Salience and voter coordination in shaping information’s impact in clientelistic democracies.
  Citation: Comparative Political Studies
  PubDate: 2019-10-16T06:57:17Z
  DOI: 10.1177/0010414019879945
Middle Class Without a Net: Savings, Financial Fragility, and Preferences
Over Social Insurance
- Authors: Jacob Gerner Hariri, Amalie Sofie Jensen, David Dreyer Lassen
  Abstract: Comparative Political Studies, Ahead of Print.
  In this article, we show that it is crucial to distinguish between liquid and illiquid wealth to understand how voters form preferences toward social insurance. Many households are financially fragile despite having high incomes and wealth, because they hold little liquid savings. We hypothesize, and show empirically, that this implies that a substantial group of voters show strong support for social insurance policies despite being wealthy and having high incomes, because of their limited ability to self-insure through own savings in case of an income shock. Our empirical analysis is based on a novel dataset from Denmark, which combines administrative data with high-quality measures of individual financial assets and survey measures of political preferences. Using data for other countries from the European Social Survey, we find evidence that our results hold more generally and are not specific to the Danish context.
  Citation: Comparative Political Studies
  PubDate: 2019-10-15T11:30:16Z
  DOI: 10.1177/0010414019879718
How Do Inclusionary and Exclusionary Autocracies Affect Ordinary
People'
- Authors: Anja Neundorf, Johannes Gerschewski, Roman-Gabriel Olar
  Abstract: Comparative Political Studies, Ahead of Print.
  We propose a distinction between inclusionary and exclusionary autocratic ruling strategies and develop novel theoretical propositions on the legacy that these strategies leave on citizens’ political attitudes once the autocratic regime broke down. Using data of 1.3 million survey respondents from 71 countries and hierarchical age–period–cohort models, we estimate between and within cohort differences in citizens’ democratic support. We find that inclusionary regimes—with wider redistribution of socioeconomic and political benefits—leave a stronger antidemocratic legacy than exclusionary regimes on the political attitudes of their citizens. Similarly, citizens who were part of the winning group in an autocracy are more critical with democracy compared with citizens who were part of discriminated groups. This article contributes to our understanding about how autocracies affect the hearts and minds of ordinary citizens.
  Citation: Comparative Political Studies
  PubDate: 2019-07-17T05:26:46Z
  DOI: 10.1177/0010414019858958
The Ideological Shadow of Authoritarianism
- Authors: Elias Dinas, Ksenia Northmore-Ball
  Abstract: Comparative Political Studies, Ahead of Print.
  How do the labels left and right take on meaning in new democracies' Existing explanations point to the universality of the left–right scheme or, reversely, emphasize regionally dominant social cleavages. We propose an alternative legacy-focused theory based on two observations: Dictatorships are not ideologically neutral and are negatively evaluated by most citizens and elites after democratization. These premises lead us to expect that when the authoritarian regime is associated with the left (right), the citizens of a new democracy will display an antileft (antiright) bias in their left–right self-identification. We test this hypothesis across Latin American and European new democracies. We find significant bias, which in the case of new democracies following left-wing regimes is concealed due to intercohort heterogeneity. Although older cohorts denote a positive bias, cohorts born after Stalin’s era denote negative bias against the left. Consistent with our expectations, repression exacerbates this bias whereas indoctrination mitigates it. Finally, we look at how these biases apply to party preferences. The findings have important implications for understanding authoritarian legacies and party system development in new democracies.
  Citation: Comparative Political Studies
  PubDate: 2019-07-08T04:58:02Z
  DOI: 10.1177/0010414019852699
Protests and Voter Defections in Electoral Autocracies: Evidence From
Russia
- Authors: Katerina Tertytchnaya
  Abstract: Comparative Political Studies, Ahead of Print.
  
  Citation: Comparative Political Studies
  PubDate: 2019-05-06T08:32:04Z
  DOI: 10.1177/0010414019843556
Speechmaking and the Selectorate: Persuasion in Nonpreferential Electoral
Systems
- Authors: Jorge M. Fernandes, Miguel Won, Bruno Martins
  First page: 667
  Abstract: Comparative Political Studies, Ahead of Print.
  This article examines the extent to which legislators use legislative debates to engage in localism activities to cater to the interests of their selectorate in nonpreferential electoral systems. We define localism activities as the delivery of tangible and intangible benefits to a geographically confined constituency that is instrumental to legislators’ re-selection. Our primary argument is that legislators whose selectorate operates at the local level make more speeches with parochial references. Results show strong support for this assertion. Furthermore, we find that high district magnitude leads to higher levels of localism. We use a mixed-methods research design, combining an original data set of 60,000 debates in Portugal with qualitative evidence from elite interviews. We make a methodological innovation in the field of representation and legislative studies by using a Named Entity Recognition tool to analyze the debates.
  Citation: Comparative Political Studies
  PubDate: 2019-07-12T09:50:48Z
  DOI: 10.1177/0010414019858964
A Closer Look at the Limits of Consociationalism
- Authors: Matthew Charles Wilson
  First page: 700
  Abstract: Comparative Political Studies, Ahead of Print.
  Although scholars agree that ethnically divided societies are generally more prone to political violence, critics of consociationalism suggest that proportional representation and parliamentarism provide poor solutions for ethnically heterogeneous settings. I argue that extant findings about the impacts of powersharing institutions on conflict likelihood assume that institutions have a linear relationship with ethnic diversity, whereas in reality, the relationship is more complex. I demonstrate that proportional representation and parliamentarism are associated with an increased likelihood of civil conflict at mid-range levels of diversity but are associated with a decreased risk of conflict in more extremely divided settings, while federalism is independently associated with greater conflict risk at higher levels of ethnic heterogeneity. The results underscore that the peace-promoting effects of institutions may depend on how polarized societies are, encouraging scholars to think more seriously about the effectiveness of consociationalism for mitigating violence where there is greater ethnic diversity.
  Citation: Comparative Political Studies
  PubDate: 2019-07-16T08:29:14Z
  DOI: 10.1177/0010414019858956
The Evolution of the Immigration Debate: Evidence from a New Dataset of
Party Positions Over the Last Half-Century
- Authors: Rafaela Dancygier, Yotam Margalit
  First page: 734
  Abstract: Comparative Political Studies, Ahead of Print.
  Immigration is one of the most contentious issues across contemporary democracies, but this has not always been the case. What accounts for this development' We study how immigration has evolved in the political debate in Western Europe over five decades by creating and analyzing a comprehensive new data set—Immigration in Party Manifestos (IPM)—of all immigration-related appeals made in preelection manifestos by major parties. Our account focuses on three central debates. First, contra to perceived wisdom, we find no evidence of polarization between left and right. Instead, we document a striking co-movement. Second, we find only modest support for the argument that the success of anti-immigrant parties significantly shapes how centrist parties position themselves on immigration. Finally, our evidence counters the claim that cultural issues have overtaken the debate over immigration. Although the prominence of immigration-related cultural appeals has increased in certain countries and elections, the economic dimension has remained prevalent.
  Citation: Comparative Political Studies
  PubDate: 2019-07-22T10:33:05Z
  DOI: 10.1177/0010414019858936
Addressing Violence Against Women: The Effect of Women’s Police
Stations on Police Legitimacy
- Authors: Abby Córdova, Helen Kras
  First page: 775
  Abstract: Comparative Political Studies, Ahead of Print.
  With a focus on the implementation of women’s police stations (WPS), we posit that local policies that address violence against women can result in positive feedback effects on institutional legitimacy. We theorize that WPS increase police legitimacy among women by improving perceptions of personal safety and government responsiveness. To test our hypotheses, we rely on municipal and public opinion data from more than 100 municipalities in Brazil. The results of our multilevel analysis indicate that WPS produce positive feedback effects among women, resulting in higher trust in the police among women than men and closing the gender gap in perceptions of police effectiveness. Incorporating an instrumental variable in the analyses yields similar results, suggesting that these effects are not endogenous. Moreover, the results of our mediation models show that WPS’ positive effects on women’s views of police legitimacy are driven by improved perceptions of personal safety, and not perceptions of government responsiveness.
  Citation: Comparative Political Studies
  PubDate: 2019-10-07T04:35:52Z
  DOI: 10.1177/0010414019879959
Business Against Markets: Employer Resistance to Collective Bargaining
Liberalization During the Eurozone Crisis
Open Access Article
- Authors: Fabio Bulfone, Alexandre Afonso
  First page: 809
  Abstract: Comparative Political Studies, Ahead of Print.
  Employer organizations have been presented as strong promoters of the liberalization of industrial relations in Europe. This article, in contrast, argues that the preferences of employers vis-à-vis liberalization are heterogeneous and documents how employer organizations in Spain, Italy, and Portugal have resisted state-led reforms to liberalize collective bargaining during the Euro crisis. It shows that the dominance of small firms in the economies of these countries make employer organizations supportive of selective aspects of sectoral bargaining and state regulation. Encompassing sectoral bargaining is important for small firms for three reasons: it limits industrial conflict, reduces transaction costs related to wage-bargaining, and ensures that member firms are not undercut by rivals offering lower wages and employment conditions. Furthermore, the maintenance of sectoral bargaining and its extension to whole sectors by the state is a matter of survival for employer organizations. The article presents rationales for employer opposition to liberalization that differ from the varieties of capitalism approach.
  Citation: Comparative Political Studies
  PubDate: 2019-10-07T04:37:12Z
  DOI: 10.1177/0010414019879963