Authors:Jack Vowles Abstract: The adoption of restrictive policies to contain the spread of COVID-19 has led many to fear the authoritarian implications of excessive government powers over compliant publics. One of the strongest government responses took place in New Zealand, followed only a few months later by the landslide election victory of the Labour Party, the dominant party in the pre-election coalition. This article tests a claim that authoritarian dispositions were mobilized into an authoritarian electoral response. It finds no evidence of a significant shift toward authoritarianism. Authoritarianism did not increase in the mass public and liberals were more likely than authoritarians to approve of the government response and to move toward a vote for the Labour Party, a tendency most apparent among liberals on the right. To the small extent that some disposed toward authoritarianism did move toward the government, they tended to be on the left and/or have higher than average trust in politicians. PubDate: 2022-05-18T00:00:00Z
Authors:Taylor Winter, Benjamin C. Riordan, Boris Bizumic, John Hunter, Paul Easton Jose, John Duckitt, Damian Scarf Abstract: During the COVID-19 pandemic there have been marked changes in individuals' belief systems (e.g., support for lockdowns) as a result of the threat of COVID-19. In the current study, we investigated whether these belief systems change as a function of changes in the threat of COVID-19. Specifically, we conducted a longitudinal study, with authoritarianism measured at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand and when the threat of COVID-19 was low (i.e., no known COVID-19 cases in the community). A total of 888 participants responded at both timepoints, completing measures of political orientation and distrust of science, in addition to the measure of authoritarianism. We had two hypotheses. First, that liberals would display a more marked reduction in authoritarian submission between Alert Level 4 and Alert Level 1 relative to conservatives. Second, that changes would be mediated by trust in science. Both hypotheses were supported, demonstrating that authoritarianism is sensitive to threat, even for those on the political left, and that trust in science helps to explain these changes. We suggest that fluctuations in authoritarianism may be different across the political spectrum due to underlying belief systems such as a distrust of science. PubDate: 2022-05-18T00:00:00Z
Authors:Pascal Delwit Abstract: In a phase of political and electoral downturn of several radical left parties, the Labor Party of Belgium (PTB-PVDA) strikes the imagination due to its increasing influence. A party of Maoist origin, the PTB-PVDA has been undergoing organizational and communication change since the mid-2000's. In this article, we argue that these changes have created a very singular party. Going against prevailing partisan developments, the heart of the party remains the party-in-central-office. The party has quite a dynamic life between elections, seeks to recruit and recruits party members, trains and mobilizes its membership, borrowing from the paths of historical Belgian pillarization or the model of party of social integration. At the same time, the PTB-PVDA incorporates current partisan modifications: a strong personification, a great investment in social networks, a populist rhetoric, a redesigned communication and a focus on elections to be able to benefit from public party funding. This combination of old and new makes it one of a kind party in Europe and among the European Radical Left. However, this original organizational scheme raises the question of its fate: the aggregation of the various elements requires that it remains in the parliamentary opposition. PubDate: 2022-05-11T00:00:00Z
Authors:Dan Hiaeshutter-Rice, Ian Hawkins Abstract: Digital media give the public a voice to discuss or share their thoughts about political and social events. However, these discussions can often include language that contributes to creating toxic or uncivil online environments. Using data from Reddit, we examine the language surrounding three major events in the United States that occurred in 2020 and early 2021 from the comments and posts of 65 communities identified for their focus on extreme content. Our results suggest that social and political events in the U.S. triggered increased hostility in discussions as well as the formation of a set of shared language for describing and articulating information about these major political/social moments. Findings further reveal shifts in language toward more negativity, incivility, and specific language surrounding non-White outgroups. Finally, these shifts in language online were found to be durable and last after the events occurred. Our project identifies that negative language is frequently present on social media and is not necessarily exclusive to one group, topic, or real-world event. We discuss the implications of language as a powerful tool to engage, recruit, and radicalize those within communities online. PubDate: 2022-05-10T00:00:00Z
Authors:Staffan Andersson, Nicholas Aylott, Johan Eriksson Abstract: Sweden's management of the coronavirus pandemic, beginning in early 2020, has been much discussed because it deviated from other countries' equivalents. Set in the context of scholarly debate about the balance between politicians and experts in political decision-making, we argue that a necessary condition for this case of Swedish exceptionalism was the manner of policy-making adopted by the Swedish authorities. In this article, we describe this policy-making procedure, which involved a radical form of delegation by elected politicians to appointed experts, and seek to explain how it came about. We focus on the 1st year of the pandemic, and use media reports and other public documents, including parts of a public inquiry, as our empirical material. PubDate: 2022-05-09T00:00:00Z
Authors:Allen Kiconco Abstract: Many studies have documented and analyzed the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) forced conjugal association patterns and practices (“forced marriage”). However, the focus has been on the experiences of abducted girls forced to serve as conjugal partners to commanders (“forced wives”). The experiences of children born as a result of these relationships are under-investigated. Receptor communities in northern Uganda are assumed to be places of hope, comfort, and protection for these children. However, they can also be hostile, leaving the children in precarious and vulnerable situations. This article draws from ethnographic fieldwork in the Acholi region and interviews with formerly abducted mothers focusing on their children's integration processes and experiences. It argues that return is not integration, as it often coincides with further exclusion and alienation. In Uganda's patriarchal and patrilineal social systems, children with no paternal lineage are viewed as of lower status. Stigmatization facing children born of the LRA captivity condemns them to this status, consequently excluding them from mainstream society. Findings show that stigma remains central to the life experiences of these children several years after the end of the conflict in 2006. Their persistent stigmatization is linked to broader discriminatory socio-cultural and patriarchal ideas and practices. PubDate: 2022-05-09T00:00:00Z
Authors:Boniface Ojok Abstract: This article examines the circumstances of 16 Children Born of War (CBOW) who participated in a classroom activity designed to understand their experiences of integration at a local school in post war northern Uganda. The children are part of a generation of returnees who were conceived as a result of sexual violence and forced marriages between the commanders of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and young girls abducted from their communities. The research at the Alur Primary School (APS) articulates the children's views, and how this one school managed to integrate CBOW and war-affected children, treating each as special, to advance their learning and their education. Specifically, each of the 181 war-affected children involved in the class activity was given a chance to recall key moments of their time at APS. Their write-ups were analyzed into themes illustrating what happened when CBOW were integrated into the school, and how the school responded to their educational needs. The activity did not isolate CBOW from their non-CBOW peers, hence giving every child the opportunity to freely express their views regardless of their background. This article contributes to our understanding of how schools, as one of the most influential institutions that shape the development of children, can foreground the voices of CBOW as beneficiaries of education and actors in their own right. PubDate: 2022-05-06T00:00:00Z
Authors:Barbara L. Stark, Wesley D. Stoner Abstract: With antecedents reaching back to the Olmec era (1500–600 BCE), complex societies from CE 300–900/1000 in the Gulf lowlands display architectural and material culture indications of both authoritarian and collective governance principles over two large areas, each with a distinctive version of a common architectural layout. The two areas include multiple polities adhering to particular layouts of structures providing key urban services. Our information derives from pedestrian surveys and mapping covering about 5,000 km2, plus remote sensing over 53,000 km2. Remote sensing reveals the extraordinary extent and consistency of the predominant architectural patterns. Starting with the Olmec era and continuing to CE 600 some sculpture glorifies individual rulers, but, at the same time, architecture shows the importance of corporate groups and public access to services that represent a more collective emphasis. Between CE 300 to 900, monumental platforms that supported palatial residences indicate powerful elites and rulers. Long mounds located on each side of the main plazas likely supported multiple rooms used by corporate civic groups. In some centers, multiple plaza groups attest to division of authority across several factions, as do chains of plazas in other cases. Thus, both authoritarian and collective principles are built into the design of urban centers. The replication of common architectural patterns across the study area suggests open networks of interaction consonant with low-density urbanism in the tropics. We concentrate our discussion of governance in south-central Veracruz during CE 300–900, for which we have more complete data, and we more briefly characterize the larger temporal and spatial framework. Eventually these urban networks collapsed due to a complex set of factors, but one ingredient may have been increasing disparities in wealth and corrosion of collective action. PubDate: 2022-04-28T00:00:00Z
Authors:Aribert Heyder, Pascal Anstötz, Marcus Eisentraut, Peter Schmidt Abstract: Conceptually, “group-focused enmity” (GFE, long-term project in Germany, duration: 2002–2011) consists of several different attitudes that constitute a syndrome of group-focused enmity. These attitudes are empirically related to each other and share a common core which is the ideology of inequality. But is GFE really a one-dimensional homogeneous ideology' Over the years there have been considerable doubts about this fundamental assumption. We have two central theoretical argumentations for explicating and revising the concept of GFE. The first is based on the social psychological literature regarding differences between ideologies, attitudes, stereotypes and social prejudices. The second arises from one of the basic conceptual ideas of the GFE project, which states that depending on the respective societies different specific groups become targets of devaluation and discrimination. Therefore, we propose a revised version of the GFE syndrome as a two-dimensional concept: an ideology of inequality (generalized attitudes) and social prejudice (specific attitudes). The measurement models are strictly empirically tested using data from the GFE panel (waves 2006, 2008) as well as the representative GFE-surveys (cross-sections 2003, 2011) conducted in Germany. To test for discriminant and external validity, we have also included social dominance orientation (SDO). Additionally, within this framework, the methodological focus of the study is to test for several forms of measurement invariance in the context of higher-order factor models considering the issue of multidimensionality of latent variables. Our empirical results support the idea that GFE is a bi-dimensional concept consisting of an ideology of inequality and social prejudice. Moreover, SDO is demonstrated to be empirically distinct from both dimensions and correlates more strongly with the ideology of inequality in comparison to social prejudice. Additionally, the bi-dimensional GFE conceptualization proves to be at least metric invariant both between and within individuals. The impact of our proposed conceptualization and empirical findings will be discussed in the context of international research on ideologies, attitudes and prejudices. The dealing questions are why different explanatory factors have different effects on prejudicial and ideological attitudes and why there are different forms and manifestations of social prejudice in different societies over time. PubDate: 2022-04-28T00:00:00Z
Authors:Zining Wang, Jing Xu Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic was accompanied by an infodemic, which has now become a global concern. Despite the relatively timely and extensive guidelines regarding COVID-19 prevention and treatment, effective and standardized solutions for managing this infodemic are still lacking. In light of the ubiquity of social media in China, various algorithms have been applied to new media platforms to help combat COVID-19, particularly, misinformation and disinformation. Inspired by the model of ‘blocking the spread of the virus, treating the infected population, and improving immunity’ for the prevention and control of the COVID-19 pandemic, this study examines three dominant forms of algorithms—collaborative filtering recommendation, content-based recommendation, and knowledge-based recommendation—and proposes a theoretical model called Block, Push, and Intervene (BPI). This model calls for the timely blocking of misinformation and disinformation, precisely delivering authentic information to people affected by the infodemic and intervening in some potential issues in advance. Based on the BPI framework, we conducted semi-structured interviews with relevant staffs in charge of Bytedance, Tencent, Sina Weibo, Baidu, and The National Internet Information Office's Center for Reporting Illegal and Adverse Information, to summarize the patterns of algorithms used against the infodemic. Additionally, an online panel survey is used to analyze public perceptions of the severity of the infodemic on each platform. By evaluating the cross-validated results of the survey sample and semi-structured interviews on the role of algorithms against infodemic, this study contributes both to the understanding of the working details and practices surrounding information epidemics in the context of China, as well as to the systematic research on the unique use of information technology in the midst of public health crises. PubDate: 2022-04-28T00:00:00Z
Authors:Adam S. Green Abstract: The archaeology of collective action addresses a widespread myth about the past–that premodern societies were despotic, and only produced public goods when everyday people convinced a separate and distinct ruling class to provide them. Archaeological evidence from the Indus civilization (~2600–1900 BC), home to the first cities in South Asia, reveals that Indus cities engaged in a remarkably egalitarian form of governance to coordinate different social groups, mobilize labor, and engage in collective action, thus producing a wide range of public goods. These public goods included, but were not limited to, water infrastructure, large public buildings, and urban planning–all of which helped Indus cities invent new technologies, grow, and thrive. Many intersecting institutions contributed to Indus governance, including civic bureaucracies that gathered the revenue necessary to mobilize labor in pursuit of collective aims, as well as guild-like organizations that coordinated the activities of numerous everyday communities and ensured the equitable distribution of information within Indus cities. A wide range of large and small public buildings, information technologies, and protocols for standardized craft production and construction attest to this egalitarian governance. Through these institutions, Indus governance incorporated the “voice” of everyday people, a feature of what Blanton and colleagues have described as good governance in the past, in absence of an elite class who could be meaningfully conceptualized as rulers. PubDate: 2022-04-27T00:00:00Z
Authors:Daniele Conversi, Lorenzo Posocco Abstract: This article poses, and attempts to answer, two correlated questions: (1) Is nationalism, the dominant ideology in our world of nation-states, compatible with the struggle to halt or minimize climate change and related environmental catastrophes' and (2) Which form(s) of government, whether or not informed by nationalist ideology, could better address the most serious threat to human life that currently appears on the horizon' This article puts forward the claim that while the former question has only recently begun to be explored in a few essays and articles devoted to analyzing the linkages between nationalism and climate change, the latter remains unexplored. Attempting to fill this gap, we investigate case studies of exemplary nation-states that periodically scored the highest in the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) and the Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI): Scandinavian countries (Norway, Sweden, Denmark), Switzerland, and Germany. Their cities received environmental awards (i.e., the European Green Capital Award) and registered the highest levels in terms of citizen satisfaction. The goal is to identify factors and (pre)conditions that make forms of “green nationalism” possible. PubDate: 2022-04-27T00:00:00Z
Authors:Anslem Wongibeh Adunimay, Tinuade A. Ojo Abstract: The full impact of COVID-19 is yet to be fully understood, and while there are many unknowns, the rapid and continued reliance on the social media cannot be denied. Some Global Economy and World Health Organisations have discouraged the usage of traditional medicine for COVID-19 treatment. However, some African states such as Tanzania, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea Conakry, and Togo have engaged with formal researchers to see if traditional medicine can treat COVID-19. Nevertheless, there is still a lot of hesitancy amongst African populations in getting vaccinated. The paper conceptualises the criticism of Western-centric medicine and investigates the promotion of alternate approaches in the African economy. The article situates the study context by exploring the African economy's socio-politics and public health governance. It investigates explicitly African states responses to conventional treatment by analysing the role of traditional medicine and its efficacy as well as the possible effects on the continent. The methodological framework engaged a review approach relying heavily on reputable secondary sources from government publications, journal articles, books and publications from professional bodies and institutional search engines. The data was analysed in themes supporting the study aim's and objectives. The paper concludes that Africa could consolidate the readily available knowledge and give opportunities to traditional medical therapies that are cheap, convenient and safe for public health, especially for COVID-19 supposedly cure. PubDate: 2022-04-27T00:00:00Z
Authors:Brett Edwards, Tatyana Novossiolova, Michael Crowley, Simon Whitby, Malcolm Dando, Lijun Shang Abstract: In this report, we identify some of the key technical and political challenges currently facing the broader Chemical and Biological Weapon (CBW) regime- with a particular emphasis on major forthcoming diplomatic meetings. Most significantly the Ninth Review Conference of the Biological and Toxins Weapons Convention (1972) (BTWC) which will take place in 2022 and preparations for the Fifth Review Conference of the Chemical Weapons Convention (1993) (CWC), expected in 2023. This report is an output of an ongoing project, designed to stimulate thinking and discussion about these issues, within relevant stakeholder communities. The report provides an introduction to this issue area for the general reader before surveying key issues and developing a series of practical policy suggestions for further consideration. PubDate: 2022-04-26T00:00:00Z
Authors:Zuoning Chen, Chang Liu, Yingchen Ma, Ye Zhang, Ying Fang Abstract: Open science provides a bright light for global engineering and technology cooperation and promoting global sustainable development. The International Knowledge Centre for Engineering Sciences and Technology (IKCEST), a category II center under the auspices of UNESCO based in Beijing, aims at providing knowledge-based services at a global scale for policy-makers and engineering science and technology professionals in the world, with particular reference to the developing countries. IKCEST has established a platform with data resources and knowledge services at the core, which includes one general platform and several sub-platforms in its prioritized areas such as the disaster risk reduction (DRR), the intelligent city (ICITY), the engineering education (ENGEDU) and the silk road sciences and technology (SRST). Since the platform was put into operation, it has launched 38 knowledge applications (APPs), serving 3.26 million users from 220 countries and regions worldwide, and offered training for more than 18,000 persons from developing countries. In face of the pandemic, IKCEST set up a COVID-19 column which received positive feedback from users across the globe, the introductory video of which was publicized on the UNESCO official website. As a knowledge hub supporting global sustainable development goals (SDGs) and an open platform for global engineering initiatives, IKCEST will spare no efforts to make greater contributions to providing more tailored and valuable knowledge-based services for global users. PubDate: 2022-04-25T00:00:00Z
Authors:Julianne Piper, Benoît Gomis, Kelley Lee Abstract: The limited and coordinated use of travel measures to control the international spread of disease, based on scientific evidence and respect for human rights, are core tenets of the World Health Organization's (WHO) International Health Regulations (IHR). Yet, during the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been near universal and largely uncoordinated use of travel measures by national governments, characterized by wide variation in what measures have been used, when and how they have been applied, and whom they have been applicable to. Given the significant social and economic impacts caused by travel measures, analyses to date have sought to understand the effectiveness of specific measures, in reducing importation and onward spread of SARS-CoV-2, or needed efforts to strengthen compliance with the IHR. There has been limited study of the role of national-level policy making to explain these widely varying practices. Applying path dependency theory to Canadian policies on travel measures, this paper analyses the interaction between science and politics during four key periods of the pandemic response. Bringing together systematic reviews of the scientific literature with parliamentary records, we argue that the evidentiary gap on travel measures during the initial pandemic wave was filled by political and economic influences that shaped when, how and for whom testing and quarantine measures for travelers were applied. These influences then created a degree of path dependency that limited the capacity of government officials to change policy during subsequent waves of the pandemic. This was accompanied by frequent government claims of reliance on science and evidence but limited transparency about what and how scientific evidence informed policy decisions. We argue that, over time, this further politicized the issue of travel measures and undermined public trust. We conclude that fuller understanding of the interaction between science and politics in national decision-making about border management during the COVID-19 pandemic is essential to future efforts to strengthen international coordination under the IHR. PubDate: 2022-04-19T00:00:00Z
Authors:Verenice Y. Heredia Espinoza Abstract: Cross-cultural research on ancient societies demonstrates that collective social formations tend to experience a more sudden collapse with relatively catastrophic effects compared to formations low in collectivity. The demise of collective formations often involves more pronounced social unrest and a more complete disintegration of the agrarian and sociopolitical systems. This article further probes this general finding using the case of Teuchitlán, in the Tequila region of Jalisco, Mexico, which lasted for ~700 years, from 350 B.C.E. to about 450/500 C.E., when it suddenly disappeared. It was characterized by power-sharing among multiple groups whose leaders employed varied political strategies. Structurally, Teuchitlán aligns with some of the precepts of collective action and good government, as it was inwardly focused and placed great emphasis on the joint production of the polity's resources, especially agriculture, as well as the equitable distribution of benefits, such as community feasting and ritual, and some form of political participation or voice (e.g., power-sharing). Scholars working in the area have invoked various environmental factors, demographic movements, natural disasters, the collapse of central places, and a breakdown in trade connections, among others, as causes of Teuchitlán's disintegration—and the answer may indeed lie in a combination of these phenomena. This article explores the major shifts in the institutions that comprised Teuchitlán, thereby presenting an alternative view of its nature and disappearance. Settlement patterns, architectural differences, ceramic decoration and vessel forms, and lithic technology from the period following Teuchitlán's collapse suggest major changes in ideology, economy, and politics. The placement of large centers along trade routes, coupled with increased control of interregional exchange, indicates a shift toward direct, discretionary control of polity revenues by political leaders with little benefit for the populace. As part of these changes, the human landscape became more ruralized. Teuchitlán is comparable to other well-known cases in the world where more collective forms of political organization met a similar fate, such as Chaco Canyon (Southwest USA), Jenne-jeno (Mali), and the Indus Civilization. PubDate: 2022-04-19T00:00:00Z
Authors:Claire Bloquet, Isabelle Borucki, Benjamin Höhne Abstract: The digitalization of human life has impacted many aspects of politics in the last two decades. Intra-party decision-making is one of them. While new political parties appear to be rather native digital organizations, established parties are increasingly beginning to incorporate online tools into their internal processes. However, not much is known about how intra-party selectorates evaluate the digitalization of a crucial decision-making process. This study asks whether party members who participate in candidate selection support online consultations—or not. Using an original large-N dataset on the preferences of party members attending candidate selection assemblies for the German Bundestag, we determine variables that increase or decrease the likelihood to support the introduction of online consultations as part of intra-party democracy. Our results show that attitudes toward digitalization do not depend on a generational or a partisan factor, as might have been expected. Instead, we highlight that digitalization support is first and foremost related to, on the one hand, the seniority in the party, and, on the other, on one's preferences toward inclusion. We relate these findings to the distribution of powers and incentives within the party and discuss both the implications of these results and what they might mean for established parties trying to reform. PubDate: 2022-04-13T00:00:00Z
Authors:Marike Bormann Abstract: Incivility in public online discussions has received much scholarly attention in recent years. Still, there is controversy regarding what exactly constitutes incivility and hardly any study has examined in depth what different participants of online discussions perceive as uncivil. Building on a new theoretical approach to incivility as a violation of communication norms, this study aims to close this research gap: In five heterogenous focus groups, different types of actors in online discussions, namely community managers, users, and members of online activist groups, discussed what they perceive as norm-violating and how these violations differ in terms of severity. Results suggest that incivility is a multidimensional construct and that the severity of different norm violations varies significantly. Although the actors share a relatively large common ground as to what they perceive as uncivil, several role-specific perceptions and individual evaluation criteria become apparent. Based on the results, a differentiated typology of perceived incivility in public online discussions is developed. PubDate: 2022-04-11T00:00:00Z
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