Christof Wolf
Harald Schoen, Sigrid Roßteutscher, Rüdiger Schmitt-Beck, and Bernhard Weßels (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- November 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198792130
- eISBN:
- 9780191834295
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198792130.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
This book investigates the role of context in affecting political opinion formation and voting behavior. Building on a model of contextual effects on individual-level voter behavior, the chapters of ...
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This book investigates the role of context in affecting political opinion formation and voting behavior. Building on a model of contextual effects on individual-level voter behavior, the chapters of this volume explore contextual effects in Germany in the early twenty-first century. The contributions draw on manifold combinations of individual and contextual information gathered in the German Longitudinal Election Study (GLES) framework and employ advanced methods. In substantive terms, they investigate the impact of campaign communication on political learning, the effects of media coverage on the perceived importance of political problems, and the role of electoral competition on candidate strategies and perceptions. Other contributions deal with the role of social and economic contexts as well as parties’ policy stances in affecting electoral turnout. The chapters on vote choice explore the impact of social cues on candidate voting, effects of electoral arenas on vote functions, the role of media coverage on ideological voting, and effects of campaign communication on the timing of electoral decision-making. The volume demonstrates the key role of the processes of communication and politicization in bringing about contextual effects. Context thus plays a nuanced role in voting behavior. The contingency of contextual effects suggests that they should become an important topic in research on political behavior and democratic politics.Less
This book investigates the role of context in affecting political opinion formation and voting behavior. Building on a model of contextual effects on individual-level voter behavior, the chapters of this volume explore contextual effects in Germany in the early twenty-first century. The contributions draw on manifold combinations of individual and contextual information gathered in the German Longitudinal Election Study (GLES) framework and employ advanced methods. In substantive terms, they investigate the impact of campaign communication on political learning, the effects of media coverage on the perceived importance of political problems, and the role of electoral competition on candidate strategies and perceptions. Other contributions deal with the role of social and economic contexts as well as parties’ policy stances in affecting electoral turnout. The chapters on vote choice explore the impact of social cues on candidate voting, effects of electoral arenas on vote functions, the role of media coverage on ideological voting, and effects of campaign communication on the timing of electoral decision-making. The volume demonstrates the key role of the processes of communication and politicization in bringing about contextual effects. Context thus plays a nuanced role in voting behavior. The contingency of contextual effects suggests that they should become an important topic in research on political behavior and democratic politics.
Michael Koß
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- December 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198766919
- eISBN:
- 9780191821158
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198766919.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
This book sheds light on the institutional development of four (emerging) Western European parliaments. Parliaments in Western Europe are noteworthy for several reasons. Their institutional designs ...
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This book sheds light on the institutional development of four (emerging) Western European parliaments. Parliaments in Western Europe are noteworthy for several reasons. Their institutional designs differ remarkably, with distinct consequences for their policy output. Scholars have diagnosed the decline of legislatures for over a century now. Based on a model of distributive bargaining over legislative procedures, this book engages in a comparative process-tracing analysis of ninety reforms, which restructured control over the plenary agenda and committee power in Britain, France, Sweden, and Germany between 1866 and 2015. The analysis presented suggests that legislators in Western Europe rationalize procedures as a response to growing levels of legislative workload. As a consequence, legislatures evolve towards one of two procedural ideal types: talking or working legislatures. In talking legislatures, governments enjoy privileges in legislative agenda-setting (resulting in centralized agenda control) and committees are weak. In contrast, working legislatures combine decentralized agenda control with powerful committees. Which path legislators chose is determined by the appearance of anti-system obstruction. If anti-system parties obstruct legislative business, legislators surrender ancient procedural privileges and agree to a centralization of agenda control. Otherwise, their demand for legislative mega-seats on committees triggers the evolution of working legislatures. If legislators fail to respond to an anti-system threat, legislative procedures break down. For this reason, the central aim of procedural reforms in Western European parliaments is to maintain legislative democracy. Rather than a decline of legislatures, for talking legislatures to successfully overcome an anti-system threat indicates the resilience of legislative democracy.Less
This book sheds light on the institutional development of four (emerging) Western European parliaments. Parliaments in Western Europe are noteworthy for several reasons. Their institutional designs differ remarkably, with distinct consequences for their policy output. Scholars have diagnosed the decline of legislatures for over a century now. Based on a model of distributive bargaining over legislative procedures, this book engages in a comparative process-tracing analysis of ninety reforms, which restructured control over the plenary agenda and committee power in Britain, France, Sweden, and Germany between 1866 and 2015. The analysis presented suggests that legislators in Western Europe rationalize procedures as a response to growing levels of legislative workload. As a consequence, legislatures evolve towards one of two procedural ideal types: talking or working legislatures. In talking legislatures, governments enjoy privileges in legislative agenda-setting (resulting in centralized agenda control) and committees are weak. In contrast, working legislatures combine decentralized agenda control with powerful committees. Which path legislators chose is determined by the appearance of anti-system obstruction. If anti-system parties obstruct legislative business, legislators surrender ancient procedural privileges and agree to a centralization of agenda control. Otherwise, their demand for legislative mega-seats on committees triggers the evolution of working legislatures. If legislators fail to respond to an anti-system threat, legislative procedures break down. For this reason, the central aim of procedural reforms in Western European parliaments is to maintain legislative democracy. Rather than a decline of legislatures, for talking legislatures to successfully overcome an anti-system threat indicates the resilience of legislative democracy.
Jie Lu
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199378746
- eISBN:
- 9780199378760
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199378746.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics, Comparative Politics
This chapter shows how outward migration has transformed the close-knit social environment and eroded the social foundations for the performance of indigenous relation-based institutions in some ...
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This chapter shows how outward migration has transformed the close-knit social environment and eroded the social foundations for the performance of indigenous relation-based institutions in some Chinese villages. Outward migration induces changes in villagers’ information environment, their responses to possible social sanctions, and perceptions of public authority as well as normative orientations toward collective interests, long-term relationships, and conflict avoidance. Such changes are systematically examined by the use of discrete choice models that combine the 2008 Asian Barometer Survey Mainland China Survey and the 2008 National Village Survey. A case study on changes in the social environment of a village since the People’s Commune era is presented. This case study offers some qualitative and longitudinal evidence of how the social foundations for the effective performance of indigenous relation-based institutions in the village have gradually eroded due to the transformation in the village’s community structure driven by increasing outward migration.Less
This chapter shows how outward migration has transformed the close-knit social environment and eroded the social foundations for the performance of indigenous relation-based institutions in some Chinese villages. Outward migration induces changes in villagers’ information environment, their responses to possible social sanctions, and perceptions of public authority as well as normative orientations toward collective interests, long-term relationships, and conflict avoidance. Such changes are systematically examined by the use of discrete choice models that combine the 2008 Asian Barometer Survey Mainland China Survey and the 2008 National Village Survey. A case study on changes in the social environment of a village since the People’s Commune era is presented. This case study offers some qualitative and longitudinal evidence of how the social foundations for the effective performance of indigenous relation-based institutions in the village have gradually eroded due to the transformation in the village’s community structure driven by increasing outward migration.
