Search

While the literature highlights the relevance of informal rules for candidate selection, empirical research has mainly focused on formal rules and procedures. This article contributes to our understanding by investigating how the informal rules employed by political parties impact on intra-party competition. Using the example of district nominations in Germany, and based on a longitudinal mixed methods design, the inductive analysis reveals five central informal rules: the Incumbency Rule, the Information Rule, the House Power Rule, Fairness Rules and Power-sharing Rules. These rules shape the expectations and behavior of those involved in candidate selection and have a significant impact on various aspects of intra-party competition. They decrease the number of aspirants, reduce intra-party conflict and emphasize the role of local party leaders in organizing and controlling intra-party competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the German Longitudinal Election Study (2016), we explain citizens' support for measures to increase women's descriptive representation in parliament. Despite women's underrepresentation, we find little support for positive action measures, and in particular for legal gender quotas. Binary logit analyses show that support for the introduction of positive action measures is not affected by citizens' perceptions about the share of female members of parliament. However, experimental data reveal that receiving information about women's actual proportion in parliament has an impact on citizens' support for gender quotas, in particular among those who overestimate women's representation. Once they learn that the actual share is lower than they thought, they are more likely to support the introduction of quotas. This indicates that support for positive action measures can be changed through providing the correct information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the public and scientific debate about the state of unification has regained considerable momentum. The debate stresses in particular the persistent, returning, and even deepened East-West differences which refer to central elements and promises of representative democracy. However, it is a controversial and so far unanswered question whether and in which way this poses a challenge to the legitimacy and functioning of representative democracy in Germany. Therefore, this Special Issue focuses on the representative democracy by concentrating on its central dimensions, actors, and institutions (citizens, political parties and parliaments, and elites). The introduction outlines the three key questions which are addressed by the contributors regarding (1) to the status of unification in longitudinal and in cross-sectional perspective, (2) the causes and determinants for ongoing differences and divides between East and West, and (3) the implications for representative democracy in Germany. Moreover, it summarises the results of the contributions and discusses research desiterata for future research on the state of unification and representative democracy in Germany. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 sceptics view the virus as harmless (i.e., not worse than a casual flu). While political orientation appears to play a crucial role in developing these sceptical positions, previous research showed inconsistent findings on the relationship between COVID-19 related beliefs and ideological orientation: Whereas various studies find close ties between far-right attitudes and COVID-19 related beliefs, other research suggests that sceptical views are linked to extremism on both ends of the ideological spectrum. We contribute to this debate by investigating the underlying ideological foundations of COVID-19 scepticism on a more fine-grained conceptualisation and measurement of ideological orientation and by focusing on a case with a prevalence of support for parties at both ideological fringes. Using data from a representative survey conducted in the East German region of Thuringia in autumn 2020, we show a strong significant link between far-right political attitudes and COVID-19 scepticism, as well as a weaker link between extremism on both sides of the ideological spectrum and scepticism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While populism and technocracy have attracted enormous scientific attention in recent years, surprisingly how the two concepts relate to each other has rarely been investigated. Looking at the case of the EU, we investigate how populist parties position themselves in relation to technocracy in general and the technocratic nature of EU institutions in particular. In a first theoretical step, we identify the core elements, modes of governance, and policy output of technocratic governance and use them to derive potential responses of populist parties. In the empirical part, we investigate these aspects of technocracy by applying quantitative and qualitative approaches using the 2019 European election manifestos of 12 populist parties. We show that left- and right-wing populist parties articulate anti-technocratic positions, particularly regarding the core elements of technocratic governance. The concrete technocratic critique differs regarding the respective host ideology. However, within the group of hybrid populist parties, ANO 2011 and GERB appear not to have a critical stance towards technocracy and thus can be classified as technocratic populist parties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our study examines the extent to which parliamentary candidates believe that membership of a certain social group allows Members of Parliament (MPs) to more effectively represent that group. Using the 2009 German Candidate Survey, we look at four social groups: women, immigrants, religious people and East Germans. The descriptive results indicate that support for group representation is highest for women and lowest for East Germans. The explanatory analyses reveal that women are more likely than men to believe that women are better at representing the interests of women. The same holds for immigrants, religious people, and East Germans. Candidates’ belief that MPs from a certain social group are better at representing that group tends to be limited to their own social group. Our results thus indicate that the belief that one should belong to a social group in order to effectively represent the interests of that group is mainly based on identity, rather than an overall belief in the link between descriptive and substantive representation. They also show that attitudes towards representation change significantly as a result of parliamentary socialisation, with candidates with parliamentary experience being significantly less likely to support the idea of group representation compared with those without such experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Very little attention has been paid to the political impact of directly-elected mayors. This paper sheds light on the topic by comparing the English case with that of North Rhine-Westphalia. Both demonstrate that parties continue to monopolize their local political systems and most aspects of mayoral office; nevertheless, some de-party-politicization is noted. There is much to learn about the English case from observation of the mayoral model in North Rhine-Westphalia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]