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The proliferation of conspiracy theories poses a significant threat to democratic decision-making. To counter this threat, many political theorists advocate countering conspiracy theories with 'more speech' (or 'counterspeech'). Yet conspiracy theories are notoriously resistant to counterspeech. This article aims to conceptualise and defend a novel form of counterspeech – narrative counterspeech – that is singularly well-placed to overcome this resistance. My argument proceeds in three steps. First, I argue that conspiracy theories pose a special problem for counterspeech for three interconnected reasons relating to salience, emotion and internal coherence. Drawing on recent work in social epistemology, philosophy of emotion and cognitive science, I then demonstrate that narrative forms of counterspeech constitute an apt response to this diagnosis. Finally, I forestall two objections: the first questions the likely effectiveness of narrative counterspeech; the second insists that, even if it were effective, it would remain unacceptably manipulative. Neither objection, I contend, is ultimately compelling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the concept of "AI governance" is frequently used in the debate, it is still rather undertheorized. Often it seems to refer to the mechanisms and structures needed to avoid "bad" outcomes and achieve "good" outcomes with regard to the ethical problems artificial intelligence is thought to actualize. In this article we argue that, although this outcome-focused view captures one important aspect of "good governance," its emphasis on effects runs the risk of overlooking important procedural aspects of good AI governance. One of the most important properties of good AI governance is political legitimacy. Starting out from the assumptions that AI governance should be seen as global in scope and that political legitimacy requires at least a democratic minimum, this article has a twofold aim: to develop a theoretical framework for theorizing the political legitimacy of global AI governance, and to demonstrate how it can be used as a compass for critially assessing the legitimacy of actual instances of global AI governance. Elaborating on a distinction between "governance by AI" and "governance of AI" in relation to different kinds of authority and different kinds of decision-making leads us to the conclusions that much of the existing global AI governance lacks important properties necessary for political legitimacy, and that political legitimacy would be negatively impacted if we handed over certain forms of decision-making to artificial intelligence systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes a simple but powerful framework to measure political sophistication based on open-ended survey responses. Discursive sophistication uses automated text analysis methods to capture the complexity of individual attitude expression. I validate the approach by comparing it to conventional political knowledge metrics using different batteries of open-ended items across five surveys spanning four languages (total $ N\approx 35,000 $). The new measure casts doubt on the oft-cited gender gap in political knowledge: women might know fewer facts about institutions and elites, but they do not differ substantively in the sophistication of their expressed political attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The integration of AI technology into resort-to-force decision making would give machines influence over decisions determining the life or death of countless people. Despite this prospective impact on entire societies, many AI developers have only a rudimentary ethical understanding of their AI. Moreover, if AI development is ethically unreflective, minor flaws can spiral into harmful machine-made decisions. So how can we ensure responsible military AI development, especially in the context of AI-supported decision making on the resort to force? We argue that harmful 'path dependencies' of AI systems can only be avoided by providing developers with clear training on ethical and developmental issues arising during the AI lifecycle. Based on lessons from applied human systems exploration, we introduce an educational regime: '10 pillars of responsible AI development.' Each pillar is broken down into detailed questions, helping developers reflect on their decisions throughout the AI lifecycle. This article is thereby situated between political science, normative theory, and computer science and contributes to this collection's treatment of the risks of integrating AI technology into resort-to-force decision making by focusing on the AI development process itself, particularly on the role of developers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the relation between education, voting and representation, and, in particular, the argument that more highly educated people should have more votes, as they should be better at judging important political decisions. In the past this issue attracted the attention of great thinkers such as Plato, Aristotle, Newman and Mill. In the UK there is also a practical precedent, rarely recalled today, where for centuries university graduates had their own representatives in Parliament. There are also some interesting contemporary arguments on the topic put forward in favour of an epistocracy (as some call it) by social scientists, but not educators. It seems that most educators would not now dare to suggest that the more highly educated might be given more votes, largely on the grounds of equity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I describe and analyze a model of strategic communication and deliberation in decentralized decision‐making settings. I show that, in a cheap‐talk environment, inclusion and exclusion of agents can affect the credibility of messaging between agents and, accordingly, the quality of policy decisions and overall social welfare. Somewhat surprisingly, the inclusion of agents can aid information aggregation and social welfare even when the added agents do not themselves communicate truthfully. Analogously, the results suggest an informational, social welfare–based rationale for excluding agents not only from observing policy‐relevant deliberation but also from observing the product of the communication precisely because the excluded agents possess decision‐making authority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Elections, jury deliberations, lawmaking, high‐stakes negotiations and related activities are human attempts to answer the question "How should we live?" Collectively, we know these activities as politics. Politics are how societies attempt to reconcile diverse individual needs with potential benefits of social coordination. People's beliefs about what others will do ainfluence many political strategies and outcomes. This article reviews how properties of cognition affect these political phenomena. Contrary to the common belief that many citizens are too ignorant to make competent political decisions, we focus on a central finding of social science—how societies can design contexts and environments to overcome individual cognitive limitations. These adaptations expand societal capacities to provide essential goods, services, and protections. In addition to explaining these adaptations, we also show how greater collaborations between cognitive science and the social sciences can help societies do even better. This article reviews roles of cognition in political decision making. Contrary to the common belief that many people are too ignorant to make complex political decisions, a central finding of social science clarifies how societies can design contexts to help voters, jurors and legislators overcome cognitive limitations. These designs empower individuals and expand societal capacities to provide important goods and services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, many normative theories of democracy have taken an epistemic turn. Rather than focus on democracy's morally desirable features, they argue that democracy is valuable (at least in part) because it tends to produce correct political decisions. I argue that these theories place epistemic demands on citizens that conflict with core democratic commitments. First, I discuss a well-known challenge to epistemic arguments for democracy that I call the 'deference problem'. I then argue that framing debates about this deference problem in terms of work on epistemic defeat reveals a structurally similar but more serious challenge for epistemic arguments for democracy. Succinctly put, the problem is that if democracy tends to produce correct political decisions, then those in the minority might be required to suspend beliefs about political matters; however, this requirement conflicts with the pivotal democratic principle of self-government. Call this the 'suspension problem'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Institutional configurations in multilevel states create tensions in political decision-making processes resulting from constitutional decisions. Often, these decisions affect party competition, e.g., a member of the parliament (MP) may be legally bound to represent the constituency or the entire territory yet be elected regionally. In these settings parties place their members in additional positions thereby gaining advantage. Does former experience as a regional MP increase the probability of becoming a national MP? We expect that MP candidates from regional constituencies are more likely to have legislative experience in the regional assembly. We test our expectations with novel data from Portugal and demonstrate that candidates who were regional MPs are more likely to be in eligible positions and to take office. Conversely, former regional government members (elected officials) have a negative likelihood of becoming a national MP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has hit many regions, including the Eastern Mediterranean. It has profoundly affected Cypriot communities and caused political, economic, and social consequences. The profile article aims to investigate the relationship between the pandemic threat on the island and decisions made by the Greek and Turkish Cypriot administrations. What aspects and to what extent has the pandemic affected relations between the two Cypriot communities? How have these changes influenced the bilateral dialogue and political decisions made by the Greek and Turkish Cypriot administrations? Is the pandemic conducive to developing cooperation, or does it extend existing divisions? The profile article argues a relationship between the emergence of the pandemic and the re-isolation of both Cypriot communities, which is one of its consequences, and the initiatives to resolve the Cypriot conflict by sanctioning the existence of two independent states. Such a change is noticeable, especially in the Turkish Cypriots, owing to the presidential election, the government crisis, and interference by Turkish authorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"The Force of Nonviolence: An Ethico-Political Bind" by Judith Butler explores the concept of interdependency and vulnerability in the era of the Anthropocene. The book emphasizes the ethical reflection that should inform political decisions and actions, promoting equality and recognizing the vulnerabilities and desires for revenge in others. Butler does not provide specific solutions but highlights the importance of understanding and negotiating our dependency on others. The ultimate goal is to establish an egalitarian imaginary that extends the equal claim to a livable life to all, transcending divisions and embracing ambivalence. The text also discusses the psychological and moral complexities of vulnerability, self-protection, and hatred, and suggests that the force of nonviolence lies in the desire for the other's desire to live. The author concludes by urging readers to have faith in hope and to work towards a future that values life and promotes collective well-being. [Extracted from the article]

"Future generations" play a key role in current political debates. In the context of the climate crisis especially, political controversies are often framed as moral problems of "intergenerational justice." This article aims to historicize the use of the concept of "future generations" in modern political discourse and to uncover its long—and often ambivalent—history. Its main argument is that talking about "future generations" was part of an attempt to integrate (distant) futures into the political discourse of the time. The first part of the article outlines a theoretical perspective on the relationship between generations and temporalities. The second part focuses on how anticipating "future generations" became an important part of the history of utopian thinking and political planning in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, especially in the realm of demographic and economic discussions. The third part analyzes the emergence of "future ethics" and "intergenerational justice" as important political discourses in the 1970s. This part refers both to the academic debates about "future generations" and to the way political decision‐makers used the concept to legitimize their policies. The article argues that the concept of "future generations" should not be taken as an ethical principle that transcended the political debates of the present. Rather, it was itself the result of intense political controversies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge-brokering organisations (KBOs) have multiplied in the evidence–policy landscape worldwide, changing how decision-makers are accessing evidence. Yet, we still know little about their emergence and roles. This research helps to understand KBOs and their place in evidence-based policymaking by highlighting the varied work that they do, the relationships they cultivate with policymakers, the complex knowledge-brokering processes they negotiate, and how they establish their credibility in different ways. We build on boundary organisation theory and the concept of policy entrepreneur (PE) (drawn from the multiple streams analysis) to develop a better understanding of KBOs who play multiple roles. By using the PE concept, we bring a greater focus on the politics of brokering. This duality involves them in seeking to provide 'objective' evidence while simultaneously determining what counts as evidence for policy and making recommendations for political decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How much do citizens support artificial intelligence (AI) in government and politics at different levels of decision‐making authority and to what extent is this AI support associated with citizens' conceptions of democracy? Using original survey data from Germany, the analysis shows that people are overall sceptical toward using AI in the political realm. The findings suggest that how much citizens endorse democracy as liberal democracy as opposed to several of its disfigurations matters for AI support, but only in high‐level politics. While a stronger commitment to liberal democracy is linked to lower support for AI, the findings contradict the idea that a technocratic notion of democracy lies behind greater acceptance of political AI uses. Acceptance is higher only among those holding reductionist conceptions of democracy which embody the idea that whatever works to accommodate people's views and preferences is fine. Populists, in turn, appear to be against AI in political decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Managing scarce water resources has been central to the Murray–Darling Basin (MDB) regional development story. The article puts water into a broader context of key drivers in development in the MDB. In addition to water markets and water policy, key issues include climate change, the changing relative resilience and viability of urban centres, the role of government, the impact of technological change, underlying exogenously set commodity prices and exchange rates. All these factors have had a significant impact on development, some with little discussion but others, such as water, have been contested and bitterly fought over. The article also examines these drivers and how they might affect future development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many governments in semi-democratic regimes have adopted participatory democratic institutions to promote development and accountability. But limited resources, weak civil society, and a history of authoritarian politics make building subnational democratic institutions daunting. Do participatory institutions expand accountability in these environments? We address this question by evaluating citizen decision-making in Kenya's local participatory processes. We first administered a survey experiment surrounding citizens' development policy preferences to 9,928 respondents in four Kenyan counties. We then nest this survey experiment in participant observation and over 80 elite interviews. Our conclusions are mixed: respondents readily change their policy preferences to align with the government's policy actions, which suggests limited prospects for accountability. However, respondents use participatory budgeting venues to question government officials about missing projects, which provides a potential foundation for accountability. Yet, uncompetitive local elections, the absence of independent civil society's participation, and new program rules are likely to limit democratic accountability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous work suggests that observing women officeholders increases women's political ambition. Yet, jumps in women's representation in the United States' "Years of the Woman"—following the Anita Hill testimonies and the election of Donald Trump—are linked to women's exclusion from political decision-making. Drawing on focus groups with prospective women candidates, we theorize that exclusion when combined with a gendered policy threat increases women's political ambition. Using survey experiments replicated across different samples, we show that women who read about an all-male city council poised to legislate on women's rights report increased ambition compared with their pretreatment ambition levels and to women in other treatment groups. Women's increased sense of political efficacy drives these results. When women's rights are not under discussion, men's overrepresentation does not move (or even depresses) women's ambition. Seeing the policy consequences of their exclusion causes some women to seek a seat at the table. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why do political campaigns so often fail to persuade voters, and what does this say about voter decision making? Some interpret the difficulty of persuading voters as evidence that voters remain loyal to their parties even when confronted with new information. However, an informational (quasi‐Bayesian) mechanism may also contribute. We test empirical implications of these alternatives with four survey experiments (total n = 113,742) conducted during the 2020 presidential election that exposed individuals to 291 messages. Our results support the quasi‐Bayesian interpretation: We show that voters are more persuadable with information about candidates they know less about; that persuasive messages change both candidate evaluations and vote choices, and induce partisan defection; and that messages with more informational content are more persuasive. These results suggest voters' reaction to information in a manner consistent with Bayesian updating, and not only partisan loyalty, can help explain variation in and the small size of campaign effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rights, dignity and capability of women cannot be ignored if the future of the generation yet unborn is to be sustained. Nigeria as a country has in the past decades relegated women in all facets of decision making including political and social life because the society subjected them under the leadership and authority of the male counterpart. Given the realization of the potential of women in this dispensation, all the effort to address this disparity has not achieved desired result because women are still not well represented in the labour force, politics and decision making. They are over-burden by unpaid services especially house chores and nursing which provided them little or no opportunity to participate actively in the society. It is against this background that this study examines the relationship between gender equality and sustainable education. It specifically investigates the effect of graduate turn-out on sustainable education and examines the effect government educational financing on sustainable education in Nigeria. The study follows descriptive research design and secondary data from World Bank Development Index (WDI) over the period of 2000 to 2017 was used in the analysis. Descriptive analysis and empirical analysis using regression analysis were conducted. The result of FMOLS regression showed that gender equality and government educational financing exert a significant negative effect on sustainable education in Nigeria, while income inequality does not showed a significant effect on sustainable education in Nigeria. The study submitted that gender equality have a significant negative effect on sustainable education in Nigeria. Among others, the need to redesign the educational system from elementary level in its entire curriculum planning to incorporate the agenda of sustainable education was recommended. The objectives, teaching and instruction methods, text books' content and evaluation, should be redirected towards sustainability with emphasis on its social and environmental aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This publication examines the history of Project Orion and NERVA nuclear engine program within the Integrated Program Plan, the technical reasons for their study, their progress, and the political reasons for their cancellation. Whether pulsed or thermal, nuclear propulsion offers the best compromise in efficiency and thrust for the propulsion of future manned missions. Project Orion was born in the mind of Stanislaw Ulam, an atomic physicist who had worked on the Manhattan project. Despite theoretical performances superior to anything conceivable even with current technologies, and despite the mobilisation of some of the most brilliant physicists of the time (Freeman Dyson), the project was killed by the Treaty banning nuclear weapon tests in the atmosphere, in outer space and under water (Moscow, 5 August 1963). The Integrated Program Plan was Wernher von Braun's proposal to the Space Task Group (STG), chaired by Vice President Spiro Agnew, for the continuation of the Apollo program. This plan envisaged a lunar base in the 1970s, and a first manned mission to Mars in the early 1980s. All of this would have been powered by nuclear-powered orbital shuttles, using NERVA, a nuclear engine tested and operational since 1968. Here again, even though it performed better than anything else in the world, even today, the project failed politically. This retrospective publication therefore aims to answer the following question: How can nuclear space programs of today and tomorrow be protected from the uncertainties of this influence? The study of propulsion systems is very often left to engineers, and political and public relations issues to politicians. However, every technology is the result of a political system, and has a strategic impact, which is a subject for social and political sciences. That's why this paper adopts an original approach crossing social sciences through the historical study of decision-making dynamics, and engineering through the study of the technical characteristics of the projects involved. This publication is based on declassified technical reports, testimonies of the personalities of the time, and a document from the archives of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. History can be the academic bridge between political and technical studies. In a context of resurgence of nuclear propulsion projects throughout the world, such an approach is now necessary both at the historical level and in terms of political decisions making. Indeed, space programs involving nuclear energy are, by nature, at the crossroads of public relations issues very specific to both space and atomic subjects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores constructions of consensus and unity and their potential implications on partisan politics and democratic decision making in parliamentary discourse on the management of the COVID‐19 pandemic in Greece. The analytic corpus consists of transcripts of three debates on COVID‐19 management in the Greek parliament, conducted in the period from April 2020 to October 2021. Analysis using tools and concepts of rhetorical and discursive psychology indicated that consensus was constructed as agreement on hard data, as compliance with health experts, and as national unity, and it was counterposed to partisan politics. Nevertheless, at the same time, appeals to consensus constituted a resource mobilized in the service of partisan politics, as both government and opposition parties appealed to the need of agreement in order to warrant their position and to ward off the position of opponents. The rhetoric of consensus, however, included the seeds of disagreement, since while its necessity was collaboratively accomplished, its parameters and boundaries were challenged. The implications of these findings for democratic governance and political decision making are pinpointed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public attitudes towards immigration and immigrants, captured through social surveys, are widely reported in the media and used to inform political decision making. However, it is important to consider whether public attitudes are being accurately measured. This article uses critical discourse analysis and critical race and post-colonial theories to examine questions in leading social surveys. The article also draws upon interviews with survey managers and methodologists. In many high-quality surveys a 'white' identity is often framed as the norm alongside negative narratives of identity and difference. For example, in one survey question attitudes towards immigrants are asked about alongside attitudes towards alcohol and drug use. The objectivity of the framing and language of many survey questions needs to be reviewed. In the context of evidence of increased levels of racial discrimination, a new discourse is required to more objectively measure and understand public attitudes towards immigration and immigrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political theorists concerned with ways to counteract the oligarchic tendencies of representative government have recently paid more attention to the employment of "class-specific institutions" (CSIs)—that is, political institutions that formally exclude wealthy elites from decision-making power. This article disputes a general objection levelled against the justifiability of CSIs, according to which their democratic credentials are outweighed by their explicit transgression of formal political equality—what I call the political equality objection. I claim that, although CSIs do not satisfy political equality fully, their exclusionary thrust is inter alia justified in virtue of the fact that they unfold against the background of badly ordered, class-divided societies. Parallel to recent arguments in nonideal theory arguing for the priority of the right to resist economic oppression over the protection of private property rights, access to the empowering properties of CSIs should take priority over the full satisfaction of formal political equality. Yet, I also claim that the justification of CSIs depends on their orientation toward overcoming class divisions because, otherwise, we might end up wrongly naturalizing those divisions—a conclusion that needs to be avoided to reply to the political equality objection. The result is, I believe, a convincing egalitarian case for the democratic justifiability of CSIs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines how an important reform of local governance—village democracy—in the world's most populous areas has affected the happiness of residents in rural China. We find that introducing elections per se has no significant impact. In comparison, direct nomination of local leaders by villagers, which is a form of competitive election involving a high degree of public participation in political decision making, leads to higher levels of happiness. Further mechanism analyses show that direct nomination improves the local accountability of elected leaders by boosting the quality and effort of village heads and their governance performance by lowering the tax burden of villagers and vitalizing local public services. Our results highlight the importance of public participation in democracy and the underlying role of local accountability in affecting the subjective well‐beings of citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the great threats to health in the 21st century is the relationship between health and environmental issues, as there is an inevitable relationship between the planet's degradation and health problems. In this sense, health is also seen as a problem of public order, and more precisely of political order, to the extent that such an environmental issue implies public health as a social value that affects the spaces of political decision making; moreover, to the extent that the environmental issue also intersects with the religious issue, namely with the 2030 Agenda in the 21st century. This article intends to think about how such a confluence occurs regarding religion, public health, and the environment, considering how spiritual care provided in the healthcare domain is related to care in the common home (Cf. CITER, Project «Common home and new ways of living interculturally: Public theology and ecology of culture in pandemic times»). In particular, this article intends to analyse such issues in Brazilian and Portuguese contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Partisanship is a driving factor of vote choice; however, the mechanism of influence is nuanced. Political parties operate as social identities that motivate elaboration about a candidate and bias image perceptions. In other words, partisanship influences the way in which individuals process information and form political opinions. This influence stems from the processes of ingroup favoritism and outgroup denigration. The present study employs an experimental design and an identity-motivated elaborative theoretical perspective to analyze the elaborative and perceptual process of determining candidate support. Though both congruent and incongruent partisan social identities influence intentions to vote for a candidate, they do so at different strengths and through different information-processing mechanisms. Specifically, ingroup favoritism is primarily automatic, whereas outgroup denigration is both deliberative and automatic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fake research produces results that are invalid from the start. I take such research to be characterised by three jointly sufficient features. It is severely methodologically defective, and the relevant defects support certain nonepistemic (social, political, economic) interests and objectives, while the relevant objectives typically concern the interference with attempts at political regulation. I deal with two kinds of claimed fake research. One is agnotological ploys in which scientific dissent is created by interested parties from industry or politics in order to support their own partisan goals. Another one is the populist antiscience movement that suspects fake research in the scientific mainstream. I suggest three remedies to reduce or eliminate the impact of fake research: disclosing fallacies, improving the understanding of scientific methods, and distinguishing more clearly between science and politics in political decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent scholarship on women's substantive representation has expanded from its initial focus on gender inequalities in parliaments and now studies (1) various group interests, (2) in different venues, (3) across different contexts and (4) using different methods and approaches. Building on these advances, we present a new comparative measure of women's substantive representation. This 'Substantive Representation Index' combines eight indicators, linked to two key dimensions of women's substantive representation, in one composite quantitative index. As such, we offer a consistent modality that allows scholars to measure women's substantive representation systematically and comparatively across and within democratic countries and over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Realism can mean many things in political theory. This article focuses on "common-sense realism," an approach to decision making under uncertainty characterized by its posture toward risk. Common-sense realist arguments have become popular in recent democratic theory. One prominent example is found in debates over the responsible party institutional model (RPIM). RPIM's main features are two-party competition for full control of government and party organizations that empower officeholders, not activists. Proponents of RPIM defend it in realist terms. They claim that efforts to pursue more ambitious democratic ideals jeopardize goods that RPIM can readily secure. In this article I articulate a realist approach to institutional evaluation that assesses proposals on three dimensions: robustness, feasibility, and stability. Using this approach, I demonstrate that the realist argument for RPIM is weaker than it initially appears. The debate over RPIM is not a debate between realism and idealism but between competing democratic ideals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We conceptualize broad purges, which extend far below top powerholders in authoritarian regimes and operate according to a logic fundamentally different from coup-proofing purges that target rivals to the supreme leader. Broad purges induce risk reduction in decision making because they grossly exacerbate uncertainty and raise the likelihood and cost of political error. Empirically, we analyze political appointment decisions before and during a massive corruption crackdown in China. We estimate purge impact on appointments of prefectural Communist Party secretaries during 2013–17. To signal to Beijing that they are not building factions, party bosses of these officials can be expected to reduce risk by biasing appointments against their own clients, with variation in bias reflecting geographic heterogeneity in purge intensity. We find a large effect of purge intensity on anti-client bias during this broad purge but not in previous smaller-scale anticorruption crackdowns. This study contributes to knowledge about purges under authoritarianism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the political implications of artificial intelligence (AI), focusing on the use of narrow AI in algorithmic governance. It argues that changes in political concepts, such as human autonomy, due to AI may raise questions about the legitimacy of democratic institutions. Topics include the challenges of conceptual shifts in the era of algorithmization, the historical evolution of AI in politics, and the need to analyze the consequences of algorithmic governance.

The African continent has witnessed most health crises including yellow fever, meningitis, cholera, and Ebola. Two recent health crises faced by Ghana have been the Ebola virus and the Covid-19 virus diseases. This paper attempts to compare these two crises to understand what preparedness approaches were used by the government of Ghana during these two crises. Also, the paper attempts to identify what the similarities and differences have been and why these similarities and differences existed in the preparedness towards these crises that happened over different periods and whether Ghana's Covid-19 preparedness was based on lessons from Ebola. Through the policy legacies analytical framework and a review of the literature, the paper argues that Ghana's preparedness shows a lot of similarities from the training of healthcare workers, the health infrastructure introduced, approaches to public engagement, and political decisions made to fight both crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes Israel's motives in annexing the Jordan Valley—a plan that, if approved, will eliminate any possibility of establishing a Palestinian state, even on a small part of historic Palestine. This promises to be one of the most critical strategic turning points in the contemporary Israeli‐Palestinian conflict. The analysis reveals that the Israeli annexation decision, even if postponed, has become a reality imposed by Israel on the international community, insinuated into formal and official government announcements and declarations. In addition, the article highlights the danger of imposing Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley since it carries with it a threat to regional stability. As part of this examination, the study traces the development of the positions of successive Israeli governments toward the issue of annexing this region, from 1967 through the dissolution of the Netanyahu government in 2021. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article makes moral sense of the Western withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. It does so by applying classical just war thinking. The classical bellum justum, it argues, can make a distinctive contribution toward evaluating the decision to leave Afghanistan, a decision that continues to be discussed controversially. The article points out that classical just war thinking did not introduce distinct moral categories beyond jus ad bellum, such as jus in bello or jus post bellum. Exactly because classical just war thinking was meant to apply to all phases of a war, the article goes on to argue, it provides important lessons for just war as a tool of statecraft that seeks to inform political decision-making. Applying the wisdom that is encapsulated in the classical bellum justum to the withdrawal decision in Afghanistan, the article, although it is critical of its execution, generally sides with the Biden administration's course of action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the profound changes in South Wales, England, resulting from external economic factors and political decisions, particularly during the post-World War II era. Topics discussed include the concept of "The Long Resolution" referring to political will driving regenerative initiatives; the impact of economic interventions and population movements on the region; and personal responses and experiences of individuals affected by these changes in South Wales.

The recent proliferation of Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) in authoritarian regimes is puzzling. While SWFs can generate political, financial, and geopolitical benefits in the long-term, their creation also sharply impedes an autocrat's ability to fund current patronage and other regime-stabilizing public and private goods. What explains the creation of autocratic SWFs? We argue that sovereign wealth funds are more likely to emerge when autocratic leaders possess a high degree of policy-making autonomy. Policy-making autonomy allows leaders to override any opposition from regime insiders who might prefer to keep capital at home and available for patronage. At the same time, such leaders are more politically secure, and thus are more confident that they will remain in power to reap the medium to long-term financial rewards of these funds. We operationalize this concept with indicators that measure whether an autocrat has consolidated their authority over the regime's party infrastructure and employ survival analysis on a global sample of autocratic regimes from 1960–2010. We find robust support for our argument and describe how our findings provide new insights on the political determinants of sovereign wealth funds and the consequences of authoritarian power-sharing institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzes the reasons for citizens' refusal to participate in public deliberation through the Georgian mechanism of the General Assembly of a Settlement (GAofS) in the remote communities of Georgia. This paper draws on the existing academic literature on effective deliberation processes and reasons behind the public's disengagement from them to explain Georgian public's withdrawal from the deliberation processes. By applying the analytical framework on effective deliberation and logic of non-participation, this article uses the case study approach and qualitative research methods to show how façade deliberation processes cause public disenchantment with engagement in local decision-making processes and reinforce the public image of civic participation mechanisms as pointless efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An important challenge facing political decision making today is inequality in representation. Political scientists have shown that the preferences of certain groups—especially those who have higher incomes or are better educated—systematically preponderate in political decision making. Trying to elucidate the mechanisms behind these findings, this research note explores one specific possible driver of representational inequality: that politicians downplay the opinions of disadvantaged groups, and here specifically, of the lower‐educated. By means of a survey experiment with politicians, we test the idea that politicians have a hard‐wired inclination to assume that the opinions of citizens who have received lower (i.e., vocational) education are less thoughtful than the opinions of citizens who followed a higher (i.e., general) education. The findings are somewhat ambiguous but the expectation is at least partly corroborated by the evidence. The findings illustrate the psychological foundations that may ultimately make politicians disregard the preferences of the lower‐educated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A prominent and publicly influential literature challenges the quality of democratic decision making, drawing on political science findings with specific claims about the ubiquity of cognitive bias to lament citizens' incompetence. A competing literature in democratic theory defends the wisdom of crowds, drawing on a cluster of models in support of the capacity of ordinary citizens to produce correct outcomes. In this Letter, we draw on recent findings in psychology to demonstrate that the former literature is based on outdated and erroneous claims and that the latter is overly sanguine about the circumstances that yield reliable collective decision making. By contrast, "interactionist" scholarship shows how individual-level biases are not devastating for group problem solving, given appropriate conditions. This provides possible microfoundations for a broader research agenda similar to that implemented by Elinor Ostrom and her colleagues on common-good provision, investigating how different group structures are associated with both success and failure in democratic decision making. This agenda would have implications for both democratic theory and democratic practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to examine the role of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) in peacebuilding in the Great Lakes Region (GLR) by focusing on its conflict transformation approach to peacebuilding. The region is made up of a complex network of political and economic resources that have had tremendous effects on peace and security. The region has experienced many atrocities, caused by heavy violations of human rights and the violation of the state sovereignty principle. This has opened avenues for illegal armed groups from within and outside the region, encouraged illegal mining, and led to conflicts becoming intractable in nature. The GLR has also registered intercommunal conflicts in Uganda and South Sudan which continue to compromise peace and security, affecting the safety and livelihoods of people. These intractable intercommunal conflicts do not affect the GLR alone but also the entire continent. This has led scholars, non-governmental organisations, international organisations, and intergovernmental organisations such as the ICGLR to seek to end the conflict in the region. This article finds that conflict persists because the ICGLR's structures are ineffective. Furthermore, despite the strides made in areas such as the illegal exploitation of mineral resources, human rights violations, sexual gender-based violence, and democracy, there are factors that hamper progress, including understaffing and unqualified personnel, coupled with a lack of political consensus in decision making and implementation, which has led to malfunctioning in the ICGLR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Super-resolving the coarse outputs of global climate simulations, termed downscaling, is crucial in making political and social decisions on systems requiring long-term climate change projections. Existing fast super-resolution techniques, however, have yet to preserve the spatially correlated nature of climatological data, which is particularly important when we address systems with spatial expanse, such as the development of transportation infrastructure. Herein, we show an adversarial network-based machine learning enables us to correctly reconstruct the inter-regional spatial correlations in downscaling with high magnification of up to 50 while maintaining pixel-wise statistical consistency. Direct comparison with the measured meteorological data of temperature and precipitation distributions reveals that integrating climatologically important physical information improves the downscaling performance, which prompts us to call this approach π SRGAN (Physics Informed Super-Resolution Generative Adversarial Network). The proposed method has a potential application to the inter-regionally consistent assessment of the climate change impact. Additionally, we present the outcomes of another variant of the deep generative model-based downscaling approach in which the low-resolution precipitation field is substituted with the pressure field, referred to as ψ SRGAN (Precipitation Source Inaccessible SRGAN). Remarkably, this method demonstrates unexpectedly good downscaling performance for the precipitation field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on the diffusion of political decisions across jurisdictions typically accounts for units' influence over each other with (1) observable measures or (2) by inferring latent network ties from past decisions. The former approach assumes that interdependence is static and perfectly captured by the data. The latter mitigates these issues but requires analytical tools that are separate from the main empirical methods for studying diffusion. As a solution, we introduce network event history analysis (NEHA), which incorporates latent network inference into conventional discrete-time event history models. We demonstrate NEHA's unique methodological and substantive benefits in applications to policy adoption in the American states. Researchers can analyze the ties and structure of inferred networks to refine model specifications, evaluate diffusion mechanisms, or test new or existing hypotheses. By capturing targeted relationships unexplained by standard covariates, NEHA can improve models, facilitate richer theoretical development, and permit novel analyses of the diffusion process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]