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According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), two years after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, as many as 6.5 million Ukrainians are refugees, while another 3.7 million people are internally [...]

Byline: Kristin J. Lieb (1), Dhavan V. Shah (2) Keywords: Brand; Brand management; Political communication; Consumer culture theory; Person brands; Nonverbal communication; Cultural branding; Context; Culture Abstract: This commentary addresses Olivola and Todorov's 'Elected in 100 ms: Appearance-Based Trait Inferences and Voting' and considers its valuable contribution to the field of nonverbal communication. This work suggests that contemporary politics and voting behavior are so complex that they can be better understood outside of laboratory settings where the vital elements on culture and context come into play. By using consumer culture theory and other cultural theories of branding, this commentary evaluates elements of Barack Obama's presidential run, and considers why his campaign resonated so well with voters in contemporary United States culture. Author Affiliation: (1) Emerson College, Boston, MA, USA (2) University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA Article History: Registration Date: 13/01/2010 Online Date: 04/02/2010

The Presidential election in Cyprus in February 2008 and the nine candidates who took part in the elections and the results are presented. Demetris Christofias was elected as the Sixth President of the Republic of Cyprus and it was considered as a positive development.

To purchase or authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2508.2007.00565.x Byline: Brad T. Gomez (1), Thomas G. Hansford (2), George A. Krause (3) Abstract: The relationship between bad weather and lower levels of voter turnout is widely espoused by media, political practitioners, and, perhaps, even political scientists. Yet, there is virtually no solid empirical evidence linking weather to voter participation. This paper provides an extensive test of the claim. We examine the effect of weather on voter turnout in 14 U.S. presidential elections. Using GIS interpolations, we employ meteorological data drawn from over 22,000 U.S. weather stations to provide election day estimates of rain and snow for each U.S. county. We find that, when compared to normal conditions, rain significantly reduces voter participation by a rate of just less than 1% per inch, while an inch of snowfall decreases turnout by almost .5%. Poor weather is also shown to benefit the Republican party's vote share. Indeed, the weather may have contributed to two Electoral College outcomes, the 1960 and 2000 presidential elections. Author Affiliation: (1)University of Georgia (2)University of California, Merced (3)University of Pittsburgh Article History: Manuscript submitted 1 November 2005Manuscript accepted for publication 10 August 2006 Article note: Brad T. Gomez is visiting assistant professor of political science, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602. Thomas G. Hansford is assistant professor of political science, University of California-Merced, Merced, CA 95344. George A. Krause is professor of political science, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260.

The findings in this study indicate that Catholic and Protestant leaders like Cardinal Roger Mahony of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and Rev. Samuel Rodriguez of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference drew on religions rhetoric, symbols, moral authority, interfaith religious coalition building, and the Bible in the 2005-2007 immigration reform debate and in their struggle for greater tolerance and inclusion of Latinos in U.S. civil society. Mahony and other Catholics also drew on Catholic social teaching and several strategies employed by Cesar Chavez in their struggles for social justice. Keywords: Latino religions; political activism; religion and immigration; presidential election

The problem of youth participation in elections remains largely a mystery and solutions to reengage the disengaged seem elusive. Yet an examination of young citizens' political talk may help illuminate their civic attitudes and behaviors. This study reports findings from a national focus group investigation that sought to understand young voters' information-seeking habits. Analysis identifies where young voters get their political information, what they do with this information, and whether greater knowledge leads to increased feelings of political efficacy and participation. Understanding young citizens' information-seeking habits might point to specific ways for promoting more informed, and engaged, young voters. Keywords: civic engagement; political participation; nonvoter; young voters; efficacy

This study empirically investigates the potential impact of political action committee (PAC) election campaign contributions and other factors on the aggregate voter participation rate in the United States. For the study period 1960-1998, the aggregate voter participation rate appears to have been positively and significantly affected by the opportunity to vote in presidential elections and by the Vietnam War, as well as by 'excessive' inflation and slow real GDP growth. The latter two findings of this study appear to be unique to this literature. In addition, the Watergate scandal and increased public dissatisfaction with government appear to have significantly discouraged voter participation. Finally, there appears to be strong evidence that PAC congressional election campaign contributions may have also acted to reduce the voter participation rate over the study period, a finding that also is unique to this study.

The topic of presidential success in Congress is central to the study of American politics. Yet existing research does not sufficiently assess the president's success at shaping the substance of legislation. To help remedy this deficiency, the authors measure the degree of presidential success on 191 important statutes from 1965 to 2000 and find that presidents typically accept significant concessions to ensure passage of legislation. Using factor and regression analyses, the authors demonstrate that several factors--including the presence of unified government, the president's approval ratings, and the point in a president's tenure--affect the extent to which the president receives what he wants concerning legislative content. Keywords- president; Congress; bargaining; legislation

Every 4 years, during election season, we witness continuously growing appeals from Democrats and Republicans to the Latino electorate with the purpose of gaining enough of their vote to tilt the election to their respective advantage. Although Latinos regularly vote Democratic, Republicans assume that because of their continuing upward mobility and long-standing social conservatism, Latinos are in fact Republicans but just don't know it yet. In this article, we test how likely Latinos were to abandon their historic attachment to the Democratic Party and identify with the Republican Party in 2000 and 2004. Our conclusion is that although Latinos may have increasingly voted for the Republican candidate in 2004 and over time may change their partisan preferences, the Hispanic electorate was far from abandoning its partisan attachment to the Democratic Party. Keywords: Latino politics; voting behavior; elections; party identification; partisan preference

A U.S.-based geographer interprets the results of the March 19, 2006 presidential elections in Belarus as a contest among three emergent strands of Belarusian nationalism. The study is based on national surveys conducted by an independent research/polling organization, analysis of websites of Radio Liberty's Belarusian Service and opposition-minded and official media outlets, as well as field observations and selected interviews. The author begins by examining polling results believed to reflect mass attitudes of rank-and-file Belarusians; the three strands of nationalism (personified by the three major presidential candidates) are then described in detail. He argues that lack of national consolidation presents a far greater problem for Belarus than the much-reviled Lukashenka regime, particularly in the context of recent disputes with Russia over oil and gas transit and pricing. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: O18, P20, Z00. 5 tables, 70 references. Key words: Belarus, Lukashenka, national identity, independent media, Creole nationalism, Russia, Poland, national projects.

A Canada-based specialist on current events in Belarus and Ukraine comments on the preceding paper on the 2006 presidential elections in Belarus. The comments focus on (and in part take issue with) four major arguments of the paper: (1) the purported economic success and levels of material well-being in the country; (2) Lukashenka's reputed personal popularity; (3) incipient nation-building as a contest between Nativist, Russophile, and Creole strands of nationalism; and (4) reinforcement of Creole nationalism (and Belarusians' feelings of distinctiveness) as a result of Lukashenka's policies and growing differences with Russia involving such issues as energy transportation and supply. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: H10, H50, O18, P20. 12 references. Key words: Belarus, Lukashenka, Creole nationalism, elections, mass media.

The author of 'Unfinished Nation Building in Belarus and the 2006 Presidential Election' (Ioffe, 2007, this issue) responds to a critical assessment of that paper in a preceding comment (Marples, 2007). His rejoinder emphasizes the importance of cultural sensitivity in the interpretation of mass (versus elite or academic) attitudes in Belarus and of selecting appropriate benchmarks for the evaluation of change. 15 references. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: O18, P20, Z00. Key words: Belarus, Lukashenka, nation-building, democracy, Nativism, national projects.