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Popular Support (popular + support)
Selected AbstractsGENTRIFICATION AND THE GRASSROOTS: POPULAR SUPPORT IN THE REVANCHIST SUBURBJOURNAL OF URBAN AFFAIRS, Issue 2 2006Christopher Niedt Drawing from a year of fieldwork in Dundalk, MD, I argue that developers and the neoliberal state will probably find popular support for gentrification as they reinvest in the politically divided industrial suburbs of the United States. Local homeowners and community associations have emerged as gentrification supporters for three interrelated reasons. First, many of them have drawn from a resurgent national conservatism to explain decline as an effect of government subsidies and "people from the city;" their desire to reclaim suburban space,a "suburban revanchism",although avoiding accusations of racism makes gentrification-induced displacement appealing. Second, the rebirth of urban neighborhoods and other industrial suburbs provides visual evidence of gentrification's success. Third, the neoliberal state's retreat from social programs and its emphasis on private-sector redevelopment allay suspicion of government and enable collaboration between the local state, developers, and homeowners. The redevelopment efforts of two local organizations illustrate how residents have become indispensable partners in Dundalk's emergent pro-gentrification coalition. [source] On the Popular Support for Progressive TaxationJOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMIC THEORY, Issue 4 2003Esteban F. Klor The "popular support for progressive taxation theorem" (Marhuenda and Ortuño-Ortín, 1995) provides an important formalization of the intuition that a majority of relatively poor voters over rich ones leads to progressive income taxation. Yet the theorem does not provide an equilibrium outcome. In addition, it assumes an overly restrictive domain of tax schedules and no incentive effects of income taxation. This paper shows that none of these assumptions of the theorem can be relaxed completely. Most notably, it is shown that a majority of poor voters does not imply progressive taxation in a more general policy space and that a regressive tax schedule may obtain a majority over a progressive one when individuals' income is endogenous. [source] Maintaining Popular Support for the Chinese Communist Party: The Influence of Education and the State-Controlled MediaPOLITICAL STUDIES, Issue 3 2009John James Kennedy Literature on public opinion in China suggests that public support for the Chinese Communist party (CCP) is quite high. No matter how survey questions regarding regime support are phrased, the results are the same. The obvious question arises: how does an authoritarian regime, such as the PRC, garner the support of the vast majority of its citizens? I argue that the exposure-acceptance model best explains the high level of public support in China. This model suggests that educated citizens, who are politically aware, display high levels of political support within an authoritarian regime, but citizens at the highest levels of education are more resistant to political messages and tend to have lower levels of support. However, in a developing country such as China there are unequal educational opportunities for rural and urban citizens. This has a significant influence on how education affects regime support. Despite lower levels of support among the most educated citizens, the CCP still manages to maintain a high level of popular support through strict control over the media and education system. [source] May the weak force be with you: The power of the mass media in modern politicsEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL RESEARCH, Issue 2 2006KENNETH NEWTON Television is often said to undermine democratic government popular support for leaders and institutions. In spite of all that has been written about media malaise, however, both theory and evidence suggests that the media are a comparatively weak force whose effects can be deflected, diluted and diffused by stronger forces. These include bedrocks political values associated with class, religion, age, gender and education, as well as social networks and discussions, distrust of the mass media, and personal knowledge and experience. Equally, the variables that mediate the media may also magnify its effects so that what appears to be a large media effect is, in fact, the result of an interaction between the media and other forces. This article lays out the argument of the media malaise literature that covers government and politics, then outlines the social forces that mediate the media, and finally provides some evidence to illustrate the argument that the media are generally a weak force in society. [source] Free movement, equal treatment and workers' rights: can the European Union solve its trilemma of fundamental principles?INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS JOURNAL, Issue 6 2009Jon Erik Dølvik ABSTRACT This article analyses the trilemma the EU is facing concerning three fundamental principles on which the Community rests: free movement of services and labour; non-discrimination and equal treatment, and the rights of association and industrial action. With rising cross-border flows of services and (posted) labour after the Eastward enlargement, the conflict between these rights has triggered industrial disputes and judicial strife. In the view of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), highlighted in the Laval Quartet, some principles are more fundamental than others. Tracing the ,dual track' along which European integration has evolved, whereby supranational market integration has been combined with national semi-sovereignty in industrial relations and social policies, our claim is that the supremacy of free movement over basic social rights implied by the ECJ judgments is leading Europe in a politically and socially unsustainable direction. To prevent erosion of the European Social Models and of popular support for European integration, the politicians have to reinsert themselves into the governance of the European project. A pertinent start would be to ensure that the rising mass of cross-border service workers in Europe become subject to the same rights and standards as their fellow workers in the emerging pan-European labour market. [source] On comparing Nazism and StalinismINTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, Issue 1 2006DAVID WEDGWOOD BENN This article discusses Richard Overy's book comparing the regimes of Hitler and Stalin. The book seeks not just to describe, but also to explain the way the two systems functioned. With this in view the book compares them on a detailed topic-by-topic basis and recognizes that the two systems were in important ways fundamentally different, while concluding that both based their power not just on the personality of the leader, but also on substantial popular support. The reviewer argues, however, that although the book contains valuable information and insights, it may nevertheless be a little too ready to squeeze the two systems into the same mould. Nazism was a uniquely malignant phenomenon not merely because of its crimes, but because of its ideas, which embraced far more than just racism. The reviewer argues that given the unique evil of Nazism, it cannot properly be likened to anything else. [source] National pension systems and mass opinion: a case study of confidence, satisfaction and political attitudes in NorwayINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL WELFARE, Issue 2 2004Ann-Helén Bay It is commonly assumed that popular support for national pension systems depends on widespread satisfaction with projected benefit levels among the working age population, and in particular that public support for the system will be jeopardised if the taxpayers do not feel confident about eventually receiving the promised benefits. On the basis of Norwegian survey data, two sets of questions are addressed in the article: (1) Is there a widespread lack of confidence in and satisfaction with the Norwegian National Insurance pension scheme? and (2) Is there an association between confidence and satisfaction and people's political attitudes towards the National Insurance pension scheme? Although we do not find any signs of a dramatic erosion of confidence towards the system, we do find that overall satisfaction with projected benefits is low among the working age population. Contrary to what one might expect, however, confidence and satisfaction from the point of view of individual interests appear not to be associated with a political preference for privatisation. [source] Problems with the ,language-as-resource' discourse in the promotion of heritage languages in the U.S.A.JOURNAL OF SOCIOLINGUISTICS, Issue 3 2005Thomas Ricento In the United States, language ,rights' have been tethered to ethnic or racial entitlements as a means to redress historical patterns of discrimination and exclusion. The perception that language ,rights' are about the redress of past wrongs has had negative effects on efforts to gain broad public support for the teaching and maintenance of languages other than English. The language-as-resource orientation (Ruiz 1984) is considered as an alternative to a language rights approach. However, analysis of texts produced by advocates of the heritage language movement reveals the shortcomings of the language-as-resource metaphor in advancing broad-based support for the teaching, maintenance, and use of minority languages in the U.S. While efforts to promote heritage language education as a national strategic priority may result in short-term governmental support, wider and more sustained popular support for such programs will require significant modifications in the underlying values and ideologies about the status and role of languages other than English in education and public life. [source] GENTRIFICATION AND THE GRASSROOTS: POPULAR SUPPORT IN THE REVANCHIST SUBURBJOURNAL OF URBAN AFFAIRS, Issue 2 2006Christopher Niedt Drawing from a year of fieldwork in Dundalk, MD, I argue that developers and the neoliberal state will probably find popular support for gentrification as they reinvest in the politically divided industrial suburbs of the United States. Local homeowners and community associations have emerged as gentrification supporters for three interrelated reasons. First, many of them have drawn from a resurgent national conservatism to explain decline as an effect of government subsidies and "people from the city;" their desire to reclaim suburban space,a "suburban revanchism",although avoiding accusations of racism makes gentrification-induced displacement appealing. Second, the rebirth of urban neighborhoods and other industrial suburbs provides visual evidence of gentrification's success. Third, the neoliberal state's retreat from social programs and its emphasis on private-sector redevelopment allay suspicion of government and enable collaboration between the local state, developers, and homeowners. The redevelopment efforts of two local organizations illustrate how residents have become indispensable partners in Dundalk's emergent pro-gentrification coalition. [source] Maintaining Popular Support for the Chinese Communist Party: The Influence of Education and the State-Controlled MediaPOLITICAL STUDIES, Issue 3 2009John James Kennedy Literature on public opinion in China suggests that public support for the Chinese Communist party (CCP) is quite high. No matter how survey questions regarding regime support are phrased, the results are the same. The obvious question arises: how does an authoritarian regime, such as the PRC, garner the support of the vast majority of its citizens? I argue that the exposure-acceptance model best explains the high level of public support in China. This model suggests that educated citizens, who are politically aware, display high levels of political support within an authoritarian regime, but citizens at the highest levels of education are more resistant to political messages and tend to have lower levels of support. However, in a developing country such as China there are unequal educational opportunities for rural and urban citizens. This has a significant influence on how education affects regime support. Despite lower levels of support among the most educated citizens, the CCP still manages to maintain a high level of popular support through strict control over the media and education system. [source] The Effects of the George W. Bush Presidency on Partisan AttitudesPRESIDENTIAL STUDIES QUARTERLY, Issue 2 2009GARY C. JACOBSON Evidence from the eight years of the George W. Bush administration confirms that the public standing of the president's party rises and falls in concert with popular evaluations of his job performance. Reactions to the president affect the favorability ratings of his party, party identification measured individually and at the aggregate level,particularly among younger voters,as well as the party's electoral performance. Bush's second term, which provoked the longest period of low and downward-trending approval ratings on record, thus inflicted considerable damage on the Republican Party's image, popular support, and electoral fortunes. [source] Public Opinion and the Contradictions of Jimmy Carter's Foreign PolicyPRESIDENTIAL STUDIES QUARTERLY, Issue 4 2000ANDREW Z. KATZ President Jimmy Carter's failure to achieve popular support for his foreign policy is commonly attributed to his disregard of public opinion. The author evaluates this perception by examining the Carter administration's use of polls in the areas of human rights and U.S.-Soviet relations. Archival material confirms that Carter did not ignore public opinion; rather, his polling operation did not provide the White House with a complete and objective portrait of public attitudes. Carter's team assumed that public opinion on foreign policy was malleable and lacked structure. Thus, no effort was made to determine whether the contradictions pollsters found on the surface were actually held together by an underlying structure. Therefore, the Carter White House had neither an accurate gauge of public attitudes nor an understanding of those attitudes sufficient to build support for its policies. [source] Death Penalty Resistance in the USTHE HOWARD JOURNAL OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE, Issue 4 2002J. Robert Lilly In recent years popular support for the death penalty in the US has begun to wane. This article discusses some of the reasons for this development including evidence that innocent individuals have been put to death. Other reasons involve legal debates about executing the mentally retarded, racial disparity and LWOP (Life Without Parole) as an alternative. [source] Ways of seeing environmental change: Participatory research engagement in Yunnan, China, with ethnic minority Hani participantsASIA PACIFIC VIEWPOINT, Issue 2 2010John McKinnon Abstract In this article, I reflect on a participatory learning and action (PLA) and participatory geographic information system (PGIS) project undertaken in two adjacent Hani villages in southern Yunnan, China. After a lengthy process to gain research authorisations, Hani villagers worked with a group of visiting researchers (Hani, Han Chinese and New Zealanders) to articulate local visions of land-use change and environmental challenges. PLA exercises produced a diverse range of hand-made and PGIS products over a 10-week period. As villagers became more accustomed to the ,outsider team', methods , both designed and spontaneous , diversified. Afterwards, based on the results and acting on their own initiative, local leaders backed by popular support moved quickly to reassert traditional and ritually prescribed Hani conservation measures. Nevertheless, these endogenously driven solutions were not necessarily universally beneficial. In describing the complexities encountered in implementing a participatory framework and the ambiguities of the outcomes engendered, I argue that privileging local coherence and celebrating such participatory approaches should not be done at the expense of ignoring the intricacies of on-going contradictory behaviours in a rapidly changing arena. Yet, in China, where authorities often remain suspicious of those seeking to undertake long-term fieldwork, especially among ethnic minorities, PLA offers a potential route forward. [source] Bans against corporal punishment: a systematic review of the laws, changes in attitudes and behavioursCHILD ABUSE REVIEW, Issue 4 2010Adam J. Zolotor Abstract Twenty-four countries have passed legislative bans on corporal punishment since the passage of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. This systematic review briefly reviews the arguments for corporal punishment bans and the contents and context of the current legal bans. All such bans have occurred in representative governments. Following this background, the paper will examine the impacts of the laws with regard to attitudes regarding corporal punishment and parental discipline behaviours. It is clear from the findings of this systematic review that legal bans on corporal punishment are closely associated with decreases in support of and use of corporal punishment as a child discipline technique. However, it is less clear if such legislative bans always generally precede a decline in popular support for corporal punishment or result from such a decline in popular support. The known impact of such bans on child physical abuse will then be reviewed. The paper concludes with a policy analysis framework for considering new legislation to ban corporal punishment. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] | |||||||||||||