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1. La política de los jóvenes en España

Author:
Jose R. Rojo
Publication Date:
04-2024
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Fundación Alternativas
Abstract:
La percepción general sobre la participación política de los jóvenes en España suele ser negativa, asociándose con la apatía y el desinterés. Esta idea no es nueva y se basa en estereotipos arraigados, que persisten a pesar de que la oferta política ha crecido, sobre la pasividad de la juventud. Los jóvenes modernos desafían las definiciones tradicionales sobre lo político, complicando aún más el entendimiento de sus actitudes hacia los poderes públicos. Pero, ¿qué hay de cierto en estas percepciones? ¿Cuánto y cómo participan los jóvenes en elecciones, partidos y movimientos sociales? Ignorar las preocupaciones y perspectivas de futuro de los nuevos ciudadanos podría tener graves consecuencias a largo plazo. Con el objetivo de garantizar una democracia inclusiva para con los jóvenes, proponemos un análisis en profundidad y sin prejuicios, desde el que colaborar a la reconstrucción del contrato social intergeneracional.
Topic:
Democracy, Citizenship, Youth, and Political Participation
Political Geography:
Europe and Spain

2. Welfare losses, preferences for redistribution, and political participation: Evidence from the United Kingdom’s age of austerity

Author:
Patricia Justino, Bruno Martorano, and Laura Metzger
Publication Date:
05-2023
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
This paper studies the effect of austerity on forms of political participation—including voting, appealing for reform, and peaceful protesting—and the role of preferences for redistribution in shaping the relationship between individual exposure to austerity and political participation. The paper focuses on the case of the United Kingdom (UK) where, between 2011 and 2019, wide-ranging austerity policies were introduced to deal with high public debt in the aftermath of the 2007–08 financial crisis. Cuts to government spending on public investment, services, and social protection, especially during the initial fiscal consolidation phase of 2011–15, led to significant welfare losses for the population. We provide evidence from observational microeconomic data and a large-scale online experiment in the UK showing that individual exposure to welfare losses from austerity increases political participation and strengthens preferences for government redistribution. The experimental data suggests that changes in individual preferences for redistribution significantly shape the effect of austerity on political participation.
Topic:
Austerity, Welfare, Redistribution, and Political Participation
Political Geography:
United Kingdom and Europe

3. Becoming political: How marching suffragists facilitated women's electoral participation in England

Author:
Mona Morgan-Collins and Valeria Rueda
Publication Date:
11-2023
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Nottingham Interdisciplinary Centre for Economic and Political Research (NICEP)
Abstract:
Previous research identifies that women politicians facilitate other women’s political participation. Can women’s political activism also spur women’s electoral participation? Through the study of the British suffragists, we argue that women activists paved the way for other women’s political participation at the time when women politicians were virtually absent. Constructing a novel micro-level dataset of geocoded data from electoral registers, we leverage a unique historical case of the 1913 Women’s Suffrage Pilgrimage. Using a Differences-in-Differences strategy that compares polling divisions based on the proximity to the Pilgrimage across England, we provide evidence that exposure to the suffragists marching for parliamentary suffrage increased registration of women eligible to vote in local elections. Analyzing contemporary news articles, we then document the pathways through which the suffragists incited other women’s political interest and therefore electoral participation. These findings have implications for the realization of substantive representation after suffrage.
Topic:
History, Elections, Women, Suffrage, Political Participation, and Politicians
Political Geography:
Europe and England

4. Breaking the Glass Chamber: Keynote by Khursheed Wadia - 'Becoming Muslim women becoming political'

Author:
Khursheed Wadia
Publication Date:
01-2023
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Mile End Institute, Queen Mary University of London
Abstract:
2022 marks a series of historic anniversaries for women in British politics. Forty years since the election of Harriet Harman, the Mother of the House; thirty-five years since the election of the first Black woman MP, Diane Abbott; thirty years since the first woman, Betty Boothroyd, was elected Speaker of the House; and twenty-five years since the election of more than a hundred women MPs for the Labour Party. At its landmark Breaking the Glass Chamber conference from 15 to 17 September 2022, the Mile End Institute brought together historians, political scientists, and sociologists to explore what politics meant to and for women in the second half of the twentieth century. In this video, Professor Khursheed Wadia delivers a keynote lecture, entitled 'Becoming Muslim women becoming political'. Khursheed analyses women in the British Muslim community's political engagement through the postwar period and describes a 'hidden history' of Muslim women's activism on picket lines, in anti-poverty campaigns and in community networks. She argues that academics should pay more attention to community activism to fully capture the diversity of women's political engagement in the second half of the twentieth century.
Topic:
Elections, Women, Political Participation, Activism, and Muslims
Political Geography:
United Kingdom and Europe

5. Risks and Benefits of i-Voting in Public Opinion: Evidence from Poland

Author:
Izabela Kapsa and Magdalena Musial-Karg
Publication Date:
03-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Polish Political Science Yearbook
Institution:
Polish Political Science Association (PPSA)
Abstract:
Apart from benefits, internet voting security is most frequently discussed by opponents and supporters of this form of electoral participation. Although this voting method is not available in Poland, the debate on the implementation of i-voting appears in each election. The COVID-19 pandemic showed a great need to implement additional remote voting methods in the elections, and increasingly more countries are considering the introduction of i-vote in the future. Although there is no plan for the nearest future in Poland, citizens' opinions suggest that this voting procedure would meet many of its users. The paper's main aim is to analyse Poles' opinions about the risks and benefits of internet voting. The results of our own studies are based on a survey among Poles regarding their views on internet voting. The main goal is to verify if Poles more often highlight the benefits than risks of i-voting, and if the opinions about risks and benefits of i-voting differ depending on respondents’ sex, age, education and domicile.
Topic:
Security, Elections, Voting, Innovation, and Political Participation
Political Geography:
Europe and Poland

6. Interpreting the French Presidential Election

Publication Date:
04-2022
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Mile End Institute, Queen Mary University of London
Abstract:
With France heading into a tumultuous presidential contest this weekend, the Mile End Institute assembled a panel of experts to discuss the results of the first round and the prospects for the second round run-off between President Macron and Marine Le Pen. David Klemperer, Professor Julian Jackson, Professor Rainbow Murray, Dr Emile Chabal and Laura Slimani explore how five years of Macron has altered the French political landscape, what this election will mean for the rest of Europe, the rise of the far-right and whether the French left has a future.
Topic:
Elections, Leadership, Domestic Politics, and Political Participation
Political Geography:
Europe and France

7. How the Political Participation of Refugees is Shaped on the Local Level: Self-Organisation and Political Opportunities in Cologne

Author:
Milan Jacobi
Publication Date:
01-2021
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS)
Abstract:
Six years have passed since the so-called “long summer of migration” of 2015, and the numbers of newly arriving asylum-seekers in Germany have flattened. However, as one of the main receiving countries of refugees, other challenges are coming into focus. Besides labour market participation and cultural participation, political participation is crucial to social life. But how to enable the political participation of refugees in host countries remains a challenge. This study examines how refugees without the condition of citizenship, who, thus, lack formal, electoral means of participation, can engage in political activities. To this end, it first uses a qualitative approach to examine how various self-organisations in the city of Cologne, Germany, use their resources to bring their interests into the political decision-making process. Second, it examines the political opportunity structures that exist at the local level to enable refugee self-organisations (RSOs) to engage in political activities. For this purpose, interviews were conducted with representatives of the organisations as well as the municipality and other civil society actors in Cologne. The results show that RSOs can be important partners for municipal decision-makers when it comes to refugee-specific issues. However, the results also suggest that opportunity structures are unevenly distributed among organisations and affect the organisations’ resource endowments, thus limiting access.
Topic:
Migration, Refugees, and Political Participation
Political Geography:
Europe and Germany