Using Self Organizing Maps to Analyze Demographics and Swing State Voting in the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election

Emergent self-organizing maps (ESOMs) and k-means clustering are used to cluster counties in each of the states of Florida, Pennsylvania, and Ohio by demographic data from the 2010 United States census. The counties in these clusters are then analyzed for how they voted in the 2008 U.S. Presidential election, and political strategies are discussed that target demographically similar geographical regions based on ESOM results. The ESOM and k-means clusterings are compared and found to be dissimilar by the variation of information distance function

Examining the role of ideological and political education on university students' civic perceptions and civic participation in Mainland China: Some hints from contemporary citizenship theory

A long existing compulsive curriculum of ideological and political education is employed by the Chinese government to promote citizenship education among Chinese university students. This article builds on the findings of a mixed-methods research that examined the role of ideological and political education on university students’ civic perceptions and civic participation. The results showed little evidence of this curriculum having a clear effect on students’ political participation such as voting, as well as their idealized broad civic participation, but did reveal relatively positive effects on students’ civic intention and civic expression. In addition, it also identified its significant role in organizing students towards attending party-related activities. It shows that ideological and political education is insufficient to achieve specified aims of citizenship education among Chinese university students. We then argue that it results from a mechanistic understanding of citizenship and participation in educational policies and structural barriers to young people’s formal participation. Hence, this article argues that the forms and contents of citizenship education in China need to be reconsidered beyond the limits of the current ideological and political education and that the analyses contributed to an argument for a broader approach to citizenship education to be developed and adopted

A tale of two professions in elections : Party choice among diaconal and social workers

Peer reviewe

Neutral or biased? The presentation of the Kyrgyzstan and Egypt uprisings by RIA Novosti

This article analyses the media coverage of the uprisings in Kyrgyzstan (February–April 2005) and Egypt (January–February 2011) by the Russian news agency RIA Novosti. It aims to identify the features of two frame dimensions, namely the promotion of a particular problem and its causal interpretation. Our analysis uses 184 articles published online by the news agency during the two events and differentiates between three types of articles (news stories, opinion articles and commentaries by experts). The results indicate how several nuances of this framing dimension could bias public perception towards protesters or incumbents

The Regional Development of Democratization and Civil Society: Transition, Consolidation, Hybridization, Globalization - Taiwan and Hungary

Different starting points, similar processes and different outcomes can be identified when comparing East Central Europe and East and South Asia. The two regions face similar global challenges, follow regional patterns of democratization and face crises. In communist times, East Central Europe was economically marginalized in the world economy, while some parts of Asia integrated well in the global economy under authoritarian rule. Europeanization and a favorable external environment encouraged the former communist countries to opt for the Western-style rule of law and democracy. Different external factors helped the Third Wave democracies in Asia, especially South Korea and Taiwan, which benefited from the support of the United States and other global economic, military and cultural partnerships to develop their human rights culture and democracy while facing their totalitarian counterparts, namely the People’s Republic of China and North Korea. The very different positions Taiwan and Hungary have in their respective regions follow from the different capacities of their transformation management since 1988-1989. Taiwan preserved its leading role and stable democracy despite the threat to its sovereignty from the People’s Republic of China. Hungary never had such an influential and problematic neighbor and was ensured security and welfare partnership by the European Union, which Taiwan lacked. While Taiwan was less secure, economic and social conditions were more favorable for democratization than those in Hungary. Hungary, in turn, held a leading position in democratization processes in the period of post-communist transition which was lost during the crisis and conflicts of the last decade (after 2006 and especially since 2010). Despite the fact that liberalization prepared the way for peaceful transition in both countries and resulted in similar processes of democratic consolidation in the 1990s, Hungary joined the ‘loser’ group in its region, whereas Taiwan is among the top ‘winning’ countries in its region. Taiwan at the moment is starting comprehensive reform processes toward enhanced democracy, civil rights and the rule of law, and Hungarian development is criticized by many external and internal analysts as straying from the path of European-style consolidated democracies towards illiberal trends and hybridization. Western global concepts of democratization may help to identify similarities and differences, and compare stronger and weaker factors in the democratic transitions in Asia and Europe within the Third Wave democracies

Patriarchy and Women’s Parliamentary representation in Bangladesh

The low representation of women in almost every legislative form of life is an international con-cern. In reality, very small portion of women representations are seen in the government in pro-portion to their population. Now a day women participation in the parliament is assumed neces-sary in modern democracy because decent number of women representation is noticed as crucial for appropriate government. In connection to above discussion my paper tried to reveal the rea-sons hindering women’s representation in Bangladesh parliament. Case study design is a good option to find out the actual factors causing women under representation in the parliament. Re-search question is set from the logical point of view identifying the elements or factors which are influential on women representation. Posing question consisted with “why” and “how” has helped me revealing the identification of the factors and created a broad aspect of discussing their impact on women representation. For this reason, my study becomes explanatory study as it requires explaining the situation. Furthermore, I tried to figure out if the religion is really a factor causing women low representation or it is a manipulated factor? To problematize my analysis portion I have found “Patriarchy” and “supply and Demand model” theories most suitable. After my going through my discussion, the reader will see I have focused and sorted out male domination as a prime factor hindering women’s representation in the parliament and which also makes impact on all the other factors causing women under representation in the parliament. I made some recommendations for future studies at the conclusion part as well

The Ukrainian Voter: Electoral Behavior in a New Democracy

The “normalization” of politics in new democracies is an important concern of political science research. Normalization could refer to democratic consolidation when democracy “becomes the only game in town” (Linz and Stepan 1996). Some of the factors contributing to normalization are stable institutions, the rule of law, and transparency in power transfer, among others. Yet, it can be argued that the democratic process is normalized when programmatic parties compete for political office by wooing a sophisticated and knowledgeable electorate (Kitschelt 1992, 1995, 2000). This inquiry is a story of such normalization in the case of a new post-communist democracy – Ukraine. In the literature the Ukrainian public is depicted as highly apolitical, unsophisticated, and divided along the ethno-cultural regional cleavage which contributes to the problems of normalization of electoral competition. Moreover, there is a general sense that voters are “the least likely segment of Ukrainian polity" to influence political processes (Copsey 2005). Yet, the events of the Orange Revolutions showed otherwise. It does not seem reasonable any longer to ignore the Ukrainian voter and her role in the development of a democratic Ukraine. Recently Timothy J. Colton (2011) lamented the lack of the individual level analysis of Ukrainian electorate. This study is a decisive attempt to remedy this oversight. Using the survey data from International Foundation for Electoral Studies (IFES) from 1994, 1997 -2008 I develop and analyze a model of the sophisticated voter in the new democracy. I argue that over time, as voters have more experience with democratic processes, they learn how to properly link their own preferences with appropriate parties and candidates, relying on numerous factors including, but not limited to, the ethno-cultural and socioeconomic attributes, such factors as evaluation of the political leaders and issues are also instrumental in voter decision making. The results of this study have important implications for the study of Ukrainian politics and a broader literature on voting behavior. The curious case of the Ukrainian voter suggests a need to reexamine the theoretical and conceptual frameworks of democratic consolidation hypotheses as well as the developmental modes of electoral behavior