Journalistic interventions: The structural factors affecting the global emergence of fact-checking

Since the emergence of FactCheck.org in the United States in 2003, fact-checking interventions have expanded both domestically and globally. The Duke Reporter’s Lab identified nearly 100 active initiatives around the world in 2016. Building off of previous exploratory work by Amazeen, this research utilizes the framework of critical juncture theory to examine why fact-checking interventions are spreading globally at this point in time. Seen as a professional reform movement in the journalistic community, historical research on reform movements suggests several possible factors influencing the emergence of fact-checking such as a decline in journalism, easy access to technology for the masses, and socio-political strife. This study offers empirical support that fact-checking may be understood as a democracy-building tool that emerges where democratic institutions are perceived to be weak or are under threat and examines similarities between the growth of fact-checking interventions and previous consumer reform movements. As politics increasingly adopts strategies orchestrated by marketing and advertising consultants and agencies – exemplified in the Brexit referendum – political fact-checking may benefit from examining the path of consumer reform movements. For, before fact-checking can be effective at informing individuals, it must first establish itself within a structural environment

Peace after Brexit: the case of Northern Ireland

Since its occurrence in January 2020, Brexit has garnered much academic interest and its consequences in domestic and international politics have become subject to analysis. The constituent parts of the United Kingdom are reacting to Brexit in distinct ways and tensions are particularly pronounced in Northern Ireland as it is a nation within the United Kingdom, but shares an island with the Republic of Ireland. The objective of this thesis is to analyse Brexit as a critical juncture in the context of Northern Ireland’s peace process and its maintenance. The main research question is: how has Brexit impacted the fragile peace in Northern Ireland? The main hypothesis of this thesis is that the British exit from the EU destabilises peace in Northern Ireland, as the Good Friday Agreement has been shelved in favour of the Ireland/Northern Ireland Protocol. Using critical juncture theory and process tracing methodology, provides a systematic framework from antecedent conditions to cleavages to the critical juncture to its legacy. The antecedent conditions focus on The Troubles (1968-1998) and the legacy of the critical juncture (Brexit) ends with May 2022 Stormont elections. The Good Friday Agreement and the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland, from the Withdrawal Agreement, provide primary source evidence for peacekeeping in Northern Ireland and secondary sources expose the actual steps taken to subdue tensions. Both the Good Friday Agreement and the Protocol emphasise cooperation between Belfast, London, and Dublin. However, much of the cooperation used to be mediated by the European Union. A dissonance is apparent between the primary sources and the reality, thus, challenges from 1998 remain in 2022.https://www.ester.ee/record=b5508405*es

Practitioner perceptions: critical junctures and the global emergence and challenges of fact-checking

Since 2003 and the emergence of FactCheck.org in the United States, fact-checking has expanded both domestically and internationally. As of February, 2016, the Duke Reporter’s Lab identified nearly 100 active initiatives around the world. This research explores why fact-checking is spreading globally at this point in time. Seen as a professional reform movement in the journalistic community (Graves, 2016), historical research on reform movements suggest several possible factors influencing the emergence of fact-checking including a decline in journalism, easy access to technology for the masses, and socio-political strife (McChesney, 2007; Pickard, 2015; Stole, 2006). Using a phenomenological approach, two focus groups were conducted among fact-checkers during the 2015 Global Fact-checking Summit in London, England. Participants shared rich experiences about conditions and contexts surrounding the emergence and challenges facing their organizations. Ultimately, as the purpose of this research is to help future fact-checkers around the world become aware of the circumstances under which fact-checking is most likely to emerge and thrive (or fail), recommendations from current global practitioners are offered.Accepted manuscrip

The Mapuche and Chilean State: An Analysis of the State Reaction to Mapuche Protests

The history between the Mapuche and Chilean state is long and complex. Since 2000, the conflict between the state and Mapuche has periodically drawn wider public attention as well as public demands for change. In this thesis, I look to examine how the Chilean state has reacted to the demands of the Mapuche since 2000. Mapuche activists have protested violently and peacefully against state policy that has left many rural Mapuche impoverished and landless. This project assesses the impact of protests on state-Mapuche policy. The project also examines how deeply entrenched neoliberal fiscal policies of the state play a central role in shaping policies and privileging major business interests

Country at a Crossroads: An Insight into How an Economic Crisis Led to Dramatic Policy Change

In this paper, we try to understand the nature of the changes to Mexican macroeconomic policy in the early 1980s using a critical juncture framework. The framework argues that three elements - crisis, ideational change, and radical policy change - must be identified in order for us to be able to declare, with some certainty, whether an event constitutes a critical juncture. Utilizing this framework, we will ascertain if the changes to Mexican macroeconomic policy constituted a clean break with the past, or were a continuation of previously established policy pathways

Institutional drivers, historical determinism, and economic development in Mozambique

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the evolution of political and economic institutions, their persistence and interdependence and their effects on economic progress in Mozambique. Design/methodology/approach Using a unique data set, which has developed detailed long-run indices of institutional change in Mozambique from 1900 onwards, the research utilizes time-series econometrics to estimate cointegration relations and Vector Autoregressive and Vector Error Correction models, and also Granger causality, correlation and residual analysis when interpreting the estimation results. Findings It shows support for path dependence in political and economic institutions as well as the critical juncture theory and modernization hypothesis, and for webs of association between these institutions and economic development. It provides evidence of an equilibrium-dependent process, where history does matter (as do early conditions), and whose impact may differ depending on the nature of institutional arrangements. Various institutions created during colonial times have a bearing on the present state of institutions in Mozambique, as reflected in important continuities regarding the forms of political economy, among others. Originality/value The work contributes to existing research not only through the employment of a new set of institutional measures, which allows for a particularly long time-series investigation in a developing country setting, but also through its contribution to studies on modernization and critical junctures but in a longitudinal manner which allows for the exploration of complex dynamics embedded within a country’s particular political economy. The implications are far-reaching and carry importance beyond the academy given the pressure on policymakers to get things right because of the persistence of institutions and their consequences and the associated path dependency

Wrong Choices, Missed Chances: The Motivations of Opposition Politicians and the Ensuing Failures at Regime Change in Venezuela, 2013-2022

This work presents a study of the failures to achieve regime change in Venezuela between 2013 and 2022. By using the critical juncture framework, this thesis shows that there have been moments of opportunity where permissive conditions (i.e., structural factors) were present to achieve regime change, that the Venezuelan opposition was incapable of seizing upon those moments of opportunity because they made sub-optimum strategic and coordination choices, and that these choices were influenced by the motivations that opposition actors have to be in politics

A Political and Historic Analysis of the Relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia: how the relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia has influenced U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East

This research discusses the importance of the relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia and how this relationship has influenced and shaped U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. The relationship is framed by the international relations theory of neoclassical realism and the institutions theory of critical junctures. Through this framework, a historical and political case study is performed, analyzing the antithesis that the relationship has continued throughout history because of economic interests and oil. This paper discusses the alternative hypotheses and the other factors that have played an important role in U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, and the factors that have played an important role in shaping the relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia

In Search of Solutions: Stakeholder Perspectives on the Norwegian GP Crisis

MasteroppgaveSAMPOL350MASV-SAP

Climate change and the political pathways of AI: The technocracy-democracy dilemma in light of artificial intelligence and human agency

It is generally thought that artificial intelligence (AI) has a significant impact on politics and democracy. Meanwhile, the technology is also often hailed a solution to key societal and environmental challenges. It raises questions regarding, for example, how we can and should deal with climate change. This article links and discusses these issues by putting them in the context of a technocracy-democracy dilemma and by using the concept of critical junctures. Then it identifies two political pathways of AI and critically discusses their underlying assumptions. This offers a useful framework for further discussion of the relations between AI, climate change, and democracy, and enables the examination of important issues for the politics of technology, such as the role of human expertise vis-à-vis artificial intelligence, the problems raised by techno-solutionism, and the question at what level of governance AI and climate change should be addressed.publishedVersio