Australian votes in the making: a critical review of voter behaviour research in Australia

Raphaella Kathryn Crosby conducted a critical review of the theory and method of voter behaviour research, with a focus on the 2019 Australian federal election. She found there was little agreement or consensus among the research, and no common narrative of the election. Using a Grounded Theory approach she identified five distinct battlegrounds of the 2019 election, and proposed two new theories to explain seemingly illogical voter behaviour

Disinformation and Fact-Checking in Contemporary Society

Funded by the European Media and Information Fund and research project PID2022-142755OB-I00

“Put a crapaud in a suit and people will vote for the PNM”: A critical examination of patronage, loyalty, and the structuring force of party partisanship in Trinidad

This dissertation examines an unflattering aspect of political partisanship in Trinidad: the ambivalences of being a party loyalist. Extensive scholarship on Trinidadian politics points to the confluence of race and patronage shaping political decisions yet less is spoken of the conflicting subjectivities of loyalists that are obscured by their exercise of franchise once every few years. In truth, there are limited options to reject one’s socio-historical conditioning towards a party in Trinidad because, here, political identities are also psycho-social identities. They are entangled in generational dependencies, shared egalitarian aspirations, and hyper-local networks of reciprocity that make opting out an almost impossible proposition even when faced with a sense of betrayal, anger and anguish towards one’s underperforming party. I trace this disjuncture between lived experiences and political choices against the backdrop of eight local government reform consultations held in the country in 2016. Here I witnessed a disconnect between the political performativity of these events organized and sponsored by the PNM party and the emotional and affective interjections of a disgruntled and distressed public. Tellingly, the majority of my participants who attended these events also identified as PNM party supporters. Through interviews and participant observation at political events, community meetings, intimate family affairs, and backyard parties or “limes,” I piece together the compelling configuration of ethnic mobilization, political patronage and everyday sociality that fundamentally shapes partisan articulations of being and belonging. By continually realigning themselves to their failing party, my participants came to reenact their structural dispositions even as they asserted their own agency – concealing race talk in articulations of morality, demanding patronage through narratives of entitlement, and disavowing politics while seeking intervention in civic matters. My goal is to complicate our assumptions of party loyalty as a stable, purposeful and individualistic display of partisanship by viewing it also as a product of contested and ambivalent political subjectivities

Modeling and Analyzing Collective Behavior Captured by Many-to-Many Networks

L'abstract è presente nell'allegato / the abstract is in the attachmen

Authoritarian Regimes in Small Island States: The Anomalous Cases of Electoral Autocracies in Fiji, the Maldives and Seychelles

Authoritarian regimes established through multiparty elections are nearly as prevalent in the world as full democracies and near democracies. Yet most small island developing states (SIDS) are democracies. Despite their diminutive size, Fiji, the Maldives and Seychelles are anomalous because, post-independence, they developed security forces, experienced successful coups, and established authoritarian regimes. This thesis examines political, military and governmental developments in Fiji, the Maldives and Seychelles, before and after they attained independence from Great Britain, to ascertain why autocracies emerged. Deficiencies in democracy contributed to the occurrence of coups, authoritarianism and unaccountable leadership. The nature of politics, the role of defence forces, and the features of authoritarian regimes are explored using theories of authoritarianism, personalist leadership, democratisation and political-military relations. Prevailing international norms resulted in multiparty elections being held, however, authoritarianism persisted in the 21st century through manipulation of elections to produce electoral autocracy, rather than electoral democracy. As a consequence, certain civil and political rights, the media, judiciary, opposition politicians, and civil society were constrained and security forces were manipulated or politicised. The resulting authoritarian elections perpetuated autocratic government. The role of the international community in the development of militaries and authoritarianism in the three SIDS is assessed. The scope for government and citizens to reinstate genuine democracy amidst restrictions is explored using theories of democracy, civil-military relations and international electoral norms

The Right-Wing Critique of Europe

The Right-Wing Critique of Europe analyses the opposition to the European Union from a variety of right-wing organisations in Western, Central and Eastern Europe. In recent years, opposition to the processes of globalisation and the programme of closer European integration, understood as a threat to the sovereignty of individual member states, has led to an intensification of Eurosceptic sentiments on the Old Continent. The results of the European parliamentary elections in 2014 and 2019, the Brexit referendum and electoral results in different European countries are all testament to the considerable growth of radical populist-nationalist and conservative-sovereignist movements and parties. The common idea that binds these groups, both in Western Europe and in Central and Eastern Europe, is a hostile attitude towards the idea of (an ever-more integrated) united Europe. These parties reject not only the project of building a European federation, but also the current model of the European Union and the values underlying its attitudes. They are united by their criticism of EU policies, in particular those concerning security, emigration, multiculturalism, gender equality and the rights of minorities, as well as economic liberalism and the common currency. However, this criticism manifests itself with varying degrees of intensity, and not all parties fit the classic definition of Euroscepticism but instead represent its mild form, Eurorealism. The authors bring together reflections on the organic and complex critique of the European Union, its policies and cultural and ideological character. The book provides a comparative analysis of this criticism at the transnational level. This book will be of interest to researchers of European politics, the radical right and Euroscepticism

The Right-Wing Critique of Europe

The Right-Wing Critique of Europe analyses the opposition to the European Union from a variety of right-wing organisations in Western, Central and Eastern Europe. In recent years, opposition to the processes of globalisation and the programme of closer European integration, understood as a threat to the sovereignty of individual member states, has led to an intensification of Eurosceptic sentiments on the Old Continent. The results of the European parliamentary elections in 2014 and 2019, the Brexit referendum and electoral results in different European countries are all testament to the considerable growth of radical populist-nationalist and conservative-sovereignist movements and parties. The common idea that binds these groups, both in Western Europe and in Central and Eastern Europe, is a hostile attitude towards the idea of (an ever-more integrated) united Europe. These parties reject not only the project of building a European federation, but also the current model of the European Union and the values underlying its attitudes. They are united by their criticism of EU policies, in particular those concerning security, emigration, multiculturalism, gender equality and the rights of minorities, as well as economic liberalism and the common currency. However, this criticism manifests itself with varying degrees of intensity, and not all parties fit the classic definition of Euroscepticism but instead represent its mild form, Eurorealism. The authors bring together reflections on the organic and complex critique of the European Union, its policies and cultural and ideological character. The book provides a comparative analysis of this criticism at the transnational level. This book will be of interest to researchers of European politics, the radical right and Euroscepticism

Le cadrage de l’action collective des femmes du hindutva : mères, victimes et guerrières

Ce mémoire analyse la participation des femmes au nationalisme hindou associé au hindutva à travers la perspective de l’action collective, et ce, durant le premier mandat du très charismatique et nationaliste Premier ministre de l’Inde, Narendra Modi (2014–2019). Plus spécifiquement, il s’agit de cerner le narratif mobilisé se matérialisant en actions concrètes par les organisations féminines de la société civile du hindutva les plus importantes, la Rashtra Sevika Samiti et la Durga Vahini. Une analyse de cadrage médiatique permet de recenser les cadres de l’action collective qui sont fondés sur des conceptions socialement construites de la féminité et mobilisés par ces organisations féminines du hindutva. En plus de démontrer la forte prévalence du cadre féminin de la victime, suivis de près par celui de la mère et, finalement, celui de la guerrière, les résultats obtenus démontrent la mobilisation simultanée d’un cadre de compréhension global, le cadre cardinal du hindutva, véhiculant une hindouïté basée sur l’adéquation entre la religion et la nation hindoue. La prédominance des campagnes contre le love jihad et de leur narratif conspirationniste anti-musulman est attribuée au nouvel alignement de cadres issu de la structure d’opportunité politique que représente l’élection majoritaire du BJP. Avec l’élection de Narendra Modi, le parti nationaliste de droite qu’est le BJP solidifie ses positions néolibérales et mobilise un narratif faisant la promotion de l’empowerment féminin. Ces alliances s’inscrivent dans la montée du fémonationalisme, néologisme pouvant être attribué aux idéaux féministes et nationalistes associés à des discours et des politiques xénophobes et, plus particulièrement, anti-musulmans.This thesis analyzes women’s participation in Hindu nationalism associated to the hindutva ideology through the perspective of collective action, during the first term of the charismatic and nationalist Prime minister of India, Narendra Modi (2014–2019). More specifically, it seeks to identify the narrative being mobilized and materialized in concrete actions by the most important female hindutva civil society organizations, the Rashtra Sevika Samiti and the Durga Vahini. A media framing analysis identified the collective action frames based on socially constructed conceptions of femininity and mobilized by these feminine organizations of the hindutva. In addition to demonstrating the high prevalence of the feminine victim frame, closely followed by that of the mother and, finally, that of the warrior, the results demonstrate the simultaneous mobilization of a global framework of understanding, the hindutva master frame, conveying a Hinduism based on the adequacy between religion and the Hindu nation. The predominance of anti love jihad campaigns and their conspiratorial anti-Muslim narrative is attributed to the new frame alignment emerging from the political opportunity structure represented by the majority election of the BJP. With the election of Narendra Modi, the BJP right-wing nationalist party solidifies its neoliberal positions and mobilizes a narrative promoting female empowerment. These alliances are part of the rise of femonationalism, neologism that can be attributed to feminist and nationalist ideals associated with xenophobic and, more specifically, anti-Muslim discourses and policies