Economic theory and social justice

Is justice individualistic or both individualistic andsocial? Opposite views on this question include von Hayek, who said that `social justice' was an oxymoron, and the late Holy Father who, in Sollicitudo Rei Socialis said that some socio-economic institutions can have`structures of sin' in their architectures. The Old Testament prophets have been interpreted either way! Using results from the Capital Controversy in economic theory, Sen's work on famines, and the Parsonian theory of the institution, we show that the `social'-justice dimension of an individual act is where its justice is unintelligible in merely individualistic terms, but requires institutional analysis.Social justice; economic justice; microfoundations of macroeconomics; Capital controversy

What News Users Perceive as ‘Alternative Media’ Varies between Countries: How Media Fragmentation and Polarization Matter

Studies have extensively discussed what characterizes news media sources as alternative. However, this study focuses on users and the range of news sources they perceive as alternative media. We expect that these audience perceptions vary between countries, depending on the level of media fragmentation and polarization. We use original survey data from five countries (Denmark = 2,667 respondents; Italy = 2,121; Poland = 2,536; Switzerland = 1,859; United States = 3,493) and investigate (i) what sources are perceived by users as alternative and (ii) whether these perceptions differ among users embedded in more or less fragmented-polarized media environments. Our results reveal that users have distinctive types of media in mind when reporting alternative media consumption, fanning out on a spectrum from traditional mass media outlets to self-proclaimed alternative news media. Interestingly, despite a greater supply of alternative news sources and an overall higher propensity to indicate the use of alternative news sources, citizens in more fragmented-polarized media environments are more likely to indicate using mass media outlets as alternative news media. We conclude from these findings that media fragmentation and polarization in a political information environment contribute to the convergence of the alternative-to-mainstream spectrum in the eyes of their audiences

The relationship between crowd psychology and elite theory and its contemporary relevance

UIDB/00183/2020 UIDP/00183/2020The influence of the authors of the so-called “crowd psychology” on the conventional interpretation of the “irrationality” of the masses in political life has been widely recognized. More recently, Ernesto Laclau has underlined the influence of this tradition on the liberal-democratic views on direct, mass democracy. This conventional interpretation may be reconstructed starting from different intellectual traditions: crowd psychology, properly speaking, its complementary, the “classical” elite theory, and the influence of the positivist analysis of the “criminal” and “psychopathological” behaviors of the masses. However, this influence, far from being confined to the liberal distaste for mass democracy, has been relevant not only for the fascist regimes of the 20th century but also for the contemporary right-wing populist interpretation of the role of the masses in political life, in spite of its purported antielitism.publishersversionpublishe

Activismo ciudadano y acontecimientos políticos en la transformación de la esfera pública digital en españa: del sms ¡pásalo! a Podemos

This paper discusses digital communication, activism and political system in Spain from a critical-historical perspective. The results of combined empirical and analytical research indicate that a critical digital public sphere emerged in 2004 affecting the evolution of the political sphere to this day. Traditional parties had a slow and instrumental approach to the digital realm. Conversely, cyber-activism unfolded new options of political action, both in the short and long term, transforming the bipartisan system.El artículo aborda la comunicación digital, el activismo y el sistema político en España desde una perspectiva crítica-histórica. Los resultados de una investigación empírica y analítica indican que en 2004 surgió una esfera pública digital crítica que afectó la evolución de la esfera política hasta hoy. Los partidos tradicionales se acercaron al entorno digital de manera lenta e instrumental. En cambio, el ciberactivismo abrió nuevas opciones de acción política, a corto y largo plazo, transformando el sistema bipartidista

Building extreme right discourses on Twitter for non-campaign periods: insights from populist leaders across Europe

The growing success of extreme right-wing populist parties changed the political state of play in Europe, which has been widely studied by the literature. Populist parties apply a particular communication style, based on simple and non-mediated messages on social media that promote distrust in public institutions. However, the ways in which these strategies are applied for non-campaigns weeks remain little addressed by academia, as well as its development in small countries. This study examines how far-right leaders from European countries with different sizes and historical extremist backgrounds used Twitter during a non-campaign period (29 September 2020 to 28 February 2021). Specifically, we analyze the issues (issue frame), strategies (game frame), and propaganda mechanisms employed through a mixture of quantitative and qualitative approaches. The sample includes the messages posted on Twitter (n=1346) by the leaders of the main far-right parties in France (Rassemblement National), Austria (FPÖ), Germany (AfD), Spain (Vox), and Portugal (Chega!). A manual content analysis was applied, allowing comparison of countries with different traditions regarding the Extreme Right. The results show a common pattern of anti-migration messages as the main topic for their communication style, but some differences are found in terms of agenda and propaganda. The most recent parties (AfD, Vox, and Chega!) rarely use Twitter tools, which means leaving behind the interactive capacity of social media; meanwhile, the agenda is less thematic in the Austrian and Portuguese cases. Our research contributes to discussions about the communication practices of far-right populist parties in Europe, identifying trends by country as the binary opposition between the people and the elite is not expressed through the same type of propaganda