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The aim of this article is to analyze the influence level and boundaries that media have on politics. Specifically, we study the power of media to set the public agenda, to set the political agenda determining the decision-making process, and to generate political disaffection through the politicians' and journalists' perceptions. We have used a methodology based on in-depth interviews applied to a wide sample of 45 individuals. The analysis is focused on the European context; the case study is based specifically on Spain. Results show a high level of mediatization of politics, but also reveal limits to the political influence of the media. These boundaries of the media influence on politics affects political agenda setting and its ability to generate civic engagement. Moreover, we have detected four media engagement boundaries that boost the citizens' political cynicism.

This article assesses the impact of sovereign countries in global financial governance. It uses the methodology of international political economy that studies the interaction between political and economic processes in the international arena. It shows the dualistic nature of international financial institutions, which, on the one hand, represent intergovernmental organizations and, on the other hand, are financial institutions with financial goals. The author investigates the principles of sovereign equality, equitable geographical representation and equal (parity) representation of groups of countries with distinct interests in the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Group of 20 (G20) and Financial Stability Board (FSB). The IMF's decision-making mechanism is shown in detail, including its executive board and the recent redistribution of quotas among member states, with special attention on the formula for calculating quotas, its criticism and possible reform. The article shows the major causes of reducing the impact of the IMF and the formation of a new, globally distributed system of financial governance. The article shows the hierarchy (by function as well as by country representativeness) of the system of global financial governance, established by 2010. It discusses the leadership of countries according to quantity and to key indicators (revenues, assets and market capitalization) of global systemically important financial institutions (banks and insurance company). Based on countries' membership in the G7 and the G20, the FSB, IMF, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, and Bank for International Settlements countries are designated as at the core, semi-periphery or periphery of the international financial system in the context of the world systems theory. The influence of the technical elite, prevailing in the international financial sector, as well as the qualitative composition (education) of its members are revealed. The article concludes that there is significant polarization in the international financial system (core and the socalled marginal majority). Unlike the IMF, the newly created global financial institutions of the G20 and FSB fully comply with the principles of equitable geographical representation and parity representation of states with distinct interests.

Evaluates the proposition that asymmetrical economic interdependence among states is a source of political power. Shows that asymmetrical economic interdependence does not imply that less dependent actors will be able to exercise political influence over more dependent ones. The use of economic interdependence for political influence requires, instead, that the exchange of economic resources for political concessions make both parties to a relationship better off than they would be if they bargained over the distribution of the gains from the economic relationship alone. (Abstract amended)

Background: The Framework Convention of Tobacco Control (FCTC) provides a basis for nation states to limit the political effects of tobacco industry philanthropy, yet progress in this area is limited. This paper aims to integrate the findings of previous studies on tobacco industry philanthropy with a new analysis of British American Tobacco's (BAT) record of charitable giving to develop a general model of corporate political philanthropy that can be used to facilitate implementation of the FCTC. Method: Analysis of previously confidential industry documents, BAT social and stakeholder dialogue reports, and existing tobacco industry document studies on philanthropy. Results: The analysis identified six broad ways in which tobacco companies have used philanthropy politically: developing constituencies to build support for policy positions and generate third party advocacy; weakening opposing political constituencies; facilitating access and building relationships with policymakers; creating direct leverage with policymakers by providing financial subsidies to specific projects; enhancing the donor's status as a source of credible information; and shaping the tobacco control agenda by shifting thinking on the importance of regulating the market environment for tobacco and the relative risks of smoking for population health. Contemporary BAT social and stakeholder reports contain numerous examples of charitable donations that are likely to be designed to shape the tobacco control agenda, secure access and build constituencies. Conclusions and Recommendations: Tobacco companies' political use of charitable donations underlines the need for tobacco industry philanthropy to be restricted via full implementation of Articles 5.3 and 13 of the FCTC. The model of tobacco industry philanthropy developed in this study can be used by public health advocates to press for implementation of the FCTC and provides a basis for analysing the political effects of charitable giving in other industry sectors which have an impact on public health such as alcohol and food.

In normal times and as to normal countries, the study of the continuity of political party life would be of interest mainly to the political scientist. But these are not normal times, and Japan today is not a normal country. In 1948, the subject holds far more than academic interest, and it is intimately affected by the supervision of Japanese administration by the Allied Powers.Allied policy affecting the continuity of political influence is shown in the famed "purge directive" of January 4, 1946, known as SCAPIN 550, "The Removal and Exclusion of Undesirable Personnel from Public Office." This article, however, is not concerned with that directive but with the character of the pre-war political influence that remains after the purge has cut out affected elements. It is concerned with the element of pre-war political leadership present in the founding of the two major postwar conservative parties, the effect of the purge directive upon their leadership, their organizational and institutional character, the political influence of governmental bureaucracies, and the problem of party finance. Finally, attention is given to the possibility of a merger of the prewar elements into one post-war organization.The two conservative parties contending for political supremacy today are the Democratic-Liberal party (Minshu Jiyu-to), and the Democratic party (Minshuto), respectively the direct lineal descendants of the Liberal party (Jiyuto) and the Progressive party (Shimpoto), both of which were organized in November, 1945.

AbstractMany scholars argue that retrospective voting is a powerful information shortcut that offsets widespread voter ignorance. Even deeply ignorant voters, it is claimed, can effectively punish incumbents for bad performance and reward them if things go well. But if voters' understanding of which officials are responsible for which outcomes is systematically biased, retrospective voting becomes an independent source of political failure rather than a cure for it. We design and administer a new survey of the general public and political experts to test for such biases. Our analysis reveals frequent, large, robust biases in voter attributions of responsibility for a variety of political actors and outcomes with a tendency for the public to overestimate influence, although important examples of underestimation also exist.

Bargaining theory is used to evaluate the proposition that asymmetrical economic interdependence among states is a source of political power. It is shown that asymmetrical economic interdependence does not imply that less dependent actors will be able to exercise political influence over more dependent ones. The use of economic interdependence for political influence requires, instead, that the exchange of economic resources for political concessions make both parties to a relationship better off than they would be if they bargained over the distribution of the gains from the economic relationship alone. Whether this is true is independent of the degree of asymmetry in the economic relationship, or its direction. An explanation is given for the fact that other scholars have reached different conclusions, and the implications of these results for our understanding of a variety of types of relations among governments are derived.

Examines cross-border impact of Hong Kong's citizen political activities and media coverage of events in China, particularly Shenzhen; prior to the 1997 retrocession, chiefly. Included in a collection of articles under the overall title "Informal channels of political influence". Defines South China as including the provinces of Guangdong (with the special economic zones (SEZs) of Shenzhen, Zhuhai, and Shantou), Hainan, and Fujian.

THIS STUDY EXAMINES POLITICAL, INSTITUTIONAL AND ECONOMIC INFLUENCES ON MONETARY POLICY IN THE LONG RUN. A MONETARY POLICY REACTION FUNCTION IS ESTIMATED, WHICH FOCUSES PRINCIPALLY ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE ADMINISTRATION, CONGRESS AND THE FEDERAL RESERVE ON OUTCOMES; THESE INFLUENCES ARE ESTIMATED TOGETHER WITH A VARIETY OF ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL CONTROLS. THE FINDINGS SHOW THAT PARTISAN CONTROL OF THE WHITE HOUSE IS PARTICULARLY IMPORTANT IN EXPLAINING VARIATIONS IN THE GROWTH OF THE QUANTITY OF MONEY OVER TIME. REPUBLICAN CONTROL OF THE WHITE HOUSE IS ASSOCIATED WITH TIGHTER MONEY, AND DEMOCRATIC CONTROL WITH LOOSER MONEY, BUT THERE ARE EXCEPTIONS. FINALLY, THE INDIRECT INFLUENCE OF PARTISANSHIP ON THE E ECONOMIC VARIABLES IN THE REACTION FUNCTION SUGGEST THAT THE TOTAL EFECTS ARE STRONGER THAN THE DIRECT EFFECTS ALONE.

The aim of this article is to analyze the influence level and boundaries that media have on politics. Specifically, we study the power of media to set the public agenda, to set the political agenda determining the decision-making process, and to generate political disaffection through the politicians' and journalists' perceptions. We have used a methodology based on in-depth interviews applied to a wide sample of 45 individuals. The analysis is focused on the European context; the case study is based specifically on Spain. Results show a high level of mediatization of politics, but also reveal limits to the political influence of the media. These boundaries of the media influence on politics affects political agenda setting and its ability to generate civic engagement. Moreover, we have detected four media engagement boundaries that boost the citizens' political cynicism.

A gender gap of six to eight percentage points differentiated the vote of women from that of men throughout the presidential elections of the 1980s. Women's greater preference for Democratic candidates, coupled with an increased rate of voting relative to men, has increased women's influence on electoral politics for the first time since the suffrage period. Despite the fact that women's voting behavior does not correspond to many criteria of group politics, the large numbers of women voters are beginning to have an impact on the nature of campaign discourse and election issues. These changes were particularly apparent in the 1988 Republican campaign to win the undecided women voters.