Suchergebnisse

Much of the literature on fringe political parties in post-communist Europe focused on the relationship with mainstream parties. Little is known about what happens at the fringes, what are the features of politics at the fringes and when this type of politics becomes mainstream. This symposium moves beyond the notion of the fringe versus mainstream dichotomy: it is more 'granular' in its approach and seeks to differentiate between different forms of 'fringe' parties. The contributions aim to explore how and whether the fringe in post-communist countries changes in an age of populism and illiberalism. They represent an important attempt to take the fringe as a feature of politics that is not necessarily transient or a manifestation of the 'growing pains' of post-communism.

People are motivated to avoid losses. In the context of politics, studies consistently show that the threat of losses increases support for risky public policies more than the promise of gains. Here, we predict that this loss aversion is calibrated by individual differences related to one's ability to accommodate resource loss, and we investigate how these individual differences moderate reactions to the threat of losses and the promise of gains. Results from large-N experiments consistently demonstrate that this moderation effect crucially depends on whether the resource loss relates to oneself or one's group—whether the setting is personal or political. Consistent with classic assumptions, individuals with inferior abilities to cope with resource loss are more loss averse in personal settings. In political settings where group resources are threatened, effects reverse: Individuals with superior resources and a more central position within the group consistently respond more to the prospect of loss. As discussed, these findings have important implications for our understanding of why and for whom the threat of loss motivates risky personal and political choices. By consequence, the findings also shed novel light on the psychological underpinnings of recent risky political events.

This study develops and illustrates the notion of dissonant political discourse. The discourse of dissonance is to be found wherever there is public debate on controversial topics or on topics requiring a decision, notably in the political arena. Discourse of this kind is characterized by arguments demonstrating both how hard and how necessary it is to face up to any decision that will put the decision maker in an inconsistent position. Findings confirm that voices heard in the arena of political discourse make use of dissonant argument when experiencing difficulties in justifying decisions. Ironically, it is precisely the evidence of difficulties encountered by the speakers that shows how continuation of the joint debate is ensured

GREENLEAF'S THE BRITISH POLITICAL TRADITION IS ONE OF the most impressive intellectual and physical endeavours of modern British political studies. And yet even with these two recent books of over five hundred pages each, to match the first equally wellloaded and well-balanced double-barrelled pair which appeared in 1983, The Rise of Collectivism and The Ideological Heritage, the enterprise is still not complete. A fifth book is to follow on 'The World Outside' —which must dampen down for the moment an obvious criticism that the British political tradition would seem, on Professor Greenleaf s account, to be uniquely unaffected, like ancient China or Japan, by the outside world; or the outside world by it.

Are you married? Are you dating? What does your spouse do? One would
think we learned years ago not to ask such questions of prospective
job candidates. Nonetheless, several of our candidates on the job
market in this interviewing season, both male and female, were asked
precisely these questions—even the one about dating.