Suchergebnisse

Im Zuge der Griechenland-Krise ist in Politik und Medien wiederkehrend die Rede vom politischen Klientelimus. Selten wird jedoch genauer dargestellt, worum es sich dabei handelt und inwiefern es ein problematisches Phänomen – und nicht einfach Teil der Normalität demokratischer Politik – ist. Isabel Kusche gibt einen Überblick über den Stand der internationalen Forschung und arbeitet deren theoretische Defizite heraus. Unter Rückgriff auf die Differenzierungstheorie und in kritischer Anknüpfung an frühe Arbeiten Niklas Luhmanns deutet sie klientelistische Strukturen als spezifische Variante informeller politischer Macht. Über den Vergleich von Griechenland und Irland wird das Phänomen im europäischen Kontext verständlich.

Bedarf an Politikberatung wird üblicherweise als Folge von Entscheidungsunsicherheiten in der Politik gedeutet. Das Buch benutzt diesen Problembezug, um neben der wissenschaftlichen Politikberatung Varianten nicht-wissenschaftlicher Politikberatung unter gemeinsamen Gesichtspunkten zu untersuchen. Politikberatung bietet Sicherheit nicht auf der Basis überlegenen Wissens, sondern weil sie die politiksystemexterne Zurechnung von Wissen erlaubt. Programmbezogene Erwartungsstrukturen, die sich auf die Selbstbeschreibung des politischen Systems als Wohlfahrtsstaat beziehen, werden dabei anders abge

AbstractPossible gender differences in the self-presentation of political candidates have been a recurring research topic for many years. Yet studies that compare large numbers of candidates have mainly used data from the United States. This article uses a unique data set from the run-up to the 2016 general election in Ireland to compare the self-presentation of male and female candidates. The data are based on video statements of almost 90% of the candidates who ran in the election. With its lack of party polarization and recent introduction of a gender quota, Ireland is a particularly interesting case for analyzing possible gender differences in political campaigning. Findings confirm previous research that has found few gender differences in issue priorities but contradict it in other respects, especially regarding differences in stressing political experience and personal background. The results suggest that female candidates saw electoral benefits from conforming to expectations about women as caregivers, but they wished to avoid a stereotype limiting them to this role by also emphasizing their occupational background. Their strong personalization may also indicate an attempt to stress individuality in a context in which the gender quota drew special attention to women as a category.

The case of Ireland provides an example of a long-term critical reflection on the nature of democracy that is not linked to social movements. Instead it is the result of an interplay between social science research, mass media, and par-liamentary debate, all of which employ the notion of clientelism. The structural feature on which the respective critique focuses is the peculiar relationship be-tween public representatives and voters in Ireland. It is strongly based in con-stituency service and individual brokerage and thus contradicts universalistic expectations towards modern politics. The article starts with a justification of the choice of the case and the theoretical framework, i.e. the sociology of critical capacity proposed by Boltanski and Thévenot. It then introduces records of parliamentary debates and newspaper articles as the empirical material and qualitative content analysis as the main method of analysis. Subsequent sections reconstruct the dynamics of the critical reflection over a thirty-year period and highlight significant patterns of critique and justification.

The case of Ireland provides an example of a long-term critical reflection on the nature of democracy that is not linked to social movements. Instead it is the result of an interplay between social science research, mass media, and parliamentary debate, all of which employ the notion of clientelism. The structural feature on which the respective critique focuses is the peculiar relationship be-tween public representatives and voters in Ireland. It is strongly based in con-stituency service and individual brokerage and thus contradicts universalistic expectations towards modern politics. The article starts with a justification of the choice of the case and the theoretical framework, i.e. the sociology of critical capacity proposed by Boltanski and Thévenot. It then introduces records of parliamentary debates and newspaper articles as the empirical material and qualitative content analysis as the main method of analysis. Subsequent sections reconstruct the dynamics of the critical reflection over a thirty-year period and highlight significant patterns of critique and justification.

Im Zuge der Griechenland-Krise ist in Politik und Medien wiederkehrend die Rede vom politischen Klientelimus. Selten wird jedoch genauer dargestellt, worum es sich dabei handelt und inwiefern es ein problematisches Phänomen - und nicht einfach Teil der Normalität demokratischer Politik - ist. Isabel Kusche gibt einen Überblick über den Stand der internationalen Forschung und arbeitet deren theoretische Defizite heraus. Unter Rückgriff auf die Differenzierungstheorie und in kritischer Anknüpfung an frühe Arbeiten Niklas Luhmanns deutet sie klientelistische Strukturen als spezifische Variante informeller politischer Macht. Über den Vergleich von Griechenland und Irland wird das Phänomen im europäischen Kontext verständlich. Isabel Kusche ist Associate Professor und Fellow am Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies der Universität Aarhus in Dänemark.

The article proposes a systems-theoretical approach to political clientelism. It places political clientelism in the theoretical framework of a democratic political system characterized by internal differentiation in government and bureaucracy, party politics and a politically relevant public. Against the background of existing research on the link between democracy and political clientelism, it uses Luhmann's concept of power and more specifically his model of the formal and the informal power cycle to point out parallels and differences between a political system based on expectations with regard to policies and a political system in which clientelistic expectations prevail. Democratic political systems are based on formal, legally codified power and informal power. Clientelistic power is a special form of informal power affecting this interplay, as the example of democratization in Mexico shows. Political systems with clientelistic expectations differ from those with a policy orientation with regard to the complexity of policies, the generalization of political support, the bases for personalization, the pattern of interest articulation and the most prominent external influences on the system.

The article analyses political consulting as an attempt at controlling political communication effects, using Luhmann's theory of social systems as the framework. On the basis of causal attributions, the instruments of political consulting provide campaign decisions with special expertise. However, the selectivity of these causal attributions intensifies the second‐order observation of public opinion. An appraisal of the, mostly American, literature on election campaigns and consulting therefore leads to the conclusion that political consulting both reduces the uncertainty of specific campaign decisions and increases the overall uncertainty of politics. The double‐edged effects of political consulting are a consequence of the self‐referential operation of a differentiated political system. This is highlighted by a comparison with Russia where, under conditions of inchoate functional differentiation, the equivalent of political consulting takes on a different character.