Suchergebnisse

Religious parties and religious organizations : the fruits of partnership -- Religious parties, religious organizations and the decline of civil liberties -- The institutionalization of religious organizations in MMCs : statistical evidence -- Civil liberties in Muslim-majority countries : statistical evidence -- The fall of an icon : institutionalization of religious organizations : Turkey -- Resilience and decline : religious parties, religious organizations and institutionalization in Pakistan -- The fall of an icon : the decline in civil liberties in Turkey -- Resilience and decline : civil liberties in Pakistan -- Conclusion : summary and implications for future research.

Political corruption is one of the globe's most pressing yet seemingly permanent problems. It is a root cause of low growth and inequality, and plagues numerous nations throughout the world to varying degrees. This book examines corruption levels in sixty-four developing democracies over a twenty-year period

In 2023, India experienced another year of strong economic growth; it was the fastest- growing economy in the world. However, as before, this growth was accompanied by growing unemployment and inequality between urban and rural regions. Furthermore, the year was marked yet again by significant declines in the quality of democracy as the parliament was increasingly marginalized, a new law effectively handed control of the Election Commission of India to the incumbent government, and laws and government actions curbed civil liberties and human rights. One major positive development was the passage of a law reserving seats for women in the directly elected national and state assemblies. India successfully hosted its first G20 summit but also dealt with major foreign policy issues, including increasing rivalry with China for regional influence, accusations of assassination attempts by its intelligence agencies in friendly countries, and the ongoing Israel–Palestine conflict. Finally, 2023 saw the BJP claim dominant electoral victories in four out of nine states, putting it in government in 16 of the 28 Indian states.

Given their citizens' religiosity, the presence of religious parties, and the salience of religion in the politics of India and Pakistan, it is likely that politicians in both of these countries vary considerably in how religious they are. How do these differences influence their political and policy choices? We know surprisingly little about this question. This paper uses data from survey experiments fielded to politicians in India (in 2019) and Pakistan (in 2018) to examine how religiosity is correlated with politicians' risk-taking behaviors. Given that research finds they are correlated in citizens and the ubiquity of both risk and religion in politics, understanding this relationship is important. The experimental data reveal that in both countries highly religious and less religious politicians make very different choices on a risky policy decision. Highly religious politicians are risk-seeking in India but risk-averse in Pakistan. While the less religious politicians approximate rational actors, the highly religious politicians violate both rational actor and prospect theory decision-making models.

Does the experiential legacy of participating in autocratic legislatures influence how autocratic-era opposition parties and politicians want to use legislatures in a subsequent democracy? Do they learn to use legislatures to strengthen or undermine democracy? Given the frequency of institutionalized autocracies, of opposition party led post-transition governments, and importance of legislatures in democracies these are important questions. This paper addresses them by first drawing on research on authoritarian legacies, and on organizational and individual learning to identify three potential institutional lessons opposition parties and politicians could learn from their autocratic legislative experience about how to use legislatures in a subsequent democracy. It then uses data from a survey of almost 200 Egyptian politicians conducted during the 2011 elections to test which lessons parties and politicians learned by focusing on their support for protecting judicial independence from legislative interference in the future democratic regime. We find that (i) experienced opposition parties learn a democracy-strengthening institutional lesson, (ii) experienced opposition politicians learn a democracy-weakening institutional lesson, and (iii) membership in an experienced opposition party curbed the undemocratic institutional preferences of experienced politicians. Thus, authoritarian institutions leave diverse legacies among ruling and opposition parties and politicians with very different consequences for subsequent democracy.

Political families are common across many countries in Asia, including Pakistan. Politicians from political families (PPFs) make decisions with the goal of maximizing the political prospects of the entire family, in contrast to non-PPFs, who maximize their individual political self-interest. This changes the impact they have on their country. Scholars find that the presence of PPFs is associated with significantly worse development and governance outcomes, including in Pakistan. However, we know much less about their impact on political outcomes. In this paper, we use original data from a 2018 systematic national survey of about 150 Pakistani politicians to investigate PPFs' support for key democratic institutions and practices. We find that compared to non-PPFs, Pakistani PPFs are significantly more supportive of instrumentally useful institutions and practices such as free and fair elections, an independent judiciary, and a free media, but no different in their low level of support for human rights.