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The Chinese Communist Party commands a tight structure of control. What does this mean for the mechanics of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), amid claims of their infiltration?

 A few weeks ago, Thomas Edsall mentioned a survey question on which party was better at looking out for the middle class.  The Democrats led, but only by 36% to 34%, which was the smallest in the 30-year history of the question.  I followed the links and found that the question was part of a group: which party was better at dealing with crime, immigration, education, health care, abortion, looking out for the middle class, and dealing with the economy.  Not all questions were asked in all surveys, and there were substantial gaps for some of them, but they still provide information on how party images have or haven't changed.  I show percent saying Republicans minus percent saying Democrats--that is, positive numbers mean the Republicans have an advantage on the issue.  The color of the points indicates the party of the administration.Republicans consistently had an advantage on dealing with crime, but it's been larger under Biden than it was in the 1990s or the one time it was asked during the Trump administration (October 2020).Neither party has a consistent advantage.  The Democrats generally had an advantage during the Bush, and Trump administrations, but the Republicans have had a big advantage under Biden.  Things were up and down under Obama--overall the parties were close.  Thus, it seems that people react against the party in power, but the reaction has been especially strong under Biden.  Unfortunately, there is a long gap (1996-2011) on this question.  But there is an interesting pattern beginning in 2011--the Republicans made steady gains under Obama and Trump.  On dealing with the economy, there's a similar pattern of steady Republican gains in recent years.  There are also signs of the reaction against the incumbent party that was seen for immigration. The Democrats consistently have an advantage on education, although there's a good deal of fluctuation in the size.  Under Biden, the lead has been small by historical standards.  The Democrats have consistently had an advantage on abortion, although the Republicans seemed to be closing the gap in the 1990s and early 2000s.  Since the Dobbs decision, the Democratic lead has increased.  On health care, the Democrats have consistently had an advantage.  It was smaller under Obama, but has grown under Trump and Biden.  There seems to have been a reaction against Democratic attempts at reform under Clinton and Obama, but as people have experienced the Obama reform they have returned to the Democrats.  For me, the most surprising thing is that Republican gains on the economy and the middle class didn't start with Biden, but have been pretty steady since the early years of the Obama administration.  Since these are important to voters, this is bad news for the Democrats.  However, there is one case in which views about the middle class changed quickly---the Democratic advantage fell from 20 points to 9 between October 1993 and 1994, but then went back to 19 by December 1995.   

Allan Sikk and Philipp Köker challenge traditional distinctions between 'new' and 'old' parties, emphasising the importance of party people – electoral candidates – in understanding the complex shifts within Europe's increasingly volatile party politics.

A student police officer in England's Thames Valley police said he was shunned by others in the department after he reported a fellow officer for watching bodycam video of a woman having a seizure and making crude remarks about her. The officer said he was later told he was not fit for police work and…

South Africa's argument today was historic and extremely important. If you missed it, I recommend that you go back and look for the recording. For the Israeli viewer, at least, the South African argument was a real service because at last, we could connect to a very dominant narrative in world politics, which is completely concealed by Israeli media. However, the hearing also exposed a problem in South Africa's argument, which was also apparent in the written application. The South African case brought before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is highly selective. Prof. John Dugard, in an impressive performance, described how observers watched the events of October 7th "with horror". But people reading the documents and listening to the oral arguments, without otherwise following the events, might think that before and after October 7, Palestinian forces did not shoot a single bullet.

With Joe Manchin announcing he will not seek reelection to his U.S. Senate seat, West Virginia Republicans are poised after 2024 to hold all offices elected on a statewide ballot for the first time in nearly 100 years. In 1928, Herbert Hoover topped the GOP ticket in the state with a 17.4-point victory with Henry…
The post Party Like It's 1928 appeared first on Smart Politics.

by Marko Stojić, Metropolitan University Prague In recent years, the Western Balkans has experienced a significant decline in democracy. This has been especially pronounced in Serbia, a country that is no longer perceived as a functioning democracy but rather categorized as a partly free 'electoral autocracy'. At the same time, Serbia has made some strides […]
The post Partners in Democratic Decline? The European People's Party and the Serbian Progressive Party appeared first on The JCMS Blog.

by Marko Stojić, Metropolitan University Prague In recent years, the Western Balkans has experienced a significant decline in democracy. This has been especially pronounced in Serbia, a country that is no longer perceived as a functioning democracy but rather categorized as a partly free 'electoral autocracy'. At the same time, Serbia has made some strides […]
The post Partners in Democratic Decline? The European People's Party and the Serbian Progressive Party appeared first on Ideas on Europe.

Historically, Black voters in the US have supported the Democratic Party. But after successive Democratic victories at the national and state level, and seemingly few tangible benefits for the Black community, this support is beginning to waver, writes Donovan A. Watts. In new research which analyses the party identification of Black Americans, he finds that … Continued

Apparently Chinese competition in electric cars is worrying the Germans:German car makers must do more to make electric vehicles cheaper and more appealing because manufacturers are losing out to China, the head of Berlin's top group of economic advisers has warned.Monika Schnitzer, chair of the Germany's Council of Economic Experts, said car makers needed to "get their act together" and "do their homework" as people increasingly turn to cheaper Chinese-made cars.Our word. People on the other side of the planet have worked out how to do something - it matters not what it is - better than those closer to us. That those far foreigners look a little different, don't share our political system, speak wildly different languages, matters not. For trade, just trade alone - the freedom of the individual to buy whatever it is from whoever the individual cares to alight upon - means that the local capitalists are forced to rip us off a little less. For that is what is happening here. And it doesn't matter a fermented mung bean why those Chinese are making cheaper cars than Germans. Chinese government subsidies, simple skill, application, lower wages - all make no difference to the important point here. That there is competition in electric vehicles forces those German - and every other in the world - factories to up their game and make better and cheaper. The beneficiaries are, entirely obviously, us. Us consumers, us going about our daily lives. As we've recently noted people will try near any argument to show that trade's a bad idea. And yet think about this. Every producer of everything is, all the time, forced to compete with those who are the best in the world at doing that thing. Which is why things just get cheaper and cheaper for us out here the people the economy ought to be run for. You know, us, the people.True, a problem with Chinese cars could be that we'd just want another one an hour later but if they're cheap enough why not?

Plus: A listener asks the editors why the Libertarian Party waits until election year to nominate its presidential candidate.

Moms for Liberty, a parents' rights movement, is gaining momentum across the US. Like any populist movement, M4L face risks from within, such as the presence of a lunatic fringe. However, their unapologetic advocacy could attract more adherents than it repels, making them a force to be reckoned with.
The post Education's Tea Party Has Arrived appeared first on American Enterprise Institute - AEI.

I had to check up a specific productivity number this morning and noticed that it had got to the time of year when the OECD finally has a complete set of real GDP per hour worked (labour productivity) data for 2022. Data for 2020 and 2021 had been messed around by Covid disruptions, and measurement … Continue reading Does any political party care?

In the latest episode in a decades-long conversation about militant democracy, the growing electoral success and radicalization of Alternative for Germany have relaunched debates about the appropriateness of restricting the political rights of those who might use those rights to undermine the liberal democratic order. While it is typical for dictatorships to ban parties, democracies also do so, but for different reasons and with compunction. Party bans respond to varying rationales which have evolved over time. However, a ban on the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany would be out of step with more general patterns of opposition to such parties in Europe.

Vladimir Lenin (Soviet propaganda poster).