Entrevista com David Malone

David Malone, presidente do International Development Research Center - IDRC/Canada.

Presidents, assemblies, and accountability

Much research has explored the relationship between economics and elections, and scholars have begun to explore how institutions mediate that link. However, the relationship between presidential institutions and electoral accountability remains largely unexplored in comparative politics. Because voters in presidential systems can cast votes for executive and legislative elections separately, we have good reasons to suspect that the institutions of presidentialism might generate different forms or degrees of accountability than parliamentarism. Powell and Whitten (1993) suggest that the partisan or institutional “clarity of responsibility” might mediate the relationship between economics and elections: when responsibility for outcomes is clear, the relationship should be strong, and vice-versa. I develop this notion for use in presidential systems, and explore executive and legislative elections in 24 countries. The results indicate that economics always influences the incumbent vote in executive elections, regardless of the partisan or institutional clarity of responsibility. Economics also affects vote swings in legislative elections, but the institutional clarity of responsibility does mediate this relationship: legislative accountability for national economic outcomes is lowest when clarity of responsibility is highest, a situation that arises when the president is relatively more powerful and the bases for electing legislators and the president differ. By providing an empirical basis for a discussion of accountability under presidentialism, these findings contribute to important debates in comparative politics.

Luto, admiração e política no tributo das redes sociais a David Bowie

A notícia da morte do músico inglês David Bowie, em 10 de janeiro, repercutiu internacionalmente em homenagens e lamentos. As redes sociais transformaram-se, na manhã de segunda-feira, 11 de janeiro, em um espaço online de culto ao celebrado artista, vítima de câncer aos 69 anos, e ao longo da semana o adeus a Bowie se manteve pulsante no mundo inteiro. No Twitter, os tributos ao astro emanaram de diversos países, desde colegas artistas até líderes políticos, numa comprovação de que sua criação artística e influência perpassaram diferentes gerações e culturas. Afinal, Bowie foi capaz de fundir distintas tendências e elementos sonoros, comportamentais e visuais em um sincretismo sensível continuamente inovador.