The elusive goal of regional development: between the black box and the political agenda

Includes bibliography

Promoting the agenda for a social Economic and Monetary Union: Attention, credibility and coalition-building. Bruges Political Research Paper No. 37, November 2014

In the aftermath of the crisis, new instruments of economic governance have been adopted at the EU level. Until recently, these have been strongly dominated by what I assume to be the ECFIN coalition. However, at least since 2011, this coalition’s supremacy has been challenged by the competing coalition’s (EPSCO) willingness to rebalance the economic governance so that social concerns are better taken into account. Hence, drawing on the agenda-setting literature in the EU context, this working paper aims at retracing the process that has led to put this issue of the social dimension of the EMU on to the EU political agenda. Three hypotheses are made concerning the rise of this issue, the strategies employed by agenda-setters, and the policy subsystem of the economic governance. First, this study shows that the interest in this issue has been gradually fostered ‘from below’, at the level of the European Parliament and the European Commission. Second, due to its ‘high politics’ nature, this issue could only be initiated ‘from above’ (European Council) and then expanded to lower levels of decision-making (Commission). Specifically, DG EMPL has managed to attract attention to this issue and to build its credibility in dealing with it by strategically framing the issue and directing it towards the EPSCO venue. Finally, I analyze the outcome of this agenda-setting process by assessing to what extent the two new social scoreboards which form part of this social dimension have been taken into account during the 2014 European semester. The result of this analysis is that the new economic governance has not been genuinely rebalanced insofar as its dominant policy core remains that of the ECFIN coalition.

An Introduction to Political Communication, 5th Edition

An Introduction to Political Communication introduces students to the complex relationship between politics, the media and democracy in the United Kingdom, United States and other contemporary societies. Brian McNair examines how politicians, trade unions, pressure groups, NGOs and terrorist organisations make use of the media. Individual chapters look at political media and their effects, the work of political advertising, marketing and public relations, and the communicative practices of organizations at all levels, from grass-root campaigning through to governments and international bodies. This fifth edition has been revised and updated to include: • the 2008 US presidential election, and the early years of Barack Obama’s term • the MPs’ expenses scandal in Britain, and the 2010 UK election campaign • the growing role of bloggers and online pundits such as Guido Fawkes in the political agenda setting process • the emergence of social media platforms such as Twitter, YouTube and Facebook, and their destabiising impact on the management of political crises all over the world, including the Iranian pro-reform protests of July 2009 and the Israeli atack on the anti-blockade flotilla of May 2010 • the growing power of Wikileaks and other online information sources to challenge state control of classified information

Setting the agenda, influencing public opinion, and advocating for social change

This study seeks to contribute to the systematic explanation of journalists’ professional role orientations. Focusing on three aspects of journalistic interventionism – the importance of setting the political agenda, influencing public opinion and advocating for social change – multilevel analyses found substantive variation in interventionism at the individual level of the journalist, the level of the media organizations, and the societal level. Based on interviews with 2100 journalists from 21 countries, findings affirm theories regarding a hierarchy of influences in news work. We found journalists to be more willing to intervene in society when they work in public media organizations and in countries with restricted political freedom. An important conclusion of our analysis is that journalists’ professional role orientations are also rooted within perceptions of cultural and social values. Journalists were more likely to embrace an interventionist role when they were more strongly motivated by the value types of power, achievement and tradition.

Awakening a sleeping giant: The riddle of Latino political participation

For some time now, the Latino voice has been gradually gaining strength in American politics, particularly in such states as California, Florida, Illinois, New York, and Texas, where large numbers of Latino immigrants have settled and large numbers of electoral votes are at stake. Yet the issues public officials in these states espouse and the laws they enact often do not coincide with the interests and preferences of Latinos. The fact that Latinos in California and elsewhere have not been able to influence the political agenda in a way that is commensurate with their numbers may reflect their failure to participate fully in the political process by first registering to vote and then consistently turning out on election day to cast their ballots.

To understand Latino voting behavior, I first examine Latino political participation in California during the ten general elections of the 1980s and 1990s, seeking to understand what percentage of the eligible Latino population registers to vote, with what political party they register, how many registered Latinos to go the polls on election day, and what factors might increase their participation in politics. To ensure that my findings are not unique to California, I also consider Latino voter registration and turnout in Texas for the five general elections of the 1990s and compare these results with my California findings.

I offer a new approach to studying Latino political participation in which I rely on county-level aggregate data, rather than on individual survey data, and employ the ecological inference method of generalized bounds. I calculate and compare Latino and white voting-age populations, registration rates, turnout rates, and party affiliation rates for California's fifty-eight counties. Then, in a secondary grouped logit analysis, I consider the factors that influence these Latino and white registration, turnout, and party affiliation rates.

I find that California Latinos register and turn out at substantially lower rates than do whites and that these rates are more volatile than those of whites. I find that Latino registration is motivated predominantly by age and education, with older and more educated Latinos being more likely to register. Motor voter legislation, which was passed to ease and simplify the registration process, has not encouraged Latino registration . I find that turnout among California's Latino voters is influenced primarily by issues, income, educational attainment, and the size of the Spanish-speaking communities in which they reside. Although language skills may be an obstacle to political participation for an individual, the number of Spanish-speaking households in a community does not encourage or discourage registration but may encourage turnout, suggesting that cultural and linguistic assimilation may not be the entire answer.

With regard to party identification, I find that Democrats can expect a steady Latino political identification rate between 50 and 60 percent, while Republicans attract 20 to 30 percent of Latino registrants. I find that education and income are the dominant factors in determining Latino political party identification, which appears to be no more volatile than that of the larger electorate.

Next, when I consider registration and turnout in Texas, I find that Latino registration rates are nearly equal to those of whites but that Texas Latino turnout rates are volatile and substantially lower than those of whites.

Low turnout rates among Latinos and the volatility of these rates may explain why Latinos in California and Texas have had little influence on the political agenda even though their numbers are large and increasing. Simply put, the voices of Latinos are little heard in the halls of government because they do not turn out consistently to cast their votes on election day.

While these findings suggest that there may not be any short-term or quick fixes to Latino participation, they also suggest that Latinos should be encouraged to participate more fully in the political process and that additional education may be one means of achieving this goal. Candidates should speak more directly to the issues that concern Latinos. Political parties should view Latinos as crossover voters rather than as potential converts. In other words, if Latinos were "a sleeping giant," they may now be a still-drowsy leviathan waiting to be wooed by either party's persuasive political messages and relevant issues.

Análisis de la construcción del concepto teórico de Estado fallido y su vinculación con la agenda política estadounidense como forma de legitimar la acción política internacional

La cuestión de los Estados fallidos se ha ido constituyendo como uno de los principales temas de seguridad en el sistema internacional. Ello se debe a que se asume que las principales amenazas para la paz y la estabilidad internacional como el terrorismo, el crimen organizado o la proliferación de armas de destrucción masiva surgen de aquellos Estados considerados como débiles o fallidos. Este discurso es el resultado de la vinculación de una agenda académica con la agenda política de los Estados Unidos y va a ser el marco en el cual se suscribe el presente trabajo.

The Bogota – sabana region : the political economy behind the struggle to implement a sustainable urban development model

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Análisis comparativo del proceso de construcción de la política pública en materia migratoria como prioridad en la agenda interna de un estado, caso de estudio: Colombia y Ecuador de 2003 - 2011

Colombia y Ecuador son países que por mucho tiempo no brindaron mayor importancia al tema migratorio y sus políticas enfocadas a dicha materia fueron incipientes y con resultados poco favorables. Desde principios del siglo XXI, el tema migratorio empezó a considerarse como prioridad dentro de las agendas políticas internas de cada Estado y de ahí surge la necesidad de crear políticas migratorias capaces de dar respuesta efectiva a los nuevos flujos migratorios y de proteger a los emigrantes residentes en el exterior por medio de la garantía de sus derechos fundamentales. No obstante, los resultados en la implementación de dichas políticas varío considerablemente entre los dos países debido a la importancia que se le asignó al tema dentro de la agenda política de cada Estado, mientras que en Ecuador la migración es un considerada como una prioridad interna, para Colombia el tema migratorio sigue siendo relegado por otros temas como el conflicto armado y el desplazamiento forzado interno.

Dossiê agenda de pesquisas em políticas públicas

L'article présente un dossier à propos de l'agenda de recherches en politiques publiques, en affirmant le besoin de développement de cette discipline au Brésil. Les principaux obstacles à ce développement se trouvent dans les dimensions théorique et méthodologique, ainsi que dans la subordination de l'agenda de recherche à l'agenda politique du pays.

A agenda da regulação da comunicação social no Brasil: da constituinte aos impasses contemporâneos

The paper analyzes the regulatory framework for the Media in Brazil in the Federal Constitution and the nexus between democratization and constitutional process, interpreting relevant actors (government, political parties, civil society) and figured as the themes of communication and institutional political agenda. The obstacles to the regulation of many of the statements remain constitutional (right of communication; seal monopolies / oligopolies; regionalization of cultural production; nationalist character in control of broadcasting; compatibility between segments state, public and commercial; Social Communication Council), that replaces debate on the very principle of the right to communication regulation by analyzing the corresponding decisionmaking processes. This conflictual agenda-setting involves multiple interests, from strictly commercial aspirations of companies operating in this market, going by the increasing share of religious institutions who also want to expand upon practices of proselytizing until the interests of policy makers who also have control over a slice of that business.

From Elitism through Corporatism to Pluralism? The Role of Elites in the Political Transition of Ukraine

The group set out to analyse the dynamics of elite groups in Ukraine today, both internal and inter-group, and their ideas on major socio-economic, political and foreign policies, in order to identify the degree of competitiveness between groups, methods of elite recruitment and the degree of elite response, which influence both the political agenda and the results of political activity. Having observed the contemporary debate and identified the pre-eminence of various elite groups in the decision-making process at the regional and state levels, they also sought to determine the type and degree of elite consensus which might be achieved in contemporary Ukraine. They also considered the extent of concealed power, in terms of covert interaction more characteristic of corporate societies, which might allow for the abuse of authority within a technically democratic system. The group then went on to consider the stages of counter-elite transformation and the continuing importance of the communist elite, as well as the issue of rivalry versus consensus. They see their findings as relevant not only to the Central and Eastern European context but also to the situation in Latin America today.

El tratamiento de la epilepsia en la agenda de los medios para una comunicación afirmativa

La cifra de personas que padecen epilepsia en España alcanza, según últimos datos publicados, los 400.000. Si bien cada año se diagnostican 20.000 casos nuevos en nuestro país, la epilepsia es la gran desconocida de las enfermedades por la sociedad. Las personas afectadas y sus familias conviven con una enfermedad que incapacita, en muchas ocasiones, al paciente en su actividad diaria. Es, en este aspecto, donde la morbilidad que rodea a la epilepsia es casi más perjudicial para los enfermos y familiares que la propia enfermedad que ha sido reconocida por la Organización Mundial de la Salud como “un importante problema de salud pública”. El actual trabajo, a partir del análisis de contenido de 159 noticias aparecidas en diferentes soportes on line, presenta cómo tratan la epilepsia los medios de comunicación y su impacto en la agenda de los públicos, así como los temas y el contexto de las noticias sobre la epilepsia en función de la clasificación de públicos que aportamos y que está basada en la Teoría Situacional de Grunig. El logro de estos objetivos, nos ha permitido conocer el grado de sensibilización de la epilepsia a partir del contenido de las noticias por tipo de público y la necesidad de que los medios de comunicación hagan de prescriptores e influenciadores con los actores políticos, para una comunicación afirmativa.

The Cultural Construction of Political Action: The Case of the European Community's Single Market Program. CES Germany & Europe Working Papers, No. 04.3, December 1993

Explaining the emergence of the European Community's Single Market Program requires making sense of how that institutional project carne onto the political agenda. I suggest that there are two features of the political process that have been not well understood. First, large-scale institutional projects usually require political opportunities to come to fruition. Second, they require strategic actors who can frame such projects in broad ways in order to attract a wide variety of groups. My basic argument is that the European Commission is an organization whose function is primarily to solve the bargaining game that characterizes interaction within the Community and act as a strategic actor. This does not suggest that they are always successful or are the only source of ideas, but instead that they are the collective actor responsible for trying to frame collective interests in new cultural ways. To illustrate this point, I document how the; Single Market program evolved within the Commission and how other important Community actors carne to sign on to its goals over time.