About strategies and tactics of crowd psychological manipulationm media maniputation, campaign management, campiagn strategies, message development, etc...
Enclosed is an account of my continuing efforts to gain greater attention and solidarity concerning recent attempts to repress academic freedom--and the university administrations who, out of either paralyzing aversion to controversy or active complicity, aid and abet the effort to intimidate, harass, and ultimately silence professors. There is so much more to be said--especially about the connection between the deliberate work of white nationalists, the suckering of students into believing that education exists for not other purpose than better wages, and the privatization and/or corporatization of the academy.
We live in dark times, and apparently it must get yet darker before the light.
The informal justice system of garrison constituencies undermines the rule of law in Jamaica but this has not received much scholarly attention. The counter society framework is used to explain garrisons as informal governance units that... more
The informal justice system of garrison constituencies undermines the rule of law in Jamaica but this has not received much scholarly attention. The counter society framework is used to explain garrisons as informal governance units that challenge the state. Society abhors a governance vacuum. People will replicate polices when these polices are inadequate. Governments have reduced public spending in the inner city. The criminal dons have replaced the state as the major patrons of residents and replicated state services including an informal justice system. Participant observation and focus groups revealed that the dons tried the “cases” reported and the shooters meted out punishment. A man was shot in the leg for kicking a pregnant woman. Two women were warned not to fight. Perpetrators of physical assaults and domestic abusers were beaten. Police informers, renegade shooters and borrowers who refuse to repay the dons were executed. Switching party allegiance led to expulsion from the community. Since the demise of the Western Kingston dons by law enforcement, some residents have formally reported crimes. The state must use this opportunity to support these residents, reassert its authority in the other eleven garrison constituencies and outperform the dons with effective public policies thereby making them redundant.
In elections around the world, large numbers of voters are influenced by promises or threats that are contingent on how they vote. Recently, the political science literature has made considerable progress in disaggregating clientelism... more
In elections around the world, large numbers of voters are influenced by promises or threats that are contingent on how they vote. Recently, the political science literature has made considerable progress in disaggregating clientelism along two dimensions: first, in recognizing the diversity of actors working as brokers , and second, in conceptualizing and disaggregating types of clientelism based on positive and negative inducements of different forms. In this review, we discuss recent findings explaining variation in the mix of clientelistic strategies across countries, regions, and individuals and identify a few areas for future progress, particularly in explaining variation in targeting of inducements by politicians on different types of voters.
Democracy, equality and coercion? International law, precedents and "whataboutism" Questionable voting processes at the United Nations? Potemkin democracies and armies? Façades and facism in a global context? Potemkin institutions?... more
Democracy, equality and coercion? International law, precedents and "whataboutism" Questionable voting processes at the United Nations? Potemkin democracies and armies? Façades and facism in a global context? Potemkin institutions? Context and perspective? Questionable adequacy of "dialogue" as practiced? Transcendent "stereoscopic perspective" via meta-discourse? Potential role of AI in global dialogue? References
How do parties target intimidation and vote-buying during elections? Parties prefer the use of carrots over sticks because they are in the business of getting voters to like them and expect higher legitimacy costs if observers expose... more
How do parties target intimidation and vote-buying during elections? Parties prefer the use of carrots over sticks because they are in the business of getting voters to like them and expect higher legitimacy costs if observers expose intimidation. However, their brokers sometimes choose intimidation because it is cheaper and possibly more effective than vote-buying. Specifically, we contend that brokers use intimidation when the cost of buying votes is prohibitively high; in interactions with voters among whom the commitment problem inherent to clientelistic transactions is difficult to overcome; and in contexts where the risk of being denounced for violence is lower. We probe our hypotheses about the different profile of voters targeted with vote-buying and intimidation using two list experiments included in an original survey conducted during the 2011 Guatemalan general elections. The list experiments were designed to overcome the social desirability bias associated with direct qu...
There undeniably exists a relationship between terrorism and electoral behavior. What is still missing, however, is a broader understanding of how exposure to terrorism substantially oriented the trajectory of 58th quadrennial American... more
There undeniably exists a relationship between terrorism and electoral behavior. What is still missing, however, is a broader understanding of how exposure to terrorism substantially oriented the trajectory of 58th quadrennial American presidential election. To that effect, this paper, based on the empirical results, finds that American electorate is more likely to support leaders whose campaign rhetoric towards an external threat appears to be more truculent.
Este artigo revisita as práticas eleitorais no Brasil republicano (1891-1930). Partimos da crítica da farsa eleitoral, incômodo consensual na literatura dedicada à historiografia política da época. Através do exame acurado das... more
Este artigo revisita as práticas eleitorais no Brasil republicano (1891-1930). Partimos da crítica da farsa eleitoral, incômodo consensual na literatura dedicada à historiografia política da época. Através do exame acurado das contestações dirigidas à Câmara Baixa por alguns dos candidatos derrotados nos pleitos realizados para preenchimento das cadeiras desta Casa representativa, veremos que as alegações de fraude se faziam reflexo de um processo mais complexo, sobretudo fruto da competição desencadeada no âmbito subnacional, expressão de embate direto entre facções estaduais rivais. A análise desta rica fonte revela que o estímulo elementar da competição político-partidária nos anos 1900 era a concorrência pelo controle da máquina administrativa das eleições, financiadora inconteste do condicionamento dos resultados dos escrutínios.
Este artigo revisita as práticas eleitorais no Brasil republicano (1891-1930). Partimos da crítica da farsa eleitoral, incômodo consensual na literatura dedicada à historiografia política da época. Através do exame acurado das... more
Este artigo revisita as práticas eleitorais no Brasil republicano (1891-1930). Partimos da crítica da farsa eleitoral, incômodo consensual na literatura dedicada à historiografia política da época. Através do exame acurado das contestações dirigidas à Câmara Baixa por alguns dos candidatos derrotados nos pleitos realizados para preenchimento das cadeiras desta Casa representativa, veremos que as alegações de fraude se faziam reflexo de um processo mais complexo, sobretudo fruto da competição desencadeada no âmbito subnacional, expressão de embate direto entre facções estaduais rivais. A análise desta rica fonte revela que o estímulo elementar da competição político-partidária nos anos 1900 era a concorrência pelo controle da máquina administrativa das eleições, financiadora inconteste do condicionamento dos resultados dos escrutínios.
After more than 20 years of sporadic separatist insurgency, the Free Aceh Movement and the Indonesian government signed an internationally brokered peace agreement in August 2005, just eight months after the Indian Ocean tsunami... more
After more than 20 years of sporadic separatist insurgency, the Free Aceh Movement and the Indonesian government signed an internationally brokered peace agreement in August 2005, just eight months after the Indian Ocean tsunami devastated Aceh's coastal communities. This paper presents a case study of post-conflict electoral campaign messages that circulated by text message (SMS) around Aceh in advance of the April 2009 legislative elections. The elections were widely seen as an important benchmark of success for the peace agreement, in which former members of the Free Aceh Movement were given the right to form local, Aceh-based, political parties—the first of its kind in Indonesia—in exchange for relinquishing their demands for independence. SMS technology is a cheap and efficient medium for spreading campaign messages. The ability for SMS messages to spread virally, ephemerally, and anonymously also enabled the rapid dissemination of threats and rumors designed to intimidate voters and rival candidates. Intimidations by SMS generally had their intended effect as they circulated in a setting of pre-election violence including arson, bombs, and targeted murders. This case study relies upon data that the author collected while working in Aceh as a registered international election observer during the campaign season in advance of the elections.
How do parties target intimidation and vote-buying during elections? Parties prefer the use of carrots over sticks because they are in the business of getting voters to like them and expect higher legitimacy costs if observers expose... more
How do parties target intimidation and vote-buying during elections? Parties prefer the use of carrots over sticks because they are in the business of getting voters to like them and expect higher legitimacy costs if observers expose intimidation. However, their brokers sometimes choose intimidation because it is cheaper and possibly more effective than vote-buying. Specifically, we contend that brokers use intimidation when the cost of buying votes is prohibitively high; in interactions with voters among whom the commitment problem inherent to clientelistic transactions is difficult to overcome; and in contexts where the risk of being denounced for violence is lower. We probe our hypotheses about the different profile of voters targeted with vote-buying and intimidation using two list experiments included in an original survey conducted during the 2011 Guatemalan general elections. The list experiments were designed to overcome the social desirability bias associated with direct qu...
This article turns to the electoral practices during the Brazilian First Republic (1891-1930). The starting point is a critique of the historiography’s malaise with the consensual notion of rampant electoral fraud. Through an in-depth... more
This article turns to the electoral practices during the Brazilian First Republic (1891-1930). The starting point is a critique of the historiography’s malaise with the consensual notion of rampant electoral fraud. Through an in-depth examination of the complaints submitted to the Lower House by defeated candidates, it is possibly to observe that fraud allegations were a reflex of a more complex process andmainly the product of the competition unleashed at the subnational level among rival state factions. The analysis of this rich source reveals that the main incentive to enter political competition in the 1900s was indeed control of the electoral administrative apparatus, undoubtedly the main force behind the conditioning of electoral results.
