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To inform the vital conversation among the nation’s political leaders, elections administrators, and scholars about how to hold a safe, accessible, and fair election in November, this paper reports how a sample of 5,612 eligible American voters, surveyed April 8-10, want to see the election run during the COVID-19 crisis. We embed a randomized experiment presenting respondents with truthful summaries of the projections of two teams of scientists about the pandemic. Our descriptive findings show that four in ten eligible voters would prefer to cast their ballot by mail rather than in person this November and that a majority of respondents favor policies expanding mail voting. Our experimental findings show that respondents who read the scientific projections were more likely to prefer voting by mail, were more likely to trust that a mail ballot would be counted accurately, and were more likely to favor holding the election entirely by mail.

Are voters as polarized as political leaders when it comes to their preferences about how to cast their ballots in November 2020 and their policy positions on how elections should be run in light of the COVID-19 outbreak? Prior research has shown little party divide on voting by mail, with nearly equal percentages of voters in both parties choosing to vote this way where it is an option. Has a divide opened up this year in how voters aligned with the Democratic and Republican parties prefer to cast a ballot? We address these questions by presenting the findings of an online survey of a nationally diverse sample of 5,612 eligible voters, fielded from April 8-10, with an embedded experiment providing treated respondents with scientific projections about the COVID-19 outbreak. We find an eight-percentage point difference between Democrats and Republicans in their preference for voting by mail in the control group, but this party divide doubles in the treatment group. We also find that exposure to scientific projections about the outbreak increases support for vote-by-mail legislation and confidence in vote-by-mail election integrity for both Democrats and Republicans.

To inform the vital conversation among the nation’s political leaders, elections administrators, and scholars about how to hold a safe, accessible, and fair election in November, this paper reports how a sample of 5,612 eligible American voters, surveyed April 8-10, want to see the election run during the COVID-19 crisis. We embed a randomized experiment presenting respondents with truthful summaries of the projections of two teams of scientists about the pandemic. Our descriptive findings show that four in ten eligible voters would prefer to cast their ballot by mail rather than in person this November and that a majority of respondents favor policies expanding mail voting. Our experimental findings show that respondents who read the scientific projections were more likely to prefer voting by mail, were more likely to trust that a mail ballot would be counted accurately, and were more likely to favor holding the election entirely by mail.

Are voters as polarized as political leaders when it comes to their preferences about how to cast their ballots in November 2020 and their policy positions on how elections should be run in light of the COVID-19 outbreak? Prior research has shown little party divide on voting by mail, with nearly equal percentages of voters in both parties choosing to vote this way where it is an option. Has a divide opened up this year in how voters aligned with the Democratic and Republican parties prefer to cast a ballot? We address these questions by presenting the findings of an online survey of a nationally diverse sample of 5,612 eligible voters, fielded from April 8-10, with an embedded experiment providing treated respondents with scientific projections about the COVID-19 outbreak. We find an eight-percentage point difference between Democrats and Republicans in their preference for voting by mail in the control group, but this party divide doubles in the treatment group. We also find that exposure to scientific projections about the outbreak increases support for vote-by-mail legislation and confidence in vote-by-mail election integrity for both Democrats and Republicans.

Purpose: There is an absence of systematic review papers in the achievement motivation theories literature. In terms of current research trends, English learning motivation is gaining attention as a determiner of success in FLA. Hence, this review aims to trace the trends in the empirical studies on achievement motivation theories and tools, ranging from 1970 to 2022. Methodology: With a focus on theories, diversity of research participants, and practical ELT-related issues addressed by previous researchers, this paper applied the PRISMA Systematic Review Protocol to offer a comprehensive synthesis of 91 empirical studies on theories of achievement motivation. Findings: The majority of the published studies were from China and Iran. There was also a large number of studies conducted on tertiary-level learners. Structural equation modelling was found to be the most widely used analysis. In addition, technology-assisted learning is the current trend in achievement motivation research. Significance: This paper offers new insights into the existing achievement motivation literature and identifies the research gaps. This study recommends more studies on expectancy-value theory including in-depth qualitative studies involving culturally diverse populations and experimental research to develop more effective pedagogical approaches and expand the current understanding of achievement motivation.

What do pupils learn from bilingual interventions of civic education? This paper addresses this question by analyzing survey responses of 301 pupils who participated in a bilingual role-play about a televised debate on the 2022 French presidential election in French foreign language classes. The study shows, first, that the intervention significantly strengthened the specific interest in the election campaign. Second, both internal efficacy and subjective knowledge increased, as did, third, pupils' actual knowledge about the election. Fourth, it appears that the pupils were able to sharpen their understanding of French political culture. However, it should also be noted that all other constructs that can be attributed to intercultural learning did not experience any changes as a result of participation in the intervention. This is also true for participants' general interest in politics, basal and advanced participation intentions, and external efficacy. I identify subjective knowledge about the French presidential election, internal efficacy, advanced participation intentions, and pupils' cultural self-reflexivity as key drivers for strengthening intercultural understanding about the French political culture. Our paper concludes by discussing the limitations of the study and its implications for empirical research and practice in bilingual civic education.

The provincial Liberal government, then led by McCullagh's good friend Premier Mitchell Hepburn, quickly moved to oppose the action and the I Globe and Mail i soon became a gramophone strongly supporting Hepburn's attack on the UAW. The McCullagh-King relationship Bourrie describes was not positive, with the wily King thinking McCullagh hopelessly naïve and the restless McCullagh convinced that King was too cautious and yesterday's man. [Extracted from the article]

The existing literature concerning the translation of political discourse in Thailand remains limited. To encourage more research in this area, this paper proposes a model for analysing the translation of political texts in the Thai context. Drawing upon Munday's (2012, 2018) appraisal approach to translation and Schäffner's (2004, 2012) analysis of the political context around translation, this paper offers a two-level methodology for investigating the Thai-English and English-Thai translation of political texts. The case of US President Biden's 2021 inaugural address was chosen for testing the model. The findings reveal that the two Thai news agencies translated only some parts of the speech, resulting in a selective re-presentation of Biden's political discourse. The ideological presentations of the two Thai versions are strikingly different: one representing a faithful portrayal of the original standpoint and the other with a stronger attitude in numerous ideology-laden terms. This paper also discusses the epitextual and contextual elements of the translations in question.

The Curfews period of December 2015 to February 2016 in south-eastern Turkey was a time of collective violence in multiple forms, among which the Cizre Basement Massacres are the most known. The period of the general elections in June 2015, until the later and most recent attempt to carry out a military coup in July 2016, covers multiple curfews and military operations in the south-eastern regions of Turkey, and some social media material shared from the region caught international attention and provoked artistic as well as political responses. Zehra Doğan, a Kurdish journalist and artist, modified and re-shared some footage that was first posted in social media accounts of the special forces in Nusaybin and as a result was sentenced to three years in prison. She continued to produce artworks in prison, even though it was 'prohibited' for her to draw. She started to use her own body fluids, hair, newspaper, toilet paper, and any other available daily material in the prison to produce works of art. She also produced a series of work with her menstrual blood. For this article, I conducted two thematic one-to-one discussions with Zehra Doğan and studied her series of works produced with menstrual blood within the scope of mimesis and embodiment theories. Further sections of the article discuss: the function of these series of works for her acting out and working through processes of the collective political violence of which she became both a witness and a victim; methods of artistic transmission of political violence both for the artist and for the audience; and the possible ritualistic functions of using blood while producing work of arts in relation to collective political killings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since Donald Trump's political campaign, Americans have appeared increasingly divided over public opinion issues and U.S. policies with the media seemingly reflecting these divisions. One of Trump's early initiatives was the "Muslim ban," which restricted visitors from seven Muslim‐majority countries. Focusing on the portrayal of Muslims in over 900 hand‐coded articles, our study uses multilevel modeling techniques to examine how newspapers changed their frames and claimsmakers in discussions about Muslims before and after Trump was elected. After the election, newspapers were more likely to include government claimsmakers and an immigration frame and were less likely to mention a radical terrorist leader or portray Muslims as violent. Trump's election and the ban may have ushered in a more sympathetic view of Muslims with more articles focused on them as victims of violence and negative expressions. Across counties, states, and newspapers and between the national versus local presses, we find almost no significant differences in how Muslims were portrayed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper addresses the subject of letters to the editor as one of the longest standing forums for public discussion and debate by ordinary citizens. To show how the voice of ordinary citizens is presented in letters to the editor during national election campaigns over a period of ten years (2008, 2013 & 2017), we are focusing on the Austrian Kronen Zeitung: A newspaper with an exceptionally high market share of up to 40% during the examination period, a heavy focus on the letters section with three pages per day, and a self-declared willingness to take a stance, especially during election periods. Based on a quantitative content analysis of 530 letters to the editor and 525 articles in the politics section as well as survey data from the Austrian national election study on the political positions of the Kronen Zeitung's readers, we find that letters to the editor in the Kronen Zeitung do not reflect, but complement the articles in the politics section. The tone of the letters is more negative than that of news articles, but the letters closely reflect the readers' political positions, therefore offering identification with the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marked by the killing of a senior ICT professional working for the Electoral Commission and the invalidation of the presidential election by the Supreme Court, the 2017 Kenyan elections make for a good case through which to study how digital technologies shape contemporary electoral practice. This article examines the practice of electoral transparency through technology and argues that it can be conceived as a socio-technical device based both on distancing people from knowledge of the electoral infrastructure and on staging a simplified discourse on public access to the electoral infrastructure. Drawing on interviews with key actors in election technology implementation and ethnographic observations of public events around it, the article argues that digital technology has had three sets of implications for elections. First, it has shaped the electoral infrastructure and the nature of the final result (now a paper and digital hybrid). Second, it has shaped the distribution of knowledge among electoral professionals, giving a central role to ICT actors, objects, and knowledge in the definition of electoral transparency. Third, the centrality of ICTs in elections and the order of knowledge they bring are highly controversial and criticized by other electoral actors who demand for material proof for understanding the inner workings of elections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wales' education system is part-way through an extensive journey of reform. This contextual paper explores the evolution of that journey, from the establishment of the Welsh Parliament in 1999 to late 2020, as Wales readies itself for the launch of a radical, new national curriculum. Drawing from a range of international literature and experience, it provides an overview of key policy developments and insight into the rationale for decisions taken by the Welsh Government to effect change. To do this, it separates reform into three core phases, each with its own characteristics borne out of landmark events that helped shape contemporary political and public discourse. In particular, the paper examines the impact of Wales' shifting approach to policy development on the teaching workforce and considers implications for those at the site of practice. Ahead of forthcoming parliamentary elections, the paper resolves that a new, long-term approach to policy reform and teacher development is needed if Wales is to realise its ambitious vision for education.

Using the concepts of apologia, image repair and rhetoric, this paper examines the strategies employed by a former president of the Republic of Ghana to simultaneously maintain his reputation after losing the 2016 Ghanaian general elections and campaign for re-lection as the standard bearer of his party. The paper finds that the former president did not accept responsibility for the electoral loss, but used several indirect ways to deny responsibility for the defeat. He employed "bolstering, accusation/attack, playing the victim, throwing a challenge" and "the God's will factor" as defence strategies in order to repair his image. He exploited the Aristotelian appeals of "logos, ethos and pathos" to boost his persuasion. In doing so, he deployed several rhetorical tools such as "metaphor, allusion, rhetorical questions" and "parallelism" to enhance the expression of the defence strategies. The analysis reveals that, as noted in the literature, some of the image repair strategies espoused by Benoit (1995, 2015), for example, outright denial and mortification, hardly apply to political contexts -- the former President's defence was indirectly expressed. Thus, the paper concludes that combining the concepts of apologia, image repair and rhetoric in the analysis of political discourse can illuminate political discourse analysis. The paper has implications for communicating defence, reputation repair and political rhetoric.

This paper examines the impact of ethnic and racial diversity on the public's willingness to invest in public goods. Challenging the prevalent assertion that increasing diversity reduces support for investing in public goods, it argues that this relationship is substantially shaped by the context in which people live because demographic changes are highly localized. Comparing random and fixed effects models of school bond elections in Texas, the paper finds that increasing ethnic and racial diversity at the local level has mixed effects on school bond passage. While school bonds pass at higher rates in more diverse counties, increasing diversity within a county reduces bond rate passage. This effect is shaped by the type of place in that increasing diversity more negatively impacts the passage of school bonds in rural compared to urban counties. These results suggest that the effect of diversity varies across place warranting a localized approach to examining its relationship to public preferences for school funding.

The overriding principle of ballot design is that it should not confer any a priori advantage to one candidate over another. Ballot format should not determine or condition an election outcome. Yet, there is a sizeable body of evidence which demonstrates that in many circumstances the design of ballot papers and voting machines contravenes the normative assumption of electoral neutrality. In this article, we look at the impact of ballot paper design at local elections in the Republic of Ireland (hereafter Ireland). The article uses data from an experimental election study conducted at the local elections in Ireland in 2009. Overall the study finds some evidence of a primacy effect and it also demonstrates that candidates located in the middle of the ballot face a challenge as they receive the lowest vote shares of all candidates across the four replica ballots. This mid-table obscurity remains even when party affiliation is known. Thus, it can be argued that candidates placed in such positions incur a disadvantage. To neutralise this effect, the article concludes with a recommendation that a system of random ordering of ballot positions across ballot papers should be implemented so as to ensure that each candidate appears at each ballot position on an equal number of times. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The 15th Malaysian General Election (GE-15) took place on 19 November 2022 successfully. This time the general election was held a year earlier than the 5-year maturity period on 16 July 2023, which is the date of the swearing-in of members of Parliament for the 14th term. The GE-15 results show that there is a pattern of voter support based on a specific geographic location. Therefore, the purpose of writing this article is to analyze voter support patterns based on regional factors. Based on data analysis of the GE 2022 results, observations in the field and analysis of secondary sources such as journal articles and conference papers, the findings of the study show that PH continues to dominate the West Coast region of Peninsular Malaysia as well as in Sabah and Sarawak in urban and semi-urban areas with ethnic mix and Chinese majority, PN controls the East and North Coast regions as well as a small part in the West and South of Peninsular Malaysia in the rural areas of the Malay majority, namely in the East Coast Peninsular zone, namely Kelantan, Terengganu and East Pahang and Central Pahang; North of the peninsula, which is Perlis and Kedah and Penang Seberang Prai North and Central, North Perak, Central Perak; the western part of Peninsular namely North Selangor and West Selangor as well as West Melaka and South Melaka while BN remains in power in the rural areas of central Peninsular Malaysia but with a shrinking number of seats. Therefore, regional influence also affects the voting pattern and needs to be taken into account by the relevant parties to implement campaign. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: In light of growing attention to promoting democratic learning opportunities in the EU and the US, this study provides insight into student opportunities to engage in the organisation of mock elections in Dutch high schools, and constraints that teachers identify in implementing mock elections. Approach: A survey study was conducted. One fourth of Dutch high schools that organise mock elections through the National NGO for Democracy and Education participated. Findings: Data analysis reveals clear discrepancies between the existing versus the desired (1) participation of student groups invited to the organisation of mock elections and (2) types of student involvement offered in our research population according to teachers. Main constraints that teachers identified are: limited resources for curriculum development; lack of a clear school-policy on citizenship education; and insufficient attention to relevant teacher competences in (post)initial training. Practical implications: our paper concludes with several suggestions for strengthening policies and practices on political and educational participatory practices in schools. in citizenship education. These findings indicate that addressing the material or sensory tokens inherent in such exclusionary discourse may be a useful starting point.

This paper considers the functions and effects of "representation" in politics and education. The voting age for public elections in Japan has been lowered from 20 or older to 18 or older, calling for a shift in the curriculum to the basics of political participation and competence. In this paper, while focusing on the political issues concerning the publicness of the curriculum up until now in particular, I will demonstrate experimentally that considering this problem means radically reconsidering the struggles contained in the meaning of participatory politics itself, not only the situation of representative democracy in modern society, and that it clarifies once again the covertly configured educational problems of competency. [Translated by Nadezhda Murray. This article was originally published, in Japanese, in "The Japanese Journal of Educational Research" v82 n4 2015.]

The article highlights a significant setback for Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) as Pakistan's top election body rejects nomination papers of party founder Imran Khan and his colleagues for two national assembly seats, citing "flimsy grounds." Topics include the rejection of Imran Khan's nomination papers, the implications for PTI ahead of the upcoming general elections, and the reasons provided by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for the rejection.

By 1989, fascism had long been defeated in Europe, and reforms in the Soviet Union appeared to signify the collapse of communist ideology, prompting Francis Fukuyama to famously declare the 'end of history'. Since then, neoliberalism has been rolled out globally. This paper argues that, with regard to higher education, Fukuyama's claim that the pursuit of knowledge will be replaced by the 'satisfaction of sophisticated consumer demands' is prescient. What, then, prompted Fukuyama to qualify his predictions in 2018? Citing both the turmoil of Brexit and the election of Donald Trump, Fukuyama blames identity politics for the breakdown of consensus over what the nation is, or should be, and suggests that the promotion of creedal identity might rescue Western democracy from populism. This paper disagrees: using the examples of Brexit and the promotion of Fundamental British Values in schools, it argues that creedal identity has become another expression of populism. Rejecting the claim that identity politics are the ultimate source of populism, it argues that populism is the predictable outcome of recession in the market economy.

Election forecasting has become the centerpiece of media coverage of elections. Yet for all the attention paid to forecasting, public understanding remains low and increasingly distrustful. We can improve citizen knowledge and comprehension and increase student engagement by giving students the opportunity to develop their own election forecast. However, the complex methodology associated with forecasting provides barriers for courses that are not methodologically oriented. In this paper I outline a strategy on how to teach forecasting and have students produce their own without the need of using complex quantitative methods. Students engage in qualitative assessment of quantitative data and develop their own forecast. This pedagogical approach gives students the hands-on learning they need to understand the intuition behind forecasting and increases their comprehension of models of elections and voting behavior.

The benefits of experiential learning are well-documented, but large course enrollment can be seen as a barrier to providing meaningful experiential learning experiences. Political science literature on experiential learning in large undergraduate classes has prioritized simulations of political processes over direct student engagement in actual political processes. This multiple case study analyzes two in-class electoral candidate debates, one municipal and one federal, organized in a 300-student introductory social welfare course. Detailing the tensions inherent to organizing for maximum student engagement, and drawing on qualitative data from 73 student reflections, we found that in-class electoral candidate debates are feasible and effective as an experiential civic education activity. Though preparation work was complex and substantial, in-class candidate debates resulted in a rich learning foundation for the whole course. Key components for effective learning included student generated topics and questions and a wide range of candidates. Debriefing was also essential given the varied levels of prior knowledge inevitable in large classes. This paper extends the literature on teaching in the large policy classroom to a promising new experiential learning activity. It provides useful guidance for others who wish to harness the benefits of experiential civic education in large classes.

This paper describes a relatively new active learning approach--Design Thinking--and its adoption in two comparative politics courses. I draw on my experience using Design Thinking in political science courses to offer instructors another pedagogical tool in the active learning toolkit. I outline the rationale for adopting a Design Thinking approach and offer concrete examples of everyday design challenges and semester-long design projects for political science instructors interested in both low- and high-intensity options to replace or supplement sage-on-the-stage techniques and other active learning approaches. The article concludes with a discussion of potential benefits as well as barriers to implementation and what resources institutions of higher learning could provide to support Design Thinking courses.

Scholars concur that free and fair elections are essential for proper democratic functioning, but our understanding of the political effects of democratic voting systems is incomplete. This article mitigates the gap by exploiting the gradual transformation of voting systems and ballot structures in Brazil's 1998 executive elections to study the relationship between voting systems and viable and nonviable candidates' vote shares, using regression discontinuity design. It finds that the introduction of electronic voting concentrated vote shares among viable candidates and thus exhibited electoral bias. We posit that this result occurred because viable candidates were better able to communicate the information that electronic voters needed to cast valid ballots than were their nonviable counterparts. The article uses survey data to demonstrate that electronic voters responded to changes in ballot design and internalized the information viable candidates made available to them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A vibrant civil society, composed of active non-governmental organizations (NGOs), has always been identified as an important factor for "good governance". This paper reports a pilot study using semi-structured interviews to find out the contribution of advocacy NGOs in the governance of Hong Kong. It points out that the NGO's conception of good governance in the Hong Kong context, as revealed by the findings, comprises inter alia: legitimacy obtained through democratic elections, ability to realize the autonomy of the HKSAR, and proper checks and balances not just within the government but also about the possible domination of business interest in the government's policy making process. It further reveals how NGOs can contribute to "good governance" by nurturing a democratic culture through civic education in schools. Hopefully this paper can be of reference value to the international audience as it reflects how the worldwide criteria of good governance are reflected in the context of Hong Kong, a special administrative region with a high degree of autonomy where the building up of a truly democratic government is yet to be realized.

The humble ballot paper is a defining technology of elections throughout the world. This article interrogates its contested past by demonstrating - over a long period and in the context of three contrasting countries - how and why it emerged in the early modern period and how it was then used, abused and regulated in the context of the expanded, and eventually mass, electoral arenas of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Ironically, by the time that the ballot paper was firmly established, its monopoly was already being challenged by mechanical and then electronic media, which may eventually condemn it to extinction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

National philanthropies have recently played a prominent role in spending on U.S. urban school board elections, largely seeking to promote candidates who support charter schools. In Atlanta in 2017, 30 candidates competed for nine open school board seats. One practice has been to fund intermediary organisations (IOs) (e.g. advocacy groups, foundations) that disseminate information and research in an effort to shape public opinion. This paper analyses the role of IOs in the 2017 school board race in Atlanta. Drawing on 12 interviews with policymakers and IO representatives, analysis of campaign literature, and media accounts, the authors contrast the ways in which the intermediary and philanthropic sectors attempted to influence leaders' framing of educational policy issues. Findings reveal a nascent capacity for IOs in Atlanta for shaping support for pro-charter board candidates. The paper discusses implications for understanding the role that IOs may play in the politics of urban education.

Various electronic voting channels have been introduced across a range of countries. In some countries these new channels have proved uncontroversial, while in others, they remain contentious and have even been abandoned. Relatively little is known about whether and why voters have confidence in new and old voting channels. Australia provides a useful case for researching these issues, since it is a mature democracy in which election processes and outcomes are widely accepted. The 2013 Australian Election Study results show that in this context, voters have most confidence in paper-based voting and least in voting via smartphones. Positive political attachments, ease of voting and familiarity with technology are all associated with higher levels of confidence in voting channels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conflict situations that have afflicted parts of Kenya every five years, in the wake of general elections, since 1992 were most prominent after the disputed presidential elections of 2007. The magnitude of the clashes, loss of life, destruction of property and internal displacement of people were hitherto unwitnessed. The situation of Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) in Kenya has continued to be of national and international concern. The 2007/2008 post-election violence exacerbated the dire situation of OVC in Kenya. United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) estimated the number of children displaced by the 2007/2008 post-election violence (PEV) in Kenya at 100,000 and those orphaned at 300,000 high. Some of the OVC lost both parents during the violence. Many more were born during and after displacement, and have no knowledge of their homes or origin. They do not understand or even remember the circumstances that caused their parents to be displaced. A survey by UNICEF in 2010 noted that on the overall after 2007/08 post-election conflict, about 15% of orphans were 0-4 years old, 35% were between 5 and 9 years old while up to 50% were 10-14 years old. This paper identifies the challenges the OVC are experiencing in schools as absenteeism, lack of physical infrastructure, insecurity, psychological trauma, among others. The paper also proposes strategies and programmes that various stakeholders have, and should put in place to assist OVC.

The political opposition in Democratic Republic of Congo reamins less studied in studies on the dynamics of democratic transition in this country for two reasons. It is about the omission of this component in the constitutionalist process after independance and the long duration of military government come to power by coup or armed insurrection. Consequently, this article proposes to operate three variables to study congolese political opposition. Institutional determinants (related to the party system, methods of voting systems), the legal expression of the opposition and finaly, the nature and charisma of congolese opposition leaders. Anyway, the congolese political opposition has its origins in an intra-party struggle to evolve into an inter-party oppositon in its fight for the conquest of state power. It remains true that on the three democratic experiences relating to the presidential elections, the congolese political, by forming electoral coalitions, managed to beat the ruling party once in the presidential elections. Nevertheless, the strategies of this opposition remain limited in terms of effectiveness because of the nature of the parties that compose it, political transhumance, the ego between its leaders in a political system combining victory in the presidential and legislative elections to govern without alchemy of cohabition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the pre-GE-14, political parties in Terengganu have expressed their confidence to come to power based on current issues, government performance and leadership. In GE-14, the people have chosen to give PAS a chance to lead the Terengganu State Government. After GE-14, there was also a conflict between UMNO and PAS in the state. Therefore, the purpose of writing this article is to analyze the geopolitics of Terengganu in pre-GE-14, GE-14 and post GE-14. The writing of this article is based on analysis of GE 2018 results data, field observations and analysis of secondary sources such as journal articles and conference papers. Findings show that geopolitics or governing power based on pre-GE-14, GE-14 and post-GE-14 scenarios in Terengganu depends on the influence of voter support for political parties, the role and volume of key leaders and current issues in the state. The instability of BN Government leaders and local issues have opened up space for PAS to win the hearts of Terengganu people in GE-14. However, this rejection is seen not because of the strength of PAS but rather the weakness of BN in addressing issues that arise in the community, especially in Terengganu. Meanwhile, PH is also not seen as dominant in any part except in Kemaman and Kuala Terengganu. Post GE-14 shows PAS cooperating with UMNO to form a Muafakat Nasional (MN) on the basis of the Malay-Muslim political cooperation. For the first time in the state, the opposition in the state assembly is governmen-friendly. However, the open conflict between the main leadership of UMNO and PAS over the distribution of development allocations and the distribution of seats in the next general election will be a challenge to both political parties to maintain long-term and consistent political cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In May 2017, Taiwan's legislature passed the Indigenous Languages Development Act (ILDA), which came into effect in June of that year. This paper traces the process and context that have led to the act's adoption, and provides an overview of its symbolic and substantive content. In doing so, this paper draws attention to the importance of contextual factors in the act's adoption. The ILDA had been in the works since the early 2000s, and it is only through a piecemeal approach to Indigenous legislation that it came into being. Its ultimate adoption was enabled by a conjuncture of social and political developments, most directly the election of the Democratic Progressive Party in 2016, after a campaign that emphasised issues of transitional justice, decolonisation and reconciliation. The momentum toward these trends has also been influenced by Taiwan's fragile political status. In fact, Taiwan's limited international recognition has incentivised the use of minority rights initiatives, together with the conduct of cultural diplomacy with the country's diplomatic and trade partners sharing Austronesian heritage, as sovereignty-building and soft power projection tools.

MIC (Malaysian Indian Congress) is said to be increasingly eroded and irrelevant as the main spokesman for the Indian community in expressing the desire to the Government. MIC's defeat in the 12th general election is not only caused by the movement Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) alone, but the failure of the MIC leadership who are not sensitive to the problems of the Indian community and consequently they no longer support the candidates of MIC/BN in the 2008 General Election. MIC continued to be rejected in GE-14 by winning only two parliamentary seats. Therefore, the purpose of writing this article is to analyze the development and performance of MIC in Malaysian geopolitics. Based on the analysis of GE 2018 results data and analysis of secondary sources such as journal articles and conference papers, the findings show that MIC remains a relevant role in creating political stability and prosperity in the country. MIC has contributed a lot to the progress of the country with its role as a driving force to the progress of the Indian community in the country. With high commitment and a sincere spirit of cooperation, MIC has together fostered a spirit of harmony among the people. With competent and dynamic leadership, MIC has contributed to BN in managing the country's development to a proud level of economic development. Nevertheless, the political changes that exist among the Indian community have made the MIC not or less a top choice for the Indian community. Therefore, the Government needs to take action to improve the socio-economic status of Indians and restore support to MIC/BN in the next GE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is aimed at highlighting the problem of the use of emotive-evaluative vocabulary in the English-language mass media political discourse, which is a relevant topic since the scope of media texts in English is widespread in the information community and the media language is the basic means for communication, phrasing, conveying and storing information. Political discourse is a popular area of research of linguistics, as it covers all aspects of modern life and society. Being mainly broadcasted by the politicians, it is considered a complex linguistic phenomenon, whose objectives, direct or indirect, are aimed at disseminating, implementing political authorities and obtaining the majority of votes during the election campaigns. The article is devoted to the evaluation categories, which refer to the semantic and pragmatic categories and can be one of the strongest tools of influence on the public. Within the framework of our research 29 English articles, posted on the Internet, concerning the political leaders of the United States and Great Britain, attributing the personal characteristics to them, were analysed. Using the continuous sampling method there was found 214 examples of English emotive-evaluative vocabulary. During the study, the methods of compilation, interpretation, and descriptive methods were used.

Politics and politicking in Nigeria has assumed a considerably new dimension. Actors articulate their ideology and programmes, and construct their subjects and experiences in diverse linguistic processes with a view to achieving political victory. This paper examines clause structures of President Buhari's "My Covenant with Nigerians" to reveal the transitivity processes employed by the President in this famous campaign speech in 2015 presidential election. This study utilized "Transitivity Processes," which is rooted in Halliday's (1985) "Systemic Functional Grammar," in order to uncover different process types and main participants in the speech, and to explain the functions which these processes perform in the speech in helping the speaker to convey his ideology to Nigerians and convince them to rally support for him. Specifically, objective of this study is the uncover transitivity process types in the speech, their frequency, function and ideological underpinnings. The study reveals that President Muhammadu Buhari utilized mental and verbal processes perception, affection, cognition and volition, and verbal process of "saying" to appeal to the masses, and to commit himself to serve Nigerians. He equally used material and relational processes to encode his ideology, persuade the people and achieve political victory.

Candidate debates are increasingly organized during elections in democracies and electoral autocracies. How do debates impact partisan divisions and preferences in these contexts? One theoretical perspective suggests that debates should amplify these preferences and divisions, while another implies debates should attenuate them. This paper evaluates these expectations by studying presidential debates organized during Malawi's May 2019 elections. With an experiment and national panel survey, the paper provides evidence consistent with attenuation: debate watchers were substantially more likely to vote across partisan lines (cross-party voting), became more favorable toward out-partisan candidates, and became less favorable toward co-partisans. Suggestive evidence on causal mechanisms shows that these effects were driven by policy persuasion and debates' impact on perceptions of the candidates' policies and qualities. Results advance debates about information processing, campaign effects, and voting behavior in new democracies and electoral autocracies, and have implications for electoral institutions' impact on partisan divisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]