The electoral success of the Right in poor nations is typically attributed to nonpolicy appeals such as clientelism. Candidate profiles are usually ignored because if voters value class‐based ...descriptive representation, it should be the Left that uses it. In this article, we develop and test a novel theory of policy choice and candidate selection that defies this conventional wisdom: it is the Right that capitalizes on descriptive representation in high‐poverty areas. The Right is only competitive in poor regions when it matches the Left's pro‐poor policies. To credibly shift its position, it nominates candidates who are descriptively closer to the poor. Using a regression discontinuity design in Brazilian municipal elections, we show that Right‐wing mayors spend less on the poor than Left‐wing mayors only in low‐poverty municipalities. In high‐poverty municipalities, not only does the Right match the Left's policies, it also does so while nominating less educated candidates.
Brazil's Federal Supreme Court, for example, consistently upholds state physical distancing policies that the Bolsonaro administration opposes.1 State-level health systems investments, such as ...efforts to rapidly expand emergency bed capacity in intensive care units, have also sustained Brazil's universal public health system in the context of weak federal coordination and management.2 Since his election into office in 2018, President Bolsonaro has shown an authoritarian leadership style and emphasised traditional family values, Judeo-Christian morals, and a strong economy.3,4 He has questioned the role, efficacy, and legitimacy of democratic institutions, including the National Congress of Brazil, the Federal Supreme Court, and political parties,5 reinforced by his past history of repeatedly switching parties and currently not having any party affiliation. Bolsonaro has said he views unemployment as worse than COVID-19 itself.6 To prioritise opening the economy sooner and garner support for his views, Bolsonaro stated that there would be chaos from unemployment and food shortages at home due to school and work closures.7 This strategy supports his aims to rejuvenate the economy, sustain business community support, and, above all, secure re-election in 2022. In many cases, this is because state governments have worked to increase intensive care units in the public health system or in emergency field hospitals, transfer cases from metropolitan to other locations where there is a lower demand for health services and vice versa, and even resorted to routing patients with COVID-19 to the private health system where there is additional intensive care unit availability.20 The COVID-19 pandemic is likely to continue to exact a heavy toll on human lives in Brazil during the coming months.
The introduction of new voting channels, voting technologies and other voting innovations are often thought to improve voter participation in elections and democracy. However, it frequently happens ...at the expense of administrators, who needs to deliver even more complex elections. This article traces how the introduction of a new voting channel, Internet voting, affects frontline administrators through a qualitative in-depth case study of the 2017 local elections in Estonia. Findings show that the local election administration plays a substantial role in delivering Internet voting, despite the centralized election hierarchy. The case shows little evidence to support the expectation that Internet voting decreases the administrative burden of local election officials. The article outlines the vulnerabilities in Internet voting administration, resulting from the complexity of delivering multi-channel elections, particularly the ones integrating Internet- and paper-based voting channels. The article makes important recommendations for improving the implementation of electronic voting and improving the quality of elections.
Rein Taagepera, considerably assisted by Matthew S. Shugart, is an author and advocate of one of the most interesting methodological approaches in recent years; and this applies not only to political ...science but also - more broadly - to social sciences based on quantitatively predictive logical models. This method consists of constructing - based on deduction and the principles of logic - a conceptual logical model which is subsequently supposed to be subject to testing by dint of a statistical analysis of empirical data. In this paper, on the basis of an analysis of the works by Taagepera and Shugart on the subject, a comprehensive reconstruction of the said approach shall be conducted. The quantitatively predictive logical model of the number of seat-winning parties in the electoral district shall serve as an exemplary pattern of constructing and - more importantly - it will allow for testing the predictive powers of this sort of models. So far no one has tried to test this model by looking at data from local elections. A large sample of electoral districts obtained from Polish local elections in 2018 gives such a unique opportunity.
The international response to the evolving Ebola epidemic in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has had interim successes while facing ongoing difficulties. The outbreak has occurred in an ...area of intractable conflict among multiple armed groups at a time of contentious national elections. Despite porous international borders and considerable population movement, however, transmission has been confined to North Kivu and Ituri provinces. Factors potentially contributing to this containment include conduct of about 55 million screenings, surveillance of contacts (12,591 under surveillance currently), testing of 280 samples per day, provision of safe and dignified burials for most deaths, vaccination of high-risk people (112,485 vaccinated as of May 7, 2019), and medical treatment including four investigational therapies. Major challenges remain. Since late February 2019, a sharp rise in cases and increased transmission have been observed. These coincide with organized attacks by armed groups targeting response teams, deteriorating security, and the population's increasing distrust of the response effort. The risk of local and regional spread remains high given the high proportion of deaths occurring outside treatment facilities, relatively low proportions of new patients who were known contacts, ongoing nosocomial transmission, and persistent delays in detection and reporting. Stopping this epidemic will require the alignment of the principal political and armed groups in eastern DRC in support of the response.
Many college students are motivated to vote in presidential elections. Like most Americans, however, they are far less likely to vote in elections for local officeholders. Often this is because they ...have little to no information about the candidates. Starting in 2020, with university support, the author and a colleague began providing nonpartisan information about candidates for local offices in their county. Their website is available to students and voters throughout their county. More colleges and universities should undertake similar ventures, which would fill a vital and underserved public need, strengthen the civic behaviors of college students, and enhance democracy.
PDF
