Direnç Kanol

Knowledge of Lobbying Regulations and Attitudes Toward Politics: Findings from a Survey Experiment in Cyprus

Does knowledge of lobbying regulations curb perceptions of political corruption and increase trust in politicians? The survey experimental data presented in this article suggest that a rise in trust in politicians through knowledge of lobbying regulations is harder to achieve than a decline in perceptions of political corruption. In the case of trust in politicians, only full disclosure makes a substantive difference. In the case of perceived political corruption, some disclosure is enough to affect perceptions significantly, although full disclosure is necessary to make a substantive difference. These results suggest that policymakers should take lobbying reform seriously and consider enacting and disseminating stringent lobbying regulations.

Political Dissatisfaction and Decline of Party Identification: Societal Depoliticisation in the Republic of Cyprus (2006–2012)

Societal depoliticisation refers to disenchantment with politics at the electorate level. Societal depoliticisation, however, is studied conceptually; thus, empirical studies about its determinants or the association between societal and “conventional” depoliticisation remain largely unclear. Using party identification as an indicator of societal depoliticisation, this chapter tries to explain the decline in partisanship/party identification among Cypriots. The Republic of Cyprus is an European Union (EU) country that had the highest levels of party identification. However, the period between 2006 and 2012 saw a dramatic decline. Relying on survey data and additionally employing literature review and qualitative interviews with citizens to give meaning to the correlation found in the survey analysis, this chapter shows that political dissatisfaction played a significant part in the drop in party identification in Cyprus.

The role of transnational education in public administration and public affairs to support ‘good governance’ in the Turkish republic of North Cyprus

This article addresses the role and opportunities for public administration and public affairs education in North Cyprus. The context of the research is situated within a transnational education partnership between the University of the West of Scotland and the Management Centre of the Mediterranean (Nicosia, North Cyprus). The dominant narrative of the article is, based on the case of North Cyprus, to provide key insights into why public administration and public affairs education is a force for development in governance and civil society terms. The political context of North Cyprus is such that it is in the midst of significant change based on the twin governance challenges of, first, uncertainty regarding its international status (following the Cypriot coup d’etat and Turkish intervention in 1974 that led to North declaring independence in 1983 and becoming the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus) and, second, efforts to accommodate ‘acquis communautaire’ in order to progress towards EU accession (subject to successful reunification with the South). An underpinning reflective consideration in the article relates to how such educational programmes, based on a franchised model, address aspects of ‘good governance’ (often based on a Western paradigm) but, at the same time, are also suitably responsive to local civil society and political contexts.

Quality of democracy in unrecognized states: lessons from Northern Cyprus

Abstract Scholars have recently debated whether non-recognition is a blessing or a curse for democracy. Some suggest that lack of recognition forces political elites to democratize and acquire internal legitimacy to compensate for the lack of external legitimacy. Others suggest that democratization is used as a strategy by which to acquire international recognition. Still others claim that non-recognition obliges unrecognized states to rely on a patron state which, in turn, hinders the quality of democracy. To contribute to this discussion, we have conducted an in-depth case study. Focusing on democratic quality in Northern Cyprus from 2010 to 2016, it is observed that reliance on a patron state leads to dynamics of tutelage, in turn hindering the quality of democracy.

Book Review: Andreas Dür and Gemma Mateo, Insiders versus Outsiders: Interest Group Politics in Multilevel EuropeInsiders versus Outsiders: Interest Group Politics in Multilevel Europe by DürAndreasMateoGemma. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015. 270pp., £55.00 (h/b), ISBN 9780198785651

viewpoint’ (p. 3). It does so brilliantly. It uses the multiple crises facing the European Union (EU) – the annexation of Crimea in the Ukraine, the euro debt crisis, and the refugee/ migrant crisis – to examine the deeper ‘limitations, contradictions, and crisis tendencies’ of EU integration. Magnus Ryner and Alan Cafruny have produced a text which should be at the forefront of shaping debates on the future of Europe’s political economy. The text is essentially constituted by three sections. The first focuses on the key theoretical debates surrounding EU integration. Critiquing the ‘sanitised, idealised, and teleological assumptions’ that shape liberal and realist (and their more contemporary variants) analysis, Ryner and Cafruny shift attention to the possibilities offered by neo-Marxism and neo-Gramscian perspectives. The second section of the book then applies this critique and their alternative. There is a focus on a range of key topics, both important in their own right and also as developed in a complementary manner to create a coherent whole. These include the origins and development of European Monetary Union (EMU) and how this shaped trajectories towards the euro crisis, the history and role of welfare state capitalism(s) and the future of the ‘social dimension’ of EU policy and the cohering of an EU ‘core’ and ‘periphery’ as integration has deepened and widened. The third section then shifts attention to a global scale. It analyses how EU integration and European capitalism have been, and continues to be, shaped under the ‘shadow’ of US hegemony and the EU’s interaction with the global South–both in its near eastern and southern neighbourhood and beyond when focusing on the ‘question of China’. The text ends on a pessimistic note about the possibility of pursuing more socially equitable and just routes out of the crises identified. Given the analysis which precedes it, this is a legitimate conclusion. However, there is no systematic engagement with debates about the role of various ‘transnational protest groups’. Through a greater engagement with actors and actions that both resist and develop alternatives, the argument that such groups face an almost insurmountable set of ‘structural limitations’ would be more convincing. Without it, we are left with a dominationoriented analysis which has been well critiqued in recent years, although that is not recognised (see ‘Disrupting the European Crisis: A Critical Political Economy of Contestation, Subversion and Escape’ by Huke et al. (2015) in New Political Economy).

Book Review: David Lowery, Darren Halpin and Virginia Gray (eds), The Organization Ecology of Interest Communities: Assessment and AgendaThe Organization Ecology of Interest Communities: Assessment and Agenda by LoweryDavidHalpinDarrenGrayVirginia (eds). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. 285pp., £68.00 (h/b), ISBN 9781137514301

compare and contrast similar aspects of each story. Lorenzo convincingly makes the case that ‘thinking about and acting on utopia isn’t dreaming about a fairy land of perfection; it is about working through and resolving contemporary problems which if left unresolved may soon engulf us, just as the dystopians suggest’ (pp. 202–203). This book is a route into utopian literature and the study of utopianism more generally; it also offers serious and provoking critique – all with an explicit political slant.

Book Review: Jennifer Gandhi and Rubén Ruiz-Rufino (eds), Routledge Handbook of Comparative Political InstitutionsRoutledge Handbook of Comparative Political Institutions by GandhiJenniferRuiz-RufinoRubén (eds). Abingdon: Routledge, 2015. 462pp., £135.00 (h/b), ISBN 9780415630887

The financial crisis beginning in 2007 rightly made those working in the field of comparative political economy question even more the tools which have been used to understand and explain political economic developments across the globe. This volume is a high point in this discussion, aiming to present ‘new directions’ that should prove valuable going forward. Part I of the volume, ‘Comparing Capitalisms in the Global Political Economy’, seeks to review the development of the comparative capitalisms field, primarily using the Varieties of Capitalism (VoC) approach developed by Peter A Hall and David Soskice in their 2001 work as a launch pad from which new directions can prevail. Particularly interesting in this section is David Coates’ chapter, in which he charts the rise and considers the reasons for the dominance of the VoC approach, drawing on an important range of private correspondence alongside analysis from academic debate. Part II, ‘Critical Perspectives and Debates’, pursues the theme of new directions vigorously, covering areas from critical institutionalism through to postcolonial debate. In this section, it is Julia Lux and Stefanie Wohl’s chapter on the gendered dimensions of the Eurozone crisis which stands out, as this is a theme perennially overlooked during what seems to be an interminable crisis. Part III, ‘Global Perspectives and Debates’, pushes along new directions often discussed within the comparative capitalisms literature out of the dominant triad of nations (United States, Europe and Japan) to important emergent horizons from East Asia to Latin America. Lisa Tilley’s chapter aiming to decolonise the study of capitalist diversity is particularly good, as it brings into sharp relief some of the most important blind spots which can only have a limiting effect on our understanding of political economic change. Ultimately, this is indeed this volume’s main achievement: to have presented an emergent body of work which clearly and incisively makes you question the comfort zones that prevail within the comparative capitalisms literature. This is done in a constructive and bridgebuilding manner which means that fruitful debates should emerge to ensure that the field retains its position at the forefront of understanding and explaining global political economic change. Let us hope that the editors’ desire to see this volume ‘become quickly outdated’ does come to fruition, as it will be the clearest sign that a vibrant and healthy body of work is being produced which seriously takes up this brilliantly presented call for new directions in the future.

If Money Talks, What Does It Say? Corruption and Business Financing of Political Parties by Iain McMenamin. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. 177pp., £50.00, ISBN 978 0 19 966570 9

and intensity’ (p. 18), and is followed by ten empirical essays conducting either geographic or thematic analyses (on the US, UK, France, Germany, Switzerland and the EU; then on hedge fund regulation, accounting standards, capital rules and the Financial Stability Board). A final chapter – neatly subtitled ‘plus ça change’ – wraps up the argument with an examination of the global financial regulatory architecture. Common explanations highlight the strength of sectoral interests in dominating regulatory debates and demonstrate the entrenchment of the prevailing ideational paradigm of regulatory liberalism. The collection is the output of a research network assembled at the Max Planck Institute in 2009. In the spirit of such loose networks there is no single overarching analytical framework applied by the empirical case studies; instead, each author deploys an analytical narrative covering his or her own domain. They follow a fairly consistent pattern, describing the status quo ante, analysing the reform process and accounting for gaps between expectations and outcomes. Several of the chapters offer important updates to, or syntheses of, prior works (see especially Kerwer on capital standards, or Quaglia on EU financial sector policy). This is an important and timely work. Much of the scholarship on the crisis to date has dwelt either on the causes or proposed solutions (drawing on economic, political or legal theory), but this book offers an invaluable contribution in exposing the interests, roles and capabilities of key actors in shaping the regulatory responses and applying a range of analytical tools to make sense of significant debates. By presenting such detail across a range of contexts it allows the reader to grasp crucial variations in institutional change in different settings or domains. Its timing is a slight area of weakness, however: several of the empirical chapters are necessarily inconclusive as the processes are yet to be fully played out. Reading this book one cannot help but think of the current efforts at reform conducted in the wake of the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis. Here the book’s real strength emerges: its analysis of the dynamics of regulatory reforms in the period 2009–11 enables a sharper understanding of contemporary debates, and casts a gloomy picture of their prospects.

Does Exposure to Violence Increase or Decrease Support for Political Violence

This paper argues that the relationship between exposure to violence and support for political violence is not linear. These variables rather have a U-curved relationship. Exposure to violence, until a certain threshold, increases empathy. Empathy, in turn, decreases support for political violence. Once that threshold is passed, however, one can argue that exposure to violence should induce support for political violence. The paper uses the Afrobarometer (2008) data. It focuses on Liberia which has not been explored by scholars working on attitudes towards political violence before. The findings provide support for the hypothesis.

Knowledge of Campaign Finance Regulation and Attitudes towards Politics

We use an experimental design to measure how campaign (political) finance regulation influences perceptions of political corruption and trust in politicians when citizens are actually exposed to information about regulation. Unlike most of the observational studies in the literature, results of this experimental study suggest that knowledge of campaign finance regulation substantially reduces citizens’ perceptions of corruption but has only limited effect on trust in politicians. Our findings regarding the positive effect of knowledge of campaign finance regulation on perception of political corruption have crucial and urgent implications for public policy, as well as for informing the public about campaign finance regulation. At a time when public cynicism about politics is high, a significant reduction in perceptions of political corruption through successful dissemination of campaign finance regulation would be a boost to the legitimacy of democracies. The findings, however, suggest that the effect of information on regulation could be dependent on the context.