Direnç Kanol

Near East University

This article reviews the literature on the mandatory government regulation/self-regulation approaches to regulating interest group behaviour. The findings of the author suggest that the voluntary register of the European Commission is bound to fail. The European Commission should implement a mandatory register as soon as possible if the genuine aim...

This review article suggests that there is a new school of comparative lobbying emerging. However, this development is taking place only gradually. Unlike the earlier studies, which studied corporatism/pluralism, outside lobbying and lobbying regulations, the new comparativists are mainly focusing on inside lobbying strategies and success as a func...

Despite the observed frequency of firm lobbying, scholars attempting to explain this behavior have had little luck. Pushing away from theories that center on firm characteristics, this paper argues that firm lobbying can be best explained with a sociological model of competitive action. In particular, firms that perceive other firms to have influen...

We use an experimental survey design to measure how campaign finance regulation influences perceptions of political corruption and trust in politicians when citizens are exposed to information about regulation. Unlike most observational studies, results of this experimental study suggest that knowledge of campaign finance regulation substantially r...

Political executives and interest groups need each other to accomplish their political and policy goals. Important actions taken by top-level bureaucrats, ministers, and heads of states might be influenced by interest groups. Interest groups, in return, might serve as soldiers for the executives, gathering information or helping them implement poli...

This article utilizes policy diffusion theory to understand the policy processes in de facto states, specifically, to investigate policy-making in the ‘Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC),’ examining whether policies diffused to the ‘TRNC’ and which mechanisms are responsible for diffusion. Although one might expect that lack of recognition...

Electric Vehicles (EVs) may be regarded as better alternative to Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicles; as such, few countries including oil-rich ones have begun implementation of policies that will favour its uptake and render ICE vehicles less attractive to purchase or use. However, our understanding of how oil-rich countries may contend with...

Although interest group strategies have been studied by a number of authors who compare different types of groups, our knowledge about how these different types of groups differ in the way they use social media as a strategy to realise their goals is limited. In this paper, we use the hierarchy of engagement model and investigate how British public...

Although interest group strategies have been studied by a number of authors who compare different types of groups, our knowledge about how these different types of groups differ in the way they use social media as a strategy to realise their goals is limited. In this paper, we use the hierarchy of engagement model and investigate how British public...

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 d...

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 tru...

Administrative Politics and Lobbying Regulation

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 o...

The communist AKEL (Ανορθωτικό Κόμμα Εργαζόμενου Λαού) party governed the Republic of Cyprus from February 2008 to February 2013. During this period, AKEL had to deal with grave economic problems. This article uses the European Elections Study (2009) data and presents a statistical model that explains up to 70 per cent of the variance. We show that...

This paper examines social media use by cause and sectional interest groups in the European Union. The literature suggests that cause groups should focus on building a constituency more than sectional groups, because they do not offer exclusive benefits to their members. Cause groups face collective action problems more than sectional groups, so th...

The communist AKEL party governed the Republic of Cyprus from February 2008 to February 2013. During this period, AKEL had to deal with grave economic problems. This article uses the European Elections Study (Voter Study, Advance Release, 7/4/2010, http:// www. piredeu. eu, 2009) data and presents a statistical model that explains up to 70 % of the...

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 rec...

Avrupa Komisyonu'nun tarihindeki en kapsamlı kamu yönetimi reformu girişimi, Kinnock reformları olarak bilinen Yeni Kamu İşletmeciliği (YKİ) reformlarıdır. Komisyon çalışanlarına sorulduğunda Kinnock reformlarının gereksiz evrak işleri doğurduğundan söz edilse de çalışanların bu yeni düzenlemelere alıştıklarını söylemek mümkündür. Genele baktığımız...

This essay reviews the Europeanization of interest groups literature. It shows that the literature is rich in studies testing resource based explanations with attention to context at the same time. Future research might benefit from paying greater attention to studying interactions between interest groups in their domestic context which can affect...

This paper provides the first large-N study, which measures the variation in interest group system institutionalization. It shows that the level of democracy is a very strong determinant of strength of interest groups across countries. Findings are corroborated by analysing the Tunisian case to alleviate the reverse causality problem. Implications...

This paper proposes a theoretical framework for explaining the democratization dynamics in unrecognized states. It is argued that lack of recognition and pressure from the parent state oblige de facto states to depend on a patron state. In return for economic and military assistance, patron states expect to control the decision-making process in de...

It is argued that including civil society at the negotiation table can increase the perceived legitimacy of peace treaties. As a result, it can contribute to the consolidation of peace. In this paper, the author presents the findings from a controlled experiment in order to test the impact of inclusive peace negotiations on the perceived legitimacy...

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. This paper uses Afrobarometer (2008) data. It focu...

Participation at the negotiation table for finding peace agreements can be conceptualised as a peacebuilding function of civil society but studies which measure the impact of civil society’s participation at the negotiation table are distinctly scarce. Do people perceive inclusive peace treaties to be more legitimate? The study focuses on this ques...

Public trust in national government in the Republic of Cyprus steadily and significantly declined, especially since 2008. Data from the period between 2001 and 2013 suggests that there may be three reasons for this decline. Firstly, the economic situation may explain a large portion of the variance in public trust in government. Secondly, disagreem...

It is argued that including civil society at the negotiation table can increase the perceived legitimacy of peace treaties. As a result, it can contribute to the consolidation of peace. In this paper, the author presents the findings from a controlled experiment in order to test the impact of inclusive peace negotiations on the perceived legitimacy...

This paper argues that an interest group's networking skills in micro-states may be as important, if not more important than other variables discussed in the interest group influence literature. This argument is based on the recent literature on democratisation in micro-states which shows that politics in these states is personalistic in nature. Th...

When people know who is influencing the elected politicians and they may ‘put the rascals out’ in case they feel that the incumbents are corrupt, ceteris paribus, their perception of the level of corruption should not be affected by lobbying. If on the other hand people are not sure which or how many actors are influencing public policy and they ar...

Do social cohesion activities change the attitudes of the participants? This paper uses intergroup contact theory to explore attitude change resulting from contact with out-group(s) in social cohesion activities. Results from a pre-test/post-test design with fifty-five participants in two bicommunal camps in Cyprus show how attitudes change at the...

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 camp...

In this paper we argue that international peacebuilding actors’ strategy for dealing with the recognition issue has created significant problems for implementing effective bottom-up peacebuilding activites in Cyprus. Rather than encouraging cooperation between the two communities, a ‘do no harm’ approach applied by international peacebuilding actor...

Both the 2011 parliamentary election and the 2013 presidential election in the Republic of Cyprus produced the lowest levels of voter turnout. This obliges the researchers concerned with democratic legitimacy to dig into the political psychology literature and combine it with empirical analysis to understand who votes in the Republic of Cyprus, who...

In this paper, we argue that the strategy adopted by international peacebuilding actors for dealing with the recognition issue in Cyprus has created significant problems for implementing effective bottom-up peacebuilding activities. Rather than encouraging cooperation between the two communities, the ‘do no harm’ approach applied has strengthened t...

In this paper, the author attempts to explain why there is no Green Party in the northern part of Cyprus. Since the public opinion surveys give a blurred picture to the researcher trying to solve the puzzle, the author relies on in-depth qualitative interviews. Findings suggest that the Cyprus problem, economic problems and low trust in the output...

The visibility of what the Members of the Parliaments do has serious consequences for accountability and democratic legitimacy. The Members of the European Parliament from various countries conduct their affairs without much visibility as a consequence of limited media focus on the European Parliament. Among these countries one can name the Republi...

The Lisbon Treaty could not meet the demands of many as regards the issue of the EU’s legitimacy and democratic governance. By analyzing the literature on the legitimacy of the EU, the article shows why the EU has to fulfill the legitimacy criteria of the liberal-democratic states by defining the EU as a multi-level governance polity which affects...

This article argues that the rationale of the current conflict resolution strategy for resolving the Cyprus problem is problematic. Time and energy should be spent more on peace-building efforts that penetrate into ideas and identities of the Cypriots, than on negotiations that take place between the leaders. Greek and Turkish Cypriots should have...