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Introduction: Blogs, politics and power: A special issue of Public Choice

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There is good reason to believe that blogs are changing politics, but we don’t know exactly how. Nor do we know whether the normative consequences of blogs for politics are likely to be good or bad. In this special issue, we and our co-authors undertake the first sustained effort to map the empirical and normative consequences of blogs for politics. We begin by setting out basic information about blogs, and some anecdotal evidence suggesting that they are indeed politically important. We go on to identify the key empirical and normative questions that blogs raise, and discuss the dearth of relevant data in the existing literature. We conclude by summarizing how the authors of the articles gathered in this special issue help fill this gap.
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... Es decir, el blog estaría dentro del paradigma de la Internet 2.0 donde el elemento distintivo es la presencia activa y participativa del ciudadano usuario de Internet que se suscribe al blog o acude al mismo para realizar un seguimiento de la actividad del parlamentario de su interés. Para otros autores un blog «un blog es un página web con una edición mínima y no externa, que incluye comentarios on-line, periódicamente actualizado y presentado en orden cronológicamente inverso, con enlaces a otras fuentes on-line» (Drezner, 2008). ...
... Esta porosidad de los blogs, bien a través del blogroll, bien a través de los enlaces, bien a través de la inclusión de links en los comentarios hechos en otros blogs, son lo que da esa característica estructura de red que permite hablar de una «blogosfera» parlamentaria (Farrel y Drezner, 2008). Una vía para incrementar el número de lectores de un blog pasa, precisamente, por cuidar esta malla de relaciones entre blogueros. ...
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Nota sobre la situación de la «blogosfera» parlamentaria
... the rise to prominence of extremists and radicals who seize power and destroy any opposition; the period of the terror regime; return to a calm state, stable government, and some standards of the former pre-revolutionary life [6]. It should once again be noted that it is difficult to determine whether a given social movement is reformist or revolutionary in nature, as it may include both active members and radicals, as well as passive reformers. ...
Article
The article examines the main types of social movements: expressive, utopian, reform, revolutionary movements; resistance movements; defines their main characteristics, the essence of the concept of "ideal types" within different paradigms of social movements. An attempt is made to identify the most effective theoretical and methodological foundations for analysing the "ideal types" of social movements, the expediency of using the latest political science concepts as a theoretical basis for the study of "ideal types" of social movements is considered. Attention is focused on the paradigm of "ideal types" of social movements, which has cognitive potential for the analysis of modern protest movements. The differences that exist between social movements and social institutions are shown, which consist of the difference between them in terms of periods of existence and institutional nature. The author reveals a close connection between social movements and the development of communications, which is a practical tool for the direct participation of citizens in solving their pressing social issues. The authors of the study draw attention to the fact that movements should not be confused with organizations, since social movements can include many organizations, have unstable cultural patterns, and acquire a stable form of behavior, their own norms and a system of ordered and clearly hierarchized social statuses. It follows that social movements can act as pressure groups only by chance and seek to achieve only those goals that are most useful to society, using generally accepted norms. It is especially emphasized that social movements can be defined as the essence of protest actions aimed at supporting social change, a collective attempt to pursue common interests or achieve a common goal through collective action outside the established institutions, and it is through them that we have all the necessary tools and means in our hands to respond to this kind of change promptly and make the transformation process less painful.
... Por ejemplo, la discusión sobre política con amigos o compañeros no suele ser considerada participación (sino parte del concepto más ambiguo de implicación), ¿pero puede no considerarse participación el hecho de escribir comentarios políticos en blogs cuando éstos comienzan a tener un papel propio en la definición de la agenda mediática y, por lo tanto, política? (Drezner y Farrell, 2008). El reenvío de correos electrónicos con contenido político, por ejemplo, es también una forma económica, antes imposible, de comunicación many to many, que hace posible la difusión rápida y muy extensa (viral) de la información y los estímulos que pueden contener. ...
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En esta nota de investigación se presentan los primeros datos en España sobre los usos políticos de Internet, que incluyen consumo de información política, recepción de estímulos movilizadores a través de Internet y participación política online. Se exploran los datos describiendo los diferentes indicadores y se comprueba en qué medida la esfera online reproduce o no los mismos modos de participación que tradicionalmente se han distinguido. Los resultados apuntan a que la participación online se distingue como un modo independiente, mientras que al mismo tiempo puede complementar algunos modos de participación offline como el contacto.
... In fact, a range of critical websites such as Malaysiakini, Aliran, Merdeka Review, Malaysia Today, The Free Media have taken advantage of the Internet law in the MSC Malaysia's Bill of Guarantee that there should be no censorship of the Internet (Hajjafari, Nor, and Jaafar, 2018). In addition, the increased number of Internet users has promoted the appearance of blogs (George, 2007) which had a significant impact in mobilizing thoughts (Drezner and Farrel, 2007), especially the mobilization of Malaysian citizens to participate in mass rallies through the news and dissemination of information on rallies such as the BERSIH Rally (Pandi, 2011). In addition, the influence of political candidates' blogs before the general election had a significant impact in the election results in 2008. ...
Conference Paper
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Fishing is an ancient and risky profession. Subsequently, it has provided job for many people in the world. Meanwhile, in Bangladesh, small coastal communities are often involved in open access and unregulated small-scale fisheries. Fishing is often practiced by people in the lowest castes in the Hindu community. This study focuses on the fishing community called the Jaladas (slave of the water) who are deemed as caste-bound people in Hinduism. These people have faced exploitation and negatively affected by many internal and external factors from generation to generation. This village-based primary study examines how educated youths from Hindu fishing communities perceive their own lives & livelihoods, and how they respond to the changes of socio economic, political and cultural situations. 40 educated youths, who completed at least the Secondary School Certificate, were selected through purposive sampling. They were interviewed about their choice of occupation, social and cultural thinking, kinship, religious worship, and relationship with Muslim moneylenders, political affiliation, engagement with traditional institutions, government and non-governmental supports, community development, and their future plan. This study reveals that despite the strong community bondage, the mindset of educated youths of fishing village has been changing due to the influence of exogenous factors like education, media, mobility, and involvement with political parties. These youths have gradually overcome the socio-psychological barrier and keen to engage in different jobs except fishing. However, they often face financial difficulties and have limited job opportunities, which have made them frustrated. The Government of Bangladesh (GoB) and development agencies should take special initiatives to ensure socio-economic and cultural development among educated youths from underprivileged fishing communities by providing more employment opportunities, training, financial supports, and alternative income generating activities.
... ICTs are nowadays present all over the world. As computers, smartphones and social media are now a part of people's daily lives (Drezner and Farrell 2008). ...
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This study assesses the impact that ICT can have on the occurrence of banking crisis for a sample of 113 countries over the period 1996–2017 while considering the interfering role of corruption and the potential existence of a nonlinear relationship for the ICT-banking crisis nexus. We consider countries with varying income levels to check for the stability of the relationship. Our estimation results show that more highly ICT endowed countries can improve the resilience of the banking system. The study provides evidence that ICTs do not produce the same effect regardless of a country’s level of income. Estimation outcomes show the existence of a threshold effect driving the ICT-banking stability nexus. More results show that Information and communication technologies can improve the stability of the banking system only when corruption is relatively low. However, when corruption is endemic, ICT endowment is useless for the stability of the banking system.
... In fact, a range of critical websites such as Malaysiakini, Aliran, Merdeka Review, Malaysia Today, The Free Media have taken advantage of the Internet law in the MSC Malaysia's Bill of Guarantee that there should be no censorship of the Internet (Hajjafari, Nor, and Jaafar, 2018). In addition, the increased number of Internet users has promoted the appearance of blogs (George, 2007) which had a significant impact in mobilizing thoughts (Drezner and Farrel, 2007), especially the mobilization of Malaysian citizens to participate in mass rallies through the news and dissemination of information on rallies such as the BERSIH Rally (Pandi, 2011). In addition, the influence of political candidates' blogs before the general election had a significant impact in the election results in 2008. ...
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This article evaluates the impact of the Internet on Malaysia’s political environment and how new media contribute to the development of democracy in the country. In Malaysia, while the opposition parties had a small share of mainstream media, they were able to sway the hearts of Malaysian voters through the use of the Internet and alternative media. The method of data collection employed in this research involves thorough in-depth interviews with Malaysian informants who are directly or indirectly related to the media. The results show that the effects of new media have enabled opposition parties to make a spectacular electoral gain. Initially, the paper assesses the observations made by the international institutions about the freedom of expression and also evaluates the influence of the Internet on the democracy in Malaysia which caused the opposition coalition, Pakatan Harapan to emerge as winners which marks an unexpected comeback not only for Tun Mahathir Mohamad but also for democracy.
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El presente estudio analiza el papel jugado por diversas variables que ordinariamente afectan a la calidad de relación en Internet, extendiendo su campo de aplicación a los blogs. La finalidad del análisis se centra además en el apego como elemento adicional en la calidad de relación. Para todo ello se seleccionó una muestra de blogs políticos. Los resultados obtenidos verifican el comportamiento usual de la calidad de relación, pero sobre todo indican significativamente que el apego ejerce una notable influencia sobre la satisfacción y el compromiso, pero no sobre la confianza, tratándose además de una de las variables que mejor explican el compromiso. En otras palabras, si se trata de explicar el desarrollo de compromiso hacia lo que podríamos llamar “marcas humanas” en los entornos políticos en Internet resulta fundamental contemplar el papel jugado por el apego, tanto directamente como mediado por la satisfacción. Ello tiene consecuencias sobre la gestión de la acción política en Internet.
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Uno de los primeros recuerdos académicos que conservo de Ramón es el de una discusión que mantuvo con Jürgen Habermas en alemán (of course!) en el entonces denominado Centro de Estudios Constitucionales. Lógicamente aquella escena, con la sala repleta, me impresionó sobrema-nera pues no eran muchos, ni entonces ni ahora, los profesores españoles en condiciones de debatir en su lengua con el maestro alemán, a quién, además, ha traducido al español. Por ello me ha parecido pertinente en un escrito de esta naturaleza, un Festschrift de homenaje a Ramón Cotarelo, retornar a la cuestión de la opinión pública planteada en aquel debate a la luz de la nueva perspectiva que puede traer consigo la aparición de in-ternet y sus consecuencias para la configuración de la esfera pública en las democracias contemporáneas, asunto que nos ha unido también a los dos en jornadas y publicaciones recientes sobre ciberpolítica, en la que él mis-mo participa con fruición con su blog Palinuro.
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Weblogs (blogs) - frequently modified Web pages in which dated entries are listed in reverse chronological sequence - are the latest genre of Internet communication to attain widespread popularity, yet their characteristics have not been systematically described. This paper presents the results of a content analysis of 203 randomly-selected Weblogs, comparing the empirically observable features of the corpus with popular claims about the nature of Weblogs, and finding them to differ in a number of respects. Notably, blog authors, journalists and scholars alike exaggerate the extent to which blogs are interlinked, interactive, and oriented towards external events, and underestimate the importance of blogs as individualistic, intimate forms of self-expression. Based on the profile generated by the empirical analysis, we consider the likely antecedents of the blog genre, situate it with respect to the dominant forms of digital communication on the Internet today, and advance predictions about its long-term impacts.
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Every day, millions of online diarists, or "bloggers," share their opinions with a global audience. Drawing upon the content of the international media and the World Wide Web, they weave together an elaborate network with agenda-setting power on issues ranging from human rights in China to the U.S. occupation of Iraq. What began as a hobby is evolving into a new medium that is changing the landscape for journalists and policymakers alike.