Search Results (58)

In this article, we employ a Batesonian systems thinking approach to analyze politically polarized and politically polarizing encounters in the contemporary United States. We bring together Bateson’s concepts of schismogenesis, double binds, metacommunication, and transcontextualism with recent work on recognition and resonance in order to show how these encounters create moments of transcontextual double binds that produce mutual dysrecognition. We show how these moments of mutual dysrecognition become both animating forces of political polarization in the moment while also becoming constitutive poetic resonances for making sense of future events. When these moments of dysrecognition are considered alongside the removal of mechanisms that restrain schismogenesis, the United States body politic is becoming increasingly schizophrenic—split in two with both parts incommunicado with the other such that the whole system is veering towards collapse. We close by briefly considering the kind of deutero-learning, to use Bateson’s term, that might help to stave off such a collapse. Full article

The aim of this research is to thoroughly investigate the influence of the 2025 Donald Trump Presidential Inauguration on informational efficiency of the U.S. exchange-traded fund market in the context of political risk. The data set includes daily observations for twenty U.S. Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs). The whole sample comprises the period from 20 October 2024 to 20 April 2025. Since the Presidential Inauguration of Donald Trump took place on 20 January 2025, two sub-samples of an equal length are analyzed: (1) the period before the 2025 U.S. Presidential Inauguration from 20 October 2024 to 19 January 2025 and (2) the period after the 2025 U.S. Presidential Inauguration from 20 January 2025 to 20 April 2025. Since the whole sample period is not long (six months), to estimate market efficiency, modified Shannon entropy based on symbolic encoding with two thresholds is used. The empirical findings are visualized by symbol-sequence histograms. The proposed research hypothesis states that the U.S. ETF market’s informational efficiency, as measured by entropy, substantially decreased during the turbulent period after the Donald Trump Presidential Inauguration compared to the period before the Inauguration. The results unambiguously confirm the research hypothesis and indicate that political risk could affect the informational efficiency of markets. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study exploring the influence of the Donald Trump Presidential Inauguration on the informational efficiency of the U.S. ETF market. Full article

This paper investigates the growing political alignment of Latino Evangelicals with the Republican Party, particularly their support for Donald Trump in the 2020 election. Historically, Latino political behavior has been studied with an assumption of religious homogeneity, largely focusing on the Catholic majority. However, the rise of the Latino Evangelical population has coincided with increasing Latino support for the GOP. Former President Obama attributed this shift in support to the growing Evangelical demographic. Building on Chaturvedi’s (2014) work, which found that Evangelical Latinos’ conservative views on issues like same-sex marriage vary by age, this study tests Obama’s assertion using data from the 2020 USC Dornsife Presidential Poll. Logistic regressions show that older Latino Evangelicals were significantly more likely to support Trump, driven by their desire to elect officials who align with their Evangelical policy preferences. The findings explain that the political behavior of older Latino Evangelicals is more strongly related to religious values compared to their younger counterparts. These results highlight the importance of considering religious diversity within Latino politics, pointing to religious identity as a key factor in shaping Latino political behavior and emphasizing the need for further exploration of religious variation in Latino voting patterns. Full article

This research aims at identifying the prevalent conceptual metaphors in Kamala Harris’s discourse and analysing their role, function and significance in shaping her personal image and the image of her political opponent Donald Trump. This research was conducted using a qualitative research method and applying a conceptual framework, encompassing political discourse analysis and Conceptual Metaphor Theory. Harris’s pre-election political discourse demonstrates a three-dimensional image formation model, including conceptual models as the main image shaping tool: conceptual metaphors aimed at Harris and the political party she represents; conceptual metaphors targeted at her political opponent Donald Trump; and bi-directional conceptual metaphors aimed at both competitors, but targeted at forming reverse images and evoking opposite connotations, with diverse goals. Conceptual metaphors, aimed at a positive formation of Harris’s image, include the following: STATE IS A BUILDING, STATE IS A PERSON and POLITICS IS A PLANT. A negative image of Trump is shaped upon the following conceptual metaphors: POLITICS IS WAR, POLITICS IS CHAOS, POLITICS IS BUSINESS, POLITICS IS A RACE, POLITICS IS FICTION, POLITICS IS A BURDEN, and POLITICS IS A RELATIONSHIP. The bi-directional group comprises such conceptual metaphors as POLITICS IS A KNIFE, POLITICS IS A CRIME, POLITICS IS LOVE, POLITICS IS A JOURNEY and POLITICS IS A BOOK. Full article

This article examines the resurgence of fascism and white supremacy politics in Western societies through the lens of status, honor, and dignity. By focusing on the political appeal of leaders like Donald Trump, Jair Bolsonaro, Viktor Orbán, and others, this study argues that these leaders resonate with primarily white, male supporters who feel that their social status and cultural identity are under threat. Drawing on works by Isabel Wilkerson, Ashley Jardina, and Arlie Hochschild, this analysis highlights how anxieties surrounding demographic shifts, perceived “status loss”, and narratives of cultural displacement fuel support for authoritarian policies. It posits that contemporary right-wing movements in the US, Europe, and Latin America are less about economic grievances and more about defending a social hierarchy in which white identity is paramount. This pursuit, while objectively not the same, still mirrors struggles among historically marginalized communities, as discussed by scholars like Bhimrao Ambedkar and Gopal Guru, challenging traditional rational-choice models of political behavior. Relying on an auto-ethnographic account obtained from living in one of the US’s most conservative regions, the West Texas plains, this study suggests that authoritarianism’s appeal lies in its promise to restore a social order steeped in white male dominance, showing how feelings of honor and pride can override democratic principles and fuel political polarization. Ultimately, this article cautions that a social science approach relying solely on rational actor models risks overlooking the potent influence of status anxieties in shaping modern political landscapes, with significant implications for democracy and justice. Full article

This study analyzes the linguistic patterns and rhetorical strategies employed in the 2024 U.S. presidential debates from the exchanges between Donald Trump, Joe Biden, and Kamala Harris. This paper examines debate transcripts to find underlying themes and communication styles using Natural Language Processing (NLP) advanced techniques, including an n-gram analysis, sentiment analysis, and lexical diversity measurements. The methodology combines a quantitative text analysis with qualitative interpretation through the Jaccard similarity coefficient, the Type–Token Ratio, and the Measure of Textual Lexical Diversity. The empirical results reveal distinct linguistic profiles for each candidate: Trump consistently employed emotionally charged language with high sentiment volatility, while Biden and Harris demonstrated more measured approaches with higher lexical diversity. Finally, this research contributes to the understanding of political discourse in high-stakes debates through NLP and can offer information on the evolution of the communication strategies of the presidential candidates of any country with this regime. Full article

Despite leading a violent insurrection to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, dozens of pending felony counts against him, and massive civil fines leveled against him, Donald Trump is poised to not only be the Republican presidential nominee in 2024; but rather, he stands a very plausible chance of being re-elected. This is true, despite the increasingly authoritarian tone of his rhetoric of late and concrete plans that he and those allied with him have openly espoused that, if implemented, will fundamentally dismember the tenets of American democracy. Yet, many Americans appear to be “sleepwalking toward dictatorship”. This essay argues that Donald Trump represents a singularly unique, existential threat to American democracy and outlines specifically how a second Trump administration will destroy American democracy as we have previously known it. Full article

This article comprehensively examines Donald Trump’s political leadership, arguing that his tenure as the 45th President of the United States exhibited characteristics commonly associated with authoritarian mob bosses. Drawing upon various empirical evidence and theoretical political science frameworks, the study sheds light on the underlying dynamics that shaped Trump’s leadership style and its implications for democratic governance. The analysis begins by contextualizing Trump’s rise to power within the erosion of democratic norms. It explores how his rhetoric, characterized by demagoguery and the demonization of opponents, mirrors the tactics employed by mob bosses to consolidate their power and suppress dissent. Moreover, the study uncovers the striking similarities between Trump’s administration management and the hierarchical structures of organized crime, highlighting his reliance on loyalty, personal connections, and a disregard for institutional checks and balances. Furthermore, this research delves into Trump’s autocratic tendencies, as evidenced by his disdain for the free press, attacks on the judiciary, and attempts to undermine the integrity of democratic processes. It reveals how these actions align with the strategies employed by authoritarian leaders to silence opposition and perpetuate their dominance. By examining Trump’s presidency through process tracing, this study contributes to our understanding of the complex relationship between authoritarianism and the erosion of democratic institutions. The findings underscore the urgent need for continued scholarly and public scrutiny of leaders who exhibit traits akin to authoritarian mob bosses to safeguard the principles of democratic governance and protect the integrity of liberal democracies. Full article

This article presents a case that former President of the United States Donald Trump was a tyrant-like leader in the mold of the tyrant in Plato’s Republic. While he does not perfectly embody the tyrant as presented in the Republic, he captures its core feature. Like the tyrant, Trump is driven by unregulated desires that reflect what Plato describes as an extreme freedom that underlies and threatens democratic regimes. Extreme freedom is manifested in Trump’s disregard for social and legal norms, which mirrors the lawlessness of the tyrant. The people, in turn, interpret that posture as a mark of authenticity. Understanding Trump’s appeal in the United States helps alert friends of democracy to the possible rise of tyrant-like figures. In closing, and as a way of remedying the harm done by the tyrannical soul, the article recommends that society help temper tyrant-like passions in the people through a rededication to civic equality. Full article

This study investigates whether news sentiment plays a role in setting social media sentiment to explore the dynamics of sentiment develop and diffusion within the public agenda. Based on the agenda-setting theory, this study analyzed the public and media sentiments towards the 2016 US election and the candidates using data from Twitter, CNN, and Fox News. Focusing on the Twitter messages created by the supporters of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, over 1.3 million Twitter messages were collected associated with the election, employing hashtags as indicators of support. The Granger causality test between social media and news sentiments revealed that there is a mutual influence between social media and news sentiments; CNN’s overall sentiment was influenced by the sentiment of Hillary Clinton’s supporters, whereas Trump supporters’ sentiment was influenced by Fox News’ negative sentiment. The results suggest that public sentiment is formed in response to public agenda and mass media, indicating that sentiment is a critical component in understanding public opinion. Implications for future studies and limitations are also discussed. Full article

The growth of heterodox ideological configurations, or ideological inconsistencies, among the electorate of Western countries, has been offered as one explanation for recent momentous political events, such as Brexit or the election of Donald Trump as US President. Previous research, however, suggests that ideological inconsistency has been typical for Central and Eastern European (CEE) states for the past thirty years after the fall of the Socialist regimes there. Based on a survey of 102 active members of local and national party structures in Bulgaria, followed by in-depth interviews with the same respondents, I develop a conceptual and methodological approach aimed at objectively measuring Bulgarians’ political values and ideological orientations. Building on previous research on the statistical independence of the social and economic dimensions of ideology, this study identifies three main models of ideological inconsistency at the party-elite level in Bulgaria, offering evidence of the “homogeneity in ideological inconsistency” in this post-Socialist country, with party elites and electorate following the same patterns of inconsistency. The existence of a conservative value complex, integrating traditionalist, statist, and nationalist attitudes regarding the social sphere, is another major finding of the study. I discuss the specific historical and socio-cultural background contributing to ideological inconsistency in Bulgaria and potential implications for the wider CEE region. Full article

This article examines the dialectical relationship between continuity and change in the foreign policy of the United States, a hegemonic power. The article begins by exploring the agent–structure problem and the factors that affect changes in foreign policy and the legitimacy of hegemony. It compares the hegemonic leadership styles of three former United States Presidents: George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump. The article aims to contrast the foreign policy approaches of the three presidents and present two main arguments. In order to gain a comprehensive understanding of foreign policy, it is imperative to analyse dynamic components such as contextual factors and leadership. This includes the leaders’ worldviews and their ability to adapt to unanticipated crises. The gradual decline of the United States’ hegemony in the international order can be attributed to structural transformations within the international order and the erosion of its social capital and its role as hegemon. Yet, the leadership styles adopted by American presidents have a significant impact on the erosion of the nation’s hegemonic leadership. Full article

The events of January 6^th were a clear example of threats to American democracy. De-democratization is a process that preceded Trump’s election and that can still be seen in the United States and around the world. Social theorist Charles Tilly wrote about how becoming a democracy is not a unidirectional, one-time event or goal, but a non-linear process. This paper analyzes developments in the United States that signal rises and falls in the level of democracy over the last several decades. It discusses Donald Trump’s rise to power, the insurrection on January 6^th, 2021, and the state of inclusion of ethnoracial minorities in the United States. It uses Tilly’s proposed processes of democratization and de-democratization. This more nuanced understanding of democracy and state–society relations helps avoid celebratory stances about the promise of electoral politics as well as pessimistic assessments about the imminent arrival of fascism and authoritarianism. Full article

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted societies all over the world. In an interconnected and digital global society, social media was the platform not only to convey information and recommendations but also to discuss the pandemic and its consequences. Focusing on the phase of stabilization during the first wave of the pandemic in Western countries, this work analyses the conversation around it through tweets in English. For that purpose, the authors have studied who the most active and influential accounts were, identified the most frequent words in the sample, conducted topic modelling, and researched the predominant sentiments. It was observed that the conversation followed two main lines: a more political and controversial one, which can be exemplified by the relevant presence of former US President Donald Trump, and a more informational one, mostly concerning recommendations to fight the virus, represented by the World Health Organization. In general, sentiments were predominantly neutral due to the abundance of information. Full article

This paper reports the discovery of a series of computational social media accounts (Fanbots) on Twitter that may have played a critical role in sustaining the entrepreneurial narratives of Tesla, the electric-vehicle maker. From 2010 to 2020—a period of trial, error, and eventual success for Tesla—these computational agents generated pro-firm tweets (Corporate Computational Propaganda, CCP), accounting for more than 10% of the total Twitter activity that included the cashtag, $TSLA, and 23% of activity that included the hashtag, #TSLA. Though similar to programmed social media content in the political sphere, the activities of these accounts predate the existence of political computational propaganda associated with foreign support for, for instance, Brexit in the United Kingdom (2016) and Donald Trump in the United States (2016). The paper (a) characterizes the extent of Fanbot content in two large Tesla tweet corpora, (b) identifies possible motivations for the creation of these accounts in relation to the firm’s entrepreneurial narratives, and (c) explores possible mechanisms by which the Fanbots might have acted. Although we are unable to directly observe the source or stated purpose of these accounts, based upon the timing of Fanbot creation and other indirect indicators, we infer that these accounts and the social media activity they generated were intended to influence social perception of Tesla. The conclusion assesses the generalizability of a Fanbot-based strategy, highlighting contextual limitations, while also pointing to ways that firms may already be using CCP to manage social approval in emerging-industry contexts. Full article