John Ishiyama

In recent years, there has been a considerable amount of work on the transformation of formerly rebel groups into political parties. However, there is little work that examines the organizational types of parties that formerly armed groups become. Are these parties more likely to exhibit certain organizational characteristics when compared to other parties? This is an important question especially as scholars consider the role these former rebel parties play in the development of peace and democracy in post-civil war politics. Using data from Daly (2020) and Tuncel and Manning (2022) , as well as recently released data from V-Dem on political parties (Coppedge et al 2020) we find that former rebel parties are more clientelistic and personalistic than other parties, even compared to parties in countries where they compete. We suggest that these parties are unlikely to play a constructive role in post-conflict democratization.

Background Research regarding party behavior has often be understood through one of two models, (1) the Downsian proximity model, which supposes parties will change positions in order to be most competitive, and (2) the issue salience model, which understands parties to emphasize issues on which it is more competitive. Objectives This study produces a theoretical framework explaining why parties, specifically in a two‐party system, emphasize one issue dimension over others. We argue that voter distributions differ across issue dimensions and take one of four general forms: (1) unimodal symmetrical, (2) bimodal symmetrical, (3) unimodal asymmetrical, and (4) bimodal asymmetrical. These distributions determine the nature of an issue dimension as approximating valence or positional. Combined with a party's issue ownership or positional advantage, this determines whether a party emphasizes an issue. An issue owner is expected to emphasize unimodal symmetrical issues, parties with positional advantage are expected to emphasize bimodal asymmetrical issues, and no party should emphasize a bimodal symmetrical issue. The decision to emphasize a unimodal asymmetrical issue is dependent upon whether the issue owner and the party with positional advantage are the same and the long‐versus short‐term electoral strategy of a party. Methods Data to test this theoretical approach do not yet exist. This theoretical framework is designed to apply to a two‐party system. In order to properly test the above expectations, we would need data regarding the distribution of voters along different issue dimensions, as well as the emphases placed on issues by parties. These data must be specific to a two‐party system. Conclusion This theory attempted to build a synthesized theory of party behavior based on the Downsian proximity model and the issue salience model. This theory helps explain what issues parties will seek to contest, and which issues become politicized. However, this framework can be extended to explain many questions regarding polarization, party behavior, electoral strategy and political contestation.

Introduction In this paper, we examine how premigratory experiences shape the willingness of immigrants to engage with the political system of the host country. Methods Using the Immigrant Citizens’ Survey, a study of over 6600 immigrants in six European countries, and building upon previous work we test whether an immigrant who comes from an authoritarian country and/or a country that has experienced significant civil conflict, will affect the extent to which they are willing to politically engage in the politics of their host country. Results However, we find that whether an immigrant respondent came from a democracy or an extremely repressive regime at the time of their departure from the home country had no discernible effect on the willingness to vote in an election in the host country. We find that immigrants whose home country was embroiled in major civil conflicts at the time of their departure from the country are significantly more likely to express a willingness to politically engage in the politics of the host country, and this finding is robust across multiple model specifications. Conclusions This suggests that immigrants who hail from conflict countries are more likely to engage politically than immigrants from countries that have less conflict.