Hasil untuk "Political institutions and public administration (General)"

J. Kooiman

Rohitash Chandra, Haoyan Chen, Yaqing Zhang et al.

Political bias in media plays a critical role in shaping public opinion, voter behaviour, and broader democratic discourse. Subjective opinions and political bias can be found in media sources, such as newspapers, depending on their funding mechanisms and alliances with political parties. Automating the detection of political biases in media content can limit biases in elections. The impact of large language models (LLMs) in politics and media studies is becoming prominent. In this study, we utilise LLMs to compare the left-wing, right-wing, and neutral political opinions expressed in the Guardian and BBC. We review newspaper reporting that includes significant events such as the Russia-Ukraine war and the Hamas-Israel conflict. We analyse the proportion for each opinion to find the bias under different LLMs, including BERT, Gemini, and DeepSeek. Our results show that after the outbreak of the wars, the political bias of Western media shifts towards the left-wing and each LLM gives a different result. DeepSeek consistently showed a stable Left-leaning tendency, while BERT and Gemini remained closer to the Centre. The BBC and The Guardian showed distinct reporting behaviours across the two conflicts. In the Russia-Ukraine war, both outlets maintained relatively stable positions; however, in the Israel-Hamas conflict, we identified larger political bias shifts, particularly in Guardian coverage, suggesting a more event-driven pattern of reporting bias. These variations suggest that LLMs are shaped not only by their training data and architecture, but also by underlying worldviews with associated political biases.

I. Rakitskaya

Aim . To analyze the legal status of the Ombudsman’s Office in the Kingdom of Bahrain, identifying the specifics of its functioning and its place in the state mechanism of this country. Methodology . During the study, both general methods of scientific knowledge (the method of analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction) and special methods were used such as a comparative legal method, which made it possible to correlate the national characteristics of the ombudsman institution in the Kingdom of Bahrain with similar institutions in other countries, and a method of historical legal analysis which was used for analyzing historical events and the preconditions for the adoption of normative legal acts establishing this institution and regulating its activities in this country. Results . The legal framework for the organization and functioning of the ombudsman’s office in the Kingdom of Bahrain is described. Trends aimed at strengthening institutional guarantees for human rights protection in this Middle Eastern state are identified. Shortcomings of the existing ombudsman model in Bahrain are revealed. Research implications . Thе research contributes to the study of issues related to the adaptation and transformation of Western legal institutions (such as the ombudsman institution) into legal systems which are not considered to be complete democracies. The practical significance of the analysis of the legal status and operational features of the Bahraini ombudsman allows to assess the extent to which the establishment and activities of this institution can influence the reduction of the level of political tension in society, and may also serve as an argument in favor of gradually expanding the actual powers of the institution without a radical overhaul of the country’s political system. Moreover, the political and legal experience of Bahrain (the first country in the region implemented this institution), the results of which are being observed by neighboring states, may influence regional trends in changing public administration.

Bryan Pilkington, Arthur L Caplan, Kayhan Parsi

Photo ID 25835385 © Travelling-light| Dreamstime.com Abstract The nature of the scientific enterprise is sometimes misunderstood by large sections of the public. Failure to understand how progress occurs within scientific disciplines can lead to nonadherence with expert recommendations, with devastating consequences. Why does the public put enough stock in scientific research and medical science to comply with certain research findings but are skeptical of others? Through careful attention to history, current socio-cultural contexts, scientific data, and knowledge development within professions, we argue in favor of greater public deference to expertise. Though we rely on a variety of examples rooted in medical science, our focus is on general conceptions of expertise and what might be learned from reflection on its proper role. We situate our analysis within the context of current discussions in philosophy, bioethics, and public policy around the idea of ‘wicked problems’. Introduction Expertise, broadly speaking, has come under serious attack in recent years.  The current presidential administration is engaged in large-scale dismantling of the scientific and public health infrastructure at a variety of federal agencies. This is happening concurrently with ongoing attacks on academic institutions. This should concern not just members of the scientific and academic community but also the public at large. Unfortunately, the nature of the scientific enterprise is sometimes misunderstood by large sections of the public.[1]  Although trust in science remains high among Americans, the level of trust contrasts sharply depending on one’s political affiliation.[2] There has been growing hostility toward science itself.[3] This can have devastating consequences when a failure to understand how progress occurs within scientific disciplines leads to ignorance of and even nonadherence to expert recommendations. How ought members of the public be persuaded to put enough stock in scientific research and medical science to listen to and comply with sound research findings but remain appropriately questioning of expert advice? For instance, recent polling data suggests that a majority of US adults are concerned that agencies such as the CDC will make decisions that are influenced by politics.[4] Through careful attention to history, current socio-cultural contexts, the role of expertise, and knowledge development within the scientific professions, we argue in favor of greater, albeit prudent, deference to expertise. Our hope is that lessons will be learned for better responses to future public health crises and other collective action problems that require public support to properly address them. We are careful to focus our efforts on the value of expertise, which is hard-won and takes years to cultivate. We situate our analysis within the context of current discussions of pandemics as ‘wicked problems,’[5] responding to potential critiques rooted in concerns about epistemic justice,[6] and suggest bioethics as a working model for addressing these concerns and bioethicists as potential leaders in future public policy discussions. The Authority of Experts The authority of experts has increasingly attracted the attention of ethicists. For instance, some ethicists have argued that we should be wary of the authority of experts because experts are human beings that may have conflicts of interest, speak outside their area of expertise (“epistemic trespassing”), or offer advice that is not useful.[7] Managing deference to the authority of experts has long been a challenge in the United States. The authority of experts has waxed and waned throughout the history of the United States. For instance, the authority of experts was under assault during the era of Jacksonian democracy in the early 19th century.[8] Licensure of professionals was repealed. Many irregular physicians practiced medicine. The prevailing ideology held that each individual could and should decide how to manage their own health. This was the state of affairs for much of the 19th century. But, with the rise of laboratory science and the demonstrable efficacy of the germ theory of disease, the authority of physicians grew. As chronicled in the classic book The Social Transformation of American Medicine, physicians enjoyed an unparalleled run of cultural and moral authority throughout much of the 20th century.[9] Today, health care professionals such as physicians and nurses typically hold the top rung in Gallup surveys of public trust (although they suffered a downturn as a result of COVID).[10] Public health experts have always struggled for the same level of cultural authority. Despite the successes of public health in the 20th century, medicine garnered the lion’s share of resources. Respect for those treating individual patients surpassed respect for public health officials, who offered prevention strategies and focused on infectious disease avoidance, vaccination, and food safety. It also surpassed those engaged in the practice of medicine in clinics and publicly funded venues serving individuals who were stigmatized – the poor, minorities, individuals with disabilities, individuals with mental illness or addiction, or immigrants. Public health journalist Laurie Garrett highlights the difference in a rather stark way by comparing the public health school at Harvard with the medical school building: “The medical school is all marble, with these grand columns….The school of public health is this funky building, the ugliest possible architecture, with the ceilings falling in….That’s America.”[11] During the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, the authority of public health and scientific experts came under withering attacks. President Trump dismissed the authority of scientific experts when the pandemic first started. Trust in expertise was further eroded by right-wing media personalities attacking figures such as Anthony Fauci. Ideally, public health and medicine should acknowledge mistakes and be transparent to the public. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, the current head of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), has continued the administration’s undermining of science and expertise by promoting falsehoods about autism, vaccines, chemtrails and fluoride. Trust as precious social capital is diminished when officials in positions of power promote mistruths. It is this social capital of trust that is essential in preserving the authority of credible experts. Since no one is an expert in everything, we must have some level of trust in the expertise of certain individuals. But who merits our trust? With the vast amount of information available, it is increasingly difficult to determine who is trustworthy and who is not. We have witnessed a stratification of trust toward individuals and institutions based on income and education. For instance, more highly educated individuals tend to trust academic experts. And this trust goes beyond individual trust to institutional trust. The CDC has enjoyed a good deal of trust throughout its history. Yet even this agency has seen its trustworthiness diminish with its recommendations during COVID of school closings, mandatory vaccination, isolating, and masking. Institutional trustworthiness is historically more precarious than the trustworthiness of individuals, but both have been undermined in recent years. Historically, professional experts have grossly abused their authority. We have witnessed this with unethical experiments in Nazi Germany and human rights abuses in the US, including Tuskegee, Willowbrook, the Iowa ‘monster’ stuttering studies, Havasupai Tribe gene studies, and the Stanford prison experiments, among many others. Ordinary people rightly question the authority of experts when such a legacy of abuse exists. The COVID pandemic highlighted a great deal of disagreement among a variety of experts. Dr. Vinay Prasad, now in high office at the FDA, emerged as a staunch critic of mainstream public health measures, such as vaccine and mask mandates.[12] So did those who authored the Great Barrington Declaration.[13] Mark Battersby stated, “Disagreement among experts renders appeals to authority fallacious. But many of the interesting cases one deals with will involve conflict among experts.”[14] The pandemic reflected not only disagreement but the very undermining of the notion of expertise. Others have highlighted the role of anti-intellectualism in American life. Anti-intellectualism reflects a suspicion of experts and the expert class. The scholar and public intellectual Tom Nichols chronicled this phenomenon in his 2017 book The Death of Expertise.[15] It also harbors a suspicion toward ‘the academy,’ or institutions of higher education. (Nichols provides a stinging critique of the academy and its dereliction of promoting logical discourse and reason.) This kind of suspicion and mistrust has persisted throughout US history and has seen a resurgence in recent years with the election and re-election of Trump. Such attitudes support populist or even conspiratorial explanations for complex phenomena, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, chemtrails, and climate change. As Merkley and Loewen state: “People who are highly distrusting of experts are not simply willing to put aside their distrust of these sources to resolve the crisis and return to normalcy. Relaying information from experts is unlikely to be of use in persuading these individuals, even in times of crisis. Other communication strategies are needed.”[16] For many individuals who are distrustful of public health advice, their experience with COVID-19 may have only reinforced that distrust. Asymptomatic people or those with very mild symptoms led to the spread of the virus to vulnerable members of society who were more likely to experience severe COVID-19 complications. Thus, the failure to heed public health advice placed a significant burden on the US healthcare system,

Janise Brück, Julia Serong, Lars Guenther

The politicization of science refers to the changing relationship between science and politics (e.g., Post & Ramirez, 2018). Different concepts of politicization of science focus on various aspects, e.g. political actors highlighting scientific uncertainty to question the scientific consensus or influencing scientific processes and research. In general, the politicization of science refers to the process by which science gradually takes on a political meaning and is used to pursue political goals, leading to a closer relationship between science and politics (e.g., Alinejad & Honari, 2024; Schmid-Petri et al., 2022). However, there is a lack of a multidimensional conceptualization that reflects this general understanding and also considers the media as a driver of the politicization of science (Brüggemann et al., 2020). In this perspective, the politicization of science is a process that unfolds in as well as through media coverage and can be analyzed using indicators such as the thematic blurring of politics and science, politicized actor structures, and politicized news values in media coverage (e.g., Brück et al., 2024). Field of application/Theoretical foundation The relationship between science and politics has been discussed for decades. Theoretical perspectives, such as those from Luhmann (e.g., social systems theory; 1995) and Habermas (e.g., scientization of politics; 1987), explore the complexities of this relationship and its societal implications. The politicization of science presents significant challenges, especially for science communication, which is central to the interaction between politics, science, and publics (e.g., Brüggemann et al., 2020). As science becomes more media-oriented, strategic science communication must navigate the politicized public discourses while maintaining scientific integrity. Journalists play a crucial role in this process by selecting scientific information and providing it for public and political discourse (e.g., Brüggemann et al., 2020; Scheufele, 2014). The politicization of science in media coverage is mainly analyzed regarding science and health communication, with public debates on climate change and COVID-19 being prominent examples (e.g., Hart et al., 2020; Post & Ramirez, 2018). References/Combination with other methods of data collection To identify trends in the politicization of science, the media coverage is often analyzed through content analysis. Mixed-methods approaches have not yet been used; however, Alinejad and Honari (2024) focus on the online politicization of science on Twitter in a quantitative-qualitative approach, and there are survey experiments that test the effects of the politicization of science and ways to counteract it (e.g., Bolsen & Druckman, 2015). Example studies Depending on how the politicization of science is understood, various studies examine distinct aspects of the politicization of science in media coverage: Chinn et al., 2020; Hart et al., 2020; Leidecker-Sandmann & Lehmkuhl, 2022; Schmidt, 2023. Brück et al. (2024) offer a holistic concept of multiple indicators of the politicization of science that is applied to media coverage. Information on Schmidt (2023) Author: Hans Schmidt Research question: What differences in politicization existed between COVID-19 and other pandemic reporting? (RQ1) Object of analysis: The study analyzed a sample of 1,196 news articles from the New York Times and the Washington Post covering key pandemic periods in the 20th and 21st centuries. For 2020 and 2009–2010, due to the extensive volume of content, articles were selected based on one constructed week per month. Time frame of analysis: January 1918–December 1919; February 1957–December 1958; September 1968–April 2009; December 1970–April 2010; January 2020–June 2020 (the first 6 months of the COVID-19 pandemic). Information about Variables Variables: The politicization of pandemic-related reporting was examined by four measures: (a) political angle, (b) mentions of political actors, (c) quotes from political actors, and (d) story origin. Level of analysis: news article Variables and values: see Table 1 Table 1: Variables and values (Schmidt, 2023). Variables Description Political angle The variable investigates, “if a political perspective or angle (involving policy, implications, analysis, or strategy) was addressed” (p. 35). Mentions of political actors The variable investigates “the number of times political actors were mentioned (…) in each news report” (p. 35). Quotes from (political) actors The variable investigates “the number of times political actors (…) quoted in each news report” (p. 35). In addition, quotes from other actors were also measured, such as “public health officials, individual health care professionals, representatives of health care institutions, researchers, business spokespersons or analysts, health-related NGOs, civil society and movement groups, alternative practitioners, ordinary people/patients, others” (p. 36). Story origin The variable investigates, “if the story originated with the activities of a political actor” (p. 35). These include actions or statements of political actors, government agencies, health care institutions, researchers, international agencies, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) or “businesses, breaking news, research publications, legal hearings, court judgments, other/undetermined” (p. 36). Reliability: “Coding was conducted by the lead researcher and an assistant, a communications undergraduate student who had been trained by the lead researcher. To ensure intercoder reliability, both individuals coded 96 overlapping articles, accounting for 8.0% of the sample of COVID-19 pandemic-related articles. Analysis of nominal/categorical data showed a 94.8% agreement between coders, which is considered acceptable (Lombard et al., 2010), and a Cohen’s Kappa test also indicated a strong level of agreement between coders, κ = .883 (p .81; Krippendorff’s α: > .72). Codebook: in the appendix (in German; for the original version, see Brück, 2024) References Alinejad, D., & Honari, A. (2024). Online politicizations of science: Contestation versus denialism at the convergence between COVID-19 and clima

Eko Prasojo, Zuliansyah P. Zulkarnain, Julyan Ferdiansyah et al.

Patricia Silvia Huerta Vargas

La Contraloría del Perú en colaboración con el Ministerio de Educación implementó el programa "Auditores Juveniles", un innovador mecanismo de participación ciudadana que involucra a estudiantes de educación secundaria de las instituciones educativas, quienes, acompañados y asesorados por los docentes y padres de familia, realizan veedurías escolares a los servicios educativos y sus entornos. El citado programa tiene como objetivo contribuir a la mejora de los servicios educativos y promover una cultura de participación ciudadana e integridad basada en valores éticos desde una edad temprana. El objetivo de la presente investigación es analizar la importancia del programa "Auditores Juveniles" en la gestión educativa del Perú y ser un referente para otros países de América Latina. Se empleó un enfoque cualitativo basado principalmente en el análisis de los informes ejecutivos de gestión emitidos por la Contraloría entre 2017 y 2023. Los hallazgos revelan que el programa fomenta la participación ciudadana y la mejora de la gestión educativa.

Natalia Ożegalska-Łukasik, Szymon Łukasik

Political beliefs vary significantly across different countries, reflecting distinct historical, cultural, and institutional contexts. These ideologies, ranging from liberal democracies to rigid autocracies, influence human societies, as well as the digital systems that are constructed within those societies. The advent of generative artificial intelligence, particularly Large Language Models (LLMs), introduces new agents in the political space-agents trained on massive corpora that replicate and proliferate socio-political assumptions. This paper analyses whether LLMs display propensities consistent with democratic or autocratic world-views. We validate this insight through experimental tests in which we experiment with the leading LLMs developed across disparate political contexts, using several existing psychometric and political orientation measures. The analysis is based on both numerical scoring and qualitative analysis of the models' responses. Findings indicate high model-to-model variability and a strong association with the political culture of the country in which the model was developed. These findings highlight the need for more detailed examination of the socio-political dimensions embedded within AI systems.

Amrit Poudel, Tim Weninger

Search engines play a crucial role in shaping public discourse by influencing how information is accessed and framed. While prior research has extensively examined various dimensions of search bias -- such as content prioritization, indexical bias, political polarization, and sources of bias -- an important question remains underexplored: how do search engines and ideologically-motivated user queries contribute to bias in search results. This study analyzes the outputs of major search engines using a dataset of political and social topics. The findings reveal that search engines not only prioritize content in ways that reflect underlying biases but also that ideologically-driven user queries exacerbate these biases, resulting in the amplification of specific narratives. Moreover, significant differences were observed across search engines in terms of the sources they prioritize. These results suggest that search engines may play a pivotal role in shaping public perceptions by reinforcing ideological divides, thereby contributing to the broader issue of information polarization.

Muhammad Arslan, Saba Munawar, Christophe Cruz

In the contemporary digital landscape, media content stands as the foundation for political news analysis, offering invaluable insights sourced from various channels like news articles, social media updates, speeches, and reports. Natural Language Processing (NLP) has revolutionized Political Information Extraction (IE), automating tasks such as Event Extraction (EE) from these diverse media outlets. While traditional NLP methods often necessitate specialized expertise to build rule-based systems or train machine learning models with domain-specific datasets, the emergence of Large Language Models (LLMs) driven by Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) presents a promising alternative. These models offer accessibility, alleviating challenges associated with model construction from scratch and reducing the dependency on extensive datasets during the training phase, thus facilitating rapid implementation. However, challenges persist in handling domain-specific tasks, leading to the development of the Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) framework. RAG enhances LLMs by integrating external data retrieval, enriching their contextual understanding, and expanding their knowledge base beyond pre-existing training data. To illustrate RAG's efficacy, we introduce the Political EE system, specifically tailored to extract political event information from news articles. Understanding these political insights is essential for remaining informed about the latest political advancements, whether on a national or global scale.

Jeongwon Jo, He Zhang, Jie Cai et al.

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is an essential benefit support system provided by the US administration to 41 million federally determined low-income applicants. Through interviews with such applicants across a diverse set of experiences with the SNAP system, our findings reveal that new AI technologies like LLMs can alleviate traditional burdens but also introduce new burdens. We introduce new types of learning, compliance, and psychological costs that transform the administrative burden on applicants. We also identify how trust in AI across three dimensions--competence, integrity, and benevolence--is perceived to reduce administrative burdens, which may stem from unintended and untoward overt trust in the system. We discuss calibrating appropriate levels of user trust in LLM-based administrative systems, mitigating newly introduced burdens. In particular, our findings suggest that evidence-based information disclosure is necessary in benefits administration and propose directions for future research on trust-burden dynamics in AI-assisted administration systems.

O. Perederii

Introduction. The article highlights the essence of the main innovative transformations taking place in the legal system of Ukraine in the context of intensification of the European integration processes from the standpoint of general theoretical analysis. The author focuses on the interrelation between changes in the national legal system of Ukraine and the State's involvement in European policies. Summary of the main results of the study. It is found that deepening of Ukraine's participation in European policies depends on several basic organizational and legal factors: formation of a unique regulatory framework for the implementation of EU legal standards into the system of national legislation of Ukraine, institutional reforms in the system of public authorities, improvement of the contractual framework for the development and deepening of political relations between Ukraine and the united Europe. The author reveals the main clusters of EU law provisions which are currently most implemented in the legal system of Ukraine (customs, food security, veterinary and phytosanitary policy, consumer protection and healthcare, statistics, foreign relations, transport policy, freedom of entrepreneurship and provision of services, financial services, freedom of movement of goods). It is proved that formal and legal support for the "transfer" of many areas of public administration and life in Ukraine to EU standards contributes to the formation of new social practices of their implementation similar to the European ones (functioning of public services, law enforcement and public safety, education and science, health care, etc.) Conclusion. The author substantiates the conclusion that innovative changes in the national legal system of Ukraine determine the degree and depth of our country's participation in European policies. The gradual deepening of involvement of employees of the system of public authorities and local self-government, as well as citizens involved in other spheres of society in the main areas of the EU's functioning, creates a real basis for accelerating Ukraine's accession to the EU. Accordingly, a promising task of legal science is to substantiate the most effective ways of further implementation of legal standards for the regulation of public relations, which are recognised as model ones at the EU level.

Petro Opanashchuk

Background . The current stage of Ukraine's development is characterized by significant changes affecting various spheres of public life. A significant part of these changes is due to the processes of globalization and European integration. The events of the Russian-Ukrainian war are also a significant factor in social transformations. In these conditions, increasing the resilience of society to new challenges, guaranteeing the safety of people, society and the state in general is of particular importance. It is emphasized that in the field of domestic humanitarian development, the problems of inequality and excessive polarization of society along linguistic, ethnic, religious and other types of characteristics have accumulated for a long time and still remain insufficiently resolved. This often becomes a source of aggravation and strengthening of contradictions in many spheres of society's life. Such components of humanitarian policy as the development of education, science, culture, harmonization of inter-confessional and ethno-national relations, etc. form the basis for further increasing the level of human capital and strengthen social cohesion in general. This leads to the need to find effective mechanisms for improving the quality of state administration in the humanitarian sphere and ways to ensure the consolidation of society on the basis of universally recognized value orientations, because the normal life of the population and the sustainable functioning of social institutions, as well as the observance of rights and freedoms regardless from race and gender, ethnicity, language and religion. Methods . In the process of research, the method of theoretical analysis of scientific sources was used, as well as the method of comparison, which made it possible to study the available scientific approaches to solving the outlined problem. In order to reveal the essence of the categories "humanitarian space" and "unity of humanitarian space", the methods of generalization, formalization, analysis and synthesis were used. Other general scientific and special methods of cognition were also used, including abstraction, concretization, induction, and systematization. This made it possible to substantiate the structural components that underlie the category "unity of the humanitarian space". In order to formulate the general conclusions of the study, the method of logical generalization of the results was used. Results . The analysis of domestic and foreign historiography has led to the conclusion that there is no unified approach to defining the category of humanitarian space. It was established that in foreign practice, the view of the humanitarian space as a kind of humanitarian working environment, in which humanitarian organizations can carry out their activities to provide assistance to people in regions affected by negative factors of various origins, dominates. Among domestic scientists, views on the humanitarian space as an environment based on a system of ideas, values, ideals, myths, stereotypes and images that influence people's consciousness prevail. It is justified that the unity of the humanitarian space should be considered the degree of cohesion of society around such socially significant topics as the attitude to language, religious freedoms, ethno-national relations, cultural development, historical memory and other manifestations of social existence that form national identity, as well as the ability on the basis of existing mechanisms, effectively and constructively resolve contradictions that may arise from time to time in these spheres of social relations. The components that underlie the unity of the humanitarian space have been identified, namely: a harmonious language environment, development of the educational sector, preservation of the national cultural heritage and historical memory, consideration of the rights and satisfaction of the needs of national minorities (communities), harmonization of state-church and inter-confessional relations. It has been established that an important role in the formation of a coherent humanitarian space is also played by the satisfaction of the informational and cultural needs of society, which should occur thanks to the national producers of cultural products and the functioning of the network of national channels of cultural communication. Conclusions . It has been proven that the formation of integral humanitarian space creates the preconditions for further strengthening of social cohesion, which is critically important in the conditions of the transformations that Ukraine is undergoing at the current stage of integration into European cultural, economic and political structures. Signs of a holistic humanitarian space are the presence of a developed common symbolic system, the crucial role of national producers of cultural products and national channels of cultural communication in meeting the informational and cultural needs of society, a high level of social cohesion based of common cultural and ideological values that have a national character, harmonious development of interethnic and interfaith relations, etc. The presence among the components of the humanitarian space of such elements as historical memory, own culture, traditions, and a unique linguistic environment turn it into one of the fundamental factors that influence the formation of national identity, that is, contribute to a person's permanent awareness of belonging to the Ukrainian nation as an original community, united by name, symbols, geographical and ethno-social origin, historical memory, a complex of spiritual and cultural values, in particular the Ukrainian language and folk traditions.

Gabriela Juncosa, Taha Yasseri, Julia Koltai et al.

Quantifying how individuals react to social influence is crucial for tackling collective political behavior online. While many studies of opinion in public forums focus on social feedback, they often overlook the potential for human interactions to result in self-censorship. Here, we investigate political deliberation in online spaces by exploring the hypothesis that individuals may refrain from expressing minority opinions publicly due to being exposed to toxic behavior. Analyzing conversations under YouTube videos from six prominent US news outlets around the 2020 US presidential elections, we observe patterns of self-censorship signaling the influence of peer toxicity on users' behavior. Using hidden Markov models, we identify a latent state consistent with toxicity-driven silence. Such state is characterized by reduced user activity and a higher likelihood of posting toxic content, indicating an environment where extreme and antisocial behaviors thrive. Our findings offer insights into the intricacies of online political deliberation and emphasize the importance of considering self-censorship dynamics to properly characterize ideological polarization in digital spheres.

Dominik Stammbach, Philine Widmer, Eunjung Cho et al.

Large language models such as ChatGPT exhibit striking political biases. If users query them about political information, they often take a normative stance. To overcome this, we align LLMs with diverse political viewpoints from 100,000 comments written by candidates running for national parliament in Switzerland. Models aligned with this data can generate more accurate political viewpoints from Swiss parties, compared to commercial models such as ChatGPT. We also propose a procedure to generate balanced overviews summarizing multiple viewpoints using such models. The replication package contains all code and data.

Vivek Kumar Singh, Mousumi Karmakar, Anurag Kanaujia

In the past few decades, India has emerged as a major knowledge producer, with research output being contributed by a diverse set of institutions ranging from centrally funded to state funded, and from public funded to private funded institutions. A significant change has been witnessed in Indian institutional actors during the last two decades, with various new private universities being set up and several new IITs, NITs, IISERs being established. Therefore, it is important to identify whether the composition of the list of the top 100 research output producing institutions of India has changed significantly during the recent two decades. This study attempted to analyse the changes during the two 10-year periods (2004-13 and 2014-23). The institutions which retain their position within top 100 during both periods are identified, along with the change in their positions. Similarly, institutions that were there in top 100 list during first time period (2004-13) and go out of top 100 list during second time period (2014-23) are also identified. In the same line, the new entrant institutions in the top 100 list during second time period (2014-23) are identified too. The results obtained indicate towards an institutional shift in the contribution to Indian research output.

Alapan Kuila, Sudeshna Sarkar

Sentiment analysis plays a pivotal role in understanding public opinion, particularly in the political domain where the portrayal of entities in news articles influences public perception. In this paper, we investigate the effectiveness of Large Language Models (LLMs) in predicting entity-specific sentiment from political news articles. Leveraging zero-shot and few-shot strategies, we explore the capability of LLMs to discern sentiment towards political entities in news content. Employing a chain-of-thought (COT) approach augmented with rationale in few-shot in-context learning, we assess whether this method enhances sentiment prediction accuracy. Our evaluation on sentiment-labeled datasets demonstrates that LLMs, outperform fine-tuned BERT models in capturing entity-specific sentiment. We find that learning in-context significantly improves model performance, while the self-consistency mechanism enhances consistency in sentiment prediction. Despite the promising results, we observe inconsistencies in the effectiveness of the COT prompting method. Overall, our findings underscore the potential of LLMs in entity-centric sentiment analysis within the political news domain and highlight the importance of suitable prompting strategies and model architectures.

Christopher Mantzaris, Ajda Fošner

Tax administrative cost reduction is an economically and socially desirable goal for public policy. This article proposes total administrative cost as percentage of total tax revenue as a vivid measurand, also useful for cross-jurisdiction comparisons. Statistical data, surveys and a novel approach demonstrate: Germany's 2021 tax administrative costs likely exceeded 20% of total tax revenue, indicating need for improvement of Germany's taxation system - and for the many jurisdictions with similar tax regimes. In addition, this article outlines possible reasons for and implications of the seemingly high tax administrative burden as well as solutions.

Hongzhou Chen, Xiaolin Duan, Abdulmotaleb El Saddik et al.

Harnessing the transparent blockchain user behavior data, we construct the Political Betting Leaning Score (PBLS) to measure political leanings based on betting within Web3 prediction markets. Focusing on Polymarket and starting from the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election, we synthesize behaviors over 15,000 addresses across 4,500 events and 8,500 markets, capturing the intensity and direction of their political leanings by the PBLS. We validate the PBLS through internal consistency checks and external comparisons. We uncover relationships between our PBLS and betting behaviors through over 800 features capturing various behavioral aspects. A case study of the 2022 U.S. Senate election further demonstrates the ability of our measurement while decoding the dynamic interaction between political and profitable motives. Our findings contribute to understanding decision-making in decentralized markets, enhancing the analysis of behaviors within Web3 prediction environments. The insights of this study reveal the potential of blockchain in enabling innovative, multidisciplinary studies and could inform the development of more effective online prediction markets, improve the accuracy of forecast, and help the design and optimization of platform mechanisms. The data and code for the paper are accessible at the following link: https://github.com/anonymous.

O. Enkhbat

The article presents the results of a scientific study of cooperation between the Mongolian People's Republic and the Soviet Union during the Second World War. The purpose of the study is to determine and analyze the forms, methods and content of interaction between the states using the example of their cooperation and mutual support during the war. The author defines the specifics and summarizes the processes of the historical experience of military-political cooperation between Mongolia and Russia. Examples of equal, effective and fruitful cooperation between the two states are considered, not only in peacetime, but also in extreme conditions of military operations. The object of scientific research is cooperation between the Mongolian People's Republic and the USSR in the military-political, socio-economic and cultural-spiritual fields within the certain chronological limits. The subject of the study is the activities of state and military bodies of these countries to implement Mongolian-Russian cooperation during the war. Research methodology: the author, based on the principles of scientific knowledge, primarily on a dialectical analysis of the evolution of the relationship between military-political cooperation between Mongolia and Russia, traced the evolution of the development of bilateral relations between Mongolia and the USSR. When it comes to the general scientific methods of research, systematic and comparative historical analysis of the chosen subject of study should be highlighted. The main ideas and conclusions made by the author can be used both to continue scientific research in the chosen subject area, and for practical application not only in the educational process of higher educational institutions, but also to develop recommendations to government authorities and military departments carrying out international military cooperation between Mongolia and the Russian Federation; as well as in the course of planning activities aimed at ensuring peace and international security on the southern borders of the CIS and in the North-Eastern region as a whole; in the interests of increasing the defense capability of the two countries, the development and interaction of their armed forces; when writing scientific works on military-political cooperation of sovereign states. As a result of the research, the author has analyzed a whole range of documents reflecting the political, military-diplomatic and economic cooperation of the two states during the period of time under review. In addition, the studied literature of domestic and foreign researchers made it possible, in turn, to generalize the historical experience of military-political cooperation between Mongolia and Russia, as well as to study the organization and content of cooperation between the two states using the example of mutual assistance during the Great Patriotic War and World War II wars. The author also considers the use of proven historical research methodology to be the final scientific results. The formation of international relations with the Mongolian People's Republic contributed to the development and strengthening of equal bilateral relations between sovereign states, both in order to ensure their national security and to build a multipolar world