The Loop publishes short pieces on politics, policy programmes, societal and political issues. We showcase the work of the political science discipline at its best.
Our readership extends beyond fellow political scientists, to include policy-makers, journalists, businesspeople and the general public.
Pieces might distil an academic journal article, or analyse a topical news story from a political science perspective.
We draw contributions from ECPR’s 50+ Standing Groups and Research Networks; from our global institutional membership; and from across the wider political science community.
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Read our Guidelines for Authors. Then head to Write for The Loop to discover how to pitch your idea, in no more than 150 words.
Academic Editor Ladislav Cabada is Vice-Rector for Academic Development at Metropolitan University Prague. He received his PhD from Charles University in Prague. He was previously Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen, and Vice-Rector for Research, Quality and Development at Metropolitan University Prague.
Ladislav specialises in the modern and contemporary history and comparative politics of East-Central Europe. His books include the forthcoming Central Europe in a New Age of Global Competition: Rethinking Geopolitics and Geoeconomics and the co-edited volume Urban Responses to the Covid-19 Pandemic: Perspectives of the Visegrad Group Countries.
He contributes regularly to Czech and Slovak media, and comments on Czech and Central European politics for international newspapers, magazines and online outlets.
Academic Editor Gilles Pittoors lectures in the Department of Political Science at KU Leuven. His research looks at EU democracy from a multilevel and transnational (party) political perspective, especially the Europeanisation of national democratic institutions and practices across EU member states.
With a broad background in political science, European studies and history, Gilles takes an inter- and multidisciplinary approach to the interaction between democracy and European integration. His work has appeared in leading journals, including the European Journal of Political Research, the Journal of Common Market Studies, Government and Opposition, the Journal of European Integration and Politics and Governance. He has also published in several edited volumes with Routledge and Acco.
Since 2025, he has co-convened ECPR’s Research Network on Democracy and Representation in a Transnational Space and served as a Coordinator of the European Parliament History Network.
Academic Editor Amy Verdun is Professor of Political Science at the University of Victoria, Canada, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. She is also a Guest Professor at Leiden University.
Amy specialises in European integration, political economy and public policy, and has published extensively on European governance and economic policy.
She has guest-edited or co-edited 23 special issues of academic journals and has been active in the profession. This includes long service on the Steering Committee of the ECPR Standing Group on the European Union, which she also convened. She is a former co-editor of JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies.
Managing Editor Kate Hawkins is a member of ECPR’s Communications Team in Colchester. She has more than 30 years’ experience in publishing, marketing and the third sector.
Her roles have included senior editor at Which?, the UK consumers’ association; copywriter at the national housing charity Shelter; and communications manager at the visual arts organisation Firstsite.
