Ruairidh Brown
Despite often being regarded as a blueprint for authoritarianism, Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan gives prudent advice on the limitations of sovereign power. Ruairidh Brown argues this serves as a timely warning for the next Conservative leader on their approach to Scottish politics Read more
James Wong
While Jean-Paul Gagnon’s data mountain project aims to rescue an abandoned science, others reject the study as not genuinely scientific. James Wong advocates a pluralist view of the epistemic commitments of (political) science and argues that Gagnon’s project can be grounded in scientific anti-realism and constructivism Read more
Lucy J Parry
Lucy J Parry recognises the value of a database of democracy but is concerned about its utility in the real world. If this data mountain is to bolster democratic innovation, we need to step away from detached order and engage with the messy reality of democratic innovations in practice Read more
Shreeya Patil
Soft power diplomacy has always been important to India, as the world’s largest democracy, with a rich heritage, culture and ambitious aspirations. This has never more so than under the current Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. Shreeya Patil explores the different facets of this important form of diplomacy Read more
Matthijs Bogaards
Can we see autocracy more clearly if we see it as the opposite of democracy? Or do we need to look at autocracy as a category in its own right? Matthijs Bogaards provides an answer through a critical examination of the concept of defective autocracy, the mirror of defective democracy. Read more
Alex Prior
What does a coastline have in common with effective rhetoric? Each component resembles something bigger, and bigger, and bigger. And what can this sort of fractal pattern show us about politics? To Alex Prior, fractals illustrate successful representation, and the impulses that drive it Read more
Adrián del Río
Since the 80s, electoral autocracy has been considered the most common form of dictatorship. Yet, as Adrián del Río shows, little is known about what this regime is and how we can recognise it. There is, in fact, only a 34% probability of datasets agreeing on examples Read more
Gefjon Off
Evidence from Sweden shows that feminist mobilisations, such as #MeToo, can trigger a conservative backlash against gender equality and LGBTQI+ rights. This then fuels support for the radical right, argues Gefjon Off Read more
