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Elections

February 4, 2022

Italy elects a new President – by re-electing an old one

Bill Emmott Italy has just elected a new President – by giving the incumbent, Sergio Mattarella, a second term of office. An outbreak of ‘business as usual'? No, says Bill Emmott – the election has exposed deep divisions in party politics which could have ramifications for government stability Read more

January 28, 2022

A second 'Pink Tide’ rises in Latin America, but will it last?

Valesca Lima The advance of left-wing, progressive parties in Latin America is driven by the mismanagement of the pandemic, the economic crisis, and the failure of right-wing populism in the region, observes Valesca Lima Read more

December 2, 2021

The media chooses who has won (and lost) an election – and it's not just based on objective electoral performance

Katjana Gattermann Media reports on elections often refer to the 'winners' and 'losers'. Yet, especially in multi-party systems, there is often more than one way to interpret election results. How the media frames election results does not depend only on parties’ objective performance, write Katjana Gattermann, Thomas M. Meyer and Katharina Wurzer. It also depends on also on party ideology Read more

November 24, 2021

Third time lucky? The Bulgarian parliamentary elections

Dragomir Stoyanov The third consecutive parliamentary elections in just seven months have turned up the political heat in Bulgaria, writes Dragomir Stoyanov. Record low turnout, along with the election of new party We Continue the Change, will lead to the formation of a new government – albeit a fragile one Read more

November 15, 2021

Electoral systems and the futility of ‘tactical’ voting

Costas Panayotakis Costas Panayotakis recently exposed the fiction in the ‘Every Vote Counts’ thesis. Here, he explores the implications of that fiction for different electoral systems, notably those based on Proportional Representation and First Past the Post. In so doing, he reveals the futility of tactical voting Read more

October 29, 2021

In a democracy, does every vote count?

Costas Panayotakis Costas Panayotakis analyses the popular claim that 'every vote counts' in a democracy. He finds it is based on false assumptions and a misunderstanding of statistical probability. Voting and democratic participation, he concludes, are not based on individualistic self-interest but on some degree of idealism and solidarity Read more

October 7, 2021

Religion still counts at the ballot box – and that won’t change any time soon

Raul Gomez Decades of secularisation have not done away with the influence of religion on party choice in Western Europe. To understand this, argues Raul Gomez, we need to look at how parties mobilised religion in the past, and how that still lingers among voters today Read more

October 5, 2021

'Women are not interested, nor are the voters'. The lack of female politicians on the eve of the Czech parliamentary election

Šárka Homfray Gender equality experts and the general public have criticised the lack of female political representation in the Czech Republic. Despite these criticisms, Czech political parties still aren't presenting many female candidates in the forthcoming parliamentary election. Czech voters, argues Šárka Homfray, have few opportunities to achieve real change Read more

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