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June 7, 2023

🌈 Autocratic backsliding in 'gender-washing' regimes

Daniela Donno Gender-washing regimes pay lip service to liberal norms, but reforms tend to be top-down and symbolic. To advance women’s rights, we need to pay attention to the question of how de jure legal rights can be effectively claimed and experienced by women, according to Daniela Donno Read more
June 7, 2023

Why the Mexican Congress is too weak to control the President

Carlos Vázquez-Ferrel The new wave of strong executives in Latin America is not only caused by their forceful attempts to push their legislative agenda, or their popularity. Carlos Vázquez-Ferrel examines the Mexican case, where there are institutional disincentives to empower Congress. The result is a weak and disillusioned legislative opposition Read more
June 5, 2023

EU-China relations: a growing global rivalry

James F. Downes James F. Downes, Mathew Wong and Man Hoo So argue that the European Union-China relationship has evolved considerably over recent years into a growing global rivalry in 2023. The EU has become more interventionist towards China, but there exist large divisions within the core EU institutions and member states towards relations with China Read more
June 1, 2023

🔮 Populism: going beyond the myth of the charismatic leader

Sabine Volk Too much populism research focuses on populist leaders, argues Sabine Volk. Yet looking through the lens of collective action offers valuable insights into how we might define populism. It also provides fresh understandings of what populism does, and how it works Read more
May 31, 2023

How (not) to measure China’s autocratic influence

Lars Pelke Several liberal democracies view the People’s Republic of China no longer as a strategic partner, but as a systemic rival. Yet how intense is China’s influence? The China Index seeks to measure this influence across different domains. This is a welcome first step, but it is not without far-reaching flaws, write Lars Pelke and Katrin Kinzelbach Read more
May 31, 2023

🌊 Karnataka: a sign of hope for India's democratic backsliding

Tejendra Pratap Gautam The recent victory of the Congress party in the southern state of Karnataka is a step towards the reversal of India's democratic backsliding, writes Tejendra Pratap Gautam Read more
May 30, 2023

Controversies over Slovakia’s new political cabinet

Max Steuer After the break-up of the governing coalition in Slovakia, President Čaputová appointed Slovakia's first cabinet composed of largely non-partisan experts. Max Steuer questions the labelling of this cabinet as ‘non-political’ or ‘technocratic’. While not hailing from general election results, it enjoys other sources of democratic legitimacy Read more
May 30, 2023

🔮 Populism is not just something that populists ‘are’ – it can also be performed and communicated

Michael Hameleers When facts are disputed and experts delegitimised, the term 'populism' may apply to truths and to untruths. Michael Hameleers argues that populist ideas are often strategically communicated to emphasise a divide between congruent truths and incongruent lies. This only serves to emphasise the idea of a divide between ordinary people and corrupt political elites Read more

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Advancing Political Science
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