Johanne Døhlie Saltnes
The EU often faces criticism for conducting an inconsistent and arbitrary human rights policy. This critique is misguided and overlooks a more fundamental problem with the policy, argues Johanne Døhlie Saltnes: that it tends to be executive-driven, precluding the participation of individuals and affected groups Read more
Leonardo Morlino
Jean-Paul Gagnon's original blog in this series asked ‘what is democracy?’ Leonardo Morlino brings an empirical perspective to this question. Contextualising and unpacking it, he then develops an empirical strategy of research for democrats to follow Read more
Alexander De Juan
Dictators depend on committed bureaucrats to stay in power. To instil loyalty, some indoctrinate through enforced military service. Alexander De Juan, Felix Haaß, and Jan Pierskalla warn that this strategy can backfire. Rather than creating truly convinced cadres, conscription can help bureaucrats get better at faking loyalty Read more
Dannica Fleuß
Building a ‘dictionary of democracies’, as Jean-Paul Gagnon proposes, will not render a revolution of democratic theory. Yet the data mountain may be a valuable point of departure for a 'decentred' understanding of democracy and, in consequence, for several theoretical, empirical, and political innovations, writes Dannica Fleuß Read more
Gabriella Gricius
States face not just threats to their physical security, but also to their sense of self and biographical continuity. This is what we call securitisation. Understanding the process of securitisation can uncover taken-for-granted colonial and imperial influences that would otherwise remain hidden, writes Gabriella Gricius Read more
Michael Saward
untain’, but argues that its size and complexity should not prevent us sifting and analysing our findings to design new models of democracy Read more
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