Aili Mari Tripp
Autocratising governments in countries from Hungary to Turkey and Russia are eroding women’s rights. While this is indeed a worrying trend, Aili Mari Tripp argues we must consider that autocratisation looks different depending on a country’s historical legacies and geopolitical situation. This influences the types of women’s rights a regime might seek to undo Read more
Adrian Smith
New digital platforms for citizens' initiatives, such as Decidim, are becoming more popular. Adrian Smith and Pedro Prieto MartÃn argue that while the technology may not be developed in a democratic way, such instruments can develop into tools for democracy in today’s digital societies Read more
Anne Skorkjær Binderkrantz
Most media outlets ignore press releases issued by policy advocates. Anne Skorkjær Binderkrantz, Carsten Jensen, Henrik Seeberg and Massimo Graae Losinno traced the effects of press releases from major interest groups. They rarely identified a direct link to news stories, and often struggled to find any news stories about the topic at all Read more
Titus Alexander
Most political science is like anatomy, analysing the body politic without healing it. Titus Alexander argues that we can learn from health sciences and create a manifesto, like that of The Lancet, to prioritise improving lives and launch a global mission to strengthen democracy Read more
Rongxin Li
An orthodoxy in conventional democratic theory says that voting is all that really matters. Rongxin Li challenges the prominence of electoralism and majoritarianism in representative democratic practice. He argues that consultative democracy confers far more legitimacy on a decision than voting ever can or will Read more
Veronica Anghel
It is three years since the World Health Organisation declared Covid-19 a pandemic, on 11 March 2020. Veronica Anghel conducts a retrospective analysis of the impact of the health crisis, from all social scientific perspectives. Did political science rise to the challenge? Read more
Katharina Rietzler
'A nasty woman', 'terrible witch', 'abrasive', 'overpoweringly verbose', 'frightening' and 'short of tact and discretion'. This is how the musician, cultural diplomat and intellectual Lady Lucie Zimmern (1875–1963) appears in contemporary accounts. Other observers, however, found her 'an accomplished scholar', 'cultured and charming', and 'brilliant'. Katharina Rietzler and Patricia Owens find that it is the vitriol that has survived Read more
Emanuela Lombardo
As far-right populist political parties and anti-gender movements gather momentum across Europe, democracy and gender equality come under increasing threat. Emanuela Lombardo shows how a concomitant rise in attacks on gender equality accelerates the process of democratic decline Read more
