Phil Paine
Phil Paine is reminded of the caterpillar who, when asked in which order it moved each of its feet, found itself ‘distracted in a ditch, wondering how it walked’. He suspects that there are misapprehensions about the role of definitions in advancing democracy Read more
William Horncastle
Most nations employ some form of regulation on political finance. William Horncastle explores the different approaches that are taken and presents his recently published open access dataset on political finance systems: the Regulation of Political Finance Indicator Read more
Christian Bueger
What happens on the bottom of the world’s oceans is usually little noted, and the age of U-boats and traditional submarine warfare seems distant history. The underwater sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea forces us to reconsider, say Christian Bueger and Tobias Liebetrau Read more
Marco Giani
Studying long-run patterns of public opinion in Europe shows that reintroducing compulsory national service would not counter the worrisome trend of declining trust in institutions among young generations. In fact, warns Marco Giani, the effect could be quite the opposite Read more
Chris Butler
Decision-makers need to be able to judge how voters will react to a policy. It is important for their continued electoral success, and for the success of the policy. Yet, write Chris Butler and Barbara Vis, systematic biases often lead policymakers to misjudge voters’ reactions to their policy decisions Read more
Yida Zhai
Public perceptions of democracy are diverse, and some even see democracy in authoritarian regimes. So directly using ‘democracy’ in surveys is prone to elicit biased responses. Therefore, Yida Zhai argues, it is necessary to conceptualise and operationalise democracy in an alternative manner without using the ‘D-word’ Read more
Friderike Spang
When we compromise on moral questions, it is important that compromises are fair. But how can we ensure the fairness of a compromise? We often see compromise as a result of negotiation and bargaining. However, to achieve a fair compromise, we need to deliberate, rather than negotiate, argues Friderike Spang Read more
Kyle Reed
Human rights measurements are often used as a proxy for compliance with human rights law. Kyle Reed argues that this misrepresents compliance and may skew our understanding of how international law shapes human rights practices. Careful design and new methods, however, may help link human rights measurements and studies of compliance Read more
