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
Simon Weschle
The UK government is embroiled in a sleaze scandal after a Conservative Member of Parliament was found to have lobbied for a company in which he held a second job. Simon Weschle argues that these jobs have systematic consequences for how legislators behave in parliament — some problematic, some not Read more
Catherine Moury
Catherine Moury, Stella Ladi, Daniel Cardoso and Angie Gago argue that bailed-out governments during the Eurozone crisis exercised more leverage than assumed. Despite international market pressure and creditors’ conditionality, bailed-out governments were able to advocate, resist, shape or roll back some of the policies demanded by the EU’s Troika Read more
Ian Budge
COP26 revealed the difficulty of agreeing pledges on climate change. But that is nothing to the problem that now arises of acting on those pledges. Ian Budge argues that the real problem of climate change is one of collective action. Here, he proposes ways to rise to that challenge Read more
Martyn Hammersley
Martyn Hammersley argues that, since there is no essence of democracy, clarification is always required when this word is used. And any assumption that what it refers to is always desirable must be questioned: in each context, we should ask ‘Why democracy?’ as well as ‘What is democracy?’ Read more
Andrea Capati
The Italian Five Star Movement is considering joining the ‘Socialists and Democrats’ grouping in the European Parliament. Andrea Capati and Marco Improta argue that this pro-Europeanist turn owes much to the party’s recent experience in government. It also marks a further stage in the ‘normalisation’ of the Five Star Movement Read more
Ziya Öniş
In recent years, Turkish foreign policy has oscillated between traditional alignments with the West, and a new Eastern orientation. Partnerships with Russia and China are becoming increasingly important, write Ziya Öniş and Mustafa Kutlay. Yet Turkey must be firmly anchored to the club of democratic states to regain its benign regional and global role Read more
Rachel Thompson
Can we trust the public to have constructive conversations to inform decision-making in a national crisis? Based on two online, public deliberation forums that they ran and analysed during lockdown, Rachel Thompson, Anna McKeon, Stephen Elstub and Oliver Escobar argue that public deliberation should be a critical element in any crisis response Read more
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