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Political Theory

June 10, 2021

Dictators beware! Creating nominally democratic institutions won’t prevent your overthrow

Jun Koga Sudduth Does the creation of nominally democratic institutions help dictators stay in power by reducing the risk of coups d’etat? Jun Koga Sudduth analyses and categorises different types of coup, and their effects. In so doing, she confounds the conventional wisdom that democratic institutions reduce the likelihood of dictators being overthrown Read more
May 27, 2021

How mainstream parties respond to the populist challenge

Fabian Habersack Populist radical right parties have been remarkably successful in recent decades, yet strategies to contain them regularly fail. Can non-radical parties do anything to counter them? Fabian Habersack suggests mainstream parties could signal ‘responsiveness’ while remaining committed to their policy goals Read more
May 17, 2021

Can policy choice reduce the income gap in voting?

Matt Polacko The rich are more likely to vote than the poor. This, along with income inequality, are increasing phenomena across the West. Matt Polacko introduces supply-side logic to reveal that higher levels of income inequality are indeed associated with reduced voting rates, and a wider income gap in turnout. However, it is possible to mitigate both […] Read more
April 8, 2021

Conspiracy theories are everywhere amid the pandemic. Politicians should face up to their role in helping to peddle them

Annemarie Walter During the coronacrisis, conspiracy theories have proliferated, and politicians who use them for political gain are – at least partly – to blame. Let the January attack on the US Capitol be a warning to Europe, write Annemarie Walter and Hugo Drochon Read more
December 2, 2020

Is friendship the most important solution to the Covid-19 pandemic?

Ruairidh Brown The pandemic has revealed the importance of civic solidarity and public trust, writes Ruairidh Brown. But they function best in a context of ‘friendship', a concept which needs to be recognised as central to political thinking in a post-Covid world Read more
September 30, 2020

Safety in numbers: strengthening resistance to anti-democratic challenges

Jean-Paul Gagnon The more ‘democracies’ you find inside a polity, the better it will resist anti-democratic forces, writes Jean-Paul Gagnon. If we stop thinking about democracy as a concept, but rather think of the ‘democracies’ and the degree of ‘demodiversity’ inside a polity, we can understand more about what might save democratic polities from current challenges Read more

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Advancing Political Science
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