Fadhilah Primandari and M. Ammar Hidayahtulloh reflect on the Indonesian government’s response to Sumatra's calamitous floods in November 2025. They argue that when authorities gaslight disaster victims into believing they can handle the consequences, they merely prolong and delegitimise victims’ suffering
Elias Koch finds that opposition parties become more confrontational towards the government when losing in the polls, and particularly when their support drops below the previous election result. But what does this mean for political systems thriving on an antagonistic relationship between the opposition and the executive?
Opposition parties are expected to challenge the government, but they do not simply oppose for opposition's sake. Drawing on over 75 years of data, Rick van Well explains that when deciding how to behave in parliament, opposition parties make strategic trade-offs between winning votes, entering the government, and influencing policy
Jochem Vanagt and Markus Kollberg show that coalition governments bring voters of different parties closer together only if people believe those coalitions are doing a good job. When voters think coalitions are performing badly, partisan hostility remains high. Their insights have significant implications for efforts to reduce affective polarisation
Democratic governments conduct extensive public opinion research, but we know little about how they use it. When and why do they seek to find out what the public thinks? Opening the black box of government polling in Germany, Anja Durovic and Tinette Schnatterer find governments exploit polls in a highly strategic way.
During the first wave of Covid-19, the UK government showed a chart plotting the country's mortalities against other high-income countries. They kept on showing it, until it revealed the UK to be the worst in Europe, at which point the slide disappeared. William Allen and Kristoffer Ahlstrom-Vij argue that visual comparisons are an important lever through which politicians and media can change public perceptions
Jan Philipp Thomeczek argues that European left-wing populist parties become more moderate as a consequence of their participation in government. Here, he draws on recent examples from Spain, Greece and Germany.
Little by little, scholarship on populism and public policy and administration has shown that populists in government cause significant damage to government institutions and policy processes. Mauricio I. Dussauge-Laguna argues that Mexico’s experience under president López Obrador reinforces these findings and adds fresh (if discouraging) evidence to the argument
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.
