Alex Prior
What does a coastline have in common with effective rhetoric? Each component resembles something bigger, and bigger, and bigger. And what can this sort of fractal pattern show us about politics? To Alex Prior, fractals illustrate successful representation, and the impulses that drive it Read more
Adrián del Río
Since the 80s, electoral autocracy has been considered the most common form of dictatorship. Yet, as Adrián del Río shows, little is known about what this regime is and how we can recognise it. There is, in fact, only a 34% probability of datasets agreeing on examples Read more
Gefjon Off
Evidence from Sweden shows that feminist mobilisations, such as #MeToo, can trigger a conservative backlash against gender equality and LGBTQI+ rights. This then fuels support for the radical right, argues Gefjon Off Read more
Sergio Ricardo Quiroga
Kirchnerism emerged from Argentine Peronism, spearheaded by Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. Since 2003, it has built a cultural and political hegemony that denies Argentinian citizens their political and civil liberties, writes Sergio Quiroga. Read more
Marco Bitschnau
Most people hold deep-seated misperceptions about immigration, painting its nature, effects, and governance in excessively dark colours. This reflects concerns about out-group threat and tends to be resistant to correction efforts. It is also, argue Marco Bitschnau and Philipp Lutz, highly problematic for democracies Read more
Toralf Stark
Toralf Stark, Norma Osterberg-Kaufmann and Christoph Mohamad-Klotzbach elaborate on their proposal for a global concept of democracy. To do so, they move away from the institutional perspective to identify a normative good of democracy, which they refer to as the singular core principle – political self-efficacy. Read more
Lasse Thomassen
How should we interpret what happened on 6 January 2021 at the Capitol? Lasse Thomassen argues that, while populists like Trump may threaten democracy, we cannot simply dismiss populism and the populist mob without taking something away from it that we value: its inherent openness Read more
John Capps
Democracy comes in lots of different flavours. How do we make sense of this? Is having all these meanings a feature or a bug? John Capps suggests that the idea of 'open texture' can help us better understand democratic theory and practice Read more