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European Journal of Political Research

November 22, 2023

Divided by sovereignty claims – territorial identity and societal polarisation

Laia Balcells Laia Balcells, Lesley-Ann Daniels, and Alexander Kuo highlight the role of contentious territorial issues in shaping societal divisions. They study three European regions —Scotland, Catalonia, and Northern Ireland — that have salient territorial claims but very different histories. All three, however, exhibit striking similarities in levels of social polarisation Read more
November 1, 2023

Losing the vote, losing the faith: electoral defeat in polarised times

Lisa Janssen Accepting electoral defeat is essential for democratic stability. Yet, amid the political polarisation that followed the storming of the US Capitol and similar events in Brazil, losers’ consent became harder to obtain. Using case studies from UK elections, Lisa Janssen explains how polarisation influences citizens’ responses to election results Read more
August 10, 2023

🔮 Populists in power, constitutional change, and democratic backsliding

Jasmin Sarah König We know that there is an inherent tension between populism and liberal democracy. So how does this translate into law when populists are in power? Jasmin Sarah König and Tilko Swalve argue that constitutional changes by populist governments can have ambiguous implications for democratic quality Read more
August 8, 2023

How do French and German voters view arms exports?

Lukas Rudolph The war in Ukraine has focussed attention on public attitudes to arms exports. New research by Lukas Rudolph, Markus Freitag, and Paul Thurner finds that in France and Germany, while a small minority is in principled opposition, a large majority makes nuanced trade-offs when articulating their positions on the issue of arms exports Read more
July 21, 2023

How income inequality threatens democracy

Simon Bienstman Income inequality threatens democracy by depressing trust in political institutions. To better understand why, Simon Bienstman, Svenja Hense, and Markus Gangl argue that we should pay attention to inequality’s negative effect on citizens’ evaluations of the democratic process Read more
July 7, 2023

Voters now identify as winners and losers of globalisation, shaping party preferences

Nils Steiner One way globalisation influences politics is by making new social categories ripe for politicisation. Nils Steiner, Matthias Mader and Harald Schoen examine the case of 'winners' and 'losers' of globalisation and show that significant proportions of citizens see themselves as part of these groups, showing distinct party preferences as a result Read more
June 19, 2023

🔮 Populist radical right voters do not have a monopoly on nostalgia!

Luca Versteegen Luca Versteegen argues that specific emotions like nostalgia are not limited to populist radical right voters. We should therefore be more careful in ascribing emotions to this group, differentiating emotions and refraining from broad ascriptions like the so-called ‘left behind’ Read more
May 24, 2023

Terrorist attacks rarely increase trust in political leaders

Christof Nägel Research suggests that institutional trust increases in times of political crises. Christof Nägel, Amy Nivette and Christian Czymara test this notion for jihadist terror attacks in Europe. Their results imply that political leaders should not take these dynamics for granted Read more

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Advancing Political Science
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