Hilde Coffé
Sexism in politics restricts women’s participation and weakens democracy. A study by Hilde Coffé and colleagues on the 2024 legislative elections in Belgium reveals the impact of sexist attacks, stereotypes, and dismissals on women candidates, shaping careers, silencing voices, and discouraging future leaders. Tackling these problems is crucial for building truly representative politics Read more
Jessica Smith
Parliaments often overlook MPs' family needs, and this poses challenges for recruiting and retaining diverse politicians. Yet, argues Jessica Smith, recent research in the UK reveals that voters don’t penalise MPs for taking parental leave; indeed, women MPs even gain more support as mothers. Read more
Anja Durovic
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. Read more
Liron Lavi
Liron Lavi and Clareta Treger argue that citizens hold a multi-dimensional perception of political representation. Using Israel as a case study, they find that citizens feel represented on dimensions that are not important to them, and also on dimensions that reflect their satisfaction with democracy Read more
Ragnhild Louise Muriaas
Women have made great strides towards equal representation in parliaments across the world. Their short parliamentary careers, however, still stop them from representing their constituents as effectively as men colleagues, write Ragnhild L. Muriaas and Torill Stavenes, guest editors of The Loop’s blog series to mark International Women’s Day on Friday 8 March Read more
Paul Emiljanowicz
Paul Emiljanowicz manages Participedia, the largest database documenting democratic innovations from around the world. To prevent reproducing coloniality, Paul writes, we must commit to expanding our knowledge about democracy and recognising the experiences and knowledges of all peoples Read more
Anna Drake
How should we approach a database of democracy’s words when many of these collected democracies fail to respect people’s moral and political equality? According to Anna Drake, if we want meaningful narratives to emerge, then we must confront foundational challenges to democracy and centre these in our analysis. Read more
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
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