Relational egalitarianism refers to an approach to interpreting the meaning and value of equality. This approach emphasizes the egalitarian quality of social relations and deemphasizes the equal distribution of goods. This article provides a short history of relational egalitarianism. I then survey relational egalitarian criticisms of distributively focused egalitarian principles, arguing that theorists are converging on the view that both relational and distributive concerns have independent significance. I discuss attempts to identify what relational equality involves and why it matters. I argue that defenses of relational egalitarianism are more robust than often suggested. I review relational egalitarian approaches to specific political and policy problems, with a special focus on scholarship in democratic theory, given relational egalitariansâ long-standing concerns with inequalities of power and authority. I conclude with reflections on the relevance of relational egalitarianism for political science and political theory.
American Journal of Political Science
To fight or to govern? Political capital and electoral competition
We examine the endogenous development of specialized political capital and its use, by both governing and opposition parties, within a model of policymaking and electoral competition. The opposition party can use political capital to impede the governing party's policy agendaâto throw sand in the gearsâbut may make itself less electorally desirable in the process. We characterize conditions that give rise to different equilibrium patterns of political capital, including, among others, entrenched parties. Our results suggest that, in the special circumstances in which they arise, entrenched parties offer the voter a silver lining: In these cases, the incumbent and opposition parties have acquired different specialized political capital, and voters benefit from the opposition's developed capacity to curb the governing party's excesses. Due to the underlying conditions, policy outcomes are still poor, but, under relevant conditions, party entrenchment mitigates them, rather than exacerbating them as conventionally supposed.
The policy adjacent: How affordable housing generates policy feedback among neighboring residents
While scholars have documented feedback effects among a policy's direct winners and losers, less is known about whether such effects can occur among the indirectly affectedââthe policy adjacent.â Using 458 geocoded housing developments built between two nearly identical statewide ballot propositions funding affordable housing in California, we show that policy generates feedback effects among neighboring residents in systematic ways. New, nearby affordable housing causes majorityâhomeowner blocks to increase their support for the housing bond, while majorityârenter blocks decrease or do not change their support. We attribute the positive effect among majorityâhomeowner blocks to the housing's replacement of blight. In contrast, the lack of a positive effect among majorityârenter blocks may be driven by the threat of gentrification. Policy implementation can win support for expansion among unexpected beneficiaries, while failing to do so even among the policy's presumed allies.
Comparative Political Studies
Still Going Strong? The Social and Political Relevance of Class Identification Over Time in Four Countries
Rune Stubager, Peter Egge LangsĂŠther, Stine Hesstvedt
According to influential theories of modernization and individualization, social class has ceased to be relevant to citizens and their political behaviour in Western countries; class has been proclaimed âdeadâ. The argument is particularly strong at the subjective level where people are thought to no longer identify with social classes let alone relate this identification to politics. Using time-series election study data covering many decades combined with manifesto data from the US, Britain, Denmark, and Norway, we challenge this view and show that levels of class identification have been stable. The relationship between class identification, attitudes to redistribution and vote choice has, however, changed but this appears to result more from political partiesâ varying polarization on economic and social issues than from the demise of class in votersâ minds.
British Journal of Political Science
Foreign Policy Failures and Global Attitudes Towards Great Powers: Evidence from the US Withdrawal from Afghanistan
Do perceived foreign policy failures shape assessments of a countryâs leadership in the eyes of international observers? We explore the consequences of foreign policy failures using global reactions to the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. Some argue that a poorly executed withdrawal heightened concerns about Americaâs soft power and image abroad. Others believe that the negative consequences of the withdrawal were exaggerated. To adjudicate between these claims, we compile public opinion surveys across 24 countries containing over 17,000 respondents. Analyzing perceptions of US leadership before and after the fall of Kabul on 15 August 2021, we find that the Afghanistan withdrawal had a substantive negative impact on global perceptions of US leadership. However, we observe no corresponding evidence that the attractiveness of great powers is âzero-sumâ: decreases in favorability towards the United States were not paralleled by increases in the perceived attractiveness of alternatives to US leadership like Russia and China.
Perspectives on Politics
Elite Interviewing in Political Science: A Meta-Analysis of Reporting Practices
Elite interviewing is a valuable tool that helps political scientists to understand decision making, trace political processes, and access insider knowledge. Yet despite its prevalence, we know surprisingly little about how elite interviews are conducted and reported in the discipline. This study addresses this gap by examining elite interviewing practices and transparency using an original dataset of articles published in 13 leading political science journals between 2000 and 2023. Drawing on article content and supplementary materials, I analyze trends in the use and quality of elite interviews, highlighting an increasing reliance on this method, particularly in comparative politics. Findings show promising improvements in reporting practices over time. Systematic reporting and the inclusion of online appendices significantly enhance transparency, offering detailed insights into ethical considerations, confidentiality, and data-sharing practices. This study underscores the evolving rigor in reporting elite interviewing, reflecting its enduring relevance and growing methodological sophistication in political science research.
Journal of Politics
Campaign Contributions, Reciprocity, and Gender Solidarity
Christian Fong, Joshua McCrain, Catherine Wineinger
Abstract: The essay analyzes the global surge of Gen-Zâled mobilization, arguing that youth protests are propelled by economic precarity, exclusion from power, and especially corruption. It finds that movements with extensive youth participation can be potent yet face severe repression and rarely resolve structural grievances quickly. Organizing is often decentralized and leaderless, aiding diffusion but complicating bargaining and transitions. Cases examined include Tunisia's 2010 uprising; anticorruption mobilizations in Nepal, Indonesia, Serbia, Peru, and the Philippines; and diffusion from Sri Lanka (2022) and Bangladesh (2024), with transition dynamics unfolding in Bangladesh, Nepal, Madagascar, and Peru. Durable gains hinge on disciplined mobilization during volatile transitions and converting protest energy into electoral and institutional influence.
Abstract: Current debates about democratic decline largely focus on the erosion of electoral, liberal, and other regime-level institutions. Yet executives today also pursue strategies that deliberately weaken the state itself. This essay brings the state back into the conversation by (re)introducing the concept of state erosion to capture processes through which elected leaders weaken the state's essential governance capacities by dismantling or politicizing bureaucracies, hollowing out regulatory agencies, centralizing coercive authority, or redirecting public resources in pursuit of partisan ends. Far from being confined to fragile democracies or partisan ideologies, we suggest that state erosion is proliferating across different global contexts. The stakes are profound: While state capacity is painstakingly built over generations, it can be quickly dismantled. The hollowing out of state capacity represents a pervasive threat to the survival of legitimate democratic governance.
Abstract: The article reassesses early-2000s optimism about "Muslim democracy," arguing that Islamist participation and pragmatism have not produced stable democratization. Drawing on the cases of Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Pakistan, and others, the authors show that without a genuine normative commitment to pluralism, civil liberties, and institutional checks, Islamist parties often instrumentalize elections and slide into authoritarian or majoritarian rule. Structural legacies of secular authoritarianism, regional counterrevolution (notably Gulf monarchies), inconsistent Western "linkage and leverage," and a global wave of populist authoritarianism further constrain democratization. The authors conclude that durable democracy in Muslim-majority states requires stronger institutions, engaged civil society, and sustained international support.
Abstract: The essay examines how Tanzania's 29 October 2025 election and the ensuing violent crackdownshattered the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) regime's long-cultivated image of popular and benevolent rule. It describes how security forces massacred protesters and concealed their bodies, exposing a state that rules through terror rather than consent. The essay argues that these events undermined CCM's manufactured legitimacy and catalyzed a revived, protest-oriented antiauthoritarian movement rooted in demands for democracy and justice. Deep socioeconomic grievances and constitutional questions will continue to fuel contention, ensuring that Tanzanian politics after 2025 cannot return to the previous low-protest order.
Abstract: Authoritarian leaders increasingly engage with gender in different ways. While some subscribe to the "anti-gender" agenda and roll back gender equality achievements, others compete over who is the more gender equal. This essay reconciles these seemingly contradictory positions by referring to genderbashing and genderwashing as two authoritarian signalling strategies. Genderbashing occurs when authoritarian leaders strategically exploit fears and insecurities in the citizenry by cracking down on women's rights, while genderwashing involves authoritarians pushing through gender equality reforms to appear liberal and mitigate criticism about democratic deficiencies. Both strategies threaten democracy as well as the empowerment, well-being, and security of women in authoritarian contexts.
Abstract: Ecuador has shifted from relative peace to extreme violence, with homicide rates soaring as state capacity and security institutions were dismantled after Rafael Correa's presidency. Daniel Noboa, elected in 2023 and reelected in 2025, has responded with a militarized mano dura strategy, invoking internal armed conflict, frequent states of emergency, and expanded military roles. These measures have not reduced violence but have weakened judicial independence, constrained protest, and raised human-rights concerns. A failed 2025 referendum to reshape institutions and permit foreign bases exposed limits to Noboa's mandate. The essay argues that rebuilding state capacity and preserving democratic checks are essential to confront crime effectively.
Abstract: Brazil's judiciary played a pivotal role in containing Jair Bolsonaro's authoritarian drive, culminating in his September 2025 conviction for attempting a coup. Unlike in most countriesâand in Brazil's own historyâwhere leaders who undermine democracy typically evade post-tenure punishment, high courts constrained Bolsonaro both during and after his presidency through strategic choices. Equally important, their rulings enabled rivals to weaken Bolsonaro's grip on power while avoiding open confrontation with powerful congressional forces. This experience offers concrete lessons for democracies confronting similar threats, including those now investigating former presidents who sought to subvert democratic rule.
Abstract: The authors respond to Michael Meyer-Resende's critique by clarifying that they do not endorse strict "vote majoritarianism," and they accept that democracy requires some counter majoritarian institutions to protect rights and the democratic process. Their concern is with institutional designs that systematically enable partisan minorities to thwart or rule over electoral majorities, such as is seen in extreme federal malapportionment, excessive judicial vetoes of ordinary legislation, and plurality systems that convert authoritarian pluralities into "manufactured majorities." In an era of strong ethnonationalist minorities, the authors argue, proportional representation better contains these forces. Safeguarding democracy now requires vigilance against institutions that entrench authoritarian minorities.
Abstract: This essay argues that Ukraine's defense must be matched by democratic credibility. It identifies three pitfalls to avoid. First, in the information war, Kyiv should restore media pluralism, curb performative messaging, and institutionalize sourcing, corrections, and independent oversight to distinguish itself from Russian disinformation. Second, Ukraine should openly confront fraught historyâincluding Volhynia/Eastern Galicia, the Azov Brigade, and WWII-era nationalist symbolsâthrough transparent vetting, scholarship, and joint reckoning with allies. Third, wartime centralization must not harden into hyperpresidentialism: Anticorruption bodies require independence, "sunset clauses" limiting grants of emergency powers, and a rule-of-law compact. These reforms would strengthen public trust, EU prospects, and postwar consolidation across civil society, politics, law, state capacity, and the economy.
Abstract: This essay analyzes how Moldova has resisted sustained Russian hybrid pressure while deepening its integration with Europe. It outlines the Kremlin's toolkitâpolitical interference, corrupt financial networks, Transnistria-based security leverage, energy blackmail, and disinformationâand explains why these efforts have increasingly failed. Central to its success is Moldova's long-term Europeanization, driven by EU conditionality, and President Maia Sandu's anticorruption-centered politics, which link democracy with integrity. Legal, energy, and security reforms, plus an active civil society, diaspora, and strong support from Romania and the EU have built "defense in depth." The authors distill ten lessons for vulnerable democracies on resilience in the face of hybrid warfare.
Abstract: The essay uses the lens of "post-traumatic sovereignty" to explain how small democracies under existential threat, such as Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, shape their domestic politics and foreign policy. Historical traumasâthe Holodomor, the Holocaust and Jewish statelessness, and the unresolved Chinese civil warâanchor collective fears that frame current security choices and justify far-reaching measures. These states tightly align with Western powers, especially the United States, and use their democratic credentials as soft power to secure military, financial, and diplomatic support. Digital-era communication amplifies their narratives, giving them outsized influence. The authors argue that for such states, sovereignty inevitably comes before democracy, raising difficult questions about how liberal norms endure under permanent threat.
Abstract: This essay critiques Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt's argument about "democracy-subverting" institutions, agreeing that authoritarian actors abuse rules but warning against reducing democracy to strict "vote majoritarianism." The author contends that branding plurality electoral systems, federal upper houses with equal state representation, or independent central banks as inherently suspect mislabels many good-faith institutional choices as undemocratic. Forcing all institutions into a majoritarian-versus-counter majoritarian dichotomy wrongly treats majority rule as democracy's core. Instead, the essay argues, democracy should be judged by widely accepted legal standards: meaningful political participation, free and fair elections that confer real power, robust rights, and the rule of law.
Abstract: Generative AI is poised to revolutionize citizen-initiated mechanisms of direct democracy. This article argues that AI functions as a powerful accelerator, lowering historical barriers and making these mechanisms not only cheaper but also more frequent, by automating law-drafting, optimizing mobilization, and enabling hyper-personalized persuasion. However, this efficiency threatens the core conditions of democratic legitimacy. By eroding deliberation, weakening civil society, and corroding trust through synthetic content, AI risks converting citizen-initiated mechanisms of direct democracy from essential "safety valves" into engines of plebiscitarian instability. This essay contrasts a dystopian future of Automated Plebiscites with a preferable path of Augmented Deliberation. To steer toward the latter, the essay proposes a governance roadmap of digital guardrailsâincluding AI watermarking, public-interest AI platforms, and independent algorithmic auditsâaimed at ensuring AI augments rather than undermines democratic practice.
Abstract: The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's Hindu supremacist ideology along with anti-intellectual hostility has resulted in a dramatic decline in India's academic freedom. Since 2014, students and faculty critical of the regime have been vilified, physically attacked and arrested, books and seminars banned, standard historical narratives rewritten, and foreign scholars denied visas. Three overlapping but distinct phases in this takeover are visible: the first involved suppression of existing scholarship and thought, while the second rested on the capture of administrative, faculty and student positions enabling an ideological rewiring of higher education. In the third phase, the government has introduced basic structural changes that destroy the federal structure of India's education system, and reduce faculty to government staff.
Abstract: The essay analyzes Uganda's precarious "late Museveni" period, which is marked by an aging president, extreme personalization of power, and growing militarization. It shows how decision making has shifted from formal institutions to an inner circle centered on Museveni's family, and especially his son, who controls key military structures and openly pursues succession. Rising repression, ethnicized patronage, and the dominance of Western-Uganda elites intensify tensions with marginalized groups such as the Baganda. Looking beyond the 2026 elections, the essay argues that Uganda's transition will likely be shaped by the first family, the army, ethnic dynamics, and regional powers, with significant risks of instability.
In the wake of significant increases in lesbian and gay (LG) immigration, do Americans view LG migrants as more deserving of entry to the United States than their straight counterparts? Using a conjoint survey experiment with 1,650 respondents, we investigate how potential immigrantsâ sexual-minority status affects Americansâ perceptions of their deservingness for admission and their cultural similarity to the United States. Results show that, overall, Americans do not perceive LG immigrants as more deserving than straight ones, and LG immigrants are perceived as less culturally similar. But results also reveal heterogeneity: LG immigrants fleeing persecution are seen as more deserving of admission, and Democrats, atheists, and LG respondents consider LG migrants more deserving than straight ones. This paper helps disentangle Americansâ preferences for migrantsâ presumed cultural similarity from economic potential and humanitarian merit as well as sheds light on public opinion of an understudied but politically salient group.
The Partisan Effects of News Coverage Highlighting Inclusion in Congress
Abstract505 After US elections, news stories frequently highlight how the US Congress has a higher proportion of women and is more racially and ethnically diverse than at any point in history. While some literature suggests that this coverage may diminish legitimacy and support for democratic norms, other research suggests that as descriptive representation increases, citizensâincluding white people and menâhave more trust in their institutions and perceive them to be more legitimate. However, little is known about the effect of this type of news coverage on citizensâ attitudes toward Congress and democracy as a whole. Given these competing expectations, we conduct a series of experiments to determine how portrayals of a diverse Congress affect its perceived legitimacy and support for democratic norms related to Congressâs power. We hypothesize that as Congress diversifies faster than the executive branch, the motivation to protect traditional hierarchies will undermine both the perceived legitimacy of Congress and the commitment to democratic restraints on presidential power among white people and men. Our results are mixed. Based on two survey experiments with nationally representative samples, we find that Democrats perceive Congress as having more institutional legitimacy when informed of its diversity, while Republicans show no difference in their legitimacy perceptions when compared to control conditions. Furthermore, we find no evidence that information about Congressâs diversity decreases support for democratic norms.
Political Science Research and Methods
Local taxes and economic voting: evidence from city ballot measures
Do voters punish local politicians for raising taxes? In California, proposed tax increases must be approved via local ballot measures. Using a regression discontinuity design that exploits the narrow passage of local tax initiatives, we find that incumbents do not generally suffer a penalty when cities raise taxes, with the notable exception of business taxes. We explore several mechanisms behind this result and uncover suggestive evidence that business interests may be particularly likely to mobilize following a tax increase. These results suggest that interest groups likely play an important role in determining whether new taxes generate voter backlash.
Using a model, we explain why propaganda in autocracies can be blatantly false and unconvincing. We model two news outlets that report on a hidden state of the world, motivated by the ex-post beliefs of the audience about the state of the world. News outlets face a tradeoff when making egregiously false statements. On the one hand, such statements are easily verifiable as false. On the other hand, a demonstrably false report reduces the credibility of the report made by the competing outlet. This is especially true for audiences in autocracies that are characterized by high media cynicism and are prone to making sweeping generalizations about the self-serving nature of all media.
Media effects revisited: corporate scandals, partisan narratives, and attitudes toward cryptocurrency regulation
This article advances the literature on media effects by examining how contrasting partisan narratives influence support for regulation after a real-world corporate scandal. Using both multi-wave observational and randomized experimental data, we show that self-selected media exposure and experimentally assigned information shape public opinion in distinct ways. While scandals are narratives of regulatory failure, partisan media environments differently attribute blame for that failure. In two separate observational waves, only Democrats exposed to news about the FTX bankruptcy increased their support for crypto regulation. In the experiment, only Republicans shifted in favor of regulation. Research on media effects needs to take into account not only media content, but also the partisan information environments that expose citizens to that content.
Surviving the screens: the problem of hidden inattentive respondents in online surveys
Inattentive survey respondents are a growing concern for social scientists who rely on online surveys for their research. While inattentiveness has been well documented in lower quality sample sources, there is less understanding of how common the phenomenon is in high-quality surveys. We document the presence of a small percentage of respondents in Cooperative Election Study surveys who pass quality control measures but still exhibit inattentive behavior. We show that these respondents may affect public opinion estimates for small subgroups. Finally, we present the results from an experiment testing whether inattentive respondents can be encouraged to pay more attention, but we find that such an intervention fails.
Political Psychology
Silenced voice: Social identity, (empathetic) collective angst, and the troubled referendum to empower Indigenous Australians
Michael Wenzel, Michael J. A. Wohl, Anna C. Barron, Blake Quinney, Lydia Woodyatt
Public policies designed to empower historically victimized groups rely on support from members of the perpetrator group (the dominant majority), who may wrestle with two concerns: a collective angst for the future vitality (continuity, prosperity) of their national ingroup and an empathetic collective angst for the future vitality of the victim group. A twoâwave survey of nonâIndigenous Australians ( N = 797/410) pre and post the 2023 Australian referendum on constitutionally enshrining a parliamentary âVoiceâ for its Indigenous peoples showed that collective angst was negatively, and empathetic collective angst positively, related to intending to vote âYesâ if the âVoiceâ was seen to have material implications. Latent true change modeling showed that participants who voted âYesâ (relative to âNoâ) felt, following the failure of the referendum, increased collective and empathetic collective angst. The findings highlight the role of existential collective concerns and how these shape, and are shaped by, political processes.
Philosophy & Public Affairs
Does Drill Rap Cause Violence, and, Even if it Does, Should it Be Censored?
The critique that rap causes violence (causal claim) goes back as far as the 1980s, but today drill rappers are having their freedoms restricted based on instances of a causal claim. Police in the UK regularly remove drill videos from social media and streaming platforms, and drillers are being restricted from making music and associating with people via criminal behavior orders based on the claim that drill music causes serious violence. If this causal claim is true, it provides potential grounds for such restrictions on drillers. This paper argues against censoring drill on the assumption that it causes violence for three reasons. First, even according to the most charitable rendition of the causal claim, there is insufficient evidence to support it. Second, there are less speechârestrictive and more effective approaches to violence reduction than censorshipâoriented approaches. Third, critics should not be advancing the causal claim due to its racist public meaning.
West European Politics
Same old, same old? The return of the (not so) Grand Coalition after the 2025 German Bundestag election
No matter the methodology, gaining access to potential research participants is one of the more difficult aspects of conducting field research. Sometimes, potential participants may be âhard to reachââfor example, they are physically located in remote areas where the lack of infrastructure necessitates extensive travel and/or difficult logistics. Alternatively, they may be âvulnerableâ due to disenfranchisement (incarcerated populations), stigma (those living with HIV/AIDS), or at risk if they share their experiences (people living in authoritarian states). Or participants may be âhiddenââthat is, no record of their experiences exists, which, in turn, makes it difficult to find and recruit them (Ellard-Gray et al. 2015). 1
Representing the Real Latino Electorate: Far Right Latinas and Intersectional Visions of Latinidad
This article examines how Latina Republican Congressional candidates frame themselves as both embodying and representing the âreal Latino electorate,â who they claim has been ignored in the U.S. political arena. In this article, I engage in an in-depth analysis of these candidates â including content analyses of their public interviews, speeches, advertisements, websites, newspaper coverage, and social media presences â in four border districts in Texas. I find that the ways in which these candidates strategically reframe Latinidad and the immigrant experience to align with Republican ideology allow these candidates to advocate for comprehensive immigration reform while simultaneously engaging in the Latino threat narrative that dehumanizes the very community they claim to represent. More specifically, these candidates articulate an alternate, intersectional vision of Latinidad which presents Latino immigrant women and children as victims, Latino immigrant men as criminals, and themselves as unique authorities on immigration given their status as border patrol wives. These candidatesâ race-gender consciousness also allows these candidates to express political anger, which has generally been denied to women of color in the Republican Party. In so doing, they offer a pointed critique claiming that Latinos are a captured group in American political parties.
Party Politics
One foot in parliament, one on the streets: Studying the fluid relation between individual participation and party evaluations of protest
This paper investigates the interconnection between electoral and non-electoral politics. Through a unique integration of social media and nationally representative survey data, we examine how political parties in Denmark, Germany, and the United Kingdom evaluate episodes of street protest and how these evaluations relate to their votersâ participation in such protests. Our analysis shows that all political parties, regardless of type or ideology, engage with the non-electoral field, showing a greater tendency to express support for protests they agree with, rather than to criticize those they oppose, in their social media posts. Moreover, our findings underscore a robust association between party support or criticism of a protest and the likelihood of its voters either participating in or shunning the same protest. These findings renew our understanding of fluid linkages between parties and civil society through a less structured and deterministic double role of voters and street protesters than in the past.
Gender, perceptions of benefits and costs, and negative campaigning. Evidence from German candidate surveys
Many studies have analyzed whether there are differences in the use of negative campaigning of men and women candidates. However, empirical evidence for a gender-specific use of attacks is inconclusive. We argue that we are not yet able to fully understand the conditions under which men and women candidates go negative on their political opponents, as the costs and benefits have not yet been empirically measured. Based on candidate surveys from Germany, we use a moderated mediation model to show that i. Women report lower levels of attack behavior than men, ii. Women show a less favorable balance of benefits and costs of negative campaigning, and iii. The perceived benefit-cost balance influences the decision to go negative. However, iv. This effect is moderated by gender; men only attack more often than women when the perceived costs are low and the expected benefits are high.
Given the growing body of research documenting how AI can both positively and negatively affect labor markets, it is logical to assume that AIâs effects on jobs and employment will be a significant political issue for many nations in the coming years. However, we currently lack an understanding of how political parties perceive the potential impact AI has on employment, the role of regulations in protecting workers from AI-related job losses, and the importance of AI educational and training programs to assist workers in environments where AI is more prevalent. Therefore, this study analyzes comments and statements from party members in OECD countries from 2016 to 2025 through content analysis, examining media interviews, speeches, and debates to understand how political party ideologies shape party membersâ positions on AI regarding job losses, labor markets, regulations, and AI education and training programs. The findings indicate that political ideology significantly affects party membersâ concerns regarding AI-related job losses and the need for government regulations to protect workers from labor market disruptions caused by AI. These findings have important implications for understanding how political ideology may influence party membersâ perspectives on AI in relation to labor markets, job losses, and regulation in OECD countries.
Election Outcomes and Affective Polarization in the United States
Do election outcomes exacerbate affective polarization? While polarization often rises during campaigns and correlates with democratic backsliding, isolating the effect of winning or losing has proven difficult because of the need for a pre-election baseline and to generalize across multiple elections. In this study, we leverage pre- and post-election questions about partisan affect in the American National Election Study between 1996 and 2024. Our first analysis studies how respondentsâ attitudes changed based on their partyâs success in its bid for the White House. Our second analysis extends this to hundreds more races, applying a regression discontinuity design to attitudes after close subnational election results. Both analyses support the conclusion that the losing side drives the post-election gap in polarization, and that they do so by feeling less warmly toward their own party. In the United States, political loss may erode in-group attachment more than it fuels out-group hostility.
East European Politics
Who owns resilience? EU blueprints and local realities in the South Caucasus
This article argues that pluralism is a much more ambivalent idea than it is ordinarily thought to be, that there is more than one way of being more than one. In particular, it tries to show that plurality, like liberty, can be and has been imagined either negatively or positively: negatively, as the absence of some form of agreement or uniformity; positively, as engagement with competing qualities or commitments. In addition, it argues that the prominence of negative conceptions of pluralism, with their emphasis on difference and diversity, has made it hard to recognize and appreciate the important role that positive conceptions play in moral and political discourse.
Urban Citizenship and National Membership: Contradictory or Complementary?
This paper delineates urban political community from a statist logic of political community and membership, presenting three main arguments: Firstly, it asserts that cities differ fundamentally from states as political communities, characterized by the being together of strangers. This unique dynamic shapes community and membership, with urban political community defined by the proximity principle and membership grounded in indifference. Secondly, it argues that urban political communities are not mere segments of national communities, but distinct entities with different constitutive conditions. This understanding challenges traditional boundaries of citizenship both vertically, toward formal citizenship boundaries, and horizontally, toward territorial boundaries of political community. Thirdly, the paper advocates for cautious formalization of urban citizenship, recognizing the dynamic nature of cities in contesting boundaries and promoting democratic inclusion while highlighting that formalizing urban citizenship is ultimately boundary affirming: It maintains the boundaries drawn around cities by the state.
Post-Soviet Affairs
Rethinking language shifts in Ukraine: methodological challenges in the context of war and displacement
This essay reviews recent research on how the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) influences the development and enforcement of European Union (EU) law. First, we focus on the supply of cases and how the procedural routes to the court affect the impact of its rulings. Second, we discuss how the collective and individual preferences of the judges shape how they dispose of those cases. To that end, we present a measurement strategy and original dataset of ideological preferences on the court. Third, we examine the productivity of the court and the prospects for reducing the current backlog of the court. Finally, we present novel empirical analyses that connect these three sections and identify questions for future research.
From Question to Canon: Celebrating Dr. Paula D. McClain and the 30th Anniversary of Can We All Get Along? Racial and Ethnic Minorities in American Politics
Political scientist Dr. Paula D. McClain is an exemplary scholar who has dedicated much of her career to building diverse and inclusive scholarly communities in tandem with growing political science scholarship. Among Dr. McClainâs most enduring intellectual contributions is her pioneering work, Can We All Get Along? Racial and Ethnic Minorities in American Politics?, coauthored first with Dr. Joseph Stewart, Jr., and later with Dr. Jessica Johnson-Carew. Among the first comprehensive treatments of American racial and ethnic minority group politics, Can We All Get Along? still implores us to ponder a question that remains as critical as it has ever been to global and national politics, as well as to the academy and the discipline of political science, more than 30 years after its publication. The contributions to this special issue are dedicated to honoring the enduring significance of Can We All Get Along? and the extraordinary work and legacy of Dr. Paula McClain.