This article delves into the dynamics of power, public ethics, and injustice to explain the tolerance towards types of corruption that challenge democracy and go far beyond the most discussed illegal ‘Market’ aspects. The aim is to explore the patterns of the more ‘Parochial’ aspects of reciprocity and kinship and the ‘Institutional’ aspects of manipulating the norms and purposes of institutions that corruption has. Using the results of two original surveys conducted simultaneously (between October 2020 and April 2021), in which citizens and politicians in Portugal were asked about eleven potentially corrupt behaviours, this study concludes that it is the normalisation of parochialism in power relations that has been indirectly promoting the maintenance of institutional mechanisms that reinforce exclusion and the adoption of unethical behaviours to restore a sense of equality. It is argued that the antidote to Tolerance towards Corruption (TtC) consists of a formula that includes the constant improvement of the regulation of ethics in public life and public policies capable of mitigating the injustices associated with deprivation.

This article introduces the Comparative Conspiracy Research Survey (CCRS) dataset, an individual-level cross-sectional dataset on conspiracy beliefs in eight countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Lebanon, Morocco, South Africa, and the USA. The dataset contains general conspiracy belief scales, as well as country specific data on dominant conspiracy theories. In addition, the questionnaire contains validated scales of social trust, populist attitudes, authoritarianism, self-esteem as well as items measuring political interest, ideology, and socioeconomic class. In this research note, we present the methodology of the survey and provide an example of how researchers can use the dataset. This example tackles the difference in the relationship between conspiracy beliefs and activism intentions across countries. We highlight that activism is related to conspiracy beliefs in consolidated democracies, but not necessarily in developing democracies or more authoritarian regimes. Lastly, we conclude by laying out several possibilities for research using the CCRS dataset.

The rise of populist radical right parties (PRRP) in Europe has led to an unprecedented number of publications focused on this phenomenon. While many of these studies analyse the causes of this rise, much less attention has been paid to its effects. Previous research has shown the success of their xenophobic arguments in conditioning the public debate. However, to what degree public opinion has normalised this discourse remains unclear. This study aims to address whether the electoral success of the PRRP leads to changes in anti-immigration attitudes across twenty-one European countries. Although the previous analysis confirms that the presence of these parties has increased significantly, examining data from European Social Survey (ESS), the results reveal two key findings: a shift towards a more favourable perception of immigration among some sectors of the population and a limited effect of the contextual factors, including the presence of the PRRP.

The article investigates the extent to which EU conditionality and domestic factors have determined the Europeanisation path of Serbia, in light of its democratic backsliding and stalemate in its EU accession process. To explore this dynamic, the external incentives model (EIM), a widely recognised rationalist theoretical model analysing Europeanisation in candidate states, forms the theoretical basis of this study. Building on a rich literature applying this model, including EIM’s revisions by its original authors and subsequent improvements by other scholars, the study first aims to elucidate certain aspects of the model. Special attention is given to the dynamic nature of the EU accession process and the uncertainty faced by actors in EU candidate states regarding the prospects of EU membership, recognising that top-down and bottom-up factors often operate in concert rather than isolation. Process tracing and Bayesian reasoning are then employed to assess the contribution of these factors in explaining the observed democratic regression in Serbia. The analysis reveals mechanisms related to Serbia’s geostrategic interests, including its territorial integrity, and the overall decline in the credibility of the EU accession process, which have contributed to the deadlock in the accession process. Data are drawn from a number of primary and secondary sources including in-depth semi-structured interviews with EU and Serbian actors, EU, national, and international organisations’ documents and reports, the V-Dem and Freedom House databases, local and European media, and relevant scholarly literature.

Hayek regards the liberal democratic model of public opinion as totalitarian. This aggregated majority opinion is, he claims, a disposition to change others’ behaviour. It operates directly or indirectly through the state’s coercive power. To resist totalitarianism Hayek proposes to replace public opinion by an alternative type of aggregate opinion: general opinion. I argue that his shift from public opinion to general opinion transforms the state into a problematic locus for the shaping and disseminating of opinions and thereby turns the content of general opinion into irrefutable dogma. Both consequences are, contra Hayek, more rather than less likely to encourage totalitarianism. In justifying this analysis, I challenge the assumptions, framework, and claims of Hayek’s political theory, offering fresh ways to understand Hayek’s questionable conception of the state and demonstrate that, in replacing public opinion with general opinion, Hayek departs from the liberal political tradition he purports to defend.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, opposition parties found themselves in a dilemma: either to cooperate with the government for the nation’s sake or to take advantage of the situation for political purposes. However, the extant research has not yet fully uncovered the patterns of opposition behaviour during this recent and rather intense crisis. In this article, we examine the case of Portugal, exploring possible differences between opposition parties on this regard and taking into consideration the role of time and focus of COVID-19-related legislation. We do so by investigating the behaviour of opposition parties in parliament, through an analysis of their voting behaviour, enriched by party leader statements, between March 2020 and January 2022. Our results show a different pattern to the right of the incumbent, with the main opposition party being more collaborative (framing its behaviour as responsible and patriotic) than the newer right-wing opposition parties, both populist and not populist. Pandemic gravity and focus of the legislation under vote are also relevant factors of opposition behaviour.

The relationship between party system fragmentation and voter turnout is a long-standing phenomenon, the form of which has not yet been precisely defined. Using data from the Round 10 of European Social Survey (2020–2022), this article attempts to investigate the relationship across European democracies. Consistently with previous research, association between party system fragmentation as well as increase in number of parties between elections and turnout seems to be negative but rather weak. However, as could be expected based on a rational choice theory and cognitive overload, the effect depends on several individual and context level characteristics. The results suggest that negative effect of fragmentation may be attenuated by a high degree of partisanship. On the other hand, it may be strengthened in the context of an unanchored party system, as demonstrated in the case of Eastern and Central Europe compared to Western Europe, or by lower levels of political polarization.

The article focuses on the intellectual legacy of Giovanni Sartori, describing this figure as the “screenwriter” of an innovative project for Italian and European political science. Retracing the stages of Sartori’s journey as an author, academic leader, and scientific organizer, it highlights how other scholars have been able to build upon his work, showcasing the enduring impact of his vision. The article also provides data describing the scale and profile of the scientific community in Italy, since the phase of consolidation of political science, until nowadays. The analysis stresses the persistence of the original project designed by Sartori and sheds a light on the responsibilities of the “middle generation” of scholars in the dissemination of the discipline toward the new generations.

Competitive authoritarianism, a specific type of hybrid regime, is gaining ground globally. Corruption is particularly prevalent in these contexts as regimes utilise it to consolidate their power. However, some competitive authoritarian regimes also take significant measures to curb certain types of corruption. The present article posits that competitive authoritarian regimes, acting as rational utility-maximising actors, curb or enhance corruption types based on the net costs and benefits—that is, net gains—they yield for the regime. To elucidate the factors influencing net gains, an explanatory framework is presented. Its three constituent elements are accountability costs, transaction costs, and political benefits. The applicability of the framework is demonstrated with case studies of two corruption types in Hungary, namely, informal payments in healthcare and clientelism in awarding tobacco retail concessions.

The decision whether to index government benefits can have significant economic and political implications. It can affect whether or to what extent benefits maintain their real value over time, affect the policy levers available to fight inflation, and shape discretionary budget priorities. Most of the attention in the literature has focused on understanding the economic pros and cons of indexing and the politics and political use of indexation in the context of welfare state reform and retrenchment. Less attention has been paid to what indexation means for democratic accountability. This paper seeks to rectify this by investigating the democratic stakes of indexing government benefits. It argues that there are, other things being equal, strong democratic reasons to index government benefits in a way (or according to metric) that preserves their publicly articulated purpose. However, concerns about lack of discretion and ownership suggest indexation rules should be designed to provide governments with some discretionary power over the size and perhaps timing of automatic adjustments—though accompanied by requirements that the exercise of this discretionary power be justified publicly.

The Covid-19 epidemic came at a sensitive time for Russia’s leadership, which was attempting a political reset and structural reforms, including the removal of President Putin’s presidential term limits. This article examines how issues related to the pandemic provided new opportunities for the systemic opposition, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, who emerged as the main beneficiaries after capitalising on opportunities created by the epidemic. The underappreciated role of systemic opposition parties in electoral authoritarian systems, which balance “voice” and “loyalty” to benefit both themselves and the regime, is examined in the context of the Covid-19 crisis.

Giovanni Sartori is considered one of the leading figures in Italian, European, and global political science. The year 2024 marks the centenary of his birth, providing an opportunity to revisit the early career of this scholar in Italy. Drawing on Sartori’s writings and previously unexplored archival material, this article revisits his personal trajectory. It illustrates how a distinguished academic career was built, beginning with his personal path as a student, and later, from the 1950s to the mid-1970s, as a professor at the Faculty of Political Science at the University of Florence, during a time when political science was, in effect, non-existent. The article outlines his intellectual influences, their political context, his struggle for the recognition of political science within the Italian academic system, and his continual commitment to internationalisation. These elements collectively provide a fascinating illustration of the emergence of modern political science in Europe.

Citations of journal articles are a measure of scholarly attention and scientific impact. Across disciplines, including political science, there is evidence indicating the presence of a gender citation gap. The gap represents a gender imbalance in publishing and citations that is likely to be perpetuated as it contributes to follow-up imbalances in hiring or funding decisions. In this paper, we review the submission and publication information of 102 English-language journals from political science. The review is guided by a descriptive research question: How many journals address gender imbalances and gender more generally in their guidelines? We present the results of a mixed-methods content analysis that combines a computational text analysis with the manual, qualitative coding of journal information. We observe that fifteen journals out of 102 address gender and citation behavior by encouraging authors to consider the gender balance of their reference lists. With seven mentions, the share of journals discussing gender and citations is higher for the top-25 journals. There is little discussion of this issue in ECPR journals and APSA section and association journals.

The question ‘What is Politics and International Relations?’ often goes unasked, potentially leading to varied interpretations across universities. The review of the Quality Assurance Agency’s (QAA) Subject Benchmark Statement for Politics and International Relations in early 2022 provided a key moment to define the discipline. For over three decades, benchmark statements have been crucial in the UK higher education, guiding learning assurance and disciplinary self-definition. Despite their significance, the development process and impact of these benchmarks at a disciplinary level are underexplored. This article explores the history, development and influence of benchmark statements on Politics and International Relations, illustrating how they balance commonalities and differences across the UK institutions. It addresses concerns about the potential restrictiveness of these benchmarks and emphasises their voluntary nature. Through insights from four members of the Subject Benchmark Statement advisory group, the article aims to provide a thorough understanding of how benchmark statements shape and reflect the evolving landscape of the teaching of Politics and International Relations.

This study investigates the meso level impact of an academic development programme on internationalisation. We demonstrate the relevance of the framework of grassroots leadership in higher education in the Central European context and show how individual programme participants acting as grassroots leaders influence departmental attitudes and practices regarding internationalisation and student-centred learning. We identify two successful strategies—single-issue and multifaceted—for grassroots leadership. The study finds that established faculty member participants who are also active as grassroots leaders facilitate the spreading of the influence of an internationalisation programme beyond the individual level, highlighting the differences and similarities in the activism of faculty grassroots leaders in Central Europe vis-à-vis the USA.

During the pandemic, science became one of the most salient issues in European polities. At the same time, relevant sectors of European societies were sceptical about science-driven policy to contain the pandemic (e.g., lockdowns or vaccine mandates). The literature so far has analysed the relevance of trust in experts and trust in science in determining compliance to pandemic-related policies. However, we still do not know what are the drivers that lead to (dis)trust science. In this paper, we contribute to fill this gap, by analysing the association between technocratic and populist attitudes and trust in science. Using a novel survey, fielded in Italy, among a sample of 5.000 respondents, we show that populism and technocracy are strongly related with (dis)trust in science in opposite directions.

This study investigates the suitability of student-driven internationalisation of the curriculum in a diverse educational setting. Despite its vast educational potential, internationalisation of the curriculum is an often-missing component of general internationalisation even in programmes and courses with a diverse student body. To remedy this shortcoming in a course of international politics, I introduced a teaching and learning innovation, which encouraged students to use examples based on personal experiences and regional background—rather than merely from the assigned literature—during their arguments in preparation for and during biweekly seminars. In addition, the assessment criteria were shifted to support the sharing of information and knowledge among peers in this course, called “Theories of Cooperation and Conflict in International Relations”. The study uses a quasi-experimental setup and offers a comprehensive mixed-methods analysis of the innovation and finds that student learning and their classroom experience was positively impacted. While students did use notably more “own experience” examples and improved in their written preparatory work for the seminars, they turned to these very cautiously in the actual classroom debates. The findings are explained by the interplay between internationalisation and decolonisation of the classroom and the increased stakes in assessment criteria.

This research note introduces a dataset on the career paths of 754 Flemish ministerial advisors (MAs) spanning from 1999 to 2020. The dataset offers comprehensive insights into variables such as gender and age distribution, educational backgrounds, and career trajectories of MAs. To develop this dataset, we employed a suite of software tools designed for data collection, cleaning, and coding. This note details both the tools used and the resulting dataset, while also addressing potential biases and the robustness of the findings. We believe that both the data collection methodology and the dataset itself provide valuable opportunities for further research in elite career studies.

The 60th anniversary of the Department of Government at the University of Essex provides an opportunity to reflect on its many achievements and why these have been possible. This article argues that research excellence is a collective outcome that cannot be reduced to individuals. Research institutions tend to be successful because they manage to create productive environments, which can make individual scholars better and create synergies. The thesis is backed up by examples from the history of the department and more general research on the role of environments for research. The article considers possible insights with regard to present challenges to academic institutions, why productive environments can be difficult to maintain, and how we can try to nurture them.

This article reflects on the significance of Ukraine’s European choice—a series of pro-European political choices that both Ukraine’s citizens and its political elites gradually committed to, and which crystallized during and after the 2013 Euromaidan protest. Russia refused to accept Ukraine’s European choice, starting the first wave of aggression against Ukraine as soon as the Euromaidan won in early 2014, and ultimately launching the full-scale invasion in February 2022. As Ukrainians defend their European choice, important lessons can be drawn from their resistance to Russia’s aggression. We identify three lessons for Europe and three lessons for political science.