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Patronage appointments in government are a continuing issue in many administrative systems. Especially for countries in Latin America and Africa patronage is considered a major impediment to developing more effective administrative systems. A great deal has been written describing patronage and discussing the causes for patronage, but much less research has addressed the dynamics of moving away from patronage to more merit-based systems. This paper reviews the patronage literature and then develops a dynamic feedback model for movement away from patronage. The model links the quality of the services provided by the government, the nature of the political party system, and levels of trust to patronage. The model uses several reinforcing and balancing feedback loops to demonstrate the possible dynamics of change in administrative appointments.

If legislatures are to be effective rulemaking organisations, they require information and advice, usually provided by legislative staff. The levels of staffing varies markedly across countries, although most legislatures in European democracies have relatively small staffs. This article discusses the importance of different forms of staffing for assisting legislatures, and supporting democracy.

Governments and societies in 2020 and 2021 have been facing three interconnected crises—COVID-19 and the health crisis, an economic crisis resulting from the health crisis, and a social crisis around inclusion and equity. The magnitude of these crises, and their nature, vary across countries, but no country has been left untouched. The governance responses to these crises have varied markedly, both in terms of their character and their success. This paper discusses the good, the bad, and the merely normal aspects of governance that have emerged in response to these crises.

Every year for at least the past decade the statistics from organisations such as Freedom House show that the number of authoritarian political systems are increasing, and even those that remain de...

The contributions to this special issue examine the politics of domestic and international climate policy, concentrating on the role of institutions, interests, ideas, and networks. The outcomes of the policymaking processes are assessed with regard to their proportionality, that is, the balance between the benefits and costs of a policy. The contributions show that climate politics can lead to policy under- and overreactions. This introduction sets out the common research interest of the special issue and explains how the individual contributions relate to each other. To this end, it begins by providing the rationale for adopting the analytical perspective of comparative politics. Then it presents the conceptual framework and gives an overview of the contributions to this issue. Subsequently, it develops a research agenda that highlights avenues for future research and offers a brief conclusion that reflects on the potential of the concept of (dis)proportionality to advance the cumulative knowledge on climate politics and policies.