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Sovereignism is frequently considered as an important phenomenon in political science but barely studied on its own. This paper understands sovereignism as a distinct concept and explores sovereignist claims comparing two different political systems. It addresses the yet-to-be-discovered link between crises and increase (or stagnancy/decrease) in the adoption of sovereignist claims by political parties. Following a framing approach, we examine the euro, migration and COVID-19 crises to capture how these crises were used by German and Spanish parties to shape sovereignist claims. The analysis confirms that these three crises facilitated discursive opportunities for an increased use of sovereignist claims. Although newly emerged radical parties are identified as the main discursive entrepreneurs, mainstream parties also accommodate the sovereignist discourse under certain conditions. This paper makes an important contribution to studies on sovereignism offering an analytical framework as well as fresh insights on the conditions for the adoption of sovereignism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though post-colonial governments vowed to ban chiefs, they reconstructed governance systems to accommodate traditional governance structures due to the primacy of the institution. Chiefs and local government authorities have instrumental roles to play in community development. However, the relationship between them is characterised by tensions and conflicts. The hostilities between the two stakeholders and by extension officials of modern government are due to the role chiefs played in the indirect rule system. Chiefs prior to independence were labelled as collaborators of the imperial regime and obstacles to independence. In Ghana, agitations from the educated elites about allegations of corruption against Native Authorities characterised the pre-independence era. Chiefs have been debarred from local governance, creating a tempestuous relationship between the two stakeholders at the grassroots. However, the contested issues have not been given the needed attention. The article examined the contested issues between chiefs and local government authorities in New Juaben, Ghana. The study involved 25 participants selected through simple random and purposive sampling techniques. The contested issues between the two actors were over power and economic resources. Economically, chiefs contested for portions of the District Assembly Common Fund and land ownership. The desire for consultation in the nomination of government appointees, and election of MMDCEs were the politically contested issues. The article recommends the institutional representation of chiefs in the Assembly and the allocation of funds to chiefs to curtail the conflict between the two actors of community development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is devoted to the problems of the categorical apparatus of the civil service in Ukraine. The civil service in our country is recognized as one of the most important institutions in the formation and development of Ukrainian statehood. It is from this institute that the quality of functioning of the social and political system as a whole and the solution of multifaceted tasks and functions of the modern state depend. Civil service has the greatest influence on the development of constitutional and legal formations and is the basis of state construction. It is argued that the civil service is a complex and multifunctional, legal and political institution, the essence of which is the performance by officials who are endowed with high professionalism, act in a complex relationship and in close interaction both among themselves and with other systemic entities, political forces, by public organizations and citizens, tasks and functions of the state within the legal field and in accordance with the authority granted to them to create social benefits, further development of social well-being and stability in the state. The most important features of the civil service are highlighted: the content of the civil service is an activity aimed at the practical implementation of tasks and functions of the state (analysis, development and implementation of state policy, ensuring the provision of affordable and high-quality administrative services, etc.); the public nature of this activity; professionalism; politically impartial character. It has been established that the priority of human rights and interests over the interests of the state should be the main feature of modern civil service. The goal of the civil service is disclosed, which consists in streamlining and increasing the efficiency of the processes of formation and implementation of state power and state administration, provided that responsibility for the performance of the powers of the position and social and economic guarantees of the civil service are combined. The main goals and tasks of the civil service have been defined in terms of ensuring the fair, effective and stable activity of state authorities in accordance with their powers and competence, aimed at protecting the rights and freedoms of people and citizens, as well as creating conditions for the development of civil society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why do some political rulers engage in frequent shuffling of their governors while others allow their governors to serve longer? We argue that shuffling of governors reflects the level of a ruler's perception of insecurity. Building on perspectives about situational origins of distrust and paranoid cognition, we argue that democratic leaders, characterized by higher levels of existential security, practice less frequent shuffling of governors compared to authoritarian ones. We also suggest that governors in localities characterized by higher levels of ethnic conflict and poor electoral performance by a ruling government are more likely to be replaced. Utilizing an original dataset of all Ottoman and Turkish governors from 1875 to 2019, our empirical analyses show that governors last longer under more democratic governments, in provinces with lower levels of ethnic diversity conflict, and stronger electoral support for the government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate politics is old: a stress test of international institutions and political systems now in its fourth decade. Climate politics is also new: nascent transnational movements, world changing technologies, and emergent authoritarianisms indicate a rapidly shifting geopolitical order. As the moral urgency of environmental crises intensify, attention to religion provides an informative window onto the dynamics of global environmental politics. This article describes three ways in which religions are both shaping and being shaped by anthropogenic climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Myanmar's political system during the 2010–2021 period shares much in common with the political systems of neighbouring India and nearby Sri Lanka, and so this article identifies all three as ethnocratic, arguing these polities represent a variation of ethnocracy which leans authoritarian and is specifically Islamophobic. This article builds on discourse about the nature of ethnocracy to introduce the label 'Saffron Ethnocracy', which is used to identify the specific Islamophobic variation of ethnocracy observable in India, Myanmar and Sri Lanka. The saffron label recognises the common use of saffron clothing as identity markers by Hindus and Buddhists, the dominant religious groups in each country. While all three South Asian countries were certainly procedural democracies during the period studied, majoritarianism strongly impacted their political systems, affecting citizenship laws and practices, contributing to assertions about civilisational uniqueness of dominant groups, empowering religio-political institutions of the dominant groups, dramatically curtailing freedom of expression and severely undermining the standing of minorities, particularly Muslim populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present research empirically examines the links between political knowledge, national narcissism, and climate change conspiracy beliefs. National narcissism (i.e., an unrealistic belief about in-group's greatness which is maladaptive both from the perspective of intra- and inter-group processes) was previously linked to conspiracy beliefs. In this research, we hypothesized that low theoretical political knowledge would boost national narcissism and further lead to adopting climate change conspiracy theories. Methods: This hypothesis was tested in a two-wave study conducted among Polish participants (N = 558). Results: We found negative effect of political knowledge on climate change conspiracy beliefs. Moreover, national narcissism mediated between theoretical political knowledge and conspiracy beliefs. Conclusion: People having low political knowledge are prone to believe in climate change conspiracy theories. Moreover, those less informed about the way political system works in their country are more narcissistically identified with their nation and, thus, deny the climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the citizen movements initiated in Hong Kong and Chile in 2019. Based on discourse analysis and interviews, the study argues that adapting the repertoires of protest to the mobility restrictions and the evolution of the political systems reinforced the populist dimension of the Anti-ELAB (anti-extradition law amendment bill) and the Chilean Spring movements. In Hong Kong, the restrictions of freedoms facilitated the constitution of a broad international network opposed to the Chinese Communist Party that comprises overseas organisations and public figures in exile dedicated to lobbying before western governments and providing a discourse frame to the diasporic communities. In Chile, the successive election campaigns that accompanied the constitutional process allowed new political actors with refoundation aspirations to access the institutions. This study found, in both cases, that rhetoric based on the antagonistic exaltation of the people's signifier has become central to the movements' discourses: a transformation accompanied by the consolidation of political leaders pretending to represent the movements' demands. This study analyses the discourses and demands of the citizen movements in light of the institutional framework in which they appear and evolve to contribute to the growing literature where the study of contemporary social movements intersects with the studies of populism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a new conceptualization of regime transformation that allows scholars to address democratization and autocratization as related but obverse processes. We introduce a dataset that captures 680 episodes of regime transformation (ERT) from 1900 to 2019 and offers novel insights into regime change over the past 120 years. The ERT has three main advantages over other approaches. First, it avoids problematic assumptions of unit homogeneity and constant as well as symmetric effects. Second, it integrates key insights from qualitative studies by treating regime change as a gradual and uncertain process. Third, the ERT is based on a unified framework for studying regime transformation in either direction. The dataset differentiates between four broad types of regime transformation: liberalization in autocracies, democratic deepening in democracies, and autocratization in both democracies and autocracies (democratic and autocratic regression). It further distinguishes ten patterns with distinct outcomes, including standard depictions of regime change (i.e. democratic transition or breakdown). A minority (32%) of ERTs produce a regime transition, with the majority of episodes either ending before a transition takes place or not having the potential for such a transition (i.e. further democratization in democratic regimes or further autocratization in autocratic regimes). We also provide comparisons to other datasets, illustrative case studies to demonstrate face validity, and a discussion about how the ERT framework can be applied in peace research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing from four electoral models for the election of Bosniak and Croat representatives to the collective Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, this article proposes a set of favorable conditions for the application of territorial distribution requirements in deeply divided societies. It shows that it is possible to deliver stable consociational outcomes using territorial distributive requirements for bi-national polities. Territorial distributive requirements result in stable democracy only under appropriate consociational conditions for the election of multi-person presidencies in dyadic societies with a demographic imbalance of power, whereas centripetal techniques prevent minority groups from choosing their most-preferred representatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Programme planning models found in the current body of literature provide some practical strategies for developing effective adult education programmes, but how political and economic systems of a country shape the nature and scope of planning is missing. This paper aims to fill this theoretical void by bringing political economy perspective into scholarly discussion. The paper theorises that the state, the market, and the civil society are key components for undertaking political economy analysis. It focuses on how different coordination mechanisms among these components affect the way adult education planners define and undertake needs assessment. The main argument of the paper is that since strengthening democracy is one of the key objectives of adult education, planners should prioritise the needs of marginalised adults over the needs of the state and the market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents the results from a series of conjoint experiments evaluating how the various components of political systems affect citizens' satisfaction with democracy (SWD). Compared to earlier studies, our approach is unique in that we were able to disentangle the effects of otherwise highly collinear variables corresponding to three defining features of any political system, namely (1) access to power, (2) the policy‐making process and (3) performance. We fielded identical conjoint experiments in countries with significant variations across the key independent variables: France, Hungary and Italy. Overall, our study supports the view that citizens are more satisfied with democracy in consensus systems than in majoritarian democracies, while it also contributes to identifying the respective weight of the specific components of political systems. Respondents across all countries recognize that proportionality and party system fragmentation magnify their voices by creating a more representative political climate. With regard to output legitimacy, we find that respondents identify good economic performance and public probity as important features of a well‐performing democracy. The positive effect of the legislators' constituency orientation on SWD is a particularly noteworthy result that is currently understudied in the literature. Moreover, the state of the economy has by far the biggest impact on SWD, which indicates a highly materialistic view of democracy in all three countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Citizens' ability to hold corrupt politicians accountable is a key feature of democratic political systems. Particularly in the European Union (EU), such accountability mechanisms are often argued to malfunction due to the EU's complicated and opaque institutional structure, which could compromise voters' basic abilities to detect political malpractice in Brussels. Putting EU voters' attentiveness to the test, we provide quasi‐experimental evidence of the causal effect of a recent corruption scandal in the European Parliament. Leveraging an 'Unexpected Event during Survey Design' identification strategy in France and Germany, we document a sizeable negative effect of the so‐called Qatargate scandal on public trust in the European Parliament. This provides causal evidence on the presence of attentiveness to EU politics within these electorates. Given the EU's complex institutional structure, we derive two alternative implications from this finding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political representation does not function well for citizens whose positions on political issues differ from those of elected representatives. In this paper, we argue that opinion incongruence leads citizens to want to bypass elected representatives and place more decision‐making power in the hands of the public. We theorise that this is because incongruent citizens are highly dissatisfied with the existing political system and/or think they will benefit from direct decision‐making in terms of improved policy responsiveness. Using data from the 2019 Belgian Election Survey (n = 3413) and Party Leadership Survey, we find that greater incongruence between citizens' positions and those of their elected representatives is related to higher support for direct decision‐making. This holds for opinion incongruence with the party voted for and incongruence with Parliament as a whole. This paper contributes novel insights into the consequences of the quality of political representation as well as the drivers of citizens' support for direct decision‐making processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The openness of the political system for the representation of social or economic groups through their parties is mired in complexities. Extant scholarship has identified multiple electoral system hurdles that jointly determine the institutional opportunities for group representation: This article offers a simple metric to the institutional parts of the political opportunity structure for the electoral representation of social groups. A single variable summarizes the institutional opportunities for group representation, as determined jointly by electoral rules, the demographic structure of ethnic minority groups and their electoral geography. This new Index of Electability considers recent innovations in electoral rules, such as mixed electoral systems, legal thresholds or quotas, which occur in most contemporary democracies. Empirically, the index is applied to ethnic minority parties in 57 plural democracies worldwide. It shows that our index highlights the necessary conditions for parliamentary representation of minorities through their own parties. Contrary to widespread belief that many minority groups form ethnic parties, only one out of three ethnic minority groups worldwide which could, in principle, do so, actually form such a party. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the theory of competitive federalism, focusing specifically on Hayek's and Buchanan's significant contributions to this theory. Looking at the rivalry between sub‐units in federal systems and drawing an analogy between market competition and intergovernmental competition, the theory of competitive federalism stresses the critical role viable exit options play as operating force in both arenas. The principal claim argued for in this paper is that by exclusively focusing on exit in its territorial dimension, the theory of competitive federalism obfuscates the fact that "exit" can mean two critically different things in federal systems. It can mean exiting from the territory over which a government exercises its assigned authority, and it can mean exiting from a polity in the sense of giving up one's membership status in the respective community. The paper discusses the nature, the significance, and the implications of the difference between these two kinds of exit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medieval citizenship is often defined as the rights and duties that individuals had in medieval polities, including political participation, individual protection within the city in cases of legal or commercial conflicts, or the privilege of being judged by certain courts, rather than by others, and by one's peers, rather than by foreigners. Typically, the status of citizen was further bound to the taxes individuals of that polity had to pay or the military duties they had to fulfil. This understanding of citizenship differs significantly from the ways scholars in the field of political sciences have been discussing the term over the past two decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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How regime types affect the provision of social spending in the context of developing countries? This article provides a novel political-economic approach, arguing that single-party regimes are more likely to spend on pensions than other types of autocratic states to co-opt the large number of critical members although the regime type does not affect the general welfare spending across autocratic states. The theory emphasizes the effect of institutional and power structure heterogeneity across autocracies in shaping the incentives and strategies that the ruling elites co-opt and respond to the demands of the ruling coalition across different autocratic regimes. Using panel, ordinary least squares (OLS) regression with lagged dependent variable along with several empirical strategies, it finds the evidence supporting this argument with a new dataset from 1990 to 2012. The study provides new insights on how autocratic institutions especially the party utilize strategic social policies to resolve the elite-level dictator dilemma for regime survival that are absent in other autocratic types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing countries have increasingly decentralized power to local governments. This paper studies the implications of a central element of decentralization (polity size) using population-based discontinuities that determine local government boundaries for over 100,000 Indian villages. Over the short and long run, individuals allocated into local governments with smaller populations have better access to public goods. We provide suggestive evidence that these results are related to heightened civic engagement and stronger political incentives, but not to other mechanisms such as elite capture. (JEL D72, H41, H75, H76, O17, O18, R50) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis article explores the role of the ‘Public Defender of Rights’ (verejný ochranca práv—VOP) within the Slovak political system and its relationship with the Parliament. It comprehensively examines the complex interactions between these two institutions, shedding light on the limitations of the VOP in a country where the Parliament plays a pivotal role in the political system. These dynamics have profound implications for the protection of human rights. The analysis presented in this article is grounded in various sources, including laws, transcripts from parliamentary debates, government documents, reports from the VOP, media coverage, interviews, as well as decisions from the Constitutional Court. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractGlobal project finance investments have become one of the primary funding mechanisms for large infrastructure projects worldwide over the past few decades. This paper examines the country-level dynamics of global project finance loans from 1981 to 2018, using data from all project finance deals reported in the DealScan database. Our analysis reveals that most international project finance loans originate from banks and financial institutions in advanced democracies, while the recipient countries vary widely in terms of regime type and economic development. Through systematic visualization and statistical analysis, we find that transnational capital flows for infrastructure projects are more likely to occur between countries with similar political systems or between those with starkly different regimes. This finding indicates significant lending and borrowing between full democracies and closed autocracies, suggesting that investments raised in liberal democracies enable some of the most closed dictatorships to finance their infrastructure development. The study suggests that closed and repressive regimes might substantially benefit from the globalized project financing system, warranting increased attention from scholars in International Political Economy on political implications of the globalized project finance market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The forthcoming general election will be the most consequential electoral contest for the Republic of Ireland in a century. The polity is situated in truly novel territory with the potential for an historic first: the incoming of a Sinn Féin‐led, left‐wing government. Any such government would portend change in the North of Ireland, symbolising a critical juncture on the path towards the ending of partition. Analysing electoral and ideological shifts across the post‐2008 period, this article examines the immediate prospects for the coming to power of a left‐wing government and an historic first in Irish politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an era of disruptive global challenges, from climate crises to pandemics, understanding the drivers of drastic policy innovation is paramount. This study defines drastic policy innovation as a significant shift in governmental priorities through policies untried by most jurisdictions in a country. While policy entrepreneurs are often credited with initiating change, this study argues that political will is essential for enacting and implementing such innovative policies. Political will is defined as the degree of commitment among key decision makers to enact and implement specific policies. It is characterized by three key components: authority (the power to enact and enforce policy), capacity (the resources to implement it effectively), and legitimacy (the perceived rightfulness of actions by stakeholders). Through the case of low‐carbon city experimentation in China, this study examines how political will drives the adoption and implementation of these policies. The findings reveal that a high level of political will is significantly linked to more drastically innovative policies being enacted and implemented and that when political will is institutionalized, implementation continues despite leadership turnover. These insights likely apply to other policy contexts and countries, regardless of regime type, albeit with some caveats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we investigate the determinants of contact between citizens and Members of Parliament (MPs) in Africa by combining theories of contact developed in advanced Western democracies with theories of clientelism developed in the Global South. Based on Afrobarometer data matched with constituency‐level electoral data, we provide a first analysis of the determinants of citizen–MP contact in 32 African countries, encompassing a broad range of regime types. We find that smaller districts and single‐member districts strengthen contact across regime types, while electoral competitiveness is only positively associated with contact in more democratic settings. In line with clientelist theories of public resource access, district links to national ruling coalitions are positively associated with contact, but we find little evidence of partisan bias. Overall, we find that contact theories travel remarkably well across regions and regime types, and we caution against interpreting clientelistic contacts as harmful for democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores policy processes in authoritarian settings, underscoring the lack of research on how policy actors and institutions influence policies in autocracies. It stresses the significance of comprehending these processes in upholding political regimes, providing public services, and managing crises. Through case studies from various countries, the special issue offers fresh perspectives on policy processes in autocracies, enriching the global understanding of policy processes. The findings reveal that while autocratic regimes function differently from democracies, policy processes in autocracies are shaped by factors such as elite competition, institutional structure, and international influences. The text also delves into policy process theories in autocracies and the role of local lobbying in single-party authoritarian systems, with authors Caroline Schlaufer and Annemieke van den Dool focusing on policymaking in nondemocratic contexts and crisis management in China. Their research examines how scientific evidence and narratives impact policymaking in these environments. [Extracted from the article]

The tendency of individuals to either justify or challenge the existing social and political system has significant practical implications. This research integrates system justification theory with a cross‐cultural perspective to examine the impact and underlying mechanisms of interdependent self‐construal on system justification. Studies 1a (N = 201) and 1b (N = 205) demonstrated that interdependent self‐construal correlated with higher system justification among both American and Chinese participants. Study 2 (N = 500) and Study 3 (N = 983) found that manipulation of an interdependent view of self‐construal led to stronger system justification tendencies, and this effect was explained by an increased focus on collectivist values and respect for authority. Studies 4a (N = 278) and 4b (N = 836) further illustrated that the positive relationship between interdependent self‐construal and system justification remained consistent even in low social mobility contexts. Taken together, the current research provides valuable insights into the cross‐country differences in system justification and highlights the importance of incorporating cultural factors in future studies on system justification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much research stresses the impact of armed conflict on refugee flows. This article focuses on another form of political instability that has yet to be systematically examined: coups. It presents a typology of coups by considering (a) whether coup plotters succeed or not in seizing power, and (b) the type of regime after the coup. It identifies four types of coup attempts: (1) failed coups in autocracy, (2) failed coups in democracy, (3) autocratic coups, and (4) democratic coups. We argue that failed coups in autocracies and autocratic coups increase government repression and hinder economic performance, creating societal environments that trigger refugee flows. This contrasts with more stable environments following failed coups in democracies and democratic coups that are expected not to affect refugee flows. Quantitative analysis of all countries between 1980 and 2016 supports the theory, and qualitative analysis of varieties of coup attempts in Egypt, Spain, and Turkey illustrates the postulated theoretical mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This scholarly article examines the pivotal role of digital administration in enhancing political rationality and governance in contemporary political systems. As governments worldwide increasingly adopt digital technologies, this study explores how these tools reshape decision-making processes, citizen engagement, and overall political efficacy. Through a comprehensive analysis of theoretical frameworks, existing literature, and case studies, the research investigates the impact of digital administration on transparency, accountability, and participatory governance. Findings suggest that while digital administration offers significant potential for improving political rationality and governance, it also presents challenges related to the digital divide, cybersecurity, and privacy concerns. The article concludes with policy recommendations and future prospects for the integration of emerging technologies into political governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India, as the world's largest democracy, presents a unique and diverse political landscape. Since gaining independence in 1947, it has upheld democratic ideals amidst challenges of diversity, inequality, and external threats. This paper explores the foundational concepts of Indian democracy, its key features, and its role as a beacon of democratic governance in the global arena. By examining India’s electoral system, constitutional framework, and challenges, we gain insights into how democracy functions in one of the most populous and complex nations in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Very little research has focused on types of cooperation between different civil society organizations at the domestic level. This article fills this gap by developing the distinction between organization‐based and society‐based cooperation. Examining Hong Kong's unique political system, the paper highlights both types. The Save Our Country Park Alliance (SOCP) exemplifies organization‐centric collaboration, requiring consensus among diverse NGOs, which can hinder decision‐making. Conversely, the Save Lantau Alliance (SLA) demonstrates society‐centric cooperation with flexible, quick mobilization through core active member organizations and collaboration with pro‐democratic groups. Despite the 2020 National Security Law forcing many liberal organizations to disband, the SLA persists in its efforts to preserve Lantau, though it faces increased challenges in an environment hostile to society‐based activism. This distinction enhances our understanding of civil society alliances in varying political contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During their term of office, members of parliament are responsible for passing laws, monitoring government activities, and approving the budget to ensure the legitimacy of parliament while representing the interests of citizens. However, in recent years, the ability of parliamentarians to effectively represent citizens has weakened, with growing concerns about their accountability and ethics. This highlights the need for a study on the negative impacts of these issues. The concept of the "optimal size of parliaments" explores the capacity of parliaments to fully perform their duties. The aim of this research is to determine the appropriate number of members for the Mongolian parliament, ensuring it remains at an optimal size. Specifically, the effectiveness of the parliament is linked to its size, as the ability to maintain ethical standards and properly implement laws that benefit society is connected to the number of representatives. The size of parliament affects its capacity to represent citizens, the workload it can manage, and its overall efficiency during the term of elected members. The research results suggest that the optimal number of members in the Mongolian parliament could range between 114, 151, and 155, considering factors such as traditions, geography, administrative divisions, and the electoral system. As a result of this study, the Constitution was amended in 2023 to increase the number of members to 126, which reflects the findings of this research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article undertakes a critical examination of the paucity of political ideology within Nigeria's party system, with a particular focus on the 2023 presidential election. It further explores the ramifications of this deficiency on the political landscape and developmental trajectory of the country. In liberal democracies, political ideology plays a crucial role in shaping the political system and determining the course of a state's political and economic development, but Nigeria's political landscape currently suffers from a lack of ideology. Political parties in Nigeria are not driven by ideas, beliefs, and values. They are not groups of individuals who share a common ideology, but rather serve as platforms for patronage and wealth accumulation for the political elites. This article advances the argument that the lack of political ideology in Nigerian politics weakens the political system and creates a democratic deficit. These factors challenge the process of democratic development in Nigeria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multisectoral integration has been at the core of sustainability debates and is continuously rearticulated through different concepts. Following the 2007–2008 financial, food, and energy crises, a new concept, the water–energy–food nexus, gained prominence to identify trade-offs and synergies between water, energy, and food systems and guide the development of cross-sectoral policies. The nexus is essentially a systems-based perspective that explicitly recognizes these three systems as both interconnected and interdependent, and thus integrated approaches are required that move beyond sectoral, policy, and disciplinary silos. The nexus is also a political process, one in which the interplay of different types of power, as well as the actors wielding them, is not just a procedurally technical one. This tension between the nexus as a complex system and the nexus as a political process constitutes the core debating idea, in terms of feasibility, methods, and theory, in this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective/Context: The article analyzes the partisan nature of ministers in Uruguay (96 % of the total) during the period 1985--2024, based on the institutional and political constraints of cabinet appointments. Given that the president has moderate legislative powers, nominations are used to build majorities capable of approving government initiatives and preventing the opposition from censuring ministers in Parliament. As the political system operates based on the logic of the party government model, the article explores the consequences of its application by analyzing the behavior of the ruling party's caucus in a sample of ministerial interpellations conducted in Parliament. Methodology: The research is a case study based on statistical analysis of original data. The main hypothesis considers four independent variables (size of the president's legislative contingent, party cohesion, type of government, and evolution of the government period) and a series of control variables. Conclusions: The study confirms that Uruguayan presidents make strategic use of ministerial appointments, based on the assumption that the relationship between powers functions as a typical party government model, similar to that observed in parliamentary regimes. Presidents appoint highranking partisan ministers when they have support in Parliament and the party is strongly cohesive. They appoint mid- and low-ranking partisan ministers when the president forms coalitions and when the party is less cohesive. Finally, they prefer new or discreet partisan ministers when the president loses his coalition or during the last years of the mandate. Originality: It analyzes the appointment of ministers in Uruguay under a presidential system that, despite not having excessive legislative powers, resembles the typical party government model of parliamentary regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article combines an understanding of British politics grounded in the Asymmetric Power Model with intersectionality to comprehend Muslim women's experiences in the Labour Party. This paper shows that an intersectional framework and an analysis of political parties' relationships with their members are essential to understanding the enduring inequalities of the British political system. Muslim women are under-represented in our political system; they face multiple forms of discrimination (racism and sexism). Some Muslim men have and use their relative power over Muslim women through their use of biraderi-politicking, and Muslim women do not trust the Labour Party to support them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK is characterised by spatial inequality between and within regions, alongside an over-centralised asymmetric model of governance. In England especially, these features are stark, and throughout the last decade, politicians have responded by forging a distinctive programme of English devolution focused on city-regions. In this article, we analyse the core drivers of the English devolution agenda to understand its impact on the future trajectory of British politics. We identify the predominance of a narrow economic vision of devolution that systematically negates other agendas. The result is a failure to address the trade-offs inherent in the devolution process, alongside an inadequate engagement with the growing demand for democratic revitalisation. In the long-term, we argue that the empowerment of the largest cities in England and the relative neglect of non-urban areas will exacerbate power asymmetries within the UK political system in both centre-periphery and centre-local relations, a phenomenon we term 'political spatial inequality'. There is a risk of resurgent 'territorially based populism' stemming from this uneven political geography which has the potential to exacerbate political instability and significantly reshape UK politics in the wake of Brexit. English devolution is a prescient example of how policy 'solutions' can in turn create new problems that pose major challenges for policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The latest royal committee headed by Samir Al‐Rifai to modernize Jordan's political system is often portrayed as a significant step toward political reform. However, this narrative overestimates the committee's impact and overlooks historical limitations and institutional obstacles to reform in Jordan. This study highlights how political reform initiatives in Jordan can be manipulated to serve the regime's objectives rather than the people's will. Historically, despite public pressure for genuine political reform, the regime's responses have been minimal. Royal committees and initiatives have rarely produced tangible results, serving more to provide the regime with narratives of superficial reform than to achieve real change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The report discussed the contents of the Royal Designation Letter addressed by King Abdullah II bin Al Hussein to Jordanian Prime Minister Jaafar Hassan on September 15, 2024, to form a new government. The designation followed the conclusion of the twentieth House of Representatives elections held on September 10. The report delved into the designation letter's most significant contents. These included the elections conducted under a new election law, a pivotal development that emerged from the recommendations of the Royal Committee for Modernizing the Political System in Jordan on 3/10/2021. This law, which allocated 30% of its seats to political parties, marks a significant shift in our political landscape. The designation also addressed the perilous developments witnessed in Palestine, particularly the genocide committed by the Israeli army in Gaza and the West Bank. These actions have far-reaching repercussions on Jordanian security and politics, necessitating utmost vigilance and concern. The report concluded that the royal directives in the designation letter underscored our unwavering commitment to the Palestinian cause. They focused on internal political affairs and some economic files related to mining, attracting investments, and developing infrastructure. However, the most significant emphasis was on the constants of Jordanian foreign policy, especially its continued support for the Palestinian people against Israeli aggression and occupation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research discusses the problem of external relations with various political components and their impact on Iraq's policies. This research addresses the background of forming alliances of Iraqi political components since 1921. Moreover, it addresses the form of Iraqi political alliances and blocs and the nature of their external connections after the American occupation of Iraq in 2003. It discusses the problem of the emergence of the democracy of 'sectarian, ethnic, and national quotas' as a primary factor in shaping the Iraqi political system. It also revealed the multiplicity of connections between Iraqi internal political components and external factors, such as economic ties, military alliances, and diplomatic relationships. The research also addressed Iraq's geopolitical position and its role in preserving the lost regional balances in light of this problem. The research explored and examined the repercussions of these (problematic) alliances on the official policies and positions of the state, the most important of which were: 1) The change in the priorities of Iraqi politics according to the changes in the connections of these forces in the government with external powers, 2) The exit from the circle of neutrality and independence in Arab and Islamic affairs, 3) Iraq's loss of geopolitical advantage in favor of external parties. It also discussed the foundations and motives that influence external actors' interest-based policies towards Iraq. The research also projected the most likely scenarios of these repercussions in the near future. It answered a central question: What are the boundaries of the effectiveness and influence of external will in shaping Iraqi internal and external policies amidst the conflict of internal wills and the multiplicity of their connections with external parties? This anticipation of future developments adds a layer of intrigue to the research. This research discovered that the majority of foreign policy trends are governed by the connections and external relations of the components of the government and parliament. The research reached several results, the most prominent of which are: 1) Iraq's internal and external policy has become a reflection of the interests of influential countries within it, most notably Iran, the United States, and neighboring countries; 2) The consolidation and deepening of the concepts of quotas and sectarianism due to these external connections, 3) Iraq's transition to a square in which it is an arena for settling accounts by proxy in the service of external agendas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This report provides an overview of contemporary scholarship on the political geographies of oceans. While oceans were overlooked for many years as theories of sovereignty, territory, and borders focused on terrestrial politics, the significant impact of climate change resulted in a new focus on the role oceans place in global environmental and political systems. At the same time, the enclosure of over 40 percent of the oceans as territorial seas, exclusive economic zones, and extended continental shelves through the Convention on the Law of the Sea produced burgeoning literature on maritime borders and conflicts. The report proposes the concept of blue geopolitics to capture an oceanic turn in political geography theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many Central and Eastern European countries recognized the benefits of migration of their citizens after the EU enlargement in 2004, such as financial remittances and obtaining education abroad. Even more advantages are expected by the sending states upon anticipated return of migrants to the countries of origin. The article will examine Polish policies of return migration in times of two crises: Brexit and the pandemic. The analysis includes macronarratives (political discourse, such as state documents, legal acts and narratives of various state representatives and authorities concerning the return of Poles) and micronarratives (stories of individuals). Interviews with over 50 Polish migrants in the UK are juxtaposed with the state narratives. On the example of Poland, the article demonstrates how the process of possible return migration is constructed, narrated, and justified in micro- and macronarratives. The narratives and political tools engaged in inducing return migration reflect the state's and the migrants' anticipations and projections about the vision of community, national belonging, and citizen's duties. The study of the micro- and macronaratives sheds light on nuanced ways in which co-agency works: that is, how social phenomena are shaped by actors who have diverse ways of looking at the problem, different (partly complementary, partly opposing) interests and motivations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contrast to the other papers in this special issue, this paper reflects a specific case of co-agency between states and individual migrants, particularly students and alumni networks. Based on a qualitative case study with 29 Georgian students and 14 institutions and organizations, this paper explores the impact of Georgian alumni on polity building in Georgia. Here we can observe two phases: Firstly, the states of Georgia and of Germany act as co-agents by facilitating migration to young Georgian students by financing their studies in Germany (student scholarships) with the objective that the students return and transfer their knowledge to the country of origin. Subsequently, the Georgian alumni who studied law in Germany act as co-agents between different institutions in both countries. In doing so, they transform state institutions by themselves and contribute to the development of the legal and political system in Georgia. They do that particularly in such important legal fields like constitutional law, civic law, and criminal law, but also in the creation of parliamentarism based on a bicameral system or the promotion of separation of church and state in Georgia. That takes place after return migration as well as from Germany through transnational networks and mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While still in their nascent stages, cryptocurrencies have the potential to reshape the international political economy by hastening the end of US dollar hegemony and reducing the US's coercive financial power. Recently, governments have adopted various regulatory approaches to these new technologies. Most commonly, countries have implemented an array of partial and absolute bans. What explains governments' responses to the new and potentially disruptive technology? We argue that governments' decisions to ban cryptocurrencies stem from their desire to maintain monetary control. While cryptoization threatens all governments' monetary policy autonomy, governments who choose to fix their exchange rates and restrict cross-border movement of capital are most motivated to ban crypto because digital currencies can be used to evade exchange and capital controls. A country's regime type also affects its ability to enact bans; democracies will be less likely to enact a ban than autocracies. Our results suggest that cryptocurrency threatens the international political and economic status quo less than many speculate because regimes most likely to be at odds with US monetary and financial dominance face a strong incentive to ban the technologies in their own countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to outline the ideal that the Franco dictatorship pursued for the case of rural women and analyze its evolution during the almost forty years that the dictatorship lasted. For this purpose, we have analyzed the official curricula of the female agrarian training schools, where the women who were to be 'models' for the peasant women were trained. The press and reports from the Ministry of Agriculture and women's magazines of the time were consulted. We conclude that this specific education sought to turn them into housewives by erasing the traces of their peasant identity and that this process entailed the creation of a space that could be called 'home' and the assignment to them of specific tasks within it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the political conditions favourable to economic upgrading in democratic non-corporatist emerging economies with a focus on CEE countries as characteristic examples. While the existing literature has assumed this polity type to be the least favourable for designing and implementing effective industrial policies because of a lack of bureaucratic 'embedded autonomy', the paper argues that this is not to suggest that such industrial policies and economic upgrading are rare in these economies, but rather that they involve different mechanisms of political mobilisation and support. To identify these mechanisms, the paper adopts a social bloc-based framework and applies it to an in-depth study of Estonia, a strong upgrader in the region in terms of its increased economic specialisation in ICT-based services. The paper finds that a lack of 'embedded autonomy' can effectively be supplanted by the embeddedness of private actors in the state administration and political decision-making through a network-based configuration of the social bloc and a shared upgrading ideology leading to a conflation of private interests with national development goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why do some states victimize noncombatants during civil war? Scholars have identified regime type, international norms, and battlefield conditions as important factors explaining variation in outcomes. Here I argue that understanding variation in civilian victimization requires the identification of the institutional interests of those in control of the state. Civilian victimization is likely when the military controls pre-war planning and execution because of the institutional goal of winning wars quickly and efficiently by attacking every major source of enemy power. This often includes noncombatants. Most civilian leaders' institutional goals, however, are centered around governance. Thus, these leaders prefer restraint from victimization because they often believe such barbarity will result in future difficulties for governance. I test my argument alongside others through a binary regression analysis of 103 conflict dyads between 1989 and 2010 and find that the variable for militarily dominated governments maintains significance across model specifications and features the largest effect size of any variable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tunisia was for a long-time seen as a successful country on its way towards democracy, thanks to its robust civil society. Still, while civil society is seen as important actor for democratization processes in Tunisia, little is known about how organizations frame democracy, and how they combine the concept with their own organizational framing? Using data from interviews and media analysis from 2015 and 2016, the paper uses the example of the three civil society organizations UGTT, LTDH and ATFD and assesses their definitions of democracy. Different sub-dimensions of democracy are analysed and combined with social movement theories of framing. This allows for the assessment of organizational definitions and for the identification of differences between actors. This procedure helps explain how organizations act in the Tunisian political system depending on what is valued in their framing. The three organizations regularly connect the demand for democracy with their issue-specific claims. Participative as well as legal elements are highlighted while especially elections are less prominent. The referral to rights as outlined in the constitution is an essential referral across organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]