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The role of emotions in politics is drawing increasing scholarly attention. Yet, despite this heightened interest, the ways in which politicians concretely appeal to emotions of their target audience are still blurry. Let aside how they do so in different contexts. This article focuses on an affect that is frequently mentioned as the key driver explaining the electoral appeal of populist radical right-wing parties (PRRPs): resentment. In that respect, several authors have used the term "the politics of resentment," even though the exact definition of resentment often remains unclear. In this article, we theorize what resentment precisely is and how it is used politically, and hypothesize how it is mobilized in different ways by PRR parties in different contexts. Empirically, then, we employ content analysis to study a corpus of party documents of PRRPs in three West and two East European countries from 2004 onwards and identify three types of resentment mobilized by the radical right: (1) redistributive resentment; (2) recognitory resentment; and (3) retributive resentment. Despite being expressed in a more heterogeneous way than we theoretically expected, these forms of resentment share important commonalities that, we argue, can help to better understand the electoral appeal of radical right-wing parties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has had tremendous impacts on political, economic and social developments across the globe. Although some studies show that voters tend to hold incumbent parties accountable for managing the pandemic, the results of others suggest that the rally-round-the-flag strategy might be at plan. We contend that voters tend to hold the incumbent party accountable, even during an exogenous shock, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. We hypothesize that more stringent government responses to tackle the pandemic and more COVID-19 casualties tend to decrease the electoral support for incumbent parties. Using original data from 67 national elections in 56 electoral democracies from mid-March 2020 to May 2022, the empirical results support our hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The editorial discusses the rise of populist radical right-wing parties in Europe and the US, highlighting the need for research on the affective underpinnings of their appeal. Scholars emphasize the role of emotions in political behavior, with a focus on both positive and negative affects. The research aims to address gaps in the literature by exploring how emotions drive support for these parties and how they are used in political discourse, with a particular focus on Western and Central Eastern European contexts. [Extracted from the article]

This symposium takes stock of current developments in the field of substantive representation of disadvantaged social groups. It revisits traditional presence-based approaches to substantive representation and suggests new and innovative avenues for the study of substantive representation across groups, venues and contexts. Together, the five contributions discuss new conceptualizations and measurements of substantive representation, as well as the implications for the broader understanding of substantive representation of disadvantaged groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the crossroads between preserving a nationalist rhetoric and adding ways in which it can offer an alternative to mainstream politics, the Slovak Radical Right has transformed itself from having an unsteady presence in parliament over the last two decades to having two nationalist parties with a significant portion of seats. This article examines the radical right parties' (RRPs') gender rhetoric and parliamentary activity, and in comparison to other parties evaluates the substantive representation of women within these parties. The study covers the period from 2006 to 2016 and shows that while women are still significantly outnumbered in RRPs, they are more active on women's issues than any of their counterparts. Moreover, their activity can be characterized as "positive representation," as opposed to the usually assumed "negative representation" of women by RRPs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite proliferating research on party politics and notable media engagement with the issues of migration and refugee flows, we know little about the existence and operation of 'the party abroad'. The latest UN migration report states that more than 270 million people reside outside their country of origin. OSCE recognizes the need for representation of varied political views as one means to maintain democratic stability within states. This study unravels the notion of the 'party abroad', develops a theoretical legal framework within which it can exist, and empirically exams parties that operate abroad. The case studies show the potential for political engagement with the diaspora, that such operations are not systematically regulated at the moment, and that parties operating abroad have different financing models. These findings, coupled with increasing migration, call for more future work on the party abroad, both by academics and by professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of party system size have looked at institutional and sociological factors in their attempt to explain what determines the number of parties. While some recent studies contend that party laws, beyond the district magnitude, have a significant impact on, among others, new party entry, we know very little about whether certain rules matter more in some societies than they do in others. In this paper, we study the extent to which various party finance rules affect party system size and differentiate the effect between new and established democracies. Specifically, we focus on direct and indirect public subsidization and limits on private donation and campaign expenditure. We hypothesize that compared to established countries, new democracies tend to have a larger party system size when the political finance rules create more equal conditions for electoral competition. Using data from 43 Europe democracies, the empirical analyses support our hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quotas are determined to be the main and most effective tool in promoting gender equality. We examine six Southeast European countries where quotas have been either reintroduced (following the abolition of communist-era quota systems) or introduced for the first time. Presenting original data on the descriptive representation of women in parliament, we find significant within region variety. Unlike in Western countries, where women's representation tends to be higher among center and left parties, center-right parties have in some cases staged the most women. We look into quotas, as well as cultural and historical contexts, in order to examine this region-specific phenomenon and account for the within-region variation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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While many works have empirically studied the number of parties, little has been done to investigate the difference between theoretical predictions and empirical reality. Furthermore, the bulk of the analyses on party system development are carried out with national data, as opposed to studying electoral competition at the level where it occurs - the constituency. This article offers a comparative study of the determinants of party system convergence of twenty European democracies, explaining why party systems in new democracies are much further away from the theoretically predicted equilibrium than those in more established states. The main argument is that learning the effect of institutions is integral to understanding the number of competing parties and it takes time for political elites in new democracies to learn. Using a hierarchical model, the study shows the effect of age of democracy on party system convergence and illustrates that it is more pronounced in new democracies. The analysis demonstrates further that pre-electoral constraints such as signature and deposit requirements have a significant positive effect on party system convergence, while public funding, contrary to previous speculations, is found to be insignificant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]