Abstracts Submission

Research has shown that some social groups are more likely to participate in the democratic process, more frequently descriptively represented in parliaments or governments, and more likely to see policymakers respond to their preferences. By now, we know that factors like affluency, gender, age, or migration status can result in patterns of unequal representation. Yet we still lack understanding of how and where unequal representation emerges across the democratic process, how it accumulates over time, and how it shapes democratic legitimacy. This thematic issue addresses this gap by studying representation as a multidimensional and procedural phenomenon, building on Hannah Pitkin’s (1967) classical forms of substantive, descriptive, and symbolic representation, on representative claims, and on the democratic chain of representation. 

Unequal representation may arise at different links in the chain, from preference formation and political mobilization to voting, government formation, agenda-setting, policy-making, and policy outputs. At each stage, institutional design, actor constellations, and societal inequalities may systematically advantage some groups while disadvantaging others. We focus on group-based inequalities in representation, including (but not limited to) class, gender, age, migration background, ethnicity, and intersecting identities. A core premise of the issue is that different social groups experience distinct forms of representational inequality and at different points in the chain, e.g., being descriptively underrepresented in elected office, symbolically excluded from political discourse, or substantively marginalized in policy outputs. We also aim to uncover the cumulative nature of unequal representation: Are some groups particularly at risk of accumulating disadvantages across the representative process? We invite contributions that focus on group differences in representation at a specific stage, compare social group inequality across forms or stages of representation, and/or analyse how unequal representation accumulates across the democratic chain.

Authors interested in submitting a paper for this issue are asked to consult the journal's instructions for authors and submit their abstracts (maximum of 250 words, with a tentative title) through the abstracts system (here). When submitting their abstracts, authors are also asked to confirm that they are aware that Politics and Governance is an open access journal with a publishing fee if the article is accepted for publication after peer-review (corresponding authors affiliated with our institutional members do not incur this fee).

Readers across the globe will be able to access, share, and download this issue entirely for free. Corresponding authors affiliated with any of our institutional members (over 90 institutions worldwide) publish free of charge. Otherwise, an article processing fee will be charged to the authors to cover editorial costs. We defend that authors should not have to personally pay this fee and encourage them to check with their institutions if funds are available to cover open access publication costs. Further information about the journal's open access charges can be found here.

The EU’s democracy promotion agenda is at a critical juncture. Amid intensified geopolitical competition and war on its borders, the EU faces the dual challenge of renewing its enlargement policy and defending democracy within and beyond its frontiers. The challenge is that much of its neighbours—both in the Western Balkans and Eastern Europe remain governed by various contours of hybrid regimes—systems that combine democratic institutions with authoritarian practices. These regimes are neither fully autocratic nor genuinely democratic; rather, they represent a grey zone where both democratic aspirations and authoritarian entrenchment coexist. This thematic issue brings together empirical and conceptual contributions that critically examine how the EU and other external actors engage with hybrid regimes in the EU’s immediate neighbourhood, focusing on trust, social cohesion, and democratic resilience. It argues that understanding the EU’s limited success in democracy promotion requires moving beyond institutionalist approaches to include the societal dimensions of resilience—trust in institutions (vertical) and trust among citizens (horizontal) and understanding the durability that gives hybrid regimes. This is not just a passing phase but seems much more entrenched and long-lasting. Together, the contributions demonstrate that the persistence of hybrid regimes in the EU’s neighbourhood reflects both the limitations of EU policies and the agency of domestic actors, including patron-client relations, civil society movements, protest dynamics, and local narratives of legitimacy and belonging. The thematic issue is structured around three interrelated themes:

1.      Theoretical and conceptual perspectives on hybridity, regime complexity, and the EU’s evolving democracy-promotion toolkit in a geopolitical era.

2.      Empirical analyses of trust, social cohesion, and civic agency in countries caught between democratic aspirations and authoritarian drift.

3.      Comparative lessons on how the EU can adapt its enlargement and neighbourhood policies to better support democratic resilience in hybrid settings.

Authors interested in submitting a paper for this issue are asked to consult the journal's instructions for authors and submit their abstracts (maximum of 250 words, with a tentative title) through the abstracts system (here). When submitting their abstracts, authors are also asked to confirm that they are aware that Politics and Governance is an open access journal with a publishing fee if the article is accepted for publication after peer-review (corresponding authors affiliated with our institutional members do not incur this fee).

Readers across the globe will be able to access, share, and download this issue entirely for free. Corresponding authors affiliated with any of our institutional members (over 90 institutions worldwide) publish free of charge. Otherwise, an article processing fee will be charged to the authors to cover editorial costs. We defend that authors should not have to personally pay this fee and encourage them to check with their institutions if funds are available to cover open access publication costs. Further information about the journal's open access charges can be found here.

The traditional "institutional voice" is undergoing a radical shift as ministries, municipalities, and state agencies increasingly outsource their public outreach to social media creators. This strategic "externalization" seeks to leverage the parasocial authority of influencers to bolster legitimacy, streamline policy adoption, and navigate high-stakes crises.

This thematic issue critically examines the governance-related fallout of this transition: moving from formal spokesmanship to creator-led intermediation, and the subsequent impact on public trust, state accountability, and civic compliance. We welcome theoretical and empirical contributions that dissect the mechanics of influencer-mediated government communication across diverse political regimes—from consolidated democracies to hybrid and authoritarian systems.

We are particularly interested in the tension between constructive deployments (the use of creators for public health initiatives, road safety, digital literacy, etc) and contested practices, the ethical "grey zones" of covert propaganda, digital clientelism, and the blurring of lines between public service information and political persuasion. Our goal is to bridge the gap between political communication and public governance. 

We prioritize research focusing on state capacity, transparency, and equity of access, especially concerning "invisible" or hard-to-reach demographics like youth, migrants, and underserved communities. We encourage the use of comparative designs, platform-native content analysis, and computational approaches. We also welcome qualitative fieldwork and legal/policy analyses regarding procurement and oversight frameworks. Ultimately, this issue aims to clarify whether the rise of the "govfluencer" enhances public value or erodes democratic accountability.

Authors interested in submitting a paper for this issue are asked to consult the journal's instructions for authors and submit their abstracts (maximum of 250 words, with a tentative title) through the abstracts system (here). When submitting their abstracts, authors are also asked to confirm that they are aware that Politics and Governance is an open access journal with a publishing fee if the article is accepted for publication after peer-review (corresponding authors affiliated with our institutional members do not incur this fee).

Readers across the globe will be able to access, share, and download this issue entirely for free. Corresponding authors affiliated with any of our institutional members (over 90 institutions worldwide) publish free of charge. Otherwise, an article processing fee will be charged to the authors to cover editorial costs. We defend that authors should not have to personally pay this fee and encourage them to check with their institutions if funds are available to cover open access publication costs. Further information about the journal's open access charges can be found here.