Open Access Journal

ISSN: 2183-2463

Next Issues

With our plurithematic issues we intended to draw the attention of researchers, policy-makers, scientists and the general public to some of the topics of highest relevance. Scholars interested in guest editing a thematic issue of Politics and Governance are kindly invited to contact the Editorial Office of the journal ([email protected]).

Published Thematic Issues are available here.

Upcoming Issues


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Volume 12

Title:
How Political Issues Shape Social Media Campaigns for National Elections


Editor(s):
Márton Bene (Centre for Social Sciences), Jörg Haßler (LMU Munich), and Melanie Magin (Norwegian University of Science and Technology)

Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 September 2023
Submission of Full Papers: 15-31 January 2024
Publication of the Issue: July/September 2024

Information:
Political issues are an important part of politics and have therefore long been at the forefront of political communication research, as illustrated by theories such as agenda-setting theory (McCombs & Shaw, 1972), priming theory (Iyengar et al., 1982), the issue ownership hypothesis (Petrocik, 1996) or the policy-focused theory of punctuated equilibrium (Baumgartner & Jones, 1993). Particularly central are political issues during election campaigns: They shape the focus of the campaigns, affect what strategies political actors pursue, and can even influence the election outcome. Even the strongest parties and candidates can do poorly if issues unfavorable to them become dominant during the campaign. Therefore, political actors have a strong interest in highlighting issues that put them in a good light. On social media, political actors alone determine which issues they highlight and which they neglect. Both the national political situation and individual candidates can decisively shape how election campaigns are designed and which topics they focus on. However, at a time when countries all over the world are facing the same global challenges (e.g., the climate crisis, the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine) and when global social media platforms have become pivotal channels of election campaigning, the question arises how this affects the agendas both across a broad range of countries and within these countries: Do parties focus on similar issues independent of the country, and are there common issues such as the current crises? To answer this question, we need comparable data from different countries, but existing studies lack such comparability since they often focus on individual countries and base on different measuring instruments. So far, our knowledge about what political issues parties push in their social media campaigns and to what degree these issues are still shaped by the national context is limited. This issue contributes to closing this research gap by bringing together comparable findings from a broad range of countries which held national elections in the recent past (2020–2022), covering diverse geographical regions (Western Europe, Central/Eastern Europe, Ibero-America, Brazil, New Zealand). The national analyses are based on a standardized content analysis, using a joint coding scheme which ensures cross-nationally comparable data.


Instructions for Authors:
Participation in this issue is exclusive to authors involved in the research project DigiWorld. Authors 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).


Open Access:
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.

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Volume 12

Title:
Considering Future Generations in Democratic Governance


Editor(s):
Yasuko Kameyama (University of Tokyo) and Tomohiro Tasaki (National Institute for Environmental Studies)

Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 June 2023
Submission of Full Papers: 15-30 October 2023
Publication of the Issue: April/June 2024

Information:

Inter-generational matters are relevant in many societal issues, many of which require consideration from an equity or justice perspective. For instance, climate change requires current generations to invest in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, lessening the financial burden on future generations, and minimizing adverse impacts of climate change that are likely to affect the latter. The financial debt of countries today to cover governmental expenditures also affects the financial conditions of future generations. Nevertheless, democratic governance as seen in many countries today suffers from political “short-termism” as a structural problem of electoral democracy, because voters tend to vote for those who contribute to maximizing the well-being of the “generation of today,” ignoring that also the “decisions of today” will greatly impact the future.

Efforts are being made in some countries and regions to reflect certain considerations for future generations in current decision-making and academic literature on this topic is growing. There are, however, relatively few assessments that determine which current attempts to secure inter-generational equity and justice are successful, or that even attempt to explain their actual success. Ethical issues at the individual level, the capacity to anticipate and prevent, the question of representatives for future generations, deliberation processes, the roles of experts, cultural differences, modes of governance—all these aspects play certain and important roles, but how and to what extent they do so is yet unclear.

It is also unclear if an institution focused on dealing with climate change would also be able to address governmental debt crises at the same time. Therefore, this issue proposes to monitor progress and explore the efforts done in the world today to incorporate considerations for future generations in current decision-making, as well as to examine how academic circles in political science and economics are adapting their theories toward this end. Articles on matters of sustainability and climate change are especially appreciated, but submissions dealing with equally important issues for the inter-generational cause are also welcome.


Instructions for Authors:
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).


Open Access:
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.

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Volume 12

Title:
Indonesian Heroes and Villains: National Identity, Politics, Law, and Security


Editor(s):
Nathan Franklin (Charles Darwin University) and Hans Hägerdal (Linnaeus University)

Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 June 2023 (invited authors only)
Submission of Full Papers: 15-30 October 2023
Publication of the Issue: April/June 2024

Information:

Democracy is not a hallmark of Muslim countries. Yet Indonesia is a democracy, but who is paying attention? This thematic issue will revolve around the central theme of agents of change and integration that have shaped Indonesia’s identity, culture, government, governance, law, security, and democracy in terms of geopolitics and internal stability.

A unique feature of this thematic issue will be the novelty of the approach to the proposed topics: Some articles will focus on individuals who have passed away or disappeared but who continue to influence Indonesian society—such as Indonesia’s fourth president, Abdurrahman Wahid (Gus Dur), jihadi activist and Muhammadiyah member Dr Fauzi AR, and even Indonesia’s dissident people’s poet Wiji Thukul, who remains an icon for social justice although his contribution to the 1998 Reformation Movement is still highly under-researched.

The thematic issue will also look at Indonesia’s Indo-Pacific agenda and regional security issues with an insider’s analysis of Indonesia as a global maritime fulcrum managing the vested interests of Southeast Asia, China, and the US. Some articles will concern Indonesian law, focusing on the downgrading of the powers of the Indonesian Corruption Eradication Commission, laws protecting traditional knowledge and cultural expressions, and Indonesia’s state ideology—the Pancasila—reviewing its application in society: Together, these contributions aim to capture the sentiment for or against the current Jokowi government on important national issues.

Finally, research on women terrorists and deradicalization of Indonesian terrorists will complement the discussion of “heroes, traitors, and villains” to provide a well-rounded analysis of these last categories and what it means—officially and unofficially—to be a “hero” in times of turmoil.

Our aim is to fill in the gap in scholarly understanding of Indonesia from the perspective of local, national, and international themes. Thus this thematic issue will provide robust investigation, assessment, and debate about central agents and events relevant to all aspects of modern Indonesian society, politics, the state, and democracy, from experts in a range of complementary disciplines.


Instructions for Authors:
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).


Open Access:
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.

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Volume 12

Title:
The Decline of Economic and Political Freedom After Covid-19: A New Authoritarian Dawn?


Editor(s):
Christopher A. Hartwell (ZHAW School of Management and Law / Kozminski University)

Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 December 2023
Submission of Full Papers: 15-30 April 2024
Publication of the Issue: October/December 2024

Information:

Since the global financial crisis of 2007–2009 (or later), economic and political liberalism has been in retreat globally. The rise of populist alternatives to mainstream parties, promising radical change and pointing fingers at corrupt elites, has infected not only emerging markets but also developed economies. The seeming lack of response to economic decline, with “solutions” rooted in old-fashioned Keynesian policies and the promise of cheap money, has widened economic inequality and generated socio-political unrest.

On top of all of this came the COVID-19 pandemic, emerging from an authoritarian nation (who has been reticent to let investigators access to data regarding the first days of the pandemic); most importantly, massive prohibitions on economic activity (colloquially called “lockdowns”) and on freedom of movement and speech were embraced by governments in order to fight the disease. This thematic issue examines the decline in political and economic freedom since the global financial crisis and especially since the COVID-19 pandemic, exploring how authoritarian governance and economics have apparently come back into vogue. Authors are encouraged to submit papers dealing, inter alia, with the following themes:



  • The failure of political elites to deal with crisis
  • Populism and its left-wing policy prescriptions
  • Political and economic resilience/institutions as complex systems
  • Specific COVID-19 responses and how they have enabled authoritarianism
  • Comparative studies of earlier waves of authoritarianism
  • The Russian invasion of Ukraine as a consequence of perceived or real “Western weakness”
  • The role of China in the pandemic and its response
  • Economic policies in the post-global financial crisis world
  • The revival of industrial policies and their danger for global growth
  • Trade protectionism and killing the goose that laid the golden egg
  • Electoral reforms in democracies and their effects on freedom
  • Specific political actors and their agendas
  • Institutional changes and deterioration in developed economies
  • Rollback of property rights globally
  • Financialization as a consequence of government policy
  • Authoritarian regionalism and associations
  • Mis- and disinformation and the weaponization of censorship/media freedom in general
  • Preferred government narratives and their opposition to reality
  • Business and government partnerships against society
  • Privacy, surveillance, and mandates

Instructions for Authors:
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).


Open Access:
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.

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Volume 12

Title:
From New to Indispensable? How Has the 2004 “Big Bang” Enlargement Reshaped EU’s Power Balance


Editor(s):
Marko Lovec (University of Ljuljana) and Matej Navratil (Comenius University)

Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 March 2023
Submission of Full Papers: 15-31 July 2023
Publication of the Issue: January/March 2024

Information:

2024 will mark the 20th anniversary of the European Union’s “Big Bang” enlargement. EU’s conditionality not only amplified the ongoing “triple transition” in EU member states but was also instrumental in facilitating countries’ embeddedness into the West. However, assumptions of the EU’s transformative power on new members after accession are rather ambiguous, ensuing both from EU’s inability to enforce the rules once a candidate country becomes a member and from the fact that countries were preparing to join an entirely different Union—one that was, at the time, unmarked by economic and migration crisis, security threats, or centrifugal forces resulting in disintegration. As a response to external and internal shocks, Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries have also participated in redesigning dysfunctional EU policies: This thematic issue challenges us to consider how.

We invite up-to-date research that revolves around the following questions:

  • How have CEE new member states, as passive actors, changed the EU? What were their degree of institutional quality and policy capacity to adapt to the EU? In turn, what was the level of absorptive capacity of EU institutions and their most prominent challenges (e.g., the creation of efficient decision-making mechanisms, democratic backsliding) in incorporating these new member states?
  • How have CEE new member states, as active players, changed the EU? How have they used EU institutions to advance their own interests?
  • Should global crises and EU dysfunctionalities be understood as intervening variables in the positive adaptation of new member states? How is global change a challenge to the EU?
  • To what extent, if any, are new member states responsible for institutional inertia/institutional vibrancy in EU’s approach to endogenous and exogenous shocks (e.g., (de)democratization, resurgence of identity politics, ontological security, security threats, spread of extremism, etc.).

We encourage scholars and researchers to address why and under what circumstances are countries willing to proceed with the integration of “core state powers” and what are the repercussions of these dynamics for EU’s institutional set-up, as characterized by differentiation.


Instructions for Authors:
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).


Open Access:
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.

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Volume 12

Title:
The Geoeconomic Turn in International Trade, Investment, and Technology


Editor(s):
Milan Babic (University of Roskilde), Nana de Graaff (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), Lukas Linsi (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen), and Clara Weinhardt (Maastricht University)

Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 September 2023
Submission of Full Papers: 15-31 January 2024
Publication of the Issue: July/September 2024

Information:

Political forces critical of economic globalization have been on the rise globally over the past decade. As the world’s three major economic powers—the USA, China and European Union—have shifted towards more inward-looking economic strategies, the American-led liberal international order has entered a new crisis phase. The still ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and, more recently, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are arguably further reinforcing these trends. Against this backdrop, many observers have indicated that, after a period of “hyperglobalization,” we may be entering a new era, in which international trade and investment relations are again increasingly shaped by geostrategic and security considerations.

This thematic issue seeks to examine these trends and their implications in a critical and empirical light. It seeks contributions speaking to topics such as:

1. Continuities and change: To what extent have international trade and investment relations been transformed over the past decade? What are the major changes in the global political economic regime? And are there important continuities? What are the similarities and differences of the current period of globalization compared to earlier historical periods (e.g., Cold War, imperialism, etc.)?

2. Drivers of the geoeconomic turn: what factors have been driving the increased attention to geoeconomic competition in international economic policy-making? To what extent is it driven by the great power competition between China and the USA, as opposed to potential other structural trends?

3. Implications: How has the geoeconomic turn been manifested in various aspects of the global political economy (e.g., trade, investment, industrial policy, technology, finance, or knowledge regimes)? How has it contributed to rearranging economic linkages between the USA, China and Europe in the core of the global system? But also, just as importantly, what has the geoeconomic turn so far meant for countries in the periphery/Global South?


Instructions for Authors:
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).


Open Access:
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.

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Volume 12

Title:
Challenging Democracy: How Do Ideas of Populists and Disenchanted Citizens Align?


Editor(s):
Reinhard Heinisch (University of Salzburg) and Oscar Mazzoleni (University of Lausanne)

Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 December 2023
Submission of Full Papers: 15-31 April 2024
Publication of the Issue: October/December 2024

Information:

People and populists criticize existing democracy. Populists cite popular grievances as justification for their actions and people significantly respond to populist change agents or other forms of political radicalism. Despite extensive research, we do not know enough about the alternatives to representative party democracy that people and populists envision, apart from greater citizen involvement. For example, people shaped by authoritarian and nativist views centered on hierarchy may reject pluralism in contemporary democracy but have no qualms about a power structure dominated by native elites. Different non-mainstream ideas, i.e., emanating from the populist core or the host ideology, affect preferences for different democratic principles, especially representative, direct, deliberative, or stealth. Nonetheless, our understanding of how the ideas of populists and disenchanted citizens align is empirically and conceptually limited. Too little attention has been paid to the resilience of democracy, tradeoffs need to be better understood, and space is needed to explore untheorized democratic alternatives.

The picture is equally blurred when it comes to the views of the populist actors themselves. Research suggests that their calls for referendums decrease over time while alternative deliberative bodies are often rejected. To better understand the congruence between people and populists, one must also address the limitations of methodology in favor of innovative survey items, scenario-based interviews, and survey experiments.

This calls for a reassessment of our understanding of the extent to which the ideas of populists and citizens and the alternatives they propose coincide and for a wider dissemination of relevant research addressing these shortcomings. The articles featured in this thematic issue explore these points by presenting conceptually and/or methodologically innovative contributions that will introduce these new frontiers of democracy research to a wider audience.


Instructions for Authors:
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).


Open Access:
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.

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Volume 12

Title:
Unpolitics: The Role of Populist Governments in EU Decision-Making


Editor(s):
Natascha Zaun (Leuphana University Lüneburg) and Ariadna Ripoll Servent (Salzburg Centre of European Union Studies)

Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 September 2023
Submission of Full Papers: 15-31 January 2024
Publication of the Issue: July/September 2024

Information:

Until recently, we knew very little about the role of populist governments in EU decision-making. The “crucial case” of refugee distribution in the EU has demonstrated that their behaviour is ruled by “unpolitics”: they reject formal and informal rules of decision-making if these are not conducive to their preferred outcome; they reject traditional means of ensuring compromises such as package-deals and side-payments; and they reject the final solution and exploit the ensuing deadlock to prove that the EU is weak and dysfunctional.

However, to what extent is “unpolitics” a phenomenon unique to migration—an area prone to (nativist) populist capture? This thematic issue aims to compare the behaviour of populist governments in different policy areas to better understand under which conditions “unpolitics” are more likely to be used in EU decision-making and when they are more likely to be successful.

We expect “unpolitics” to be present and successful in areas of “low risk” and “high gain” like climate politics—namely, in areas where the harm provided by a non-decision is neither immediate nor blatant (low risk) and areas that are more easily politicised than purely technical legislative proposals (high gain).


Instructions for Authors:
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).


Open Access:
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.

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Volume 12

Title:
Gender Equality Reforms in Parliaments


Editor(s):
Petra Ahrens (Tampere University) and Sonia Palmieri (Australian National University)

Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 September 2023 (only invited authors)
Submission of Full Papers: 15-31 January 2024
Publication of the Issue: July/September 2024

Information:

The scope of gender equality reforms implemented across various political institutions—parliaments, political parties, government machinery—around the world has diversified. While women’s representation and particularly quotas have captured significant attention (Baker, 2019; Dahlerup, 2006; Franceschet et al., 2012; Krook, 2009; Lang et al., 2022; Rubio-Marín & Lépinard, 2018), political institutions are increasingly encouraged to reconsider their internal processes and norms. This includes changes regarding: working hours and cultures to improve work/life balance; work health and safety regimes to reduce gender-based harassment, intimidation, and assault; and work processes and outputs (e.g., legislation and policy) to normalise gender equality accountability mechanisms in the workplace (Childs, 2020; IPU, 2011, 2012, 2016; Palmieri, 2018, 2021; Palmieri & Baker, 2022).

The process by which these reforms are implemented, as well as their effectiveness and impact, is increasingly of interest to academic scholars. Yet, particularly evident in the gender sensitive parliaments literature, the academic focus to date has been on reforms initiated in the Global North (Euro-American-Australasian) than the Global South (Childs, 2016, 2020; Erikson & Verge, 2022), although there are important notable exceptions (Rai & Spary, 2019). This focus on developed, rather than developing, parliamentary institutions risks a more comprehensive analysis of the opportunities and drivers for change, as well as nuanced understandings of very different political contexts.

In this thematic issue, we aim to showcase research from colleagues in both the Global South and the Global North, and specifically encourage papers from “unusual suspects” across the disciplines of political science, anthropology, sociology, and development studies. We are interested in collaboratively answering the following questions:

1. Who are the critical actors that drive gender equality reforms in parliamentary institutions and to what extent do they rely on/mobilise supportive coalitions or networks for those reforms?

2. How do local contexts—political, economic, and cultural—enable and/or resist gender equality reforms within parliamentary institutions?

3. To what extent can lessons about institutional gender equality reforms be universally shared and/or applied, or are they by nature, always localised?

4. Which analytical and theoretical frameworks can contribute to better understand changes across different contexts?

5. What can parliamentary institutions learn from gender equality reforms in other political institutions?

References

Baker, K. (2019). Pacific women in politics: Gender quota campaigns in the Pacific islands. University of Hawai`i Press.

Childs, S. (2016). The good parliament. University of Bristol.

Childs, S. (2020). Gender sensitizing parliaments guidelines: Standards and a checklist for parliamentary change. Commonwealth Parliamentary Association.

Dahlerup, D. (Ed.). (2006). Women, quotas and politics. New York & London.

Erikson, J., & Verge, T. (Eds.). (2022). Parliaments as workplaces: Gendered approaches to the study of legislatures [Special Issue]. Parliamentary Affairs, 75(1). https://academic.oup.com/pa/issue/75/1

Franceschet, S., Krook, M. L.,& Piscopo, J. M. (Eds.). (2012). The impact of gender quotas. Oxford University Press. 

IPU. (2011). Gender-sensitive parliaments: A global review of good practice.

IPU. (2012). A plan of action for gender-sensitive parliaments.

IPU. (2016). Evaluating the gender sensitivity of parliaments. A self-assessment toolkit.

Krook, M. L. (2009). Quotas for women in politics: Gender and candidate selection reform worldwide. Oxford University Press.

Lang, S., Meier, P., & Sauer, B. (Eds.). (2022). Implementing gender quotas in political representation: Resisting institutions. Palgrave Macmillan.

Palmieri, S. (2018). Gender-sensitive parliaments. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.215

Palmieri, S. (2021). Realizing gender equality in parliament: A guide for parliaments in the OSCE region. OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights.

Palmieri, S., & Baker, K. (2022). Localising global norms: The case of family-friendly parliaments. Parliamentary Affairs, 75(1), 58–75. https://doi.org/10.1093/pa/gsaa050

Rubio-Marín, R., & Lépinard, E. (Eds.). (2018). Transforming gender citizenship: The irresistible rise of gender quotas in Europe. Cambridge University Press.

Rai, S., & Spary, C. (2019). Performing representation: Women members in the Indian parliament. Oxford University Press.


Instructions for Authors:
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).


Open Access:
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.

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Volume 13

Title:
Ditching the Maastricht Model? The Evolving Role of the European Central Bank in the Economic and Monetary Union


Editor(s):
Dimitrios Argyroulis (University of Luxembourg), Anna-Lena Högenauer (University of Luxembourg), Joana Mendes (University of Luxembourg), and Nikolas Vagdoutis (University of Luxembourg)

Submission of Abstracts: 15-30 November 2023
Submission of Full Papers: 1-15 July 2024
Publication of the Issue: January/March 2025

Information:

The European Central Bank (ECB)—like other central banks—experienced a widening of its mandate in the course of the financial crisis and the following public debt crisis, as well as under the pressure of the Covid-19 and climate change crises. Some of its activities, such as its decisions on crisis measures, had a high degree of public salience and were controversial, as evidenced by public and political protests. Other policies, such as those lined up on climate change could be possibly beneficial but venture into policy areas that are traditionally the domain of democratic institutions. Even though the credibility of the claim that monetary policy follows a narrow and transparent goal has been shaken in the EU context, the scope for democratic control over the interpretation of the extent and limits of the ECB’s mandate remains extremely narrow. Therefore, within an unchanged Treaty framework, the ECB became the institution in charge of defining the limits of its own mandate.

The proposed thematic issue builds on a coherent and comprehensive set of articles that address the question of whether and to what extent the function of the ECB (as it has developed) has outgrown its institutional model and what the consequences for its legitimacy and accountability are. The contributions analyse first the evolution of the role of the ECB in the Eurozone’s political economy model beyond the constraints of the Treaty framework. In the second part, the articles explore the emerging challenges and complexities of monetary policymaking in the euro area, including climate change, social stability, and geopolitical instability. The third part addresses the accountability challenges that come with the evolution of the ECB and—especially—the difficulties of taming institutionally and democratically the powers that the ECB has acquired.


Instructions for Authors:
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).


Open Access:
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.

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Volume 13

Title:
Technology and Governance in the Age of Web 3.0


Editor(s):
Chang Zhang (Communication University of China), Zichen Hu (London School of Economics and Political Science), and Denis Galligan (University of Oxford)

Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 October 2024
Submission of Full Papers: 15-28 February 2025
Publication of the Issue: July/December 2025

Information:

As we progress into the 21st century, the role of emerging Web 3.0 technologies in governance has never been more pivotal. This thematic issue aims to analyse, first, the nuanced and multi-faceted relationship among cutting-edge technologies, like blockchain, virtual/augmented/mixed reality, generative AI, and metaverse(s), built on and enhanced by these technologies, and, secondly, their impact on contemporary models of governance. This issue will bridge inter-disciplinary approaches to offer a robust scholarly, research-based inquiry into the transformative potentials and complexities these technologies bring to paradigms of governance.

This issue focuses on how these innovative technologies can revolutionize governance by way of decentralized, secure, and data-driven systems, reshaping areas such as electoral processes and policy-making. Meanwhile, it addresses the serious challenges these technologies pose, including ethical dilemmas pertaining to data privacy, security, and the broader implications for social justice and inequality. The editors encourage submissions that not only highlight the technological advancements but also address their socio-political impacts and ethical dimensions.

The issue is structured around three main themes:

  • The geopolitical dynamics in Web 3.0 Platforms: Which examines the role of technologies in redefining borders and sovereignty, and in establishing a system or framework of global governance of technology;
  • Ethical issues in relation to governance of Web 3.0 Technologies: Which means examining data security and intellectual property concerns in Generative AI. This leads to the need to balance centralized and decentralized governance models, and their influence on power structures and democratic discourse;
  • The social impact of Web 3.0 Technologies: The focus shall be on their effects on the digital formation of identity, social interactions, and cultural policies within the digital realm, and the role of such technologies in fostering sustainable development in healthcare, in enabling the debunking of disinformation and in education. We invite innovative and comparative insights, along with empirical research that addresses the interplay between technology and governance in our evolving world.

Instructions for Authors:
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).


Open Access:
The journal has an article publication fee to cover its costs and guarantee that the article can be accessed free of charge by any reader, anywhere in the world, regardless of affiliation. We defend that authors should not have to personally pay this fee and advise them to check with their institutions if funds are available to cover open access publication fees. Institutions can also join our Membership Program at a very affordable rate and enable all affiliated authors to publish without incurring any fees. Further information about the journal's open access charges can be found here.

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Volume 13

Title:
Debating Democracy: Concepts, Histories, and Controversies


Editor(s):
Claudia Wiesner (Fulda University of Applied Sciences) and Kari Palonen (University of Jyväskylä)

Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 February 2024
Submission of Full Papers: 15-30 November 2024
Publication of the Issue: July/December 2025

Information:

Within academia and in political practice, democracy remains a contested concept. This thematic issue focuses on the related debates, controversies, and contestations in theory, practice, and historical perspective. Special emphasis is put on the concept of liberal democracy—i.e., the form that democracy mostly takes on nowadays—that has always been contested as a concept, even today.

 

 


The term is contested in several aspects: On one hand, democratic theorists, politicians, and citizens put forward different ideas about what democratic rule implies and requires and how to interpret (liberal) democracy.

On the other hand, (liberal) democracy is currently contested and challenged both as a concept and in political practice: There are debates inside and outside parliaments and institutions about what (liberal) democracy is or is not, what are its benefits and pitfalls, and whether it is to be judged positively or not. There are political actors and movements on all sides of the political spectrum that criticize (liberal) democracy. Moreover, (liberal) democracy is challenged by autocratic politicians and states. Also, democratic deconsolidation and democratic backsliding by right-wing populist and autocratic politicians and governments destroy liberal democratic norms and institutions in areas of ideational and political influence. Finally, the war against Ukraine has repeatedly been framed as a war between an autocracy and a liberal Western European democracy. All of these points demonstrate that this concept is still widely contested today.

The parliamentary aspect of (liberal) democracy is particularly contested by the autocratic and populist actors and thinkers. This aspect, focusing on dissensus and debate and the playing with time, is, however, a major strength of (liberal) democracy, and it deserves to be presented as such by both scholars and politicians.

Against this backdrop, this thematic issue aims to bring together articles that analyse how (liberal) democracy is currently debated, contested, and conceptualized, inside and outside Europe, taking into consideration contemporary challenges (such as populism, polarization, and autocratization) and democratization beyond nation-states and the European Union. In this sense, articles are invited to discuss questions such as:

  • How is (liberal) democracy defined and contested in academia, public discourses, and among political elites? How is it conceptualized and debated in various fora and by different actors?  In what way is (liberal) democracy contested, in which occasions and contexts, and how is democratic backsliding argumentatively defended?
  • How are the debates and contestations contextualized, in which occasions do they occur, and are they linked to other issues or other significant concepts like representation, participation, autonomy, freedom, or power?
  • What can political science and democratic theory contribute to public discourses about (liberal) democracy, its challenges, and potential reforms?
  • How is democracy conceptualized in the framework of the European Union and its multilevel system—both by citizens and elites?

Instructions for Authors:
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).


Open Access:
The journal has an article publication fee to cover its costs and guarantee that the article can be accessed free of charge by any reader, anywhere in the world, regardless of affiliation. We defend that authors should not have to personally pay this fee and advise them to check with their institutions if funds are available to cover open access publication fees. Institutions can also join our Membership Program at a very affordable rate and enable all affiliated authors to publish without incurring any fees. Further information about the journal's open access charges can be found here.

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Volume 13

Title:
Illiberal Politics in Europe


Editor(s):
Zsolt Enyedi (Central European University), Petra Guasti (Charles University), Dean Schafer (Mississippi State University), and Bálint Mikola (CEU Democracy Institute)

Submission of Abstracts: 15-30 June 2024
Submission of Full Papers: 15-30 October 2024
Publication of the Issue: 2nd semester 2025

Information:

The last decades brought the rise of illiberalism: the tacit or explicit negation of the values that underpinned post-war democratic structures. The illiberal camp now includes a relatively wide circle of citizens, parties, social movements, and governments. It is no longer possible to treat this phenomenon as marginal, confined to maverick opposition actors.

This thematic issue constitutes a complex take on European illiberalism. It investigates the behavior of illiberal actors in government, the dissemination of illiberal ideas, and the crystallization of attitudes and belief systems that help the advances of illiberal politics. As far as the scrutinized policies are concerned, the thematic issue intends to focus on fields that are less mapped in this context, such as social policy, education and culture, foreign policy, environment, etc.

The thematic issue has the ambition to innovate both in concept-building and empirical methods. As far as the conceptual work is concerned, the authors are asked to relate phenomena such as populism, illiberalism, authoritarianism, radical right, and social dominance orientation to each other, making steps towards the development of an up-to-date vocabulary and theoretical framework.

This issue is planned to consist of four sections: civil society, discourse through quantitative text analysis, policy, and public opinion. As far as methods are concerned, we have a special interest in employing the latest methods in quantitative textual analysis. Qualitative text analyses are also welcome, primarily employed to identify the intentions behind policy documents. To investigate the mobilization of citizens both against and in defense of liberal democracy participant observation and survey experiments are recommended. The issue of pan-European cooperation with illiberal forces will be studied with the help of social network analysis and content analysis. Finally, the intersection of collective memories and illiberal attitudes, and the receptiveness of public opinion to illiberal politics are revealed with the help of survey data.


Instructions for Authors:
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).


Open Access:
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.

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Volume 13

Title:
Debating Europe: Politicization, Contestation, and Democratization


Editor(s):
Claudia Wiesner (Fulda University of Applied Sciences) and Meta Novak (University of Ljubljana)

Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 June 2024
Submission of Full Papers: 15-31 January 2025
Publication of the Issue: July/December 2025

Information:

This thematic issue focuses on how Europe and the EU are debated, politicized, and contested. A key focus is set on the question of whether (and how) these debates and politicisations help to democratize the EU (or not).

This rationale is based on the assumption that debate is a key democratic activity, and accordingly, “debating Europe” is one of the bases for a democratic Europe and a democratic EU. The process of debating enhances the legitimacy of the EU not only as a polity but also as a policy-making process by regaining citizens’ trust in their ability to use political discussions to influence the policy-making process, including a wide range of policy actors.

These efforts are badly needed: Despite the activities of the EU and national institutions as well as intermediate institutions and actors to bring citizens closer to policymaking, research, as well as opinion surveys, diagnose a gap between what has been termed “EU elites” and EU citizens. Votes for populist, extremist, anti-EU, and anti-democrat parties and movements are on the rise throughout the EU. At the same time, the Europeanisation of politics and decision-making continues to impact and transform the national democratic systems of the member states and citizens’ everyday lives.

Can debates on Europe and the politicization of the EU help to close these gaps and democratize the EU? There are agreements and disagreements in the academic debate on EU politicization in these respects. While there is disagreement as to what extent debate on the EU (politicization) can indeed help democratize the Union, there is some agreement that this academic discussion is rather recent, since the EU, for a long time, has been considered as not much politicized. Public discourses on EU policies and EU contestation have been rare. There is also some (although not complete) agreement in the academic debate that the EU, since the 1990s, has become more politicized. The 2005 French EU referendum (which led to a “No” vote on the draft Constitutional Treaty) discourse is considered one major instance of politicization.

A crucial question in the academic debate, where contributions have shown decisive disagreement, is thus whether politicization may be beneficial for the EU (and its democratization) or detrimental (or whether the truth lies somewhere in between).

This thematic issue dives into the field opened by the puzzle raised above, focusing on the various normative and empirical linkages and interrelations of debates as a necessary basis for democracy and its consequences for politicization and democratization in the EU, in particular, and Europe, in general. The contributions can focus on the EU but also consider Europe altogether. Contributions will tackle themes, issues, and questions such as:

  • Debates on the EU and Europe, via different media channels and in different fora, such as citizen debates, parliaments, and (social) media;
  • Narratives and images linked to the EU and Europe;
  • Politicization, contestation, and democratization via debates on Europe and the EU;
  • How are Europe and the EU, and how is (liberal) democracy defined and contested in these debates? How is it conceptualized and debated in various fora and by different actors?
  • In what ways and contexts are the EU and European democracies contested?
  • How are the debates and contestations contextualized, in which occasions do they occur, and are they linked to other issues or other significant concepts like nation, sovereignty, citizenship, representation, participation, autonomy, freedom, or power?
  • How is democracy conceptualized in the framework of the European Union and its multilevel system (both by citizens and elites)?
The thematic issue is based on the theme, intellectual groundwork, and conceptual framework of the Jean Monnet Network “Debating Europe” (DebatEU; see www.debating-europe.de). For this issue, we explicitly invite additional thematically related contributions.


Instructions for Authors:
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).


Open Access:
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.

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Volume 13

Title:
The Geopolitics of Transnational Data Governance


Editor(s):
Xinchuchu Gao (University of Lincoln) and Xuechen Chen (Northeastern University London)

Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 November 2024
Submission of Full Papers: 15-30 March 2025
Publication of the Issue: July/December 2025

Information:

In today’s digitalized world, data have evolved into not only an economic resource but a pivotal cornerstone for safeguarding personal privacy, human rights, national sovereignty, and security interests. Given its importance, there has been a growing consensus on the need for establishing global regimes for governing data. Nevertheless, due to varying economic, political, and ideological perspectives on the internet, major digital powers are adopting divergent approaches to data collection, storage, and transfer, each competing for leadership roles in this field. Consequently, data governance has emerged as a new arena for geostrategic competition and political rivalry, which has been further exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic and the ongoing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This is illustrated by examples such as the EU imposing fines on the US’s tech giants, China's implementation of new data privacy and security laws with stringent cross-border clearance requirements for “sensitive” data, the US imposing restrictions on Chinese digital firms on national security grounds, India excluding Chinese apps, and Russia instituting a national internet.


Against this backdrop, this thematic issue seeks to examine data and transnational data governance from a geopolitical perspective. It seeks contributions speaking to topics such as:

What are the geopolitical implications of data?

What factors have been driving the geopolitical turn in data and transnational data governance?

Which prominent digital powers are actively pursuing leadership roles in the field of data governance, and to what extent do their actions reflect geopolitical considerations?

What roles do non-government actors, including private actors, civil society, and international organizations, play in the landscape of global cyber governance?


Instructions for Authors:
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).


Open Access:
The journal has an article publication fee to cover its costs and guarantee that the article can be accessed free of charge by any reader, anywhere in the world, regardless of affiliation. We defend that authors should not have to personally pay this fee and advise them to check with their institutions if funds are available to cover open access publication fees. Institutions can also join our Membership Program at a very affordable rate and enable all affiliated authors to publish without incurring any fees. Further information about the journal's open access charges can be found here.

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Volume 13

Title:
Novel Perspectives on Status in Global Politics


Editor(s):
Miriam Prys-Hansen (German Institute for Global and Area Studies), Ali Bilgic (University of Loughborough), and Clemens Hoffmann (Stirling University)

Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 March 2024
Submission of Full Papers: 15-31 July 2024
Publication of the Issue: January/June 2025

Information:

Status is a core concept of the traditional International Relations (IR) canon and our understanding of status-seeking has improved especially regarding what types of status hierarchies exist and how both established and rising powers “seek” status competitively. Yet, important gaps remain. First, status needs to be understood as a daily foreign policy practice, which conventional analyses tend to overlook in favour of more conventional security or political economy perspectives. Second, many analyses have nevertheless remained conspicuously West-centric, both geographically, but also conceptually, i.e., in terms of what matters politically. They also remain, for the most part, state-centric. These omissions are at odds with attempts to make the IR more global, inclusive, and analytically diverse. The articles selected for this thematic issue shall attempt to address this challenge.

Contributions shall include research on status ambitions and anxieties by non-traditional actors, especially state actors in the Global South beyond the traditional so-called “rising powers,” but also a range of non-state actors, including global cities, resistance movements, or rebel groups. This broadening of seekers of status allows for a discussion, not just of a variety of actors, but also of novel conceptual and theoretical developments in the status literature at the intersection between domestic politics and global status-seeking.

Furthermore, the thematic issue will cover the potential variability of status politics across different issue areas, from environmental to nuclear politics, from the study of security policies to the global political economy of status-seeking. Lastly, one of the core, overarching ambitions of the thematic issue is to show that thinking about status is far from being an intellectual effort alone, but that a better understanding of the motive, strategies, and consequences of status politics has clear relevance for global cooperation. For instance, when it comes to the adjustment of mutual expectations as a basis for trust, effective governance, and reliability in bilateral and multilateral relations.


Instructions for Authors:
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).


Open Access:
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.

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Volume 13

Title:
Unequal Participation Among Youth and Immigrants: Analyzing Political Attitudes and Behavior in Societal Subgroups


Editor(s):
Arndt Leininger (Chemnitz University of Technology) and Sabrina Mayer (University of Bamberg)

Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 May 2024
Submission of Full Papers: 1-15 September 2024
Publication of the Issue: January/June 2025

Information:

The proposed thematic issue will address the unequal participation of youth, immigrants, and ethnic minorities from an interdisciplinary perspective. Due to their small share in the population and the fact that many are barred from voting, they do not constitute a pertinent political constituency and are often not considered relevant subjects for academic research on political behavior, having received little attention in this area. We know that these groups usually have lower turnout rates than the general population, but determinants and correlates are still largely unknown. This is problematic because the political participation of youth and immigrants is becoming increasingly important in the context of transnational migration and demographic change. The topic is of considerable importance considering the implications for political and social life in increasingly diverse societies. This is evident, for example, in recurring discussions about lowering the voting age and extending the right to vote to foreigners. As the proportion of people with a migration background among young people increases, the study of the intersection of both groups gains relevance, as they constitute important parts of future societies and, specifically, electorates.

Contributions to this thematic issue will focus on the political attitudes or behavior of youth, ethnic minorities, immigrants (or people with a migration background), or the intersection of these groups. Contributions can analyze political attitudes (e.g., sentiment towards parties, institutional trust, or populist attitudes), (formal and informal) participation patterns, or focus on interventions to bridge the participation gap. Research that includes additional categories such as gender or social class would be of particular interest. We welcome both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Contributions may also focus on methodological issues, such as how to reach these populations for social science research.


Instructions for Authors:
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).


Open Access:
The journal has an article publication fee to cover its costs and guarantee that the article can be accessed free of charge by any reader, anywhere in the world, regardless of affiliation. We defend that authors should not have to personally pay this fee and advise them to check with their institutions if funds are available to cover open access publication fees. Institutions can also join our Membership Program at a very affordable rate and enable all affiliated authors to publish without incurring any fees. Further information about the journal's open access charges can be found here.

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Volume 13

Title:
Ethics, Democracy, and Political Leadership


Editor(s):
Cristine de Clercy (Trent University)

Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 June 2024
Submission of Full Papers: 1-15 October 2024
Publication of the Issue: January/June 2025

Information:

Modern democracies are imbued with many formal and informal conceptualizations about the sorts of ethical rules and norms that govern individual leaders and groups of leaders. Ethical leadership is thought to be important for—and correlated with—public trust. Trust is a foundational element of modern governance. However, ethical norms are often violated in practice or conflict with other “rules” of governance. Securing public trust, in practice, is quite elusive. Scholars disagree as to how and why public trust may be solidified (or eroded), and also debate the causative role of leadership in creating such trust. Governments often pursue trust-building policies without much reassurance or firm empirical evidence these efforts will succeed. For example, the Open Government initiative, which spans OECD countries, aims to increase governmental transparency for the benefit of citizens. Yet, open government has the potential to both increase and decrease public trust in a democracy. In short, there is much need for deeper research from both the empirical and theoretical perspectives into the connections between and among the interplay of ethics, democracy, and political leadership.
This thematic issue gathers together the latest research on ethics, trust, and democracy from a group of academic specialists, government partners, and the holders of five prestigious research chairs.

The issue will pose some broad questions to help focus the individual author's contributions. Examples of key questions include: What are the necessary and essential ethical parameters that ought to inform how democratic leadership is exercised? Does populism enhance or erode ethics and public trust in democracies? Does a leader’s rhetoric about ethical government help to increase trust in a democratic government? How is democratization informed by the practice of ethical leadership?

In sum, this thematic issue will gather together new research on ethics, democracy, and leadership at an opportune time. The content will feature a mixture of theoretical and empirical approaches. Its content and arguments will appeal to academic researchers as well as policy specialists, think tanks, and government partners.


Instructions for Authors:
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).


Open Access:
The journal has an article publication fee to cover its costs and guarantee that the article can be accessed free of charge by any reader, anywhere in the world, regardless of affiliation. We defend that authors should not have to personally pay this fee and advise them to check with their institutions if funds are available to cover open access publication fees. Institutions can also join our Membership Program at a very affordable rate and enable all affiliated authors to publish without incurring any fees. Further information about the journal's open access charges can be found here.

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Volume 13

Title:
Cleavage Referendums: Ideological Decisions and Transformational Political Change


Editor(s):
Theresa Reidy (University College Cork)

Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 April 2024
Submission of Full Papers: 15-31 August 2024
Publication of the Issue: January/June 2025

Information:
Referendums can be viewed through the prism of a hierarchy; some ask voters to decide on minor matters of policy and administrative design while others are deeply consequential and can define and transform politics. These latter referendums share an important unifying feature, they draw from deep ideological divides in a state and are cleavage referendums. They exhibit first-order effects in voting. These are the votes that “go global”: Brexit in the United Kingdom, sovereignty in Scotland, Quebec, and Catalonia, and issues such as migration, abortion, divorce, and same-sex marriage.

This thematic issue seeks to unpack the dynamics that are particular to cleavage referendums rooted in deep value and belief fault-lines in a polity. Articles should address one, or more, of the following themes:

1. The dynamics of campaign participation and activity: parties, civil society organisations, and individuals;

2. Voting behaviour: We know that voting intentions should be stable at cleavage referendums, but are they always? In what circumstances can campaigns be re-framed to create a more dynamic opinion formation space?

3. The contribution of a referendum(s) to the creation, definition and/or resolution of a cleavage;

4. The consequential impact of cleavage referendums on the structure and nature of party competition.

This thematic issue is seeking to theorize on the essential features of cleavage referendums and conduct empirical analyses to test core propositions. Individual case studies and comparative analyses are welcome, and all referendum types are relevant: mandatory or consultative; local or national.


Instructions for Authors:
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).


Open Access:
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.

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Volume 13

Title:
The Politics of Environmental Networks


Editor(s):
Petr Ocelík (Masaryk University), Monica di Gregorio (University of Leeds), Carlos D. Bravo Laguna (Hebrew University), and Eva Fernández G. G. (University of Geneva)

Submission of Abstracts: 15-31 August 2024
Submission of Full Papers: 15-31 January 2025
Publication of the Issue: July/December 2025

Information:

Environmental problems such as the climate emergency, biodiversity loss, natural resource depletion and degradation, increased pollution and waste, and the associated environmental justice concerns have spurred a vast amount of research on environmental governance covering dynamics at different levels. Within this area, research on environmental networks has shed light on the relational patterns between different entities that help explain policy and management outcomes, including successes, and failures. Research on environmental governance, spanning from mono- to polycentric, adaptive, collaborative, and transformative approaches, has increasingly adopted network perspectives to investigate structural properties in governance systems.

However, there is a lot to be learned about how politics in different environmental networks relates to the broader governance contexts and systems shaping policy and, ultimately, socio-environmental outcomes. Examining politics within environmental networks encompasses a broad array of research, including power dynamics, patterns of collaboration and conflict, framing and mobilization processes, crisis management, transboundary governance systems, and coalitional behavior. Such efforts extend to the analysis of the relational, discursive, and positional power of actors, within various forms of institutionalization, contention, and polarization.

We invite submissions that offer novel empirical evidence and theoretical insights into the political dimension of networks across diverse environmental domains. This thematic issue call extends to a wide range of political contexts, from formalized and institutional settings to grassroots and subcultural ones. We welcome submissions applying quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methodological perspectives. These include but are not limited to social and discourse network analytical perspectives. We also encourage submissions employing multi-modal and multi-level approaches for the purposes mentioned above.


Instructions for Authors:
Authors interested in joining this thematic issue are encouraged to participate in the ECPR 2024 General Conference (12-15 August 2024) at University College Dublin. For more information, please contact Petr Ocelík ([email protected]) directly.


Open Access:
The journal has an article publication fee to cover its costs and guarantee that the article can be accessed free of charge by any reader, anywhere in the world, regardless of affiliation. We defend that authors should not have to personally pay this fee and advise them to check with their institutions if funds are available to cover open access publication fees. Institutions can also join our Membership Program at a very affordable rate and enable all affiliated authors to publish without incurring any fees. Further information about the journal's open access charges can be found here.

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Volume 13

Title:
Legitimacy and Followership in National and International Political Leadership


Editor(s):
Femke van Esch (Utrecht University) and Rudolf Metz (Centre for Social Sciences / Corvinus University of Budapest)

Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 March 2024
Submission of Full Papers: 15-31 July 2024
Publication of the Issue: January/March 2025

Information:
Why do people support political leaders? This age-old question lies at the heart of political science. However it  has gained new relevance in light of the emergence of controversial (populist, illiberal, or authoritative) leaders, declining public trust in the political elite and increased distance between leaders and followers due to the shift of the central locus of politics shifted to the international sphere. Although these developments draw attention to the importance of political followership, leader–follower relations, and legitimacy, political science struggles to interpret—and generally ignores—these dynamics.

While political leadership studies recognize that leadership is more complex than the over-romanticized idea of strong leaders, it still underestimates the role of followership. Moreover, mainstream political science views the term “followership” sceptically and passively, downplaying how active and consequential followership can be. Studies into international, supranational, and transnational leadership devote even less attention to these matters. In these domains, legitimacy and followership are even more elusive since leaders often lack the traditional bases for legitimacy attribution like national identification, democratic elections, and a unified conception of the global public interest.

This thematic issue thus aims to go beyond traditional leadership perspectives and put questions of legitimacy and the active role of followers on a central stage. While papers introducing novel concepts and innovative theoretical perspectives are welcome, we are especially interested in empirical and comparative analyses on, for instance, the following subjects:

• Legitimacy and followership regarding populist or authoritarian leadership;

• Legitimacy and followership in different institutional contexts;

• Legitimacy of leadership by international organizations and in an international or transnational context;

• The role of legitimacy beliefs, emotions, and cognitive factors in political legitimacy and followership;

• The role of social identification and shared beliefs in the attribution of legitimacy to leaders;

• The effect of distance and crises on the attribution of legitimacy to leaders.


Instructions for Authors:
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).


Open Access:
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.

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Volume 13

Title:
The Moral and Political Legitimations of War and the Complex Dynamics of Peace Negotiation Processes


Editor(s):
Alexander Yendell (Research Institute Social Cohesion, Section Leipzig) and Oliver Hidalgo (University of Passau)

Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 September 2024
Submission of Full Papers: 15-31 January 2025
Publication of the Issue: July/December 2025

Information:

The reasons for war are always miscellaneous, but ending wars becomes a huge challenge as, in current war events, the belligerent parties could arise new legitimations to continue or extend their warfare. This becomes evident since former opponents of war sometimes find it difficult to maintain their critical stance as soon as one of the warring parties has been identified as being exclusively responsible for the armed conflict. Moreover, aggressors, who start a war, often suggest themselves as victim countries that only use military force in response to former warlike aggression—apart from the fact that the country that first uses armed force is not necessarily an aggressor and, therefore, that the judgement of a warlike conflict can differ from the perspective of international law to a rather moral point of view.
Hence, the rough distinction between an offensive right to war and the mere legitimisation of defensive wars launched by contemporary just war theories is not convincing anymore, especially since the claim to “defend” democracy, freedom, and human rights is also (ab-)used to justify military interventions. Today, political and social research has to reflect that any clear distinction between bellicose and pacifist attitudes has become difficult and that war itself is an existential ethical or identity conflict which is often suggested as a fight between the good and the evil.
Against this background, the thematic issue asks: How are or can wars be legitimised by different political actors and societies being directly or indirectly involved? What sets off the advocacy of wars and arms supply on an individual level? How do (media) discourses shape the negotiation of war and defence strategies as well as de-escalation and peace strategies? What moral-ethical and legal problems arise in conflict management? What influence do war dynamics have on decision-making processes? How did the legitimisation of wars and the negotiation of peace processes take shape from the past to the present?



Instructions for Authors:
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).


Open Access:
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.

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Volume 14

Title:
Understanding the Role of Political Staff and Parliamentary Administrations


Editor(s):
Gijs Jan Brandsma (Radboud University) and Anna-Lena Högenauer (University of Luxembourg)

Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 September 2024
Submission of Full Papers: 15-30 April 2025
Publication of the Issue: January/February 2026

Information:

The staff working in parliaments represent a highly relevant, yet significantly understudied group of actors. While political scientists have sought to understand the activities of elected representatives in parliaments, sparse case studies underscore the key role played by political staff in brokering information, advising, preparing and exercising legislative oversight, preparing and, in part, conducting legislative compromise-seeking, and interacting with various actors, such as lobby groups, citizens, and the media.Yet, such roles may well vary between political systems.

This issue seeks to provide cutting-edge research in this emerging field, bridging the disciplines of political science and public administration.


Instructions for Authors:
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).


Open Access:
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.

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Volume 14

Title:
Consensus About the European Union? Understanding the Views of Citizens and Political Parties


Editor(s):
Sergiu Gherghina (University of Glasgow) and Sergiu Mișcoiu (Babeș-Bolyai University Cluj)

Submission of Abstracts: 15-30 January 2025
Submission of Full Papers: 15-31 July 2025
Publication of the Issue: January/June 2026

Information:

The last two decades have been characterized by ambivalent attitudes and positions towards the European Union among the public and political parties in member states and candidate countries. On the one hand, there were periods of euro-optimism around the accession period for many new member states or during external shocks, such as the 2008–2012 financial crisis or the 2020–2022 Covid-19 pandemic. On the other hand, the Eurosceptic voices have become stronger in more countries, either permanently like Hungary, Poland, or the UK or temporarily associated with domestic developments like in France, Italy, or Romania. Previous research examined closely the formation of such attitudes, their display, and consequences for the political systems and EU integration. However, we know little about the extent to which the opinions of the public about the EU converge with those of political parties, how the public, politicians, or parties differ in their attitudes about the EU, why a consensus or dissensus emerges at the level of the public or of political parties, and how this evolves.

This thematic issue aims to gather contributions that can address some of these gaps in the literature. It welcomes theoretical articles that discuss the origins of consensus, methodological articles that refer to the measurement of consensus, and empirical articles that analyze the dynamic and manifestation of consensus. The thematic issue encourages both single-case studies and comparative analyses and it is open to a plurality of methodological approaches (qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods).


Instructions for Authors:
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).


Open Access:
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.