Political representation in local government is a fundamental feature of modern democracies that exhibits distinct characteristics when contextual factors are considered. The size of the political ...

Party system matters, which may affect, among other things, the formation of cabinet and the relationship between the executive and legislative branches of government. Taiwan as a democracy is no e...

This study examines female parliamentary representation in Nordic countries from 1969 to 2023, with particular focus on populist radical right (PRR) parties. Using a novel Party Gender Balance Scor...

This study examines female parliamentary representation in Nordic countries from 1969 to 2023, with particular focus on populist radical right (PRR) parties. Using a novel Party Gender Balance Scor...

Descriptive and substantive representation of disability in parliaments is low. Local district disability representatives represent one of the decentralised and non-parliamentary efforts to enhance...

This study examines whether the representation and governing status of local political parties influence citizen satisfaction with local democratic governance in Sweden. Drawing on a large dataset ...

In recent years, Italy has witnessed two attempts at constitutional reform: the Renzi-Boschi reform and the Meloni-Casellati reform. Both aim to reshape the system of government, but differ signifi...

This study examines how candidate gender is associated with Facebook activity, message composition, and the electoral associations of personalization in Taiwan’s 2020 legislative election. By linki...

This study examines how citizens in five European democracies (France, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, and Poland) evaluate multidimensional legislative responsiveness. Utilising a conjoint experiment wit...

Following the Kuomintang's defeats in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, the party's decline was attributed to the rise of a stronger Taiwanese identity and its pro-China image. However, the...

This study examines how substantive geographic representation – measured by the frequency and concentration of regional references in committee speeches – affects both party nomination and electora...

The current debate on ‘post-democracy’ or the ‘crisis of representation’ in Western European democracies often draws on comparisons with a more representative, and hence more legitimate and stable ...

This study moves beyond the question of whether descriptive representation leads to substantive outcomes, and instead examines how lived experience is interpreted, framed, and translated into polit...

Scholarship considers that political representation fails when the identities and interests of minorities are invisible in legislative bodies. But what does ‘not feeling politically represented’ me...

Low turnout incurs greater turnout inequality and can induce partisan bias. Canada suffers from low turnout and large disparities in turnout. The close margins of recent federal elections raise que...

This study examines how citizens in five European democracies (France, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, and Poland) evaluate multidimensional legislative responsiveness. Utilising a conjoint experiment wit...

Following the Kuomintang's defeats in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, the party's decline was attributed to the rise of a stronger Taiwanese identity and its pro-China image. However, the...

This study examines how substantive geographic representation – measured by the frequency and concentration of regional references in committee speeches – affects both party nomination and electora...

Deliberative mini-publics (DMPs) are widely promoted as institutional solutions to the crisis of representation. Yet, despite their proliferation across local, national, and supranational arenas, t...

Anti-populist discourse often presents ‘populism’ as a threat to ‘expertise’, taking the side of ‘experts’ against their ‘populist’ opponents. However, the role of enjoyment in inciting identificat...

This study examines the influence of performance assessments on voting behavior in Taiwan's 2024 presidential election. Drawing on cross-sectional and panel survey data, we find evidence of perform...

Concerns about a potential erosion of political support in established democracies have motivated scholars to study the failure of democratic institutions in realising democratic representation. Ye...

Policy responsiveness to the preferences of the citizen’s has been a major topos of academic discussions in political science in recent years. Much ink has been spilled on questions like whether re...

While several studies have explored the impact of bicameralism on cabinet and legislative majority formation, its impact on political parties and party systems has been inexplicably overlooked. To ...

There is wide agreement in the literature that migrantised groups are underrepresented in political institutions. Who belongs to a migrantised group and the extent to which (under)representation is...

Referendums can democratically empower citizens, but the dominant binary design is criticised for inadequately representing voters’ genuine preferences. Multi-option referendums offer an alternativ...

This study examines how different types of electoral mandates in the German MMP system affect the way MPs engage in geographic representation on Twitter (X). Building on research on the mandate div...

Does proportional representation (PR) increase the influence of radical right politics? Most of the current literature exploring the relationship between electoral systems and the radical right arg...

This study examines the institutional characteristics of deliberative mini-publics across various European democracies, utilising Lijphart’s, A. (2012. Patterns of democracy: Government forms and p...

There is a vast array of different terms applied to diverse aspects of political representation. We provide a review of 51 different terms which we discuss under three broad types: fundamental (or ...

The UK Parliament has become increasingly diverse in recent years. Yet it remains far from being descriptively representative of the population. This study investigates how women and ethnic minorit...

Electoral discrimination (ED) in democratic settings occurs when majority voters, influenced by their personal, cultural, or religious biases, favour majority candidates, consequently diminishing s...

Small states are on average more likely to be democracies and it is often assumed that democracy functions better in small polities. ‘Small is beautiful’, proponents say. Yet, empirical scholarship...

When facing a dilemma between the responsibility to formulate reasonable policies and responsiveness to the public will, political parties frequently delegate policy decisions to technocrats. Since...

What explains cross-national variation in the level of women's descriptive representation? Theoretically, scholars have long recognised that women's descriptive representation is determined by both...

Parliamentary candidates face choices about the nature of their electoral campaign. Among else, they must strike a balance between promoting their party’s image and their own personal appeal, and h...

Populist citizens have a remarkable democratic profile: they are democratic idealists that are dissatisfied with how democracy works in practice. It stands to reason that they would be supportive o...

This study examines the electoral programmes of Spain’s four main national parties (PSOE, PP, VOX, and SUMAR) and Von der Leyen’s discourse after being re-elected as President of the European Commi...

Populist citizens have a remarkable democratic profile: they are democratic idealists that are dissatisfied with how democracy works in practice. It stands to reason that they would be supportive o...

This study examines the electoral programmes of Spain’s four main national parties (PSOE, PP, VOX, and SUMAR) and Von der Leyen’s discourse after being re-elected as President of the European Commi...

An obstacle to the implementation of Condorcet voting methods in political elections is the perceived complexity of these methods. In this paper, we propose a simple Condorcet voting method for use...

An uncontested election in which only one candidate for a seat occurs may be seen as an ‘aberration’ of democracy. Without an electoral campaign and war chest, the result is a foregone conclusion –...