Autocratic elite divisions are often seen as a key stepping stone toward democratic reform. This study shows that those divisions only spur liberalization under certain historical conditions: specifically, the origins of the ruling party.
* The Question:* Does supporting a minority cabinet hurt a party’s electoral prospects? Existing work suggests support parties can influence policy while avoiding the electoral costs of joining government. This argument is qualified: it holds only for support parties without written, formal agreements because informal support is less visible to voters.
This study examines how authoritarian legacies shape democratic party development through two channels: authoritarian successor parties and the degree of party institutionalization of both ruling and opposition parties from the autocratic era. The research asks how (1) the survival or reconfiguration of authoritarian actors into new parties and (2) the institutional strength of parties under autocracy affect party institutionalization after democratization.
This paper asks whether features of party organization help explain Italy’s mixed performance on multiple dimensions of democratic quality, and how Italy compares to other liberal democracies over time. Focusing on two party organizational features—personalization and institutionalization—the authors first map Italy’s ups and downs across democratic dimensions relative to other liberal democracies. They then use regression analysis to test how variation in party personalization and institutionalization relates to measures of democratic quality.
Tunisia’s 2018 municipal elections adopted strict gender quotas that produced near-parity between male and female elected councilors. Yet fewer than 20% of mayors—who are chosen from among elected list-heads—were women. This research investigates why quotas raised descriptive representation on councils but failed to convert into council leadership.
This study examines how American democratization evolved regarding African Americans' voting rights between 1785 and 1868.
This article asks whether Western democracies still possess the domestic political support needed to sustain liberal internationalism. Using cross‑national data on 24 industrialized democracies and hundreds of parties, the authors trace trends since the end of the Cold War and document a widening gap between governments' international ambitions and domestic party-level capacity to back them. They argue mainstream pro‑integration parties have lost ground to both radical-left and anti‑globalist radical‑right parties, and they consider what this means for the liberal international order.
Do Leftist local governments push informal workers into formal jobs, or ease enforcement and improve informal conditions? This study asks whether mayors from Brazil's Workers' Party (PT) increase enforcement against enterprises that hire noncontract, informal-sector workers or instead adopt forbearant policies. Using a close-election regression discontinuity design at the municipal level, the article examines how left-wing victories affect enforcement and the size and conditions of the informal sector.
Recent post-election surveys show mainstream left parties face a class voting trade-off.
Political parties across the EU have formed more grand coalitions over the last two decades, including in countries with no prior experience of such alliances. At the same time, new and radical parties have surged, signaling growing fragmentation in European politics. This study investigates how mainstream and new parties fare electorally when they enter or leave grand coalitions.
Despite being central to executive governance and coalition politics, the design of government portfolios in Western European democracies has remained largely unstudied. This paper argues that portfolio allocation decisions follow predictable political dynamics.
New research reveals how socialist parties entering electoral politics influenced proportional representation reforms.
The post-d democratization era saw some autocratic ruling parties not only survive but also thrive. This piece examines 41 transitions since 1940, including cases from Mexico, Taiwan, Bulgaria, and Ghana, revealing how these parties maintained influence despite the shift to democracy.
Vote choices can be blocked by uncertainty over party positions.
The article argues that immigration attitudes reshaped the strategic environment for parties and leaders in many advanced democracies. Using comparative survey evidence from spring 2015, it shows that immigration views had already driven a wedge between mainstream parties and their partisans, opening space for new movements and producing measurable electoral consequences.
In nascent democracies lacking career incentives, MPs don't just form parties by default. They actively seek colleagues who align on key policy goals.