The Loop

🌈 #GenderingDemocracy No.54 🚨 Recent raids on LGBTQ+ associations and homes of #LGBTQ+ activists in #Türkiye are part of a broader political project that threatens to dismantle the remaining foundations of democratic politics in the country. ⤵️ Read more at tinyurl.com/2ubzuku9

And in this blog post I take my thoughts a bit further. I argue that while the cultural backlash is not a convincing origin story of today's far right-parties, they will nonetheless be drawn to social conservatism as we look forward. Thanks @ecprtheloop.bsky.social for hosting!

⛓️‍💥 More divided - but not more extreme. Before Poland’s democratic backsliding, argue @maciejsychowiec.bsky.social, Oliwia Szczupska and @mkolczynska.bsky.social, Poles’ views were already becoming more tightly connected across issues, and more closely aligned with party choice ⤵️ tinyurl.com/2fmh9r2v

⛓️ When authoritarian rulers fall, their relatives often become targets for prosecution. 🌍 Drawing on six African transitions, @michasiedu.bsky.social shows why punishing a former ruling family does not necessarily transform the political system that protected it: ⤵️ tinyurl.com/y8jmjt8f

What does constitutional revision mean when the constitution is barely revised? Thank you @ecprtheloop.bsky.social for hosting my ideas and work once more

🔮 #FutureofPopulism 110 #CulturalBacklash theory argues that opposition to progressive politics produced the populist radical right. But in a blog from @electoralstudies.bsky.social research, @ckloetzer.bsky.social of @ecpr-ead.bsky.social says we may need to rethink this logic: tinyurl.com/mra35rsv

🪧 Sadie Zarris shows how Serbia's student movement - a movement without leaders - wrote itself an exacting rulebook, enforced by nothing but consent. 🗳️ Serbians go to the polls on 25 October. 🤔 The harder test, argues the author, comes once its candidates become MPs. ⤵️ tinyurl.com/47xwyran

📜 Greece's current constitutional revision, argues @dimitramareta.bsky.social, merely serves the political programme of the governing party, and has advanced with the help of far-right MPs. ⚠️ This, she warns, could lead the country down a dangerous path. ⤵️ tinyurl.com/yjjny75b

Israel’s election isn’t just about Netanyahu. Two divides shape Israeli politics: one over democracy, the other over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They don’t produce the same political map. So what could a change of government actually mean? My new piece with @ayakter.bsky.social

🗳️ Is Israel’s next election just a referendum on #Netanyahu? @liranharsgor.bsky.social & @ayakter.bsky.social find two political maps: a clear divide over democracy and institutions, but no coherent alternative on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. ⤵️ tinyurl.com/5e4m4fvk

🎈 #RepresentativeDisconnect ⚖️ Voters say they value democracy, yet governments that weaken courts rarely pay a price. 🗳️ Filippo Palmieri argues the reason is a majoritarian idea of democracy, in which stripping an elected government of constraints counts as a mandate fulfilled ⤵️ tinyurl.com/ymr6f9eu

🏚️ @lsouthgate.bsky.social finds that democracy alone does not consistently reduce disaster impacts. 🌪️ A clearer pattern concerns administrative capacity and whether governments can turn political decisions into coordinated action when hazards place institutions under pressure. ⤵️ tinyurl.com/yc2bh5eb

🚧 NATO Article 3 requires members 'to maintain and develop their individual and collective capacity to resist armed attack', including psychological resistance and civil resources 🥫@oscarlarsson.bsky.social analyses NATO discourse to reveal its shift from defence to resilience ⤵️ tinyurl.com/bdzmrct3

🗳️ Vladyslav Butenko argues that Brazil’s presidential race is not a contest over the size of the welfare state. 🪙 Lula offers protection through cash transfers. 🚨 Flávio Bolsonaro offers protection from crime. ❓The 25 October runoff will test which promise voters trust 🔽 tinyurl.com/38vjb85d

🗳️ Brazil’s 2026 election puts the Bolsonaro family within reach of the presidency again. But the deeper story concerns what Lula’s 2022 victory and Jair Bolsonaro’s conviction did not settle. Democratic institutions can constrain a leader without extinguishing his following ⤵️ tinyurl.com/ydyz7hj6

🧠 Good evidence does not automatically inform policy. ✍️ Drawing on practitioner experience, Frank Tu Ngo offers three hands-on tactics to help researchers make their work count: 🔹seize policy windows 🔹engage policymakers early 🔹pressure-test messages with artificial intelligence ⤵️ buff.ly/OFYXEBI

📈 #CentralBanks are turning to Artificial Intelligence to analyse data and improve #EconomicForecasts. 📊 But, argues Elisa Mustacchi, if AI is increasingly shaping the information behind monetary-policy decisions, who remains accountable for the judgments that follow? 🔽 buff.ly/go0MxkH

They have done such a terrific job in launching and embedding this wonderful new @ecpr.bsky.social initiative. Many thanks to Martin and Johanne

As @profmartinjbull.bsky.social and @johannesaltnes.bsky.social complete their term as @ecprtheloop.bsky.social Editors, we'd like to thank them for building an exciting platform that shapes how ECPR communicates political science to the world 👏 🗞️ ecpr.eu/News/News/De...

🎈 #RepresentativeDisconnect No.16 🔸 Marjan Marjanović argues that inviting citizens into policymaking is not enough. 🔸 The democratic value of policy co-creation depends on whether institutions allow disagreement to emerge, and remain accountable for the decisions that follow ⤵️ buff.ly/gZKTnkl

🌍 As Europe rethinks its position in a changing world, China has become increasingly important and contested. 🌐 Esther D’haeninck of @ecprsgeu.bsky.social explores how European political parties navigate these differences, and how partisan cooperation contributes to the debate. ⤵️ buff.ly/qUXDvgy

⛑️ Refugees are not born of persecution; they are made by states. 🛡️ And a person only becomes a refugee once a state decides they qualify for protection. ⚖️ Asylum is thus not simply a humanitarian matter; it is also a question of how states work, says @piervanwoll.bsky.social ⤵️ buff.ly/QTUsojW

✝️ The #HolySee has no army, no intelligence service and no counterterrorism capability. ⛪ Yet the recent interventions of #PopeLeoXIV in Nigeria show how moral diplomacy can support preventive security and build social cohesion, even if it can’t replace traditional state tools ⤵️ bit.ly/47PR0Ws

New entry for the illiberalism series on The Loop @ecprtheloop.bsky.social 🔥 I present the main arguments from The Fascist Zeitgeist: doi.org/10.1017/9781... If you are interested in contributing to this amazing blog series please contact me or The Loop 👇 theloop.ecpr.eu/write-for-th...

🌊 #IlliberalWave No.51 A #fascist zeitgeist has replaced the #populist one. 🗳️ Luca Manucci explains how today's far right exploits a widespread 'saudade' for the authoritarian past. The stigma has gone, and the #IberianCountries are no longer ‘exceptional’. @populismblog.bsky.social ⤵️ bit.ly/4yDYhEy

🤝 US-Pakistan ties tend to deepen during crises and weaken thereafter 🌐 Saima Afzal says the latest opening may prove more durable because it is less ambitious 🪨 Trade, technology, minerals & counterterrorism can each sustain cooperation without requiring grand strategic alignment ⤵️ bit.ly/4B0zbBC

🎈#RepresentativeDisconnect No.15 🗳️ De Simone, Martini, Russo & Şişman find little evidence that Europeans are abandoning democracy. 🔀 But democratic support often coexists with openness to authoritarian alternatives. 👩‍🎓 Education emerges as the most consistent dividing line ⤵️ bit.ly/4dsDlIl

💸 A corruption scandal has toppled yet another Prosecutor General in #Ukraine. 📜 Anastasiia Kudlenko argues this offers Ukrainian society and international partners an opportunity to reinvigorate reforms aimed at dismantling #StateCapture in the system of law enforcement ⤵️ bit.ly/4y31AnF

👩‍👧 In the early 2020s, Swedish #childwelfare services became the target of an intense social media campaign. Drawing on research into Arabic-language social media narratives, Dana Sofi explains why correcting false claims is unlikely to restore institutional trust. ⤵️ bit.ly/4jMpnES

I've been thinking a lot about the relationship between democratic resilience and democratic responsiveness.

🤝Support for #EuropeanIntegration and satisfaction with the EU are not the same thing. ⛓️‍💥 Alexander Kossev says that #Bulgarians value integration but its results disappoint them. 🫤 This creates frustration that political parties may redirect towards very different visions of Europe ⤵️ bit.ly/4APprKb

Philipp Noetges says #SachsenAnhalt's record vote for the far-right #AfD is less about #GermanExceptionalism than a widening gap between what policy now requires and what an electorate can evaluate: a gap populism exploits faster than evidence-based politics can close theloop.ecpr.eu/germanys-sac...

👋 After 6️⃣ years at The Loop's helm, @profmartinjbull.bsky.social and @johannesaltnes.bsky.social have stepped down. All at @ecpr.bsky.social – especially Managing Ed Kate – extend heartfelt thanks. 🎁 M&J leave a thriving publishing outlet of lasting value to the discipline: ecpr.eu/News/News/De...

🗳️ Vladyslav Butenko argues that the narrow win for the 'red-green' bloc in the 2026 #SwedishGeneralElection signals not a retreat of the far right, but how its policy agenda has already won 🛣️ The centre-left, he says, must now turn its razor-thin majority into a new political course 👇 bit.ly/4ddhSTI

🌊 #IlliberalWave No50 🗳️ Sweden's election blocked the populist #SwedenDemocrats' route into government 🤝 But Vera Tika argues that far-right normalisation isn't automatically reversed by electoral defeat. Once institutionalised, #illiberal change acquires a political life of its own bit.ly/4hkWzSy

🌈 #GenderingDemocracy No.53 📋 Decisions about what governments collect and publish can shape more than statistics. 🗂️ Sebastián León-Giraldo argues public knowledge is part of democratic infrastructure. 📊 When states make some populations harder to see, they exacerbate inequality. ⤵️ bit.ly/4z5wi0i

This is my last day as part of the Founding Editorial Team of @ecprtheloop.bsky.social with Johanne Dohlie Saltnes and Kate Hawkins. Over 1,500 blogs published in 6 years! What a Team! Big thanks to @ecpr.bsky.social, Johanne and Kate, and to all our contributors. And all the best to our successors!

💊 #RescuingDemocracy 17 🗳️ #AndyBurnham has announced a Commission on #ElectoralReform, and he is right to do so. 📊 Democracy's defenders must guard institutional gains and address the grievances on which the far-right feeds. A Commission, says @gulayicoz.bsky.social, honours both. ⤵️ bit.ly/4hEs4WJ

🛢️Argentina has tightened oil development in the #Malvinas #Falklands and upped its defence budget. 👛 @nicosalvoni.bsky.social says this may hurt firms with mainland interests, but more money must translate into military capability for Argentina to sustain stronger regional presence ⤵️ bit.ly/4hVmOz2

Thank you so much for the wonderful decade of posts on populism 🙏 POP - Political Observatory on Populism - closes down 📢 That's all folks... POP is dead, long live POP 🤟 Read here the last post 🤓 populismobserver.com/2026/09/28/t...

🪧Mohsen Askari compares #Iran’s 1979 revolution with the 2026 uprising to reveal a paradox about digital communication. 🛜 Modern tech swiftly mobilises collective action, but authoritarian states with control over internet infrastructure can still interfere with collective knowledge 👉 bit.ly/3Vh7jIZ

🌕 Akash Shah analyses the necessity of #HALO for #NATO’s integration of #SpaceArchitecture. 🚀 Here, the author suggests that President Trump’s push for European self-reliance, data sovereignty and technical challenges could all explain the US absence from this initiative 👇 👩‍🚀 bit.ly/4rt7yN4

🌐 The #RulesBasedInternationalOrder is not simply breaking down. 🌎 Instead, governments are increasingly creating exceptions that allow them to modify or selectively apply those rules while leaving the wider institutional architecture intact, argues @ilankapoor.bsky.social 📖 bit.ly/4xLz0qT

👨‍🏭 Britain’s #DisabilityBenefit debate is commonly framed as a choice between containing spending and protecting claimants. 👩‍💻 Pierce Leslie argues for distinguishing income protection from #EmploymentSupport, to make it safer for people with partial or fluctuating capacity to work 🧑‍🦽 bit.ly/4rtyXOS

😆 Humour is effective as a line of attack against authoritarian post-truthers like Trump. 👀 @lassethomassen.bsky.social suggests that humour – used well – can help make us see new truths to which we were otherwise blind. 👉 buff.ly/smUfCPn

🌈 #GenderingDemocracy No.52 👩‍⚖️ A recent ruling in the case of a Slovak journalist who suffered years of online abuse is a stark reminder of widespread gendered violence against women in public life. ⚠️ This form of violence puts democracies at risk, argues @michalkojanv.bsky.social. 👉 buff.ly/vBau64T

🚨Deadline: Call for editors of The Loop 🚨 @ecprtheloop.bsky.social seeks Academic Editors or an editorial team from 1 Oct Are you familiar with: ✔️ What makes a successful blog post? ✔️ The Loop's editorial process? ✔️ the role of blogs in promoting #polsci to a wider readership? 👇️ Apply today!

🏖️ The Loop is taking a short holiday, and won't be answering emails or publishing blog pieces until Friday 25 September 2026. Thanks for your patience!

📺️ #Mexico has adopted rules requiring broadcasters to flag programmes that mix news and opinion. 👀 @julesbarajas.bsky.social argues that these labels should be judged by whether the people they are meant to help notice and understand them. 👉 buff.ly/HMZAQxv

🗳️ In the run-up to #Sweden's election, far-right parties treated the hijab as proof that migrants neither belong nor can be assimilated. ❓️ Azher Qamar asks: does equality demand sameness? Or does it protect participation despite cultural differences? #InternationalDayOfDemocracy 👉 buff.ly/ac6qhGC