ABSTRACT This article examines how the demographic composition of municipalities in Bosnia and Herzegovina shapes the strategic behaviour of co-ethnic political parties in direct mayoral elections. It argues that strategies differ between ethnically divided and homogeneous municipalities. Combining quantitative data from four electoral cycles with qualitative field research in eleven divided localities, the study finds that in demographically mixed areas, Bosniak, Croat, and Serb parties often unite behind a single candidate, whereas in homogeneous areas intra-ethnic competition prevails. The findings underscore the zero-sum nature of ethnic politics in a post-conflict society and the central role of demographics in structuring local competition.

ABSTRACT This paper is a review of two books devoted to the historical policy of Putin’s Russia authored by Jade McGlynn (Memory Makers. The Politics of the Past in Putin’s Russia) and Andrzej Nowak (Powrót “Imperium Zła”. Ideologie współczesnej Rosji, ich twórcy i krytycy (1913–2023) [The return of the “Empire of Evil”. The ideologies of contemporary Russia, their creators and critics (1913–2023)]) The review focuses on the question of the use of history in Russian politics and the differences between the historical policies of democratic and authoritarian states.

ABSTRACT This study examines institutional drift as a mechanism of democratic backsliding in Georgia. Using V-Dem data (2010–2024), it develops an Institutional Drift Index measuring declines in horizontal, vertical, and diagonal accountability. The analysis tests three hypotheses on the role of judicial capture, parliamentary weakness, and informal institutions – such as clientelism, corruption, and electoral manipulation – in reinforcing institutional asymmetry. Findings show that Georgia’s drift reflects gradual authoritarian consolidation within democratic forms. The study highlights how informal power sustains formal decline, offering insights into hybrid regime stabilisation and the subtle dynamics of democratic erosion in transitional political economies.

ABSTRACT This article examines the representative strategies of young Hungarian opposition MPs to improve our understanding of opposition behaviour in electoral autocracies. Based on fifteen semi-structured interviews, four ideal-typical strategies are identified. These offer different ways of reconciling democratic ideals of representation with limited institutional influence and reflect distinct socialisation experiences and interpretive orientations. The results show that opposition representation is neither uniform nor solely defined by parliamentary marginalisation, but also highlight the limitations of adaptive innovation: even when opposition actors experiment with new representation forms, these practices tend to perpetuate limited modes of opposition rather than generate broader systemic transformation.

ABSTRACT This article analyses how and why the geopolitical orientations of Belarusian elites diverged after 2020, comparing the trajectories of the Lukashenka regime and the Belarusian democratic forces in exile. Drawing on historical institutionalism, it identifies the post-electoral crisis of 2020 and Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 as critical junctures that restructured elite incentives and constraints. The regime moved from managed multi-vectorism to structurally embedded dependence on Russia, generating path-dependent lock-in. In contrast, the democratic forces shifted from initial geopolitical caution to a consolidated pro-European orientation. The analysis demonstrates that these reorientations were institutionally mediated responses to external shocks, transforming geopolitical alignment into the principal dividing line of elite politics in Belarus.

ABSTRACT The article critically examines Georgia’s Culture Strategy 2016–2025 as a case of policy transfer in the context of Europeanisation and its further political dismantling alongside the authoritarian turn in the country. Drawing on policyfailing research within policy mobilities scholarship, it explores the Strategy’s selective implementation amid Georgia’s growing disengagement from the EU political framework. This study contributes to global scholarship on policy circulation and cultural policymaking with both empirical and analytical insights into practices of failing the EU-driven policy as practices of de-Europeanisation integrating the cultural sector into the political debates around Georgia-EU relations.

ABSTRACT While discussions about Montenegro’s national identities have been the object of different studies, these have not centred the role of geography or, more specifically, the perception of space. Using the theoretical framework of borderscapes as well as material that was obtained through semi-structured interviews in Montenegro, this article fills this existing gap in the literature. It aims to highlight the dynamics and impact of nation-building projects in everyday life as well as demonstrate how the nationalisation of territory occurs at different spatial levels, from the national to the local, thereby emphasising the multi-scalar characterisation of borderscapes.