ABSTRACT A large body of research shows that police officers hold more conservative political orientations than the general population, both across countries and over time. Studies seeking to explain this phenomenon report inconclusive findings. This paper studies two possible explanations: self-selection of politically conservative individuals into the police force (selection hypothesis) and growing conservatism over the course of police work (occupational socialization hypothesis). We focus on Germany, a police force with an authoritarian history and extensive modernization in the past decades, thereby representing an important case study for the long-term interplay between conservative political orientation and police service. For our analysis, we are relying on longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), a large-scale representative panel study of German households, covering the years 1984–2020. In line with previous research, our results show that the police force differs significantly from individuals in other occupations as well as the general population, reporting more politically conservative attitudes in left–right self-placement and stronger identification with conservative parties. Furthermore, we find evidence that selection effects contribute to attitudinal differences in party orientation.

ABSTRACT Rising dissatisfaction with established politics has driven widespread partisan dealignment, weakening mainstream parties and fuelling the ascent of populist challengers. Yet alongside populist parties, another group has gained traction across Europe: independent local lists (ILLs). These locally organised groups also present themselves as alternatives to party politics and may channel anti-establishment sentiment. This paper investigates how the rise of ILLs affects the performance of populist parties – particulary in so-called ‘left behind’ places – and how this relationship varies across populist parties of different ideological types. The analysis draws on an original dataset of local elections in 670 municipalities over four electoral rounds in the Czech Republic, a country in which both populist parties and ILLs have recently emerged and now play prominent roles. Fixed-effects panel models show that the presence of ILLs significantly impedes the electoral performance of populist parties, including in economically deprived contexts. These findings shed new light on the conditions under which local political actors are able to constrain the development of populist parties, offering broader insights into strategic responses to voter grievances and the rising demand for anti-establishment politics.

ABSTRACT Contemporary climate movements such as Fridays for Future have declared to stay away from party politics out of fear of being dragged into a party-political debate. In their perspective, they advocate scientific truths which shall be implemented without political negotiations watering them down. Yet, they direct their demands towards the representative system. In this article, based on a series of qualitative interviews with activists and politicians in Germany, Austria, Poland, and Slovakia, we compare how movements and parties cooperate in the field of climate politics. Using a political opportunity structure perspective, we scrutinize the factors that shape linkages between civil society, movements, and more traditional political forms of political representation in the climate crisis. Results show that different party systems, political cultures, the presence of credible allies as well as the likelihood of influence affect party-movement linkages and activists’ satisfaction with representative democracy. Whereas Polish climate movements joined a large coalition that mobilized for the opposition victory in 2023, in Germany we found much lower levels of cooperation. In contrast, in Slovakia and Austria climate movements remain at a distance from political parties and activists show great levels of frustration with representative democracy.

ABSTRACT We introduce a novel dataset derived from a comprehensive survey targeting both elite and middle-level elites of Brothers of Italy (Fratelli d’Italia, FdI), the most-voted party in the Italian 2022 general elections and whose leader, Giorgia Meloni, is currently holding the office of Prime Minister. The dataset encompasses various aspects, including socio-demographic characteristics, prior political experience, motivations for joining the party, attitudes towards several political issues and institutions, policy preferences and populist orientation. Several questions have identical wording to those in recent mass surveys, facilitating comparisons between FdI elites, FdI voters and the broader Italian population. After detailing the fieldwork and main features of the sample, we illustrate potential uses of the dataset, such as examining the ideological cohesion of the party and the populist attitudes of its elites and voters.

ABSTRACT This paper explores the attitudes of young parliamentary candidates towards representative democracy, examining the potential moderating role of populism. Existing research points to declining youth trust in political institutions, but lacks understanding of how young prospective MPs, especially from populist parties, perceive representative democracy. Drawing from the Comparative Candidates Survey across 18 European countries, the study analyses three dimensions: satisfaction with democracy, evaluation of electoral processes, and support for direct democracy mechanisms. Findings reveal younger candidates express stronger preferences for direct democracy tools like referendums, but limited evidence of an age effect on satisfaction with democracy or perceptions of elections. However, a modest moderating effect of populism emerges – younger candidates from populist parties tend to exhibit greater dissatisfaction with how democracy functions compared to non-populist counterparts, though this dissatisfaction diminishes as they age. The study contributes insights into the complex interplay between generational differences, populist ideologies, and democratic legitimacy perceptions among prospective legislators, informing discussions on evolving youth political engagement.

ABSTRACT This article examines the overlooked role of Railway Workers (RWs) in implementing border control policies. Train drivers and ticket inspectors, normally responsible for passenger safety and ticket compliance, find themselves operating on cross-border routes where French police conduct identity checks and return irregularized migrants to Italy — operations linked to rising deaths at the border. Without clear guidance from their employer beyond the vague instruction to “facilitate police work,” RWs face moral uncertainty and workplace tension. They must reconcile professional ethics of care and fairness with the coercive demands of border enforcement. The article explores how they navigate these dilemmas when encountering migrants attempting to cross the border by train. Drawing on scholarship on Street-Level Bureaucrats and border control, the paper argues that RWs become de facto agents deciding who crosses the border—tasks that exceed their formal responsibilities. Two case studies illustrate this dynamic: a ticket inspector engaging in relational resistance to aid migrants, and a driver managing moral responsibility in the face of potential fatalities. The article concludes that border control is collective work involving multiple frontline actors, including those not formally tasked with migration control, whose everyday practices nonetheless shape migrants' trajectories and survival.

ABSTRACT The Covid-19 pandemic and looming prospect of climate change have brought a debate on the role of expertise and scientific knowledge in policymaking to the fore. This debate informs the work of many scholars working on the dangers and promises of technocracy. Technocracy, however, is neither the only nor the most important ideology that calls for policymaking based on science, research, scholarship, and expertise. In the wake of the ongoing crisis of democratic regimes, it is the ideology of expertocracy that is most significantly gaining in influence. This paper proposes a conceptualization of expertocracy, while at the same time taking its flexible, promiscuous-by-design character into account and framing it as a thin-centered ideology that needs to be distinguished from technocracy and scientific policy advice. These concepts are then used to analyze the writings of Luisa Neubauer, a leading figure of the German branch of Fridays for Future. This case also helps us to understand why the thin-centered ideology of expertocracy is better adapted than technocracy and scientific policy advice both to the current polarization of democratic political life and to the context of looming climate change.

ABSTRACT In 2023, members of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), the largest radical right party (RRP) in Germany, took part in a meeting with known right-wing extremists to discuss a ‘masterplan’ aimed at deporting not only migrants but also German nationals, who – according to the event’s participants – had not sufficiently integrated into German society. This sparked a public debate on the values of democracy and whether the AfD aligns with liberal principles of inclusivity and pluralism. While discussions of ‘behind-closed-door’ conversations have always been debated, the attempt to measure the strength of moderation between more and less formal acts of speech has remained understudied. This study uses a computational text classification model and a qualitative content analysis to analyze the proportion of hate speech in manifestos, political speeches, and Twitter for three RRPs in Germany (i.e. the AfD, Die Heimat, and the III. Weg). It finds that RRPs in Germany utilize less hate speech in manifestos compared to Twitter, suggesting a self-policing of hate speech in more formal texts. Additionally, this study examines five mainstream parties in Germany, demonstrating that the use of hate speech for RRPs and its subsequent moderation is unique to the radical right party family.