ABSTRACT This paper examines whether rising political critiques of higher education reflect a broader public backlash against universities in advanced democracies. Drawing on an original five-country survey – including observational and experimental components – it investigates three questions: who is more critical of universities, where are such divisions sharper, and why do citizens hold these views? The results show that while overall support for universities remains widespread there are emerging divides structured by cultural orientations. Socially conservative voters, particularly in the United States and United Kingdom, are more sceptical of universities’ social and cultural roles, but they do not reject them wholesale. Experimental evidence reveals no generalised hostility: across contexts, most respondents respond more to positive over negative arguments about universities, although social conservatives adopt more selective, less ‘bundled’ positions than liberals. The findings suggest that ideological divides are real but asymmetrical, pointing to the critical role of different political contexts in shaping backlash.

The recent spate of coups d’état and other threats to democratisation in Africa has raised questions about the role international actors can play in addressing democratic backsliding. International actors have particularly turned to punitive measures to motivate a state experiencing democratic backsliding to alter course. While a growing body of research has investigated the activities and impact of international actors in deterring unconstitutional changes of government and promoting democracy in Africa, only a few studies have evaluated the conditions under which Africans would support these punitive measures, such as foreign aid conditionality aimed at advancing democracy and human rights. This article argues that evaluations of institutional performance frame public attitudes towards such external punitive measures. When the public perceives democratic norms and human rights to be undermined domestically, they will be more supportive of political conditionality from aid donors as citizens may be wary of their governments’ own efforts to pursue political reforms without external pressure. I find support for this argument when tested using the 8th round of the Afro­barometer survey. This article’s argument and findings raise important implications for the African Union, regional economic communities and donor actors interested in democracy promotion.

ABSTRACT The global resurgence of authoritarianism has fundamentally altered the international context for democracy promotion. How do domestic elites in the countries exposed simultaneously to democratic and authoritarian diffusion forces respond to these competing external influences? This article develops an analytical framework to study the interplay between competing democratic and authoritarian diffusion forces in the international arena and domestic elite responses to an increasingly diverse menu of external actors’ tools, policies, and narratives. In the European Union (EU) context, authoritarian influences directly challenge the EU’s tools, narratives and approaches, opening pathways to hybridity. The framework conceptualises the impact of competing influences by distinguishing between the creation and persistence of cross-border patronage networks and the transfer of ideological narratives. We examine how patronage and ideas have affected countries in the EU as well as its neighbourhood, pointing to different member states, accession candidates, and neighbouring countries to illustrate the dynamics at play. We conclude that the emergence of competing diffusion forces represents an important challenge to the EU’s democracy promotion efforts that needs to be addressed more systematically in the EU’s efforts to shape democratic outcomes in its neighbourhood.

Abstract In an era marked by pervasive political distrust, individuals exhibit a spectrum of responses, ranging from political disengagement to assertive forms of participation, often expressed through populist movements. Drawing on data from the Japanese Electoral Studies (JES) between 2009 and 2024, this study integrates attitudinal and behavioural measures to examine why some individuals retreat from political life while others remain politically engaged under similar conditions of distrust. Focusing on economic insecurity and nationalist sentiment as moderating grievances, the analysis shows that nationalist sentiment is consistently linked to both populist attitudes and electoral participation, whereas economic insecurity displays more limited and context-dependent associations. Overall, the findings indicate that identity-based grievances are more consistently linked to politically engaged responses to distrust than material concerns. This study provides novel insights into how political discontent is expressed in contemporary Japan, demonstrating that its patterns of populist engagement, particularly those associated with nationalism, exhibit important parallels with trends observed in other advanced democracies.

The detection of undeclared assets in the course of investigating the receipt of an unlawful benefit by public official poses challenges for pre-trial investigation authorities, and requires them to make certain procedural decisions. In order to outline this algorithm of appropriate actions, the article examines the legal mechanisms available to Ukrainian law enforcement agencies in such cases. It is important to stress that when investigating the receipt of unlawful benefits, it may be necessary to apply legal instruments that have been introduced into Ukrainian legislation only recently, and that might require substantial changes in the near future. The aim of this study is to examine the algorithm of actions that are applied when Ukrainian law enforcement agencies detect undeclared assets during the investigation of the receipt of unlawful benefits by an official. To achieve this objective, the study employed formal-legal, logical-legal, dialectical, descriptive, systematic and logical methods The results of the study show that in certain situations, pre-trial investigation authorities have different tactics at their disposal. These include providing evidence that an official has declared inaccurate information, gathering evidence for a lawsuit that aims at shoving that assets have not been acquired lawfully and that is geared at recovering them as state revenue, or proving illegal enrichment. It is the author’s conviction that the study also proves that current Ukrainian legislation contains provisions that allow for effectively countering violations of the law and responding appropriately to the ownership or use of undeclared property by public officials. The author is also of the opinion that further research should focus on finding ways to improve legislation through the prism of judicial and law enforcement practice that will be developed in the future. This will help to improve the legal instruments described, adapt Ukrainian legislation to the legislation of advanced democracies, and contribute to the establishment of legality and the rule of law.

Abstract: This essay argues that the main contemporary threat to democracy is not military coups but democratic erosion led by elected officials. Economic globalization, party-system realignment, and especially high inequality created openings for right-wing ethnonationalists in advanced democracies and left-populists in the Global South. Though ideologically different, democratic erosion from both right-wing ethnonationalists and left-populists often weaken courts, the press, civil society, and electoral accountability. Inequality fuels grievance, distrust, and polarization, which backsliding leaders exploit through divisive rhetoric and attacks on institutions. Democratic decline can be resisted through coordinated action by opposition elites, civil society, courts, and voters.

ABSTRACT Anti-Westernism has become a defining feature of Russia’s official discourse, shaping both its foreign policy and regime legitimation. Yet scholars disagree on when and how this orientation took shape. This article clarifies the concept of anti-Westernism and traces its evolution between 2000 and 2024. Anti-Westernism is conceptualized as a discursive stance comprising two dimensions: normative (values and identity) and geopolitical (international order and power). Drawing on a mixed-methods approach, this study argues that anti-Westernism became radicalized not only through the gradual accumulation of hostility, but through the convergence of these two logics that initially developed along different trajectories. In the early 2000s, liberal democratic and traditional values were presented as compatible; over time, they were reframed as mutually exclusive. Geopolitical narratives shifted in 2007–2008 from emphasizing European integration to articulating an anti-American stance. These two dimensions converged after the 2014 Euromaidan revolution and the annexation of Crimea, when Western democracy promotion was reinterpreted as a deliberate strategy to contain Russia. This convergence intensified hostility towards the “collective West” during the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The empirical analysis demonstrates that the intensification of Russia’s anti-Western discourse resulted from the interaction between incremental discursive shifts and critical political events.

Abstract This article examines the intertwined political rationalities of “Islamism prevention” and democracy promotion in state-led programs in Germany. Drawing on critical scholarship on prevention, democracy promotion, and securitization, the article pursues two interrelated arguments. First, it shows that the politics of distinction between “Islam” and “Islamism” is not merely epistemological but constitutes a governing tool. Such distinctions racialize Muslim minorities by measuring them against unmarked standards of “proper” religion. Second, the article argues that democracy promotion programs tied to preventive rationalities depoliticize democracy by framing it as a stable order to be upheld instead of as a contested political project. This displaces deeper exclusions embedded in the modern nation-state and its racialized borders into individualized ideals like resilience, tolerance, or civic virtue.

ABSTRACT How has China defended its overseas interests when threatened by backlashes and how are clientelist governments colluding with their authoritarian patron when the patronage relationship is threatened by the domestic public? Using the framework of external image management, we unpack the responses from the Zimbabwean government and different Chinese actors to opposition against Chinese investments in Zimbabwe, which were channelled through the domestic Zimbabwean state-media. We show how initially problem-acknowledging coverage shifted towards framing CSOs, journalists and opposition as instruments of Western ‘smear campaigns-’ and regime-change agendas. Chinese diplomatic and business actors reinforced and internationalised these narratives, while also engaging in direct intimidation and reputational attacks. The case illustrates how Chinese external propaganda and host-country authoritarian strategies become mutually reinforcing, normalises Chinese presence and marginalises contestation. This speaks to broader debates on China’s global image management, civil society repression, and the changing conditions for democracy promotion in the Global South.

The literature on judicial politics posits that powerful litigants, the "haves", tend to prevail in court. Nevertheless, the evidence regarding litigants' success remains inconclusive and is limited to a few advanced democracies and some in Latin America. This article tests the generalizability of extant arguments within the unexplored context of the Uruguayan Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ). Using an original database of the SCJ's decisions on the constitutionality of laws issued between 1989 and 2021, we explore the applicability of party capability theory and its extensions. The findings of this study indicate that the advantage held by those with greater resources is conditional on the issue at stake and is mostly limited to economic issues. These findings offer a nuanced understanding of party capability theory and extend its study to a previously unexplored case in the Global South.

ABSTRACT Governments in advanced democracies often implement self‐binding mechanisms like regulatory offsetting schemes to counteract short‐term political incentives. This paper evaluates the effectiveness of Germany's offsetting scheme by analyzing over 3000 legal acts for restrictive clauses and passages related to replacing or repealing existing regulations. Despite Germany being a “least likely” case for failure, our analysis indicates that the scheme has not reduced regulatory burdens. These findings suggest that self‐binding measures struggle to override political incentives for rule production, especially with inadequate monitoring. We contribute to the literature by systematically assessing governmental self‐binding effectiveness, introducing a novel methodological approach based on large language models, and employing a robust difference‐in‐differences design to estimate counterfactual effects. Our study highlights the challenges of implementing effective self‐binding mechanisms in democratic governance.

ABSTRACT With a focus on the autocratization episodes that occurred in Africa during the 2000–2023 period, this article examines how effectively external actors help constrain the unfolding of autocratization. While the recent literature has primarily highlighted how domestic actors can resist autocratization, the role of external actors should not be overlooked, especially in a region such as Africa characterized by a peculiarly high number and variety of external interventions over time. Accordingly, we focus on two main strategies of external protection of democracy – namely, democracy sanctions and democracy aid – and discuss how their combined employment could trap autocratizing elites in between two opposite pressures. From above, as sanctions restrict elites’ access to revenue, and from below, as increased external democracy assistance empowers local democratic actors. To investigate empirically whether and how democracy sanctions and democracy aid interact with each other in countering autocratization, we apply regression methods and conduct a series of sensitivity analyses to confirm the validity of our results. Our findings show that such a combination of tools is an effective way in which external actors can help counter autocratization from abroad, provided that they are genuinely committed to accompany sanctions with substantial aid increases.

ABSTRACT This article explores the impact of international party assistance and transnational networks on political parties in hybrid regimes, focusing on Georgia and Moldova. Using qualitative research, including interviews with party representatives and donor organisations, it argues that while such support sustains party operations, it also shifts accountability away from domestic constituencies toward international actors. In particular, opposition parties, often excluded from national media and policymaking, increasingly rely on European party networks for visibility and legitimacy. However, this reliance has limited grassroots engagement and weakens parties’ societal linkages. So while transnational alliances and party assistance provide vital resources and platforms for the exchange of ideas, they risk reinforcing donor-centric rather than citizen-centred accountability, threatening the long-term effectiveness of democracy promotion in hybrid regimes.

ABSTRACT The Third Wave of Democratization's international dimension connects domestic democratization processes with the global spread of democracy after 1989. How has democracy promotion, a specific international source, contributed to the Wave of Democratization? And is scholarship well equipped to study the fundamental shifts in democracy promotion caused by the Third Wave of Autocratization? This article answers these questions from two perspectives. First, it assesses the relevance, patterns and effects of international democracy promotion between 1995 and 2024. Second, it takes a meta-perspective and identifies the main characteristics and blind spots of the study of international democracy promotion. Based on these insights, the article makes a conceptual contribution by distinguishing between democracy support and democracy protection. Furthermore, it defines the international scope conditions necessary for effectively promoting democracy during periods of autocratization. Finally, it proposes a new agenda for the study of international democracy promotion after the Third Wave of Democratization.

Abstract This article examines the Alternative for Germany's (AfD) position following the 2025 federal election, considering whether the party is entering a stage of decline, sustaining its previous support, or moving toward greater ascendancy. The analysis assesses changes in voter demographics, regional dynamics, and issue salience to identify patterns of continuity or transformation in the party's base. We also define potential future issues, including continued dissatisfaction with the previous Ampel coalition and the grand coalition that replaced it, backlash against the end of the debt brake, and the perceived weakness of Friedrich Merz as a leader. In light of recent efforts to classify the AfD as an extremist party, the article evaluates how the party's evolving strategy and public perception may influence its capacity to shape party competition and national policymaking. Finally, it explores whether the AfD's post-2025 trajectory signals a tipping point in the normalization of far-right politics in Germany or a plateau in its influence, with broader implications for democratic stability in advanced democracies.

ABSTRACT This article focuses on how technologically advanced democracies have been balancing the United States’ security-related pressures in semiconductor governance and the desire to maintain or enhance their relative position in the global semiconductor value chain. The production of semiconductors relies on a global value chain (GVC) shaped by interdependence with different countries in different regions playing a key role. However, escalating Sino-American rivalry has reframed semiconductor governance, with the US leveraging its security patronage to align allies and partners with its strategies, while other nations adopt diverse approaches to balance geopolitical pressures and technological autonomy. This article examines how technologically advanced democracies navigate US demands, employing a framework based on two variables: the degree of security commitment and the relative power in the semiconductor GVC. Through case studies of Taiwan, the ROK, Japan, and the EU, it identifies four strategic responses (full alignment, hybrid alignment, selective autonomy, and horizontal misalignment) and their implications for semiconductor governance.

This study investigates whether nudging interventions can improve compliance in the collection of overdue motor vehicle taxes in a developing country context. While behavioral approaches to tax compliance have demonstrated effectiveness in advanced democracies, empirical evidence from fiscally constrained institutional settings remains limited. This study seeks to test the external validity of behavioral interventions in Thailand. A randomized controlled trial (RCT) was conducted across eight districts in Krabi Province, Thailand. Six variants of tax-reminder letters, grounded in behavioral tax compliance theory, were administered to treatment groups, while two districts served as control groups receiving no behavioral intervention. Compliance outcomes were measured by comparing post-intervention payment rates across experimental and control groups. The results show that nudging interventions increased motor vehicle tax compliance by an average of 2.58 percentage points relative to the control groups. Among the tested messages, a deterrence-based reminder emphasizing statutory penalties produced the strongest effect, increasing compliance by 5.01 percentage points. The findings suggest that while behavioral framing mechanisms are effective, expected utility considerations remain highly influential in taxpayer decision-making. The study confirms the contextual robustness of behavioral interventions beyond advanced Western democracies and demonstrates that deterrence theory retains explanatory power when embedded within behavioral communication strategies. The findings highlight a cost-effective and administratively feasible strategy for enhancing revenue collection in decentralized governance systems. Policymakers in middle-income countries can employ behaviorally informed reminder letters to improve tax compliance without increasing enforcement costs.

ABSTRACT Incumbent local politicians often face high rates of turnover in many new democracies. While studies on the renomination of local incumbents in advanced democracies focus on the voter-level origins of turnover, renomination in parties where candidate selection is centralized is less well understood. I argue that national party elites use the political scarcity generated by the high turnover of local incumbents to send a credible signal to their ethnic group by bolstering the presence of their co-ethnics in local offices. I test my argument using an original dataset of incumbent mayors in South Africa’s African National Congress party in four local government elections. I find that mayors who are co-ethnics with the president are more likely to be reselected. This finding shows that accountability to citizens is less central to parties that use centralized nomination procedures and that parties use non-merit-based criteria to evaluate politicians.

Abstract The global rise of deliberative democratic innovations, particularly minipublics such as citizens’ assemblies and deliberative polls, has been marked by uneven adoption across advanced democracies. While some countries have integrated these mechanisms into their democratic frameworks, others remain hesitant, raising questions about the institutional conditions that facilitate or hinder their adoption. This study employs qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) to examine how configurations of three key institutional dimensions – consensus democracy, federalism, and direct democracy – shape the adoption of minipublics. Our findings reveal that minipublics are more likely to be adopted in majoritarian systems with strong federalism and limited direct democracy, where they address participatory gaps. Conversely, systems combining high consensus democracy and extensive direct democratic mechanisms, such as Switzerland, often exhibit lower adoption rates, as existing power-sharing structures fulfil similar deliberative functions.

Purpose Since the advent of democracy in South Africa numerous changes have been implemented within higher education to address the legacies of apartheid. The transformation involved amalgamating some former white, traditional universities with Technikons to establish Comprehensive Universities (CUs) and Universities of Technology (UOTs). While the motivation to transform select higher learning institutions in South Africa through mergers was deemed imperative, some contend it fell short of adequately addressing the disparities in higher education and contemporary urban issues. This article critically examines the shifts in architectural education at former Technikons in South Africa. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on focus group discussions, in-depth interviews with educators and institutional documentation, the research explored the shifts in programs to respond to the transformation of the higher education framework. Focusing on the Department of Architecture at the University of Johannesburg (UJ), comparisons were drawn with several accredited institutions in South Africa, including Tshwane University of Technology, Durban University of Technology, Cape Peninsula University of Technology and Nelson Mandela University. Moreover, the research examined how design studio lecturers transform curricula to address the socio-spatial complexities of African urbanism. Findings The study identifies a movement from Eurocentric design norms toward more participatory, interdisciplinary and contextually responsive pedagogies. Research limitations/implications As with many qualitative studies, this research is subject to limitations in scope, generalizability and potential bias. These limitations primarily arise from the participant sample size, constraints in data collection methods and the use of an autoethnographic approach. Originality/value The conceptualized radical trans-critical spatial design praxis, inspired by critical pedagogy, aims to liberate participants within the design studio. It foregrounds humanity, often marginalized within traditional design education, particularly in politically charged and complex environments.