Last month's parliamentary elections ended Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's 16-year rule, giving Hungary something more consequential than a change of government: a chance to show the world how to rebuild science after political control. With a two-thirds parliamentary majority, the new leadership has the mandate and the constitutional power to rebuild Hungary's scientific enterprise around merit, and resistance against future interference. If Hungary gets this right, it will offer a model that matters far beyond its borders.

Road investments are intended to promote economic development and enhance access to social services. Ideally, such infrastructure projects should be prioritized based on objective assessments of local needs and development potential. However, political considerations often influence public road investment decisions, favoring specific electoral groups. This study analyzes the role of electoral motives in road development in Kenya using a hybrid modeling approach and regression discontinuity design (RDD) on a spatial panel dataset (2002−2023). Our findings reveal both correlational and causal evidence of preferential road allocation to constituencies that (1) supported ruling coalition candidates in presidential and parliamentary elections and (2) experienced closely contested elections. Despite constitutional reforms aimed at equitable resource distribution, electoral dynamics continue to shape road development. To mitigate political influence in road allocation, we recommend further devolution of road development responsibilities, increased transparency and adherence to needs-based expansion of road infrastructure.

ABSTRACT The partition of undivided India through the two-nation theory created India and Pakistan, but it also laid the groundwork for deepening xenophobia within Pakistan's political structure, sharpening divisions between West and East Pakistan. In East Pakistan, Creole nationalism rooted in Bangla language, culture, and identity – combined with economic disparities and political marginalisation – intensified these fractures. The region gradually transformed into a necropolitical space, culminating in the genocide of the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971 and the emergence of Bangladesh as an independent state. Yet within four years, Creole nationalism resurfaced in a reconfigured form: Bangladeshi nationalism. This ideological shift distanced Bangladeshi Bengalis from Bengalis in India's West Bengal and increasingly aligned national identity with Muslimness, thereby reinscribing the logic of the two-nation theory. Although the Awami League government under Sheikh Hasina later re-centred Bengali nationalism, the period surrounding the January 2024 parliamentary election witnessed escalating political upheaval, necropolitical violence, and institutional instability. As violence intensified, Bangladesh's parliament was dissolved, and Sheikh Hasina left the country on 05 August 2024. Drawing on the framework of necropolitics, this study critically examines the historical evolution and contemporary manifestations of Bangladesh's necropolitical landscape.

ABSTRACT Reflecting findings of political scientists on the need to unify to effectively counter competitive authoritarian regimes, Hungary’s disparate opposition came together for the 2019 Budapest elections and won. Following similar processes and strategies for the 2022 parliamentary elections, the united opposition nonetheless suffered a stinging defeat even while increasing its vote share in Budapest. In the 2024 local and European Parliamentary (EP) elections, the opposition fractured. This article uses the trajectory of Hungarian opposition unity and disunity, particularly in Budapest, to demonstrate why coalitions of weak parties in competitive authoritarian regimes are difficult to maintain. It argues that Hungarian opposition party and voter behavior reflects two overlapping dynamics. First, optimism on winning elections increases competition between the opposition parties. Second, since losing the 2022 parliamentary elections, opposition voters sought more promising opposition parties and candidates, and opposition parties wanted to use the 2024 Budapest elections to test new strategies and messages as well as their own popularity. These two dynamics resulted in multiple sources of disunity, including competition between existing parties, the attempted cooptation of an opposition party by the regime, and the emergence of a powerful new party.

ABSTRACT The paper explores the paradoxical implications of democratisation on citizenship policy trajectories through the analysis of Hungarian citizenship legislation since 1989. The main objective of the paper is to analyse the complex nexus of citizenship policy reforms and democratisation. Most importantly, the paper will show that ethnocentrist expansive citizenship introduced in 2010 exacerbates Hungary’s democratic breakdown. First, the votes from the newly naturalised voters abroad help Fidesz in Parliamentary and European Parliamentary elections as well as in national referendums. Second, the naturalisation of more than 1.1 million ethnic Hungarians also helps FideszFidesz's anti-immigrant agenda by making more salient its nativist claims advocating national homogeneity and the ‘biological reproduction’ of the nation defined in ethnocultural terms.

ABSTRACT This study analyses political business cycle (PBC) dynamics in an authoratian country, Türkiye, during the period between the June 2018 and May 2023 presidential and parliamentary elections, employing the conditional PBC framework to interpret an institutionally distinctive case. It argues that the transition to the Presidential Government System in 2018 did not merely operate within a weakly constrained environment but actively dismantled the institutional safeguards, central bank independence, parliamentary fiscal oversight, and statistical credibility, that would otherwise have limited electoral economic manipulation. The Turkish case advances the conditional PBC literature by documenting how institutional constraints can be rapidly dismantled through constitutionally sanctioned mechanisms, how financially open economies can temporarily circumvent the trilemma constraint through unorthodox instruments, and how competitive authoritarian settings amplify the electoral returns to pre-election economic manipulation.

The Slovak provincial organisation of the Czechoslovak Social Democratic Workers’ Party was formed in 1918, evolving out of its pre-war existence as an autonomous section of Hungarian Social Democracy. Its integration into the organisational structures of the Czech Social Democratic Party reflected both long-standing cooperation between the two movements since the late nineteenth century and the political realities created by the establishment of the Czechoslovak state. This realignment was framed by the doctrine of Czechoslovakism, which postulated the existence of a unified Czechoslovak nation and functioned as an integrative response to ethnic nationalism and centrifugal tendencies within a multinational polity. In the early years of the Republic, Slovak Social Democrats aligned themselves closely with the defence of Czechoslovak state unity, together with the Agrarian Party and the Czechoslovak National Socialists. Although this stance initially proved electorally advantageous – most notably in the parliamentary elections of 1920 – it soon became a political liability. As Slovak political life matured, electoral support increasingly shifted towards autonomist programmes, articulated most effectively by Hlinka’s Slovak People’s Party. As a result, Slovak Social Democracy experienced a sustained decline in electoral support, descending from a leading political force to a marginal, albeit persistent, presence within the party system. This trajectory was further exacerbated by an internal party crisis in the early 1920s, when the secession of radical socialist factions and the establishment of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia significantly weakened the party’s organisational base. The resulting fragility constrained its ability to translate electoral representation into durable influence within executive office, despite the prominence of several individual figures at the national level. The party’s final political engagements unfolded against the backdrop of the Munich crisis of 1938, when its leadership participated in negotiations over Slovak autonomy. Its initial refusal to endorse the Žilina Agreement proved short-lived; the subsequent reversal, however, failed to prevent the party’s dissolution. During the Second World War, former Social Democratic activists were relegated to clandestine political activity. Beyond formal politics, Slovak Social Democrats sought to shape public discourse through the party press and affiliated organisations. Persistent financial constraints, however, rendered these initiatives structurally fragile, resulting in a volatile landscape of short-lived periodicals at provincial and local levels. In contrast to the Czech lands – where dense networks of affiliated organisations enhanced Social Democratic mobilisation – the Slovak organisation remained comparatively under-institutionalised. This dimension of Social Democratic activity in Slovakia has thus far received only limited attention in the historiography.

ABSTRACT The performance of parties in elections does not necessarily reflect the level of support they enjoy among the electorate. Election outcomes depend on how voter preferences are aggregated, and the choice of the electoral method can have a greater impact than the preferences themselves. As a corollary of this finding, election results may be positively or negatively correlated with voter evaluations of parties, or they may be uncorrelated. Using short-term and long-term data from Germany, this paper demonstrates that voter preferences and party performance are interconnected in parliamentary elections under a PR voting system. Our findings challenge widely held narratives about the crisis of social democratic parties and the alleged rise in support for right-wing parties.

This article delves into the factors responsible for the decline of the prevailing regional forces in Meghalaya and the emergence of alternative regional forces during the state assembly elections 2023 which continued through the parliamentary elections of 2024. It adopts Lewis P. Fickett, Jr’s framework which views political parties as a catalyst of regionalism. Beginning with a brief overview of the formation of Meghalaya, the authors dwell on the theoretical framework of the research and seek an explanation to the phenomenal rise of the Voice of the People Party (VPP).

Many countries employ two-tiered proportional electoral systems in which seats are allocated based on both nationwide and constituency-level results. Nonetheless, whether voters are aware of the constituency-level context and how it affects electoral behavior has received limited academic attention. Drawing on individual-level data from the Norwegian Citizen Panel collected before and after the 2021 Norwegian parliamentary election, this study shows that voters are aware of the constituency-level context, as they adjust their expectations about a party's likelihood of winning a constituency seat based on local electoral strength and district magnitude. Moreover, the constituency-level context affects voting behavior: supporters of parties polling around the 4% national threshold are more likely to defect when their preferred party is electorally unviable in low-magnitude districts, whereas local party strength plays a limited role in high-magnitude districts. These findings highlight the importance of accounting for both national- and constituency-level factors when analyzing electoral behavior in districted proportional systems and demonstrate that variation in district magnitude creates unequal strategic incentives across constituencies.

The article analyzes the results of the parliamentary elections held on October 3–4, 2025 in the Czech Republic and on October 29, 2025 in the Netherlands, which showed a significant strengthening of positions of the member parties of the Eurosceptic European party “Patriots for Europe”: ANO 2011 led by former Czech Prime Minister A.Babiš, which won the election in the Czech Republic, and the Party for Freedom led by a member of the lower house of the Dutch Parliament G.Wilders, , which demonstrated a strong result and confirmed its electoral potential (second place). Both of these parties previously made a significant contribution to the success of this faction in the 2024 European Parliament elections, forming the third largest group in the European Parliament. The research confirms the trend of strengthening the influence of right-radical forces: the results suggest that ANO will lead the ruling coalition in the Czech Republic, while the Party for Freedom will become the leading opposition force in the Parliament of the Netherlands. In any case, these parties will exert a significant impact on the domestic and foreign policies of these states. A key aspect for Russian researchers is the position of the leaders of these parties, who advocate for the earliest resolution of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict through peaceful diplomatic means. In the context of the confrontation between Russia and the West, the results of these elections are of great importance, as the positions of ANO and the Party for Freedom regarding the Russian Federation and the Russian-Ukrainian conflict differ from the European mainstream and create prerequisites for revising the sanctions regime and restoring dialogue.

This paper examines the effects of recent electoral system reforms on political representation in Albania, with particular attention to vote-seat proportionality, candidate selection mechanisms, gender representation, and regional outcomes. The study adopts a comparative mixed-methods research design, combining quantitative analysis of official election results with qualitative institutional analysis across three parliamentary election cycles (2017, 2021, and 2025), each conducted under different electoral rules. Using a longitudinal case-study approach, the research evaluates how changes in list structures, preferential voting, and gender quotas have reshaped patterns of representation. The empirical findings show that while electoral reforms have expanded voter choice and contributed to a gradual increase in women’s parliamentary representation, their impact on overall democratic representation remains uneven. In particular, the analysis reveals that vote–seat proportionality varies significantly across regions and election cycles, producing disparities that are not fully explained by voter preferences alone. Furthermore, the introduction of preferential voting and modified list structures has not consistently strengthened voter influence over candidate selection, often reinforcing party-level control rather than enhancing electoral accountability. These results suggest that successive electoral reforms in Albania have increased system complexity without delivering proportional improvements in transparency or representativeness. The paper concludes that institutional design alone is insufficient to improve democratic outcomes unless accompanied by broader reforms addressing party practices and governance culture. The findings contribute to ongoing debates on electoral engineering in transitional democracies and offer policy-relevant insights for future electoral reform processes.

The aim of this article is to analyse the political and social conditions that led to the early elections to the Alþingi on 30 November 2024. Public dissatisfaction with the three-party coalition government – the Independence Party, the Progressive Party and the Left-Green Movement – caused internal dysfunction. The main disputes concerned immigration issues, economic and public finance issues, and the scope of social policy. In their election programmes, the main parties emphasised proposals to remedy the situation in these areas. The parliamentary elections, the first under the new electoral law, proved to be a success for the centre-right parties and reduced the fragmentation of the Alþingi. Representatives of five of the eleven parties participating in the elections won seats, with the Icelandic Social Democratic Alliance winning the most. The left-wing parties suffered a defeat, losing their seats in the Alþingi and finding themselves outside it. The new coalition government led by Prime Minister Kristrún Frostadóttir, based on the so-called Valkyrie coalition, has the majority suport in Alþingi. The article’s main hypothesis is that Iceland’s political system will evolve in a center-right direction after the elections, and the current strong, extreme environmental, gender, and pro-immigration rhetoric has reached an impasse. This could lead to the completion of the constitutional reforms initiated in 2010–2011.

The article highlights the effects of Swedish government policies over the past dozen or so years, which have led, among other things, to a shift in the electoral preferences of the Swedish electorate. This shift has weakened the stability of minority government coalitions, resulting in successive government crises between 2019 and 2021. The steadily growing public support for the radical party called the Sweden Democrats, which has been operating in isolation in the Riksdag since 2010, could not remain insignificant for the results of the parliamentary elections scheduled for 11 September 2022, as well as for the future of the traditional two-bloc model of competition between Swedish political parties. Importantly, the decisions made by Swedish voters proved to have a decisive impact on the concept of forming a government coalition and on the direction of government policy since 2022.

Abstract From the perspective of Romanian historiography, the history of the elections of the rural colleges to the Chamber of Deputies between 1866 and 1918 seems to be clear: the winners were most often governmental candidates, the peasantry was not an electoral priority, and there was no substantial politicization of the rural milieu. However, beyond the administration’s control over the elections, some village inhabitants gradually became interested in public and political involvement, which occurred first at the communal level, allowing for their integration into political organizations or parties upon entering public life. This article examines the dynamics of parliamentary elections in the Fourth College (after 1884, the Third College) and evaluates the meaning of the politicization of rural space and its limits. It also identifies, if only partially, the representatives of the peasantry elected to the Assembly of Deputies and analyzes the varied political interests present within this social group.

The article discusses the preparations and outcomes of the parliamentary elections in South Africa, which took place on May 29th, 2024. For the first time in 30 years, the ruling African National Congress failed to secure a parliamentary majority. It is important to understand how this new political landscape will affect domestic and foreign policy. The author analyzes the key stages of the election process, summarizes the results and considers the emergence of new actors. She highlights other factors that contributed to the outcome, including the initial actions of the new leaders of the country. There is a question about how internal change will affect South African foreign policy as a member of BRICS, given recent appointments to government and the position of Minister for International Relations and Cooperation.

In recent decades, there has been significant growth and change in the methods and platforms used by political forces to communicate with their activists and voters. The era of digitalization and public discussion on social networks has gained relevance due to citizens’ new habits of consumption and presence in the virtual world, as well as the technological advances that have taken place, particularly through Artificial Intelligence. However, this does not indicate that parties have abandoned the use of models such as the party press, which had its heyday in the first half of the 20th century, as powerful vehicles for propaganda and the transmission of political messages. Several political forces continue to utilize the party press, which is currently more focused on direct communication with their militants. In recent years, Chega has emerged as one of the most significant parties in Portuguese politics. During the last legislative elections in 2025, it secured 60 seats, a significant increase from the 8 seats it held in 2022 and its initial entry into parliament in 2019 with only one elected representative. Currently, Chega holds the largest presence on social media among all Portuguese political parties. In June 2022, the party launched its newspaper, Folha Nacional , as an additional platform to complement its online presence. The publication has been consistently released since its debut. The aim of this research is to analyze the content published on the newspaper’s front page and how the topics are approached, contributing to the dissemination of Chega’s political message and the respective influence of these stories on militants. The analysis focuses on the year 2024, marked by the early parliamentary elections in March, the European elections in May, the regional elections in Madeira, and the intense debate on the State Budget in Portugal, with an unstable parliamentary configuration. The approach utilizes content analysis. It aims to contribute to the study of how political parties communicate and how their strategies are crucial in consolidating their positions. This process allows for anticipating the levels of interaction and involvement of militants and citizens with their respective party forces.

Gambling advertising during sports broadcasts has received increasing academic attention, although research has primarily focused on the United Kingdom context. This study addresses this geographical limitation by conducting a comprehensive content analysis of gambling advertising during football broadcasts in the Czech Republic. The specific objectives were to examine the frequency, nature, and characteristics of gambling advertisements in coverage of Czech football matches. A content analysis was conducted across four rounds of the Czech First Football League, encompassing 32 matches during August-September 2025. Two coders analysed 16 matches each following the establishment of high inter-rater reliability. All advertisements appearing during broadcasts were systematically recorded, documenting frequency, duration, timing, product types, and promotional characteristics. A total of 1,824 gambling advertisements were documented across 32 matches, averaging 57 advertisements per match (SD = 7.04). The total advertising duration was 22,011 s (6.1 h), with an average of 11.5 min per match. Sports betting dominated (85.0%), followed by online casino promotions (10.7%) and lottery advertisements (4.3%). During live match coverage, 700advertisements from a single title sponsor were recorded. The findings reveal extensive exposure to gambling advertising during Czech football broadcasts, substantially exceeding the levels documented in prior studies. The predominance of sports betting content and sophisticated promotional techniques, including celebrity endorsements and contextual adaptation to the approaching parliamentary elections, demonstrates comprehensive marketing strategies targeting broader audiences. These results highlight the need for regulatory consideration of gambling advertising exposure in sports broadcasting within the Czech Republic.

This study aims to analyze the relationship between economic issues and voter behavior in the Iraqi parliamentary elections. Economic issues, represented as the independent variable, are examined through five dimensions: unemployment, poverty, administrative and financial corruption, inflation rate, and income inequality. Voter behavior, the dependent variable, directly influences voter decision-making in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The study employed a descriptive both the analytical and quantitative approach, collecting and analyzing the opinions of a sample of )4,075( respondents from a total of )2,844,051( Randomly across the governorates and regions registered voters. The hypotheses were tested using statistical methods via SPSS version 24. The study reached a number of key conclusions, including a statistically significant relationship between all economic determinants (such as unemployment, poverty, corruption, inflation, and income inequality), with inflation showing the highest impact among all dimensions. This means that inflation explains more than 61% of the change in voter behavior and is the most influential economic factor in voting decisions, implying that an increase in any of these factors leads to a change in voting patterns. The study recommended a set of measures, emphasizing the need for political parties and politicians to develop specific economic strategies focused on improving citizens' living conditions. This can be achieved by implementing concrete solutions to issues such as unemployment, rising prices, and the lack of social protection services.

This study discusses the judicialization of politics in Pakistan and whether the superior courts are constitutional watchdogs or political referees that affect the results of the competitive process. The increasing judicial power of the Pakistan hybrid democracy has been observed to increase in times of institutional instability and this has raised the issue of overreach and the separation of powers. The qualitative doctrinal approach and comparative case-study analysis of landmark rulings are used to study the court interventions in parliamentary dissolutions, elections, party discipline, accountability processes and civil military relations. Courts demonstrate the behavior of guardians in the maintenance of constitutional order but become the referees in the politically sensitive cases, especially those related to accountability and intra-parties, transforming political alliances. The power of the judiciary is not that transparent, it is better to have more institutional dialogue and clear restraint to support governance.