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.

ABSTRACT In 1985, the American psychologist and educationalist Lawrence Kohlberg visited the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in the Federal Republic of Germany. At the invitation of the Social Democrat-led Ministry of Education, he took part in a media-effective symposium and visited schools in the state. The article reconstructs the educational policy, pedagogical and school contexts of Kohlberg’s trip and analyses the interests of the political and academic actors in the Federal Republic who initiated, accompanied and evaluated his visit. Having lost its opinion leadership at the federal level with the transition to Helmut Kohl’s Christian Democratic (CDU) government in 1982, the Social Democratic Party (SPD) attempted to rebrand itself. Taking Kohlberg’s concepts of moral education as a starting point for its educational policy, the SPD sought to regain hegemony in the educational policy and pedagogical discourses of the Federal Republic and further develop the central reform goals from the educational reform era of the 1960s and 1970s, such as democratic education and pupil participation, in the changed constellations of the 1980s. The attempt to politically instrumentalise Kohlberg’s concepts and implement them in schools met with numerous resistances and restrictions in the fields of West German politics, science and schools. Kohlberg’s trip sheds light on the interactions between political programmes, social debates, scientific research projects in psychology and educational science and pedagogical fields of action such as teacher training and schools, which are revealing for the West German history of education “since the boom.”

ABSTRACT While prevailing accounts portray social democratic parties as liberal-democratic bulwarks eroded by rising illiberal populism, this article highlights the emergence of anti-liberal ideological projects from within the center-left itself. It does so by examining the ideological innovation of the post-communist social democratic left in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), focusing on the cases of Czechia and Slovakia. In both countries, over the decade following EU accession in 2004, some politicians and ideological entrepreneurs developed a culturally conservative vision of post-communist social democracy that critiqued West European social democratic models. This alternative emphasized national sovereignty, cultural and national cohesion, and the reassertion of the state’s developmental role, often aligning rhetorically and politically with right-wing populist and conservative forces. Drawing on speeches, interviews and writings, this article examines how the project reframed East–West relationships and framed social liberalism, immigration and multiculturalism as threats to social democratic concepts of solidarity and fairness. The article situates these developments within broader ideological shifts in CEE and contrasts them with parallel debates on the West European left. It concludes by reflecting on whether such conservative variants of social democracy marked a turn toward illiberalism – or an ideological current with democratic potential in a post-liberal era.

Economic policy instruments are commonly used to address environmental problems. This study examines the historical development of the carbon tax in Sweden. By using the concept of epistemic culture, this study shows how carbon emissions, rather than energy use alone, emerged as an object of taxation. While the leading politicians saw the carbon tax as an innovative instrument for demonstrating climate action, the experts responsible for designing and evaluating the tax were highly critical of the policy instrument itself. The economic experts generally supported the use of economic policy instruments, but in this specific case, they advised against it. A domestic carbon tax would not significantly reduce global emissions, they warned. Rather, it would disadvantage Swedish industry due to increasing competition driven by the loosening of capital controls. Yet, the carbon tax was introduced in 1991, albeit at a relatively low level so as not to impose additional costs of energy use on domestic industry. By situating this historical development within debates in the social studies of expertise and climate politics, this study shows how fiscal environmentalism emerged from the interplay between economists’ epistemic culture and the Social Democratic Party’s established practices of using tax-based policy instruments in their state-making efforts. In conclusion, the analysis connects to ongoing discussions about climate justice and the significance of governments—rather than markets—in pricing carbon.

ABSTRACT This study examines how political parties frame climate change and climate policy in their communication. Parties influence public opinion through communication strategies, emphasizing certain aspects of climate change while omitting others. Drawing on party manifestos for the 2024 European Parliament elections across nine EU member states, a mixed deductive–inductive content analysis identifies 14 distinct climate frames: seven that encourage climate action and seven that discourage it. While confirming several encouraging frames established in previous research, the study uncovers a set of underexplored discouraging frames that feature prominently across multiple manifestos: the “Injustice and Sacrifice”, “Complacent Optimism”, “National Sovereignty”, “Appeal to Nature Protection”, and “Change is Impossible” frames. An emerging encouraging frame, “Change is Possible”, is also identified. The findings reveal a clear ideological pattern: Green and Social Democratic parties predominantly use encouraging frames, far–right parties almost exclusively use discouraging ones, and Christian Democratic parties draw on both. By identifying prominent discouraging frames that question or resist climate policy, the study offers critical insight into the evolving political dynamics of climate discourse in Europe and highlights rhetorical strategies that may shape, stall, or undermine future climate policy efforts.

University for Industry and Finance “Synergy”, PhD (History), Associate Professor The article examines the nature and features of the Indian party system and the factors influencing it. India has a multiparty system with a two-block character. The main parties are the right-wing Bharata Janata Party, which defends the ideas of Hindu nationalist ideology and expresses the interests of the Hindu majority of the population, and the Indian National Congress, a center-left social democratic party focused primarily on supporting the poor strata of Indian society, representatives of lower castes and former untouchables, national minorities (tribes), as well as religious minorities of India.

ABSTRACT This paper challenges the perceived inevitability of the peripheral decline of social democratic parties (SDPs) in Europe by comparing the most dramatic case of collapse – PASOK in Greece – with a notable case of resilience – CHP in Turkey. Drawing on the Third Way (TW) debates as a theoretical lens, we present three key findings. First, we argue that despite their distinct ideological legacies, both parties converged through their adoption of traditional social democracy in the 1970s and TW in the 1990s and 2000s. Second, we posit that while TW initially appeared to address the electoral dilemmas facing SDPs, it proved politically costly over the long term, particularly for SDPs in government. Finally, we suggest that a strategic return to traditional social democracy – as exemplified by CHP – offers the most viable path to recovery, even under authoritarian settings.

Abstract. The purpose of this article is to analyze the content and military-political context of thematic reports in the newspaper “Právo lidu” from 1919 about the events taking place in Ukraine at that time. The methodological basis of the study relies on the principles of historicism, systematic approach, and comprehensiveness. The research employs problem-chronological, comparative, and diachronic methods most extensively. The scientific novelty of the article lies in the fact that the materials of “Právo lidu” have not previously been studied by Ukrainian scholars. Conclusions. The Czechoslovak newspaper “Právo lidu”, published in Prague as the press organ of the Social Democratic Workers' Party, held a center-left political stance in 1919. Its coverage of events in Ukraine was sporadic and fragmentary. The newspaper’s attitude toward the “Ukrainian question” is illustrated by its criticism of another publication, “Narodní Listy”, for promoting a "Russian perspective" on Ukrainian events and underestimating their national dimension. The chronicle of military and political events in Ukraine on the pages of “Právo lidu” included themes such as the Bolshevik-Ukrainian war, the participation of Ukrainian representatives in the Paris Peace Conference, Ukrainian-Polish negotiations, the performance of O. Koshyts’s choir at the Prague National Theatre, and the Directory's war against Denikin’s Volunteer Army. It has been shown that the report about L. Yurkevych’s alleged rise to power in Ukraine, to whom the newspaper was sympathetic, turned out to be an unfounded rumor. The tone of the newspaper’s publications about Ukraine’s political situation in the final months of 1919 evolved from criticism of Bolshevik actions to recognition of their military successes and a hopeful outlook on a potential Ukrainian national form of Soviet government. Keywords: Ukraine, Czechoslovakia, press, Ukrainian army, Bolshevik-Ukrainian war, Polish-Ukrainian negotiations, Volunteer Army.

Abstract Based on recent declassified sources, this article uncovers the motives behind the Danish responses to the 9/11 terrorist attack and why Denmark went to war in Afghanistan. The terrorist attack was a shock, which caused a politically uncontroversial policy of showing solidarity with the United States. However, the scope of this policy was up for debate. The Danish government pursued a policy of unconditional solidarity which also included willingness to deploy military forces to Afghanistan. Behind this was an analysis that nothing but unconditional support from Europe could lead to a more unilateral or perhaps even isolationist development in US foreign policy, which would have negative consequences for Denmark’s security. The goal was to maintain the transatlantic bond. The Danish Ministry of Defence and the Danish Defence took an activist approach in their efforts to transform this policy into a military contribution. The dividing political lines unfolded in earnest when different ways of contributing militarily presented itself. The liberal, conservative and right-wing parties preferred a contribution to fighting terrorists and the Taleban regime as requested by the US, while the centre, social democratic and left-wing parties wanted to prioritise humanitarian aid and to assist the interim Afghan authorities in maintaining security in Kabul. However, Denmark ended up contributing to both military operations and humanitarian and reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan. But it was the US-requested military contribution that was valued the most and led to a closer Danish-US bilateral relationship.

Abstract While the radical left has strong connections to the tradition of liberal democracy, it also has associations with authoritarian forms of rule and a tolerance of illiberal transgressions when perpetrated by sister parties. Through an exploration of 53 European Parliamentary debates from 2011 to 2022, this paper illuminates a hitherto neglected part of the Rule of Law Crisis, namely the extent to which radical left parties defend liberal democracy in the EU. We find that these parties, through the GUE/NGL group in the Parliament, tread a fine line between defending EU intervention in cases of democratic backsliding internal to member states, while retaining a critical outlook on the EU’s own democratic deficits. Our paper shows that the radical left develops a set of arguments that are sharply distinct not only from those of social-democratic parties, but also from radical right MEPs, suggesting that on this issue area at least, the latter two party families do not converge, contrary to what the “horseshoe” model of political ideology would suggest.

<p>O construcție alternativă: Alianța Dreptate și Adevăr</p> <p>An Alternative Construction: The Justice and Truth Alliance</p>

<p>Dualismul guvernării și confruntarea electorală</p> <p>The Dualism of Governance and the Electoral Confrontation</p>

<p>Competiție și bipolarizare. Noi tendințe în sistemul politic românesc</p> <p>Competition and Bipolarization: New Tendencies in the Romanian Political System</p>

This article addresses the identification of major programme differences among social democratic political entities in the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic during the 2024 European Parliament elections. It assesses the extent to which the programme documents and pre-election communications of the analysed political parties Sociální demokracie, Smer-SD, and Hlas-SD corresponded with the fundamental ideological principles of social democracy as defined by Heywood, as well as their alignment with the theoretical framework of social democracy. The content analysis shows that the Czech entity adheres to the ideological framework of social democracy, while the Slovak entities present tendencies toward nationalism and conservatism. This raises questions about the appropriateness of labelling the Slovak parties as social democratic, reflecting their significant deviation from this ideological framework in terms of political programs and practices.

Populist and social democrat parties often claim to better represent lower socio-economic status (SES) citizens, yet existing research shows their elected politicians are mostly socio-economically privileged. This study asks whether these politicians nonetheless maintain closer personal ties to lower SES individuals, focusing on politicians’ intimate relationships such as parents, partners, and close friends. Using original survey data from 1185 politicians across 13 countries, we find limited evidence that populists and socialists are better in touch, through their ties, with lower SES individuals. Populists and socialists are more likely than other politicians to come from lower-class families, and social democrats more often have lower-educated parents. However, both groups are just as likely as other politicians to have highly educated and higher-class friends and partners. A notable exception is that populists are somewhat more likely to have a lower-educated partner. Overall, despite their rhetoric, intimate ties to lower SES groups remain limited among populists and socialists.

Importance. The transformation of the phenomenon of loyalty as an integral part of the professional ethos of civil servants in Habsburg Monarchy institutions is analyzed, following its collapse in 1918 and the establishment of a parliamentary republic in Austria. It traces the formation process of political camps in Austria in the 1920s, accompanied by the promotion of their own narrow-party and, as a rule, utopian ideas about democracy, which differed from its classical parliamentary version. At the same time, special attention is paid to the development by the Austrian government of measures to counter the abuse of their official positions by employees of state institutions for party and political purposes. The purpose of the study is to examine the activities of political parties and extra-parliamentary forces represented in the Austrian Parliament in the second half of the 1920s and early 1930s, in particular, the Heimwehr, aimed at using the professional experience of government officials in party and political interests. Materials and Methods. The content of the concept “employees of state institutions” is revealed. Based on a critical analysis of statistical data, individual documents of political parties in domestic and foreign research literature using historical and comparative historical and genetic methods, the process of extrapolation of the political struggle in Austria in the second half of the 1920s and early 1930s to the official activities of government officials has been traced. Results and Discussion. Cases of violations of the principle of “party neutrality” by employees of state institutions in Austria in the second half of the 1920s and early 1930s have been identified, the practice of using “administrative resources” in some government departments to ensure the loyalty of their employees to the government has been analyzed, and measures taken by them at the legislative level to prevent politically motivated behavior have been highlighted officials. Conclusion. The collapse in 1920 of the Austrian government coalition formed as part of the Social Democratic Party of Austria (hereinafter referred to as the SDPA) and the Christian Social Party (CSP) in Austria contributed to the widespread dissemination of party thinking, which penetrated, among other things, into the corps of government employees considered neutral in this sense. The Government sought to prevent the growing politicization of government employees in the context of socio-economic and instability in the second half of the 1920s and early 1930s. To this end, the “administrative resource” was widely used in key government departments to purge the state apparatus of supporters of the SDPA and fill it with representatives of the government CSP. As a result, the inadmissibility of the participation of employees of state institutions in political activities was fixed at the legislative level.

In contemporary hybrid media systems, political actors constantly experiment with new communicative strategies to influence voters during elections. Humour, sarcasm, and irony are examples of persuasive techniques that have increasingly been studied in a variety of contexts, yet there is still limited research examining uses of comedy and news satire genres in relation to strategic political communication during election campaigns. This article contributes to the literature through an exploration of what we define as ‘strategic satire’, focusing on how the two largest political parties in Sweden, The Social Democratic party and the Sweden Democrats, have utilised this strategy on YouTube. We assess strategic news satire across multiple dimensions including generic aspects, topics, and semiotic resources. Results reveal overlapping strategies, but with variations in implementation shaped by differing ideological foundations.

Learning in Political Engagement. A Practice Theoretical Analysis of Social Democratic Party Members’ Learning in Political Practices. This article aims to study learning as part of Social Democratic party-political member engagement. Political parties have recently been described as increasingly professional organisations focused on strategic management and winning elections, rather than member engagement and acquiring ideological support. This development may limit party members’ roles and influence within the party organisation, which might be reflected in how they perceive their conditions as members. This study focuses on how members of Finland’s Social Democratic Party have learned to be involved in party-political practices and developed in their political engagement as part of party-political practices. The results reveal how the interviewees become embedded in party-political structures through dialogues, by helping others, making themselves available and creating networks. Efforts to develop as party members are intertwined with political engagement through self-studying and discussing with other party members, balancing diversity and achieving consensus.

This article examines the outcomes of the snap parliamentary elections held in Germany on February 23, 2025,– seven months ahead of schedule– following the collapse of the governing coalition composed of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), Alliance 90/The Greens, and the Free Democratic Party (FDP). The study aims to identify the causes behind the erosion of public trust in the ruling coalition, the ongoing transformation of Germany’s party-political system, and the electoral gains achieved by opposition forces. Drawing on quantitative and qualitative analyses of election results, party manifestos, and secondary sociological data, the paper highlights key shifts in German politics: the dramatic decline of the SPD, the FDP’s failure to re-enter the Bundestag, the rising influence of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), and the strengthened position of The Left (Die Linke). Particular attention is paid to the formation of a new government led by Friedrich Merz (CDU/CSU) and its anticipated policies in the spheres of the economy, migration, and foreign affairs, including its stance on the Russia–Ukraine conflict. The article concludes that Germany has entered a period of profound political and economic turbulence, which is likely to intensify polarization across the party spectrum.