International Political Science Review

What is the role of political parties in shaping parliamentary interactions in contexts where party switching is relatively frequent, as observed in many emerging democracies? If parties have a limited coordinating function in young democracies, one would expect current party affiliation to have little influence, with party switchers maintaining their original networks of parliamentary contacts. Conversely, a shift in interaction patterns towards members of the new party would indicate the persistence of party-based organization within parliament. We examine an extreme case: in the 11th Zambian National Assembly, nearly half of the Members of Parliament had switched party affiliation at least once. Using social network analysis of data from face-to-face interviews with 103 Members of Parliament, we analyse patterns of Member of Parliament interaction in parliament. Our findings suggest that current party affiliation significantly structures these interactions. This provides strong evidence for the continuing relevance of parties in emerging democracies – encouraging news for those who view parties as fundamental building blocks of representative democracy.

This note analyses the relationship between the facial characteristics of non-democratic leaders and the way in which they reached office. After collecting pictures of 274 leaders in office between 1975 and 2010, we use a computer-based survey to assess how these faces are spontaneously perceived by ordinary people for five facial characteristics. We find that selected dictators (that is, those who were either elected, appointed, or foreign imposed) look more trustworthy than monarchs, who were not selected by anyone. Attractiveness and competence are uncorrelated with entry mode. These results suggest that authoritarian selectorates, like voters in democracies, use facial characteristics as cues to choose leaders, but value different qualities in their rulers.

Political consumerism, including boycott engagement, has become an increasingly prominent form of political participation. Digitalization and value change are often cited as key drivers of this trend. However, there is a lack of empirical studies analysing the influence of these factors on political consumerism over time and across countries. This study utilizes data from 11 waves of the European Social Survey (n = 313,061) across 15 countries to explore these dynamics. Results show that both individual-level internet usage and self-transcendence values significantly predict boycott engagement, as do self-transcendence values at the country level. In contrast, cross-country differences in digitalization levels have no effect. Moreover, the effects of self-transcendence values on boycott engagement increase slightly over time. Contrary to expectations that internet usage would grow in importance for political participation, the effects of both digitalization and individual internet usage have remained remarkably stable over time.

Political violence poses an alarming threat to contemporary democracies and is often attributed to rising polarization. This paper investigates how democratic institutions moderate the relationship between identity-based polarization and violence, hypothesizing that this relationship depends upon a country’s institutional structure. Studying 113 democracies over time (1900−2023), we find that while identity-based polarization is associated with political violence, democracies with a federal structure and a rigid constitution show a significantly weaker relationship between polarization and violence. These results offer a rare positive perspective within polarization studies, showing that violence – polarization’s worst threat to democratic peaceful coexistence – is related to the institutional organization of conflict in society.

How have US immigration attitudes evolved over time? This study investigates the insufficiently addressed temporal dynamics of anti-immigration attitudes through dual lenses of economic and social exclusion. Utilizing six waves of the World Values Survey data (1990–2017) and an age-period-cohort framework, it explores how age, historical context and cohorts shape public attitudes toward immigration. Economic exclusion follows a curvilinear age pattern, initially rising, then plateauing and eventually declining, reflecting shifting perceptions of labor market competition. In contrast, social exclusion increases steadily with age, underscoring persistent concerns over cultural integration among older individuals. Period effects reveal notable historical shifts, whereas cohort effects show minimal variation, suggesting generational convergence. By bridging economic and sociocultural perspectives, this study contributes to broader theoretical discourse and longitudinal empirical research on immigration attitudes.

We live in a technologically advanced era with a marked dependence on digital technologies. Simultaneously, we face increasingly frequent and diverse large-scale emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Civic engagement refers to the range of activities of people working to impact public life in communities, both offline and online. This study investigates the antecedents of online emergency-oriented civic engagement. We focus on states of emergency and develop a framework to explain the emergence of online emergency-oriented civic engagement compared to offline engagement. Using data from 612 Israelis during the COVID-19 pandemic, we demonstrate major differences between the antecedents of online and offline emergency-oriented civic engagement. Trust in government has a modest impact on online emergency-oriented civic engagement. However, citizens’ perceptions about participation in decision-making, uncertainty and risk cognition add explanatory power through mediating and moderating relationships. Implications and recommendations for future studies are suggested.

The existing body of literature encompasses the dimensions of institutional quality, as well as their relationships with various sectors, including foreign direct investment, trade, economic growth and the energy sector. However, a significant gap remains between institutional quality and geopolitical risk relationships. To investigate the association between institutional quality and geopolitical risk, we utilize panel vector autoregression and generalized method of moments on panel data for G20 countries from 2002 to 2022. Results from panel vector autoregression-generalized method of moments reveal that higher institutional quality, particularly political stability, plays a crucial mitigating role in reducing long-term geopolitical risk, indicating primarily unidirectional causality from institutions to geopolitical risk. However, geopolitical risk is persistent and self-reinforcing over time, with only limited and short-term effects on institutional indicators such as government effectiveness, political stability and rule of law, supporting weak reverse causality. Granger causality tests confirm limited bidirectionality, with institutional quality driving geopolitical risk reductions rather than vice versa.