The ‘practice turn’ in International Relations (IR) has generated innovative perspectives on world politics—but despite its relational ontology, the vital claim to bring the ‘everyday’ to the forefront and wealth of empirical works, substantive debates within the ‘turn’ remain surprisingly theoretical. Researching international practice still tends to be premised on definitional prefiguration regarding how practices, whether patterned or volatile, ought to look to qualify as such. We argue that pragmatist-inspired methodologies turn this conceptual diversity into a resource for empirical research attuned to the contingent character of practices and their recognition as such. Drawing on research on European defence cooperation and ordering processes, we show how the very perception of social behaviour is shaped by implicit visualisations of practices as taking a determinate form. These Gestalt switches are contingent upon the situatedness of practice within relatively homogeneous communities with shared assumptions, such as the European Union (EU), or, conversely, across geopolitical divides, where practices are more readily rendered as irregular exceptions instead of expected regularities. By zooming in and out, we demonstrate a strategy of methodological reflexivity through the deliberate adoption of a ‘view from somewhere’, expanding possibilities of observation and enabling the recognition of elements—such as creativity and mutual recognition—foregrounded by one perspective yet overlooked by another.
Legal struggles unfold when conflicts enter the legal arena and are processed within the framework of the legal form. Traditionally, such battles require a framework in which the pillars of the rule of law guarantee the interpretation and implementation of laws enacted through a democratic process. Currently, this dynamic is changing. Amid growing authoritarian tendencies, legal institutions are under attack. This situation threatens not only national civil and political rights but also the ability to legally contest labour and human rights violations in the global economy. By reconstructing the long-standing debate and controversies on supply chain regulation, we show how these frameworks face renewed threats from right-wing political shifts: Both the German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act and the European Union Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive are under pressure to be dismantled through legislative manoeuvres under the guise of bureaucracy reduction. Our article also examines three concrete legal struggles that have been carried out since the implementation of the German law, providing insight into how these have taken place before and after the implementation of this regulatory framework.
When Israel’s current government announced its plan for a fundamental restructuring of the state in 2022, it caused international criticism and massive protests throughout the country. The so-called judicial reform would grant the government control over the appointment process of judges and effectively eliminate judicial review. Its opponents therefore feared for no less than the end of the separation of powers and thereby Israel’s democracy. This article argues that the current attack on the Supreme Court and the rule of law is closely linked to the struggle over Israel’s national identity. Its distinctive constitutional structure and unique historical challenges have created a vibrant democracy that depends on ongoing social discourse. However, this has also led to a particular vulnerability to populist narratives, which is evident in the current political struggles. The article traces the constitutional–historical origins of this vulnerability and then analyzes how the political right created a populist narrative that was used to attack the judiciary and, with it, the separation of powers and democracy.
This article investigates how voters in Türkiye interpret the left–right political spectrum and Europe through the lens of symbolic and operational ideologies in a context of deep political polarization. Drawing on in-depth qualitative interviews with 45 participants from diverse sociopolitical backgrounds, the study examines how abstract ideological categories function as meaning-laden identity markers rather than as stable policy coordinates. The analysis reveals a pronounced divide between supporters of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and opposition voters, particularly those aligned with the Republican People’s Party (CHP), while also highlighting important variation within these camps. Across both groups, symbolic ideology—anchored in cultural, historical, and moral narratives—consistently outweighs operational, issue-based preferences in shaping political identification and evaluations of Europe. On this basis, the study reconstructs analytically distinguishable patterns of ideological orientation that combine symbolic identification, system-related evaluations, and attitudes toward Europe. The article’s contribution lies in demonstrating how ideological polarization in democratic backsliding contexts is structured less by coherent policy preferences than by contested symbolic meanings attached to abstract political categories. By foregrounding voters’ interpretive practices, the study advances a qualitative framework for analyzing left–right identification and Euroskepticism that is applicable beyond the Turkish case to other polarized party systems.
Der Mangel an Sitzungsprotokollen erschwert Analysen zur Arbeitsweise kommunalpolitischer Gremien und zum Verhalten der dort agierenden Akteur:innen. Abhilfe schafft die zunehmende Verbreitung von Livestreams und Videoaufzeichnungen von Kreistags- und Stadtratssitzungen. In Kombination mit technischen Neuerungen zur Extraktion und Aufbereitung großer (multimodaler) Datenmengen eröffnen sich neue Perspektiven für die lokale Politikforschung. Für eine breite Verwendung dieses Datenschatzes ist jedoch die Generalisierbarkeit auf die Grundgesamtheit kommunaler Gebietskörperschaften notwendig. Entsprechend stellt sich die Frage, ob sich Kreise und Städte mit Aufzeichnung systematisch von solchen ohne diesen Service unterscheiden und ob die Übertragungen einen Wandel der kommunalpolitischen Debatten induzieren. Dazu werden auf Grundlage einer systematischen Recherche sowie einer Umfrage unter Kreistagsmitgliedern die rechtlichen, politischen und finanziellen Rahmenbedingungen der Einführung beschrieben und der Einfluss der Aufzeichnungen auf das Redeverhalten untersucht. Sitzungsaufzeichnungen sind insbesondere in Großstädten verfügbar, liegen aus einwohnerschwachen Kreisen aber bislang kaum vor; zudem zeigen sich deutliche Bundeslandunterschiede. Die Umfrage liefert Hinweise, dass auch auf kommunaler Ebene eine Anpassung an die erweiterte Sitzungsöffentlichkeit stattfindet. Die externe Validität von Sitzungsaufzeichnungen als Datengrundlage ist somit bislang nicht gegeben, was bei Forschungsdesigns und Fallauswahl berücksichtigt werden sollte.
Fiskalregeln in Deutschland und Europa wurden zuletzt kontrovers diskutiert. Diese Debatte schwebt auch über der Schuldenbremse, die in Deutschland Bund und Länder erfasst. Im Falle der Gliedstaaten behindert sie gleich ein zweites Einnahmeventil, nachdem einzelne Landesregierungen ohnehin kaum die Möglichkeit haben, ihre Steuereinnahmen autonom zu gestalten. Verteilungsfragen müssen primär auf der Ausgabenseite entschieden werden. Doch führte die Schuldenbremse tatsächlich dazu, dass öffentliche Investitionen vernachlässigt wurden? Für alle 16 Bundesländer und den Zeitraum 1995–2024 haben wir einen Paneldatensatz zusammengestellt, der auf den Kassenergebnissen der öffentlichen Haushalte basiert. Er enthält Compositional Dependent Variables, die messen, inwiefern Landesregierungen Investitionen, Personalausgaben, laufenden Sachaufwand oder den Schuldendienst priorisieren. Dahinter steht der methodische Ansatz, haushaltspolitische Trade-offs explizit zu modellieren und mithilfe von Seemingly Unrelated Regressions (SUR) die Entscheidungsrealität von Politikern abzubilden. Als unabhängige Variable nutzen wir einen Index der fiskalischen Selbstbindung. Wir finden keine Anzeichen, dass rigidere Verschuldungsgrenzen zu einem Crowding-out öffentlicher Investitionen geführt hätten. Stattdessen scheinen Landeskabinette angesichts der Schuldenbremse Personalausgaben und – in geringerem Ausmaß – Investitionen zu priorisieren – zulasten von Sachausgaben. Dieses Muster zeigt sich für SPD-geführte Regierungen klarer als unter unionsgeführten Mehrheiten.
In this paper, we examine whether local politicians in German district councils (Kreistage) adhere to social norms of demarcation from the populist far-right Alternative for Germany party (AfD). Within Europe, Germany stands out as a rare example of consistent far-right exclusion at the federal and state levels. Recent research suggests that social norm adherence, rather than strategic calculations, explains the persistence of such cordons sanitaires. However, little is known about whether this explanation applies at the local level. We test the norms-based approach by analyzing the sentiment of council speeches at Germany's district level-an environment with minimal strategic incentives for ostracism. Using a novel corpus of 18,598 speeches in nine districts, we examine whether the AfD is addressed more negatively in speeches than other parties are and whether party position explains variation in these responses. We complement the quantitative analysis with a qualitative exploration of different critique types directed at the AfD. Our results strongly support the norms-based explanation of rhetorical ostracism, as all parties demarcate themselves from the AfD. However, we find significant differences between center-left and center-right parties driven by ideological, and actor-level factors. Our study not only provides the first empirical examination of parliamentary reactions to the AfD in local contexts but also enhances our understanding of contemporary far-right politics and mainstream responses.
In the context of societal polarization, an increasing tendency toward refusal to communicate in public discourse becomes apparent. Conflicts often harden to the extent that involved groups politically isolate themselves and perceive each other solely through negative stereotypes. Existing political routines and participation formats barely reach these groups and thus seem limited in their ability to effectively address polarized conflicts. This is where we introduce a new, experimental participation format of testimonial dialogues, which we developed and tested in a pilot project in the Rhenish lignite region. This format addresses the current situation of blocked communication and integrates it into a process through which constructive impulses of democratic exchange can unfold. For this purpose, we invited a group of lignite employees as well as climate activists to several consecutive workshops. Guided by participatory theater artists, the two groups separately from each other developed a testimonial message for the respective other group. This "message in a bottle" was ultimately delivered to the other group, which subsequently allowed for a voluntary meeting of both sides. In this paper we first outline the background considerations of this experiment: With the concept of testimony, we theoretically emphasize an addition to and extension of dominant understandings of political deliberation. We then clarify the meaning of indirect communication and present our key findings: The format enabled a more inclusive, empowering articulation (voice), generated indirect closeness and agonal curiosity, and helped illuminate central communication barriers associated with the conflict constellation. Thus, testimonial dialogues open up low-threshold points of connection for constructive engagement with deep societal conflicts.
In recent years, the places of international politics and diplomacy have increasingly become a focus of research, a trend to which the practice turn in International Relations has contributed significantly. However, the conceptual dimension of the relationship between diplomatic practice and the places where it takes place has received little attention to date. The present article aims to address this gap by arguing that the concept of site, as distinct from space and place, is well suited to render the interwovenness of practice and location visible. Theodore Schatzki’s “site ontology” offers a comprehensive framework for this, emphasizing the contextual nature of practice and site. The conceptual dimension will be illustrated here through an empirical case study, namely embassies. While the extant literature focuses primarily on the buildings of international organizations and international courts, embassies have not been the subject of such attention to date, even though they are also among the central sites of diplomacy. In the context of empirical research on the relationship between architecture and diplomacy, it becomes apparent that Schatzki’s site ontology remains comparatively abstract. For this reason, the sociological work on architecture by Thomas Gieryn is also drawn upon here. A further complement is provided by the three functions of architecture formulated by the architect Bernard Cache: separation, selection, and arrangement. The article concludes with some methodological considerations on how the interplay of practices and architecture can be empirically investigated. The central concepts in this context are resistance and the disruption of routines.
Im Zuge der gesellschaftlichen Polarisierung ist eine zunehmende Tendenz zur Kommunikationsverweigerung im öffentlichen Diskurs beobachtbar. Konflikte verhärten häufig in einer Weise, dass sich beteiligte Gruppen politisch gegeneinander abschotten und wechselseitig nur noch in negativen Stereotypen wahrnehmen. Bestehende politische Routinen und Partizipationsformate erreichen diese Gruppen kaum und scheinen somit nur begrenzt in der Lage, polarisierte Konflikte effektiv zu bearbeiten. An dieser Stelle setzen wir mit einem neuen, experimentellen Beteiligungsformat der Zeugenschaftsdialoge an, das wir in einem Modellversuch im Rheinischen Braunkohlerevier entwickelt und getestet haben. In diesem Format wird die Situation der blockierten Kommunikation aufgegriffen und in einen Prozess integriert, durch den sich einzelne konstruktive Impulse des demokratischen Austauschs entfalten lassen. Wir haben dazu eine Gruppe von Braunkohlebeschäftigten sowie Klimaaktivist*innen getrennt voneinander zu mehreren konsekutiven Workshops eingeladen, um unter Anleitung partizipatorisch arbeitender Theaterkünstler*innen eine testimoniale Botschaft an die jeweils andere Gruppe zu erarbeiten. Diese „Flaschenpost“ wurde am Ende an die andere Gruppe zugestellt und anschließend auf freiwilliger Basis ein Zusammentreffen der Gruppen ermöglicht. In diesem Beitrag skizzieren wir zunächst die Hintergrundüberlegungen dieses Versuchs: Mit dem Begriff der Zeugenschaft machen wir politiktheoretisch eine Ergänzung zu bzw. Erweiterung von Deliberationskonzepten stark. Danach präzisieren wir den Sinn indirekter Kommunikation und stellen zentrale Ergebnisse genauer dar: So ermöglichte das Format eine inklusivere, ermächtigende Artikulation (Voice), erzeugte eine indirekte Nähe und agonale Neugierde und trug zur Ausleuchtung zentraler mit der Konfliktkonstellation einhergehender Kommunikationshindernisse bei. Zeugenschaftsdialoge eröffnen somit auf einer niedrigschwelligen Ebene Anknüpfungspunkte für eine konstruktive Bearbeitung verhärteter Konflikte.
How we see, know, and feel about international politics is highly shaped by visuals and practices. Images of politicians shaking hands and dress codes adhering to long-established protocols illustrate diplomatic routines, making politics visible and comprehensible to us daily. These images of diplomatic practices highlight the importance of both routines and creativity in politics, showing their expressive and performative side. This side is particularly epitomised by what we call ‘style’, the visuality and embodiment of (self-) presentation shaped by clothing. By combining the study of visuality with practice theory to examine the productivity of style, our contribution explores how practices reveal the implicit norms of a ‘pecking order’ on the diplomatic stage. Empirically, we zoom in on two encounters in 2025 between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the current Trump administration that illustrate how style becomes a serious political matter.
Starting from the premise that deliberative democracy requires a “congruent” political culture constituted by “deliberative citizens,” we study individuals’ self-beliefs about the extent to which they adhere to a broad range of deliberative maxims when discussing politics in their everyday lifeworld. Drawing on a unique survey, we demonstrate the unidimensionality of stances toward deliberative core principles for treating the substance under discussion (reason-giving, opinion change, openness) and for interacting with conversation partners (listening, understanding, empathy, respect). Defining deliberative citizens as those simultaneously acknowledging all these virtues allows us to estimate their share of the citizenry. We find that their proportion is not sufficient to speak of a “congruent” political culture. Certain sociodemographic backgrounds, political motivations and skills, and general personality traits emerge as important correlates. Conflict orientations are the most powerful predictor, but their effect is counterintuitive. Conflict seekers appear more appreciative of deliberation than conflict-averse persons do.
So far, practice theory has not considered in detail how practices contribute to the constitution of time. This paper aims to address this lacuna by investigating what role emotions play in this process. By referring back to early to mid-twentieth-century German thought, it is argued that, during the performance of practices, there are two processes evolving: time to practice and time in practice. These processes not only help people to construct a sense of linear time by enabling them to refer back to a past and help to anticipate a future, but it is also within these performances that heterotemporality is constructed. In both these processes, emotions play a critical role; not only are sentiments of time created, but also a particular Stimmung is established that mitigates the ambivalences of these experiences and lead to different attributions of meaning to the same political event. To empirically substantiate these claims, this paper investigates sociability events during the Potsdam Conference in the summer of 1945.
In this paper, we examine whether local politicians in German district councils (Kreistage) adhere to social norms of demarcation from the populist far-right Alternative for Germany party (AfD). Within Europe, Germany stands out as a rare example of consistent far-right exclusion at the federal and state levels. Recent research suggests that social norm adherence, rather than strategic calculations, explains the persistence of such cordons sanitaires. However, little is known about whether this explanation applies at the local level. We test the norms-based approach by analyzing the sentiment of council speeches at Germany’s district level—an environment with minimal strategic incentives for ostracism. Using a novel corpus of 18,598 speeches in nine districts, we examine whether the AfD is addressed more negatively in speeches than other parties are and whether party position explains variation in these responses. We complement the quantitative analysis with a qualitative exploration of different critique types directed at the AfD. Our results strongly support the norms-based explanation of rhetorical ostracism, as all parties demarcate themselves from the AfD. However, we find significant differences between center-left and center-right parties driven by ideological, and actor-level factors. Our study not only provides the first empirical examination of parliamentary reactions to the AfD in local contexts but also enhances our understanding of contemporary far-right politics and mainstream responses.
In recent years, there has been increasing debate in Germany about the introduction of a mandatory national service, and political theory has likewise shown a growing interest in such an institution. Yet while public commentaries lack a systematic and theoretically reflective engagement with the central arguments, research in political theory tends to overlook the military dimension and questions of institutional design. This article addresses these desiderata through a systematic, comparative analysis and weighting of relevant justifications and objections. It argues that the core normative issue is the appropriate relationship between individual negative liberty and competing values-security, civic equality, fairness, trust, and solidarity-as well as the proper balance between market mechanisms and state regulation. In addition, it demonstrates how particular justifications of mandatory national service require specific configurations of institutional design, the non-implementation of which may undermine the normative force of the respective justification.
Triggered by the Correctiv investigation into a meeting of far-right actors in Potsdam, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets across Germany in early 2024. In Munich, too, the demonstration 'Together Against the Right, For Democracy and Diversity' mobilised an exceptionally large number of participants. We explain the mobilisation of these many demonstrators through the discourse and populism theory of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, the transfer of which into protest research has so far been scarcely applied in a systematic manner. Based on a qualitative content analysis of newspaper articles, press releases, and social media posts, we identify the empty signifiers used for mobilisation in the run-up to the protest. We then analyse how these terms were concretised in the speeches and musical contributions, as well as in 65 exclusively available feedback emails from participants. Our findings show that empty signifiers such as 'against the right', 'for democracy', and 'for diversity' enabled broad mobilisation, yet their concretisation during the demonstration revealed agonistic conflicts and moments of dislocation. Although the demonstration exhibited left-populist elements (the construction of in- and outgroups, the use of a democratic symbol, and emotional rhetoric), it did not operate in a transformative sense according to Mouffe, but rather in a stabilising one. Thereby we demonstrate how left populism in civil-society mobilisation can function as a force stabilising the liberal-democratic system.
