Abstract The research on the factors that incentivise participation appears to form a puzzle within Political Science. This article addresses a more specific issue, the relationship between the disproportionality of electoral systems and voter turnout. The most established hypothesis assumes a positive relationship between proportionality and electoral participation. This hypothesis seems to have been confirmed for industrialised countries with advanced democracies. We test this hypothesis using the case of the Spanish Congress of Deputies, one of such democracies. The Spanish case offers methodological advantages that make it ideal for isolating the impact of the examined variable. However, the hypothesis is not confirmed, adding another piece to a puzzle that apparently is not resolved in the literature.
Abstract If political trust is foundational to democracy, why do some countries remain stable while others experience democratic erosion, despite similar levels of trust? To address this question, this article shifts focus from country-level averages to the partisan polarization of trust, arguing that its distribution between government supporters and opposition voters offers a more accurate reflection of democratic quality. Using data from the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) project and the European Social Survey, the article examines the Visegrad countries – Czechia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia. Findings show that while there is no clear relationship between country-level averages of trust and democratic quality, higher polarization of trust is clearly associated with lower democratic quality, with polarization preceding democratic decline rather than resulting from it. A critical threshold is also identified – once the trust gap surpasses a certain point, democratic quality tends to erode rapidly. Although the article’s exploratory design calls for a cautious interpretation of the findings, they show the relevance of partisan trust dynamics and provide new perspectives for future research on political trust.
Abstract The association between social sorting and political polarization is increasingly evident. Often overlooked is, however, the role of spatial sorting. In line with the US evidence, we can expect internal homogenization and external differentiation of neighbourhoods in their voting behaviour, also in the European context. In this article, we conduct the first longitudinal analysis of such spatial polarization in a European multi-party system, exploring its degree and development across several spatial scales, innovatively employing multi-group statistical indices developed for the study of ethnic segregation. We analyse the case of Czechia, contributing to a scarce amount of political polarization evidence in this country. The resulting spatial polarization of voting is generally very low, with the trajectory in the shape of the letter “V,” corresponding to three phases of Czech party politics. The 2002 legislative election saw the greatest degree of internal electoral heterogeneity of neighbourhoods, preceded by the period of formation of Czech party politics and followed by the period of increasing prominence of populist/anti-populist and cultural cleavages. Despite the increase in spatial polarization in recent years, Czech electoral behaviour still remains more or less evenly distributed in space, and the Czech mass political polarization should be rather attributed to factors other than neighbourhood homogenization.
Abstract This article looks for context between the quality-of-life index in Czech municipalities with extended powers and the electoral performance of political parties that won seats in the 2017 general election and again crossed the 5% electoral threshold in 2021. It assesses connections with the quality-of-life index and the quality-of-life index with control variables. The populist party ANO and far-right party SPD received more electoral support in municipalities with a lower quality of life. As the value of the index increased, so did the electoral performance of two centre-right wing coalitions SPOLU, and the coalition of Pirates and STAN. Model n. 2 shows that with control variables, the influence of quality of life was unchanged. The size of a municipality’s population and the proportion within it of Catholics and non-EU nationals also had a statistically significant effect on party electoral performance.
Abstract Politicization of courts is a hot topic in public discourse and research. However, to date, we know little about the factors that lead to politicized judgments and dissent within courts, although the politicization of courts is generally seen as something negative. To contribute to existing hypotheses and findings, the applicants’ political intentions and their access to the court are used as variables to measure levels of politicization. To measure differences, separate opinions in the constitutional jurisdictions of the Baltic states are analyzed. Results show that, in Estonia and Latvia, cases initiated by applicants with wide-ranging court access exhibit higher levels of politicization, confirming existing theories. However, the case of Lithuania and other potential causes of politicization require further research. The results provide for a deeper understanding of the relationship between law and politics.
