The recent focus of the EU on the application of the rule of law in member states, including other political reforms and conditionality in the Western Balkan accession states, shows that the issue of democratic politics has reached a critical juncture in many parts of Europe. But how big is the problem of democratic backsliding and how credible is the fight against illiberalism? Our SEESOX seminar series is looking at the quality of democracy in South East Europe, through thematic and comparative country perspectives.

Discussants: Tuuli-Anna Huikuri and Ben Garfinkel

Discussant: Adam Shindler

Electoral behavior is growing increasingly volatile and unpredictable in many established democracies. Despite scholarly interest in the correlates of electoral volatility, we still know very little about the deep-seated reasons and determinants of the growth in electoral volatility. In this paper, I argue that a key predictor of the volatility of electorates lies in citizens’ group-based cross-pressures.

Discussant: Jeff Ding

Discussant: Kenneth Stiller

Theoretical advances in the study of institutional change center around a productive paradox. Change agents can take strategic action to change institutions, and yet institutions display remarkable formal stability. We therefore expect that attempts to change institutions are an empirical regularity and that many formal change attempts will fail. In this talk, we conceptualize failed institutional change attempts as key moments in institutional development, propose a framework to analyze their effects on institutional trajectories, and distinguish them from negative cases.

Discussant: Kate Guy