Cuando partidos o candidatos derrotados rechazan el resultado de una elección, casi invariablemente aseveran haber sido víctimas de fraude. La democracia les exige aceptar su derrota, el fraude los libera de esta exigencia. ...

In recent years, we have seen the rise of a “new institutionalism” in the study of authoritarian regimes that takes seriously previously neglected pillars of non-democratic governance: nominally democratic institutions, ...

Major cross-national surveys measure popular support for democracy through direct questions about democracy in the abstract. Since people may entertain competing democratic ideals and ideals, however, we ignore the extent ...

In the present article, the term "democratic consolidation" shall carry a specific and precise meaning: expected regime stability. In this sense, we can take a democracy to be consolidated as soon as we reach the conclusion ...

The present paper proposes new venues for measuring and conceptualizing levels of competitiveness in electoral autocracies. Instead of relying on single indicators and predefined thresholds, it classifies a sample of 58 ...

Political science, striving to uncover the regularities of political life, has paid scarce attention to its contingencies. As a first step toward the systematic examination of the causal role contingency plays in politics, ...

The current essay does not set out to relate the concept to the history of thought. Its pretense is more limited. It aims at reconstructing the meaning of the concept as we currently use it. In essence, it claims that the ...

The recent comparative literature on authoritarian institutions has been tracing the consequences formal institutions bear on the longevity of authoritarian rule. Striving to explain transitions from electoral authoritarian ...

This Working Paper provides a brief overview over Mexico’s political history since political independence in 1821. It outlines the struggle for political stability from independence to revolution; the institutional and ...

Concepts are central to the enterprise of political science. If we fail to develop clear and precise concepts, our theoretical insights and empirical discoveries will fail to be clear and precise, too. This paper reviews ...