690682

editorial2017
PSX0010.1177/0032321717690682Political StudiesEditorial

Editorial
Political Studies

Democracy and Citizenship: 2017, Vol. 65(1S) 3­

© The Author(s) 2017
Reprints and permissions:
Theory and Practice sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/0032321717690682
https://doi.org/10.1177/0032321717690682
journals.sagepub.com/home/psx

This Special Online Themed Issue of Political Studies for 2017 brings together a wide
range of papers focused on questions of democracy, participation and citizenship. The
collection has a powerful empirical basis as well as exploring a range of conceptual issues
in the field of political representation.
In the first of our more empirically focused papers, Loes Aaldering considers
the under-representation of the less well educated in the Netherlands. Following this,
Sergiu Gherghina and Brigitte Geissel assess the relationship between citizen attitudes
to decision-makers and their forms and level of political participation in the German
context. Aleš Kudrnáč and Pat Lyons next use data from the Czech Republic to examine
the effects of parents upon their children’s political participation, while Henrik Christensen
et al. look at the impact of deliberation upon discursive participation in a Finnish
setting.
Markus Wagner and Thomas Meyer develop our theme by considering the changing
role of parties of the radical right in Europe, while Luis Ramiro and Raul Gomez study
the case of Podemos and the radical left in Spain. The next two papers, by Margit van
Wessel and Sveinung Arnesen, take a rather different view of citizen disillusionment and
‘stealth democracy’. The paper by Gijs Schumacher and Nathalie Giger looks at leaders
and those who choose them, and the issue closes with an evaluation by Carlo Invernizzi
Accetti and Ian Zuckerman of the dynamics of militant democracy.
Chris Pierson
Editor