Participatory innovations (PIs) have been introduced as one possible cure to democratic
malaises. Empirical research on these mechanisms for citizen participation has, however …

In recent years, political scientists have gained greater understanding of how national
parliamentary parties use their parliamentary tools: that is under what conditions they submit …

Differentiation in political trust attitudes occurs when citizens distinguish between different
political institutions in terms of their trustworthiness. This article explores patterns of …

In systems of representative democracy, elected representatives, as per their title, are
elected to represent citizens. The use of democratic innovations in such systems is growing …

The rise of new populist parties has raised concerns for representative political systems and
the quality of democracies, by challenging the liberal checks and balances in the name of …

As the Internet has come to play a greater role in politics, there has been a growing scholarly
interest in how digital and social media are changing politics. The competition between the …

Local councillors find themselves in an interesting position in local government. In the
traditional model of representative democracy, the council is pivotal in an electoral chain of …

Mein Dank geht zunächst an meine Doktormutter Prof. Dr. Brigitte Geißel, für ihre geduldige
Begleitung der unterschiedlichen Phasen meiner Forschung und die beständige …

Trust in national and local institutions is an essential component of democracy. The literature
has dealt mainly with the former, while less attention has been given to the latter. This paper …

Although democracy is often discussed as a universally applicable ideology, the liberal
democratic state tends to assess democracy on the basis of government institutions. This …