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The project of liberal democracy is inherently marked by tensions between its liberal and democratic pillar. This means that liberal democracy needs to constantly strive for a balance between conflicting principles. If it does not contain these centrifugal forces, liberal democracies risk becoming subverted from within due to one principle clearly dominating the other. In this article, we start from the idea of liberal democracy depending on balance to systematically assess multiple endogenous challenges to democracy. We identify four types of deformations and show how they are qualitatively distinct phenomena, yet systematically relate to each other. We furthermore discuss what the co-existence of several such deformations means for the notion of liberal democracy understood as a state of balance. In sum, the proposed framework adds to existing research by providing a systematizing and theoretically grounded assessment of ongoing subversive tendencies in liberal democracy.

AbstractDespite the sweeping societal and economic transformation brought about by digitization, it has remained a relatively marginal topic in elections, with parties having few incentives to signal commitment to digitization. Why then would parties start to do so? We address this question by examining party manifestos from German subnational elections in the period between 2010 and 2018. Our analysis contributes to the research on issue competition by looking at why parties engage with the topic of the digitization even though it has neither become politicized nor salient, at present. We find, first, that parties emphasize digitization more in regions belonging to the mid-tier in terms of their degree of digital modernization. Second, parties with more resources and greater ideological compatibility signal more commitment to digitization. Finally, electoral success of the Pirate Party as a credible challenger has been followed by greater emphasis on digitization, especially among the ideologically closest competitors.

Die Autoren untersuchen die Frage nach Möglichkeiten und Grenzen von 'presidential leadership' anhand der Themenbereiche Legislative, Wahlbevölkerung und Exekutive. Leitgedanke ist, in welchem Maß es Obama seit seinem Amtsantritt (bis 2011) gelungen ist, seinen Anspruch ('change') nach einem politischen Wandel durchzusetzen. (1) Es gelang Obama eingangs, seine Maximalvorstellungen in Gesetzesentwürfen einzubringen, um einen für ihn immer noch günstigen Kompromiss zu erreichen. Diese wurden tendenziell zwischen Obama auf der einen und Führungsspitzen der Mehrheitsparteien auf der anderen Seite ausgehandelt. (2) Etwa ein Drittel der Wahlkampfversprechen konnte Obama einhalten, im Aushandlungsprozess lagen (Stand 2011) noch knapp fünfzig Prozent. Dennoch ist ein Absturz der Zustimmungswerte zu verzeichnen. (3) Auf der Ebene der Exekutive können auf der institutionellen Schiene Kontinuitätslinien festgestellt werden. Allerdings versucht Obama, seine präsidentiellen exekutiven Handlungsspielräume auszureizen. (ICB2)

'Yes, we can' und 'Change' sind zwei Kurzformeln, die viele mit dem Antritt der Präsidentschaft von Barack Obama verbinden. Des vorliegende Band untersucht das Institutionengefüge des US-amerikanischen Regierungssystems, in dessen Rahmen Obama agieren kann, die politischen, ökonomischen und sozialen Rahmenbedingungen für politisches Handeln sowie die Handlungsspielräume und Akteurskonstellationen in bestimmten Politikfeldern (Gesundheitspolitik, Energiepolitik, Klimaschutzpolitik, Außenpolitik, transatlantische Beziehungen). Den roten Faden für die zehn Beiträge des Bandes bilden drei Fragestellungen: (1) formale verfassungsrechtliche Kompetenzen einerseits und informelle Machtressourcen des Präsidenten andererseits; (2) politische Ziele Obamas und Unterschiede und Gemeinsamkeiten mit den Positionen von George W. Bush; (3) Resultate der Politik Obamas in den ersten drei Regierungsjahren. Die vorliegende Einleitung stellt abschließend die Fragestellungen der zehn Beiträge des Bandes vor. (ICB)

The Liberal Tradition in America: Gesellschaft und Ideologie -- Checks and Balances: Institutionen, Akteure und Strukturen -- Et pluribus unum? Öffentlichkeit und Teilhabe -- Policies Matter: Regieren im 21. Jahrhundert -- Empire of Liberty: Die USA in der Welt.

Under what conditions can UN military peacekeeping operations (PKOs) succeed in contexts of civil war? This is an important question given the prevalence and cost of civil wars and the high, yet not always fulfilled, expectations of very costly military PKOs as responses to them by the international community. Yet, the academic and policy debates on this question are as long-standing as they are unresolved. Our article contributes to existing scholarship in several ways. First, adopting a nuanced and multi-dimensional definition of success that considers violence, displacement, and contagion as its 3 essential components, we identified 19 cases of full or partial successes, and 13 full or partial failures, covering all 32 UN military PKOs deployed to civil war settings. Second, we develop an original dataset and analytical framework that identifies a wide range of plausible factors related to the dynamics of both the intervention and the underlying conflict it is meant to address. Third, applying qualitative comparative analysis to our dataset of these 32 military PKOs, our key finding is that what matters most and consistently across all of these missions is the presence or absence of domestic consent to, and cooperation with, deployed PKOs.

Under what conditions can UN military peacekeeping operations (PKOs) succeed in contexts of civil war? This is an important question given the prevalence and cost of civil wars and the high, yet not always fulfilled, expectations of very costly military PKOs as responses to them by the international community. Yet, the academic and policy debates on this question are as long-standing as they are unresolved. Our article contributes to existing scholarship in several ways. First, adopting a nuanced and multi-dimensional definition of success that considers violence, displacement, and contagion as its 3 essential components, we identified 19 cases of full or partial successes, and 13 full or partial failures, covering all 32 UN military PKOs deployed to civil war settings. Second, we develop an original dataset and analytical framework that identifies a wide range of plausible factors related to the dynamics of both the intervention and the underlying conflict it is meant to address. Third, applying qualitative comparative analysis to our dataset of these 32 military PKOs, our key finding is that what matters most and consistently across all of these missions is the presence or absence of domestic consent to, and cooperation with, deployed PKOs.