ZfP Zeitschrift für Politik

This study examines how domestic fragmentation of American security policy structurally can increase the probability of succession wars. The transformation of the United States from a regional hegemon to a potential hegemon – driven by relative...

The study of war causation is one of the central and most contested fields in political science and international relations. This article provides a systematic overview of classical theoretical paradigms – realism, power transition theory,...

Never again is now? In light of the wave of anti-Semitism on the streets, in schools and universities, this text diagnoses a failure of political education and attributes this to the blind spots of a democracy education primarily focused on German...

This article argues, against the backdrop of the historical development of weapons technology and warfare, that humanity has pushed the relationship between destructive effect and self-risk to both its maximum and its minimum limits: on the one hand...

This article analyzes the contemporary revival of Carl Schmitt’s political theory within US technolibertarian circles and examines its implications for political order during Donald Trump’s second presidential term. It argues that Schmittian...

Similar to their European counterparts, Japan’s center-left parties face a crisis of decline rooted in three distinct challenges. First, the number of left-leaning members of parliament is insufficient to secure governing majorities. Incorporating...

Although populist government leaders have repeatedly spoken out loudly on the international stage in support of oppressed and persecuted religious communities, free­dom of religion or belief (FoRB) remains an overlooked topic in research on...

The second Trump administration points to tightening ties between populist governments and movements, from Javier Milei to Viktor Orbán and Giorgia Meloni to Nigel Farage. Beyond this, populist leaders in the Global South, however, have so far not...

As a policy field that has long remained largely outside the focus of the broader public debate, development policy has historically attracted little attention from European right-wing populist parties. This article examines the development of...

The Stadt-Umland-Bahn is intended to provide the Nuremberg metropolitan region with transport links and at the same time expand local public transport services. Nevertheless, this project is representative of other infrastructure projects in...

Attitudes towards capital punishment are compared in the German population over time. Whereas the proponents of capital punishment were in the majority in the 1950s and 1960s, they are a small minority nowadays. Subsequent questions addressed to the...

To characterize the past and current challenges for British politics and society the term »crisis« is regularly used. So the first question to be asked is what are the ingredients of this perception? If we look for empirical evidence of crises we...

The 2022 energy crisis, triggered by the halt of Russian gas and oil supplies in February 2022, confronted the German government with the challenge of balancing social affordability, economic stability, and ecological sustainability—the so-called...

In his lecture series on the »History of Governmentality«, Foucault demonstrates how preventive measures, risk management, and the governance of populations – collectively, security techniques – have become central to modern statecraft....

After the early independence from Spain, republics emerged in Latin America. Due to the contradiction between the constitution and constitutional reality, democratic development suffered setbacks. Personalist dictatorships were followed in the 20th...

The most widespread concepts of authoritarianism today originate from the examination of the totalitarian movements and regimes of the 20th century. Karl Loewenstein first distinguished ‚authoritarian regimes‘ conceptually from totalitarianism....

Given the substantial changes in direct mandates, the results of the 2025 German federal election are analysed at the constituency level. This article examines, among other aspects, which constituencies were considered ›safe‹ ahead of the...

The early 21st federal election ended with heavy losses for all three governing parties. The FDP, with its worst result, failed to meet the five percent threshold for the second time since 2013, as did the Federal Social Democratic Party (BSW) by a...

This essay examines Russia’s post-Soviet transformation through the lens of political systems theory, political culture, and identity politics. Rather than a democratic transition, the collapse of the Soviet Union ushered in a series of hybrid and...

This article deals with the aleatory theory of democracy as a normative reform project in the context of regressive modernity. By means of a reconstruction of institutional and constitutional theory, it will be shown that the project of improving...

The article discusses seven potential functional advantages of sortition as a decision-making tool. The list includes the following arguments: The draw is absolutely accurate, it is cost-effective, it is a neutral and procedurally autonomous...