This article delves into the dynamics of power, public ethics, and injustice to explain the tolerance towards types of corruption that challenge democracy and go far beyond the most discussed illegal ‘Market’ aspects. The aim is to explore the patterns of the more ‘Parochial’ aspects of reciprocity and kinship and the ‘Institutional’ aspects of manipulating the norms and purposes of institutions that corruption has. Using the results of two original surveys conducted simultaneously (between October 2020 and April 2021), in which citizens and politicians in Portugal were asked about eleven potentially corrupt behaviours, this study concludes that it is the normalisation of parochialism in power relations that has been indirectly promoting the maintenance of institutional mechanisms that reinforce exclusion and the adoption of unethical behaviours to restore a sense of equality. It is argued that the antidote to Tolerance towards Corruption (TtC) consists of a formula that includes the constant improvement of the regulation of ethics in public life and public policies capable of mitigating the injustices associated with deprivation.

Hayek regards the liberal democratic model of public opinion as totalitarian. This aggregated majority opinion is, he claims, a disposition to change others’ behaviour. It operates directly or indirectly through the state’s coercive power. To resist totalitarianism Hayek proposes to replace public opinion by an alternative type of aggregate opinion: general opinion. I argue that his shift from public opinion to general opinion transforms the state into a problematic locus for the shaping and disseminating of opinions and thereby turns the content of general opinion into irrefutable dogma. Both consequences are, contra Hayek, more rather than less likely to encourage totalitarianism. In justifying this analysis, I challenge the assumptions, framework, and claims of Hayek’s political theory, offering fresh ways to understand Hayek’s questionable conception of the state and demonstrate that, in replacing public opinion with general opinion, Hayek departs from the liberal political tradition he purports to defend.

Competitive authoritarianism, a specific type of hybrid regime, is gaining ground globally. Corruption is particularly prevalent in these contexts as regimes utilise it to consolidate their power. However, some competitive authoritarian regimes also take significant measures to curb certain types of corruption. The present article posits that competitive authoritarian regimes, acting as rational utility-maximising actors, curb or enhance corruption types based on the net costs and benefits—that is, net gains—they yield for the regime. To elucidate the factors influencing net gains, an explanatory framework is presented. Its three constituent elements are accountability costs, transaction costs, and political benefits. The applicability of the framework is demonstrated with case studies of two corruption types in Hungary, namely, informal payments in healthcare and clientelism in awarding tobacco retail concessions.

This study investigates the meso level impact of an academic development programme on internationalisation. We demonstrate the relevance of the framework of grassroots leadership in higher education in the Central European context and show how individual programme participants acting as grassroots leaders influence departmental attitudes and practices regarding internationalisation and student-centred learning. We identify two successful strategies—single-issue and multifaceted—for grassroots leadership. The study finds that established faculty member participants who are also active as grassroots leaders facilitate the spreading of the influence of an internationalisation programme beyond the individual level, highlighting the differences and similarities in the activism of faculty grassroots leaders in Central Europe vis-à-vis the USA.

This study investigates the suitability of student-driven internationalisation of the curriculum in a diverse educational setting. Despite its vast educational potential, internationalisation of the curriculum is an often-missing component of general internationalisation even in programmes and courses with a diverse student body. To remedy this shortcoming in a course of international politics, I introduced a teaching and learning innovation, which encouraged students to use examples based on personal experiences and regional background—rather than merely from the assigned literature—during their arguments in preparation for and during biweekly seminars. In addition, the assessment criteria were shifted to support the sharing of information and knowledge among peers in this course, called “Theories of Cooperation and Conflict in International Relations”. The study uses a quasi-experimental setup and offers a comprehensive mixed-methods analysis of the innovation and finds that student learning and their classroom experience was positively impacted. While students did use notably more “own experience” examples and improved in their written preparatory work for the seminars, they turned to these very cautiously in the actual classroom debates. The findings are explained by the interplay between internationalisation and decolonisation of the classroom and the increased stakes in assessment criteria.

This article presents the rationale for having a symposium on internationalisation of higher education (IHE) and introduces the collection of articles. It details examples of two universities from Central Europe to illustrate uneven development in internationalisation, including the achievements in and barriers of internationalisation. The paper sets these examples into the context of existing publications on IHE and suggests that teaching faculty members are key for enhancing internationalisation, in particular their teaching abilities and commitment to support internationalisation. It warns that IHE may divide Europe into two profoundly different parts, contrary to the expectation of policy makers and experts. It concludes by recommending academic development as an effective way to increase academic teachers’ competences and willingness to advance internationalisation in higher education.

This short article offers a practical introduction to archival research for political scientists working on European politics. Archival documents are increasingly recognized as a relevant data source for process tracing analyses in small-N or mixed methods studies. Previously classified archival documents are exceptionally trustworthy due to their original confidentiality. Their rich and detailed content facilitates the understanding of causal mechanisms. Still, the hurdles for working with archival sources are high for political scientists. Lack of experience, no special training in handling historic documents, and a shortage of textbooks meeting their demands are a few of the problems political scientists planning archival research face. In the article, I highlight the opportunities of archival research and demonstrate how challenges can be overcome. I emphasize that the archival field trip should only be planned once researchers have gained substantive context knowledge. In their preparation, researchers should use all the resources archives offer and develop measurable expectations from theories.

The death penalty is a unique form of punishment as it is the most consequential penalty with no options for reversibility. Politically, it is a highly controversial form of punishment, the usage of which varies strongly between and within countries over time. Existing databases on death penalty usage generally cover a time period from the 1950s and onwards. In this article, we introduce a new database that covers the period 1800–2022 for all currently independent countries in the world. We provide a yearly categorization of death penalty status as well as changes of the status. In descriptive analyses, we show how the new data provides a more comprehensive picture of the development of death penalty trends worldwide. The database provides researchers with new opportunities to study the death penalty from a variety of perspectives.