New trends or old habits?:Stability and changes in political styles in European democracies since 1960

Hardly a week goes by without reports of elected officials—often depicted as ‘populists’—having used vitriolic language and viciously attacked their opponents. In a context of ‘restyling of politics’, the style of political actors is presented as increasingly emotional and confrontational. Some scholars have argued that these styles directly challenge the democratic functioning of our modern societies. Yet, in the absence of longitudinal studies, such claims remain trivial intuitions and anecdotes that are as old as politics. Do the styles of modern politicians constitute new trends or reflect old habits? What are the factors constraining or favouring certain styles? In the face of a form of nostalgia for good old times, I critically challenge the idea that emotive and confrontational styles are necessarily threats in contemporary democracies. Instead, I posit that the challenges that some styles posited to democracy is the fact that such styles have increasingly targeted groups, in their private traits and personal life. This change has occurred at the expense of the substance that focused on political issues and policy orientation. While ‘politics is all about conflicts’, the real democratic threats concern ‘group conflicts without politics’. This contribution will present the POLSTYLE project and how it intends to make empirical, methodological and theoretical breakthroughs by analysing the evolution of political styles in four European democracies since the 1960s, studying performance of actors’ style in distinct arenas (TV, print press, Parliamentary debates and Twitter).Hardly a week goes by without reports of elected officials—often depicted as ‘populists’—having used vitriolic language and viciously attacked their opponents. In a context of ‘restyling of politics’, the style of political actors is presented as increasingly emotional and confrontational. Some scholars have argued that these styles directly challenge the democratic functioning of our modern societies. Yet, in the absence of longitudinal studies, such claims remain trivial intuitions and anecdotes that are as old as politics. Do the styles of modern politicians constitute new trends or reflect old habits? What are the factors constraining or favouring certain styles? In the face of a form of nostalgia for good old times, I critically challenge the idea that emotive and confrontational styles are necessarily threats in contemporary democracies. Instead, I posit that the challenges that some styles posited to democracy is the fact that such styles have increasingly targeted groups, in their private traits and personal life. This change has occurred at the expense of the substance that focused on political issues and policy orientation. While ‘politics is all about conflicts’, the real democratic threats concern ‘group conflicts without politics’. This contribution will present the POLSTYLE project and how it intends to make empirical, methodological and theoretical breakthroughs by analysing the evolution of political styles in four European democracies since the 1960s, studying performance of actors’ style in distinct arenas (TV, print press, Parliamentary debates and Twitter)

New trends or old habits?:Stability and changes in political styles in European democracies since 1960

Hardly a week goes by without reports of elected officials—often depicted as ‘populists’—having used vitriolic language and viciously attacked their opponents. In a context of ‘restyling of politics’, the style of political actors is presented as increasingly emotional and confrontational. Some scholars have argued that these styles directly challenge the democratic functioning of our modern societies. Yet, in the absence of longitudinal studies, such claims remain trivial intuitions and anecdotes that are as old as politics. Do the styles of modern politicians constitute new trends or reflect old habits? What are the factors constraining or favouring certain styles? In the face of a form of nostalgia for good old times, I critically challenge the idea that emotive and confrontational styles are necessarily threats in contemporary democracies. Instead, I posit that the challenges that some styles posited to democracy is the fact that such styles have increasingly targeted groups, in their private traits and personal life. This change has occurred at the expense of the substance that focused on political issues and policy orientation. While ‘politics is all about conflicts’, the real democratic threats concern ‘group conflicts without politics’. This contribution will present the POLSTYLE project and how it intends to make empirical, methodological and theoretical breakthroughs by analysing the evolution of political styles in four European democracies since the 1960s, studying performance of actors’ style in distinct arenas (TV, print press, Parliamentary debates and Twitter).Hardly a week goes by without reports of elected officials—often depicted as ‘populists’—having used vitriolic language and viciously attacked their opponents. In a context of ‘restyling of politics’, the style of political actors is presented as increasingly emotional and confrontational. Some scholars have argued that these styles directly challenge the democratic functioning of our modern societies. Yet, in the absence of longitudinal studies, such claims remain trivial intuitions and anecdotes that are as old as politics. Do the styles of modern politicians constitute new trends or reflect old habits? What are the factors constraining or favouring certain styles? In the face of a form of nostalgia for good old times, I critically challenge the idea that emotive and confrontational styles are necessarily threats in contemporary democracies. Instead, I posit that the challenges that some styles posited to democracy is the fact that such styles have increasingly targeted groups, in their private traits and personal life. This change has occurred at the expense of the substance that focused on political issues and policy orientation. While ‘politics is all about conflicts’, the real democratic threats concern ‘group conflicts without politics’. This contribution will present the POLSTYLE project and how it intends to make empirical, methodological and theoretical breakthroughs by analysing the evolution of political styles in four European democracies since the 1960s, studying performance of actors’ style in distinct arenas (TV, print press, Parliamentary debates and Twitter)

Ballot Complexity and the Paradox of Choice: A Worldwide Analysis of Preferential List PR Systems (1994-2024)

This contribution investigates how ballot complexity shapes vote concentration in preferential list PR systems – a growing electoral system used in over 30 democracies. These systems impose a dual cognitive burden on voters: choosing a party list and then selecting candidates within that list. Drawing on original data covering 132 elections across 28 countries (1994–2024), we test the effects of three electoral parameters: the number of candidates (C), the number of preference votes allowed (PV), and the number of competing parties (P). We find that larger candidate choice (C) consistently increase vote concentration, confirming the « paradox of choice » hypothesis. Additionally, high party fragmentation (P) amplifies cognitive overload, reinforcing reliance on simple heuristics (primacy effect). However, systems allowing multiple PVs substantially mitigate this effect. These findings highlight key trade-offs for electoral engineers between voter empowerment, cognitive feasibility, and proportional representation, offering guidance for the design of democratic and competitive electoral systems

HUBUNGAN KEBIASAAN BELAJAR DAN MINAT MEMBACA DENGAN PRESTASI BELAJAR IPS PADA SISWA KELAS X DI SMKN I LEMAHABANG KABUPATEN CIREBON

AGUSTINA NINGSIH : Dalam Hal kebiasaan belajar, siswa di SMKN I Lemahabang masih kurang memperhatikan kebiasaan belajarnya hal ini dapat dilihat dari segi keteraturan dalam belajar, kebiasaan mempersiapkan keperluan studi, kebiasaan hadir di kelas sebelum pelajaran, serta kebiasaan belajar sampai paham dan tuntas. Dalam minat membaca pun masih kurang, hal ini dapat dilihat dari segi kebiasaan dalam mengunjungi perpustakaan, kesenangan dalam membaca, kesadaran akan manfaat membaca, kurangnya menyempatkan waktu untuk membaca, serta dari jumlah buku yang dia baca. Tujuan penelitian dalam skripsi ini adalah untuk memperoleh data tentang kebiasaan belajar siswa pada mata pelajaran IPS, Minat membaca siswa pada mata pelajaran IPS, Prestasi belajar siswa pada mata pelajaran IPS, Seberapa besar hubungan antara kebiasaan belajar dan minat membaca terhadap prestasi belajar siswa pada mata pelajaran IPS. Selain mempunyai kebiasaan belajar yang baik, membaca juga merupakan tuntutan penting bagi para siswa. Karena pada dasarnya belajar memang tidak dapat lepas dari aktivitas membaca. Kegiatan membaca yang dilakukan di sekolah biasanya merupakan suatu alat untuk dapat menguasai semua bahan pelajaran. Populasi dalam penelitian ini adalah siswa kelas X di SMKN I Lemahabang yang berjumlah 300 siswa, sedangkan pengambilan sampel dilakukan dengan menggunakan purposive, yakni 45 siswa kelas X PM2. Metode penelitian ini menggunakan metode empirik kuantitatif dengan teknik pengumpulan data melalui observasi, wawancara, angket, dan dokumentasi. Sedangkan untuk analisis data menggunakan analisis regresi ganda, uji t dan uji F. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukan bahwa terdapat hubungan yang positif dan signifikan antara kebiasaan belajar terhadap prestasi belajar siswa pada mata pelajaran IPS ditunjukan oleh nilai thitung 2,146 > ttabel 2,021 dengan nilai signifikansi 0,035 , terdapat hubungan yang positif dan signifikan antara minat membaca terhadap prestasi belajar siswa pada mata pelajaran IPS ditunjukan oleh nilai thitung 23,388 > ttabel 2,052 dengan nilai signifikansi 0,000 , terdapat hubungan yang positif dan signifikan secara simultan antara kebiasaan belajar dan minat membaca terhadap prestasi belajar siswa pada mata pelajaran IPS hal tersebut terbukti dari hasil uji F yaitu diperoleh nilai Fhitung 297,056 > Ftabel 3,11 dengan signifikansi 0,000 koefisien determinasi (R Square) sebesar 0,871 hal tersebut menunjukan bahwa prestasi belajar siswa pada mata pelajaran IPS berhubungan dengan kebiasaan belajar dan minat membaca sebesar 87,1% sisanya 12,9% berhubungan dengan faktor lain diluar penelitian seperti motivasi dalam belajar, inteligensi, bakat, konsentrasi serta dari faktor keluarga, masyarakat maupun sekolah, dll