Topics
The core concepts of the journal's editorial corpus. Each topic groups the published articles that address it and summarizes its intellectual tradition.
Liberal democracy
Analysis and essays on liberal democracy — individual rights, representative institutions, pluralism, and limits on power.
Republicanism
Republican thought: separation of powers, civic virtue, freedom as non-domination.
Rule of law
Rule of law: government under law, not law under government. Judicial independence and the limitation of power.
Humanism
Humanist thought: the person as center, reason as criterion, responsibility as horizon.
Human dignity
Human dignity as the ethical foundation of democratic order and fundamental rights.
Pluralism
Political, social and cultural pluralism: the recognition of diversity as a condition of democracy.
Separation of powers
Separation of powers (Montesquieu): executive, legislative, judicial. Checks and balances against the concentration of power.
Political thought
Political philosophy, democratic theory, and the intellectual tradition of constitutionalism.
Liberalism
Political liberalism: individual liberties, limited government, tolerance, equality before the law.
Public ethics
Public ethics: the responsibility of those who exercise power and those who participate in democratic debate.
Constitutionalism
Constitutionalism: the subjection of power to a fundamental law that limits and organizes its exercise.
Citizenship
Citizenship: rights, duties, and participation in the political life of the community.
Human rights
Human rights: the universal affirmation of each person's dignity before power.
Tolerance
Tolerance: coexistence among those who think, believe, and live differently.
Deliberation
Democratic deliberation: the reasoned exchange of arguments as the basis of political decision.
Press freedom
Press freedom: the material condition of democratic deliberation and the control of power.
Popular sovereignty
Popular sovereignty: the people as the ultimate source of legitimate government authority.
Federalism
Federalism: the vertical division of power as complement to the horizontal division.
Open society
Open society: the Popperian ideal of political community subject to rational critique and revision.
Political polarization
Polarization: the hardening of political camps and its effect on democratic coexistence.
Populism
Populism: critical analysis of movements opposing virtuous people vs corrupt elite.
Totalitarianism
Totalitarianism: the regime that dissolves the distinction between state, society, and private life.
Transitional justice
Transitional justice: how societies confront past crimes while rebuilding democracy.
Transparency
Transparency: the principle by which the exercise of power must be visible to public scrutiny.
Democratic memory
Democratic memory: the collective duty to remember in order to sustain the democratic order.
Welfare state
Welfare state: the model that guarantees universal social rights financed by progressive taxation.
Nationalism
Nationalism: critical analysis of the ideology that affirms the nation as central political category.
Constitutional patriotism
Constitutional patriotism: attachment to shared democratic institutions and principles, not to ethnic identity.
Post-truth
Post-truth: the communicative regime where factual truth loses weight to emotion and tribal affinity.
Technocracy
Technocracy: critical analysis of delegating political decisions to technical experts.
Civil society
Civil society: the realm of voluntary collective organization between family, state, and market.
Public opinion
Public opinion: the set of beliefs and judgments shared by a political community on matters of common interest.
Electoral systems
Electoral systems: the rules that translate votes into seats or public offices.
Political parties
Political parties: organizations competing for power through elections, mediators between society and state.
Geopolitics
Geopolitics: power relations between states conditioned by geography.
Migration and politics
Political migration: border-crossing as political fact and its tensions with citizenship.
Sovereigntism
Sovereigntism: the contemporary vindication of the nation-state against supranational integration.
Climate crisis and politics
Climate crisis and democracy: the institutional challenges of ecological transition.
Secularization
Secularization: the historical process of separation between religion and political-social life.
Digital democracy
Digital democracy: the impact of the internet, social networks, and platforms on political deliberation.
Social justice
Social justice: equitable distribution of goods, opportunities, and rights in society.
Economic and social rights
Economic and social rights (ESCR): health, education, housing, work, social security as enforceable rights.
Anti-corruption
Anti-corruption: institutional instruments against state capture.
War and peace
War and peace: political theory of armed conflict, deterrence, and ius ad bellum.
Political globalization
Political globalization: planetary integration of institutions, norms, and movements.
Political feminism
Political feminism: tradition affirming gender equality as condition of democracy.
Political ecology
Political ecology: environment as political category.
Europeanism
Europeanism: the political tradition defending European integration as civilizational project.
Historical memory
Historical memory: public memory policies and their place in democracy.