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Open research questions in Political Systems and Governance

35 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 1,934 Political Systems and Governance papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.

What the literature leaves open

  • The opportunity of forming fully congruent coalitions in 2024 was limited by the fact that in four regions one-party rule of the opposition PiS party was established.

    A Retreat from Congruence? Regional Coalition Politics in the Aftermath of Poland’s 2024 Elections · 2025 · DOI

  • Due to the lack of consensus on the direction of the reform of the House, and in particular on the procedure for appointing its members, and above all due to the inevitable complications to the system of government that would result from giving the House a more democratic character, this article attempts to demonstrate that the optimal ‘reform’ of the House is to abolish it.

    Brytyjska Izba Lordów. Optymalna reforma · 2025 · DOI

  • “It is insufficiently positive in character; it does not provide sufficient rapidity of action; it inhibits the necessary standards of uniformity; it relies upon compacts and compromises which take insufficient account of the urgent category of time; it leaves backward areas a restraint, at once parasitic and poisonous, on those which seek to move forward.

    The limits of devolution for the left · 2024 · DOI

  • This lack of consensus also exists in contexts with explicit initiatives to strengthen political ties such as the European Union (EU), and even within EU member countries, a situation which is aggravated by the relative scarcity of contributions that measure the advantages and disadvantages of different territorial organizations.

    Searching for the optimal territorial structure: the case of Spanish provincial councils · 2020 · DOI

  • However, any such impact of the referendum will be largely a function of the current state of ethnopolitical mobilisation in those regions, which varies widely across the cases of Wales, Cornwall, Northern Ireland, Isle of Man, Jersey, Guernsey, the Western Islands of Scotland, and Orkney and Shetland.

    The impact of the Scottish independence referendum on ethnoregionalist movements in the British Isles · 2012 · DOI

  • Until now, however, only scarce information on the composition of the LEADER boards has been available to tell us if this is really so at the decision-making level.

    Is LEADER Elitist or Inclusive? Composition of Danish LAG Boards in the 2007â2013 Rural Development and Fisheries Programmes · 2009 · DOI

  • The changes to the territorial constitution in the United Kingdom since 1997 have been extensive, but there is no agreement on their long-run significance, opinion being divided as to whether the changes are substantive or cosmetic and whether they represent the conclusion of a process or the start of a new one.

    The Constitutional Revolution in the United Kingdom · 2005 · DOI

  • While the politics of boundaries and borderland regions is often viewed at the scale of the national states, we argue that politics at the borderland needs to be examined in two other ways: in terms of relations between regions across national boundaries (small–scale) and in the relations between the borderland region itself and the national state (cross–scale).

    Political accommodation and functional interaction along the northern italian borderlands · 2001 · DOI

  • In the small debate about local democracy and citizen-centred government one obvious question is scarcely considered: should formal parties be introduced into civic elections in Canada's major cities?2 Over the years non-partisanship has veiled a conservative and incrementalist policy-making style that seems inappropriate for postmodern metropolises.

    Finding the Trolls Under Your Bridge: The New Case for Party Politics in Canadian Cities · 1999 · DOI

  • The conclusion reached on the basis of a number of case studies is that, while the legislative process is variable, the influence of committees upon government legislation has remained limited to the details of policy rather than its substance, mainly because of the unwillingness of governments to slacken party discipline in relation to this aspect of committee work.

    The Influence of Standing Committees of Parliament on Government Legislation · 1978 · DOI

  • These was carried out with in the students were asked to recommend an assembly size for a new nation and has 1, 10 or following cases: the country 100 million Individual answers varied widely.

    The size of national assemblies · 1972 · DOI

  • There are insufficient data at the present time to provide sound bases for generating a hypothesis to explain these differences. The council system had been adopted in the Jimi valley only shortly before our arrival in 1966 and there was insufficient opportunity for me to study it.

    Making big men · 1968 · DOI

  • 568 NATIONAL CIVIC REVIEW [November * Any evaluation of county reorgani- zation plans must be based on the very limited evidence and experience of a few counties that have reorga- nized to provide for central manage- ment.

    Elected county chiefs · 1966 · DOI

  • more defensible than in the past. Finally, we should declare a mora- torium on suggestions for uniformly strengthening the governors until this evidence is in. We must keep an open mind until such evidence is in and realize that in some states we may even want to weaken the gov- ernor. In the meantime, perhaps we should stop concerning ourselves with structures of state government and start paying more attention to the substantive state problems.

    Why strong governors? · 1964 · DOI

  • Despite the intuitive presumption that dual mandate-holders lack sufficient time to fulfil both mandates adequately, empirical support remains scarce and contradictory.

    Municipal Councillors in Parliament, a Handicap for Legislative Activism? Parliamentary Productivity of Dual Mandate-Holders in the Belgian Federal Assembly between 1995 and 2014 · 2019 · DOI

  • This article seeks to understand an understudied phenomenon: governmental players joining forces with non-governmental players in contentious actions against policies they want to prevent or redress.

    Understanding governmental activism · 2017 · DOI

  • At a time when all the political parties of Scotland are trying to establish a persuasive vision of the nation, inquiry into where ethnic and racial minorities fit into these debates provides one understudied means of bridging literatures on multinationalism and multiculturalism.

    Looking up in Scotland? Multinationalism, multiculturalism and political elites · 2015 · DOI

  • Despite considerable progress by historians in identifying how individual governors operated and the makeup of the gubernatorial corps as a whole, much remains to be learned about, for example, how governors interacted with society and with agencies of local self-government.

    The Gubernatorial Corps of Reform-Era Russia in Contemporary Historiography · 2014 · DOI

  • Such have been the range of possible options for reform of the House of Lords, and the concomitant range of opinions in the Labour Party, that no agreement has ever been reached, and hence previous proposals for Lords reform have invariably been abandoned.

    1949, 1969, 1999: The Labour Party and House of Lords Reform · 2006 · DOI

  • Many questions remain to be answered, but the emerging view is that direct democracy works--allowing the general public to participate in lawmaking often seems to improve the performance of government.

    Direct Democracy Works · 2005 · DOI

  • Abstract In the sparse literature on political careers in federal systems, regional positions are often seen as mere stepping stones on the way to federal office.

    Moving up, moving down: Political careers across territorial levels · 2003 · DOI

  • 5 Recent studies by John Carey, Scott Mainwaring, and Matthew Shugart have led to a reassessment of the advantages of presidentialism, but there is still no consensus on which regime type is superior.

    Are All Semipresidential Regimes the Same? A Comparison of Premier-Presidential Regimes · 2002 · DOI

  • Whereas a model based solely on instrumental rationality is insufficient to explain the participation of voters, it does well in accounting for that of stockholders.

    Votes for Sale: The Logic of Power in Joint‐Stock Companies · 1992 · DOI

  • The issue of local political stability has not yet been adequately explored in urban literature although there have been a few other tentative steps in this direction (see, e.

    On Measuring Local Political Stability · 1974 · DOI

  • , This question of the character of metropolitan decision- making is central to any further study of the COG.

    Metropolitan Councils of Government and the Federal Government · 1972 · DOI

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35 open questions have been extracted from the limitations and future-work passages of 1,934 Political Systems and Governance papers in our library. Each one below links back to the study that raised it, so you can read the original claim in context.

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