🎓 At #MoPSA2025, Nikola Radunović presented his working paper "Fasting Democracy": Over 18,000 public sector hires since 2020 reflect deepening partisan employment and church influence in 🇲🇪 politics and raise questions about ethics, meritocracy, and accountability.

🗣️Day 1 brought inspiring conversations—in and out of the conference room. From thought-provoking panels to hallway debates, #MoPSA2025 kicked off with energy, insight, and connection.

🔴 We kicked off Day 2 of #MoPSA2025 with a powerful lecture by Ruth Dassonneville (KU Leuven) on ideological inconsistency in party politics. Do ideologically inconsistent parties lose support because voters dislike contradiction, lack information, or simply feel distant?

🔴 Our opening lecture of Day 2 by Prof. Ruth Dassonneville (KU Leuven) sparked a rich discussion on whether ideological inconsistency is truly a liability or simply a reflection of parties adapting to complex electorates. #MoPSA2025

📊 At #MoPSA2025, Stephen Quinlan (GESIS Institute) presented the first large-scale comparative analysis of over 1,000 special elections in Australia, Britain, Canada, and Ireland. He found that special elections consistently penalize incumbents.

📊 At #MoPSA2025, František Reitter (Masaryk University) shared his and Michal Pink's findings on how suburbanization reshapes voting behavior in Czechia and Slovakia. As urban populations move to suburban areas, they bring new political preferences—but rarely integrate socially.

📊 At #MoPSA2025, Slaven Živković (DeFactoConsultancy) presented experimental findings from Montenegro showing that while identity politics remains dominant, economic information is starting to shape voter preferences—especially when framed as government performance. Slaven Zivkovic

📊 At #MoPSA2025, Valentina Petrović (University of Zurich) explored the voter bases of emerging opposition parties in Serbia and Croatia. Can these movements build inclusive alternatives—or will they repeat the polarizations of the past? Valentina Petrović

🌍 Panel XI – Western Balkans Politics II At #MoPSA2025, Sajma Ademović (University of Donja Gorica) unpacked how ethnonationalism continues to overshadow Europeanisation in Montenegro. Her paper shows how identity divides can be strategic tools for resisting democratic reform.

Prof. Danijela Vuković-Ćalasan (Univerzitet CG) addressed the limits of current integration models in combating anti-Romaism. She argued that policies must confront structural racism—not just promote surface-level inclusion.

At #MoPSA2025, Uglješa Janković (Univerzitet CG) presented his findings: In Montenegro, high poverty meets political clientelism, as social assistance becomes a tool for winning votes instead of fostering long-term resilience.

🌍At #MoPSA2025, Ivan Vuković (Univerzitet CG) traced the growing threat to Montenegrin sovereignty—framed from Belgrade in ways eerily reminiscent of Russia’s posture toward Ukraine. The logic: deny the nation, rewrite its past, control its future. Ivan Vukovic

🔴We closed #MoPSA2025 with a thought-provoking lecture by Jan Zielonka (University of Oxford/Unive Ca' Foscari) on rethinking democracy in a rapidly shifting world. He called for a network-based model where participation, contestation, and deliberation are central to democratic resilience.

🇲🇪 #MoPSA2025 in numbers: 📍 28 countries 🧠 50+ scholars 💬 11 panels, 3 keynotes We wrapped up two days of intense, inspiring conversations on democracy, political behavior, identity, and resilience. Thanks to all who joined us in Podgorica. This is only the beginning.

Publication alert! Zlatko Vujovic & Marko Savic about Personalization of the electoral system and political parties: lessons from Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina in new edition of Southeast European and Black Sea Studies tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…

Giorgia Meloni? Per capire che partito sia Fratelli d'Italia 🇮🇹 ne parliamo con prof Mara Morini che presenta il suo nuovo libro Dove? Al DiSp Sapienza, ovviamente Vi aspettiamo