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The article examines the 2024 European Parliament elections in Spain as an element of national and European political pro-cess. The purpose of the study is to reveal key factors that in-fluenced voting outcome in Spain, as well as its possible im-plications for national political development and country’s role in the European Union. The research is based on the of-ficial data on the election results in Spain and the European Union, Spanish national statistics, Russian and Spanish think tanks’ and news agencies’ publications. The factors that shaped the campaign course and election results include spe-cific features of Spain's administrative territorial structure; na-tional rules for the European Parliament elections; character-istics of the Spanish party system and national political pro-cess dynamics. The voting results were also influenced by the growing political appeal of national-conservative ideas and candidates’ reliance on unconventional methods of campaign-ing. The political and ideological balance among Spanish members of the newly-elected European Parliament reflects stronger presence of the right-wing, including far-right politi-cal forces, which is in line with general European trends. However, the traditional political competitors, the center-left Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party and the center-right People’s Party, which consistently take a pro-European stance, have retained their leading positions. This draws a conclusion about the probable continuity of Spain's course in the new European legislature and its further pursuit of greater integration.

Objective/context: The system of presidential primaries was introduced into the Bolivian system in 2018 and was applied only once in 2019. This article aims to analyze the causes, characteristics, and effects of the compulsory and simultaneous primary system in Bolivia. Methodology: The characteristics of the party system, the method of selecting presidential candidates from 1982 to the present, the existing dynamics in the Legislature, the results of the 2019 primary elections, the current context, and regulations with a view to the 2025 general elections will be analyzed. Conclusions: This study shows that the presidential primaries were not on the agenda of the parties and were used by the ruling party to legitimize its presidential ticket. Therefore, using its legislative supermajority and control of other state organs, the primaries are introduced under the exclusive control of the leadership, which vertically decides whether they will be competitive or not. Originality: The detail and characteristics of this study offer a high degree of novelty and propose new elements for comparison and academic debate.

The study of electoral disputes and the transformation of power structures has been notably lacking in the historiography of republican universities during the first half of the 19th century. This article delves into the experiences of faculty members elected through the vote, which played a significant role in reshaping leadership and expanding intellectual culture at Universidad del Magdalena e Istmo between 1827 and 1840. During this period, somewhat uniquely, enlightened republicans established universities at the departmental (provincial) level in what is now the Republic of Colombia. However, there has been limited examination of the trajectories and selection processes of the educated elite from the standpoint of intellectual history. This article argues that the use of the electoral mechanism, in addition to determining representativeness and the rise of representative government in universities, was a pivotal factor in the affirmation of an education and a secular power. This, on one hand, eroded the clerical influence in higher education and, on the other, displaced ecclesiastics from positions of authority. The advent of the university within the framework of representative democracy also led to the emergence of other types of intellectuals, linked to humanistic knowledge, medicine, and even military education in the navy. Methodologically, the goal is to explore the political journeys of these intellectuals who managed to enter the university in the context of electoral disputes that reshaped academic leadership roles.

In this article, I intend to present some difficulties to Urbinati's account of democracy in her 2014 book Democracy Disfigured. In the first section, I'll present a brief sketch of Urbinati's paradigm of democracy as a diarchy of will and opinion. In the second and final section, I’ll raise two objections to Urbinati's views: first, that diarchy doesn't pertain to electoral democracy in any special or exclusive way, so that the diarchic paradigm has no internal commitment to it; and second, that the diarchic paradigm actually favors non-electoral forms of democracy over electoral democracy.

El objetivo del presente artículo es, en el marco de las investigaciones de comunicación política, realizar un análisis de contenido de los perfiles en TikTok de los candidatos a la alcaldía de Latacunga Ecuador que participaron en las elecciones del año 2023. El análisis se realizó desde el 01 de enero al 05 de febrero, esta investigación identificó las estrategias políticas y el uso político que dieron los candidatos a la red social de TikTok durante el proceso electoral. Las cuentas oficiales de TikTok de los candidatos que formaron parte del objeto de estudio fueron José Iturralde, Rodrigo Espín y Fabricio Tinajero. La metodología que se implementó dentro del artículo fue de carácter cuantitativo a través de la técnica de análisis de contenido, para ello se analizaron 255 videos publicados por los candidatos en sus perfiles y posteriormente se revisaron a través de las categorías y subcategorías como visualizaciones e interacciones. Los resultados demuestran que es importante generar contenidos de interés, pero sobretodo interactuar con los usuarios, además se identificó que la red social de TikTok llegó a ser popular y en la actualidad es utilizada por los políticos para realizar sus procesos de comunicación política debido a que les permitió llegar a un público joven, así como atraer seguidores y aumentar su visibilidad. Además, se demostró que no siempre el candidato ganador es el que cuenta con mayor número de seguidores y realiza numerosas publicaciones, sino el que busca los mecanismos adecuados para interactuar con su audiencia.

El artículo tiene como objetivo analizar las fake news divulgadas en Facebook y la influencia en la opinión pública de las elecciones generales en Ecuador 2021. Para este propósito, fue necesario establecer la terminología «fake news» que entró en la literatura tras las elecciones presidenciales estadounidenses de 2016 y se ha definido como señales distorsionadas no correlacionadas con la verdad, publicadas en las redes sociales de Facebook. Por otra parte, la metodología utilizada es descriptiva junto con los enfoques cualitativos y cuantitativos, porque permite recabar información numérica para determinar hallazgos valiosos. En este sentido, hay que señalar que la relación entre las fake news y el comportamiento electoral era correlacional y no causal. Es decir, varios factores influyeron en las decisiones de los votantes, y esta investigación sólo pudo probar que las fake news eran uno de los factores. También, más del 50% de los votantes emitieron su voto sin conocer las noticias correctas y se dejaron influenciar por las fake news. Por esto, los votantes políticamente neutrales que fueron los menos capaces de juzgar las fake news, tendieron a votar a los candidatos guiados por su inclinación política o por quienes encabezaban la lista de candidatos. La gente se dejó llevar por las fake news y actualmente el Ecuador se encuentra en un declive político, legislativo y judicial; se ha sumergido en una crisis económica y de seguridad civil sin precedentes; lo que denota en la gran cantidad de daño que pueden causar las fake news a la sociedad.

El artículo 99 de la Ley Orgánica Electoral y de Organizaciones Políticas de la República del Ecuador, Código de la Democracia y la Disposición Transitoria Tercera de la misma norma establecen una política de cuotas progresiva -15% en 2021, 30% en 2023 y 50% en 2025- para que las candidatas mujeres encabecen las listas pluripersonales. Este artículo describe y analiza qué tan eficientes fueron las reformas electorales en materia de equidad y paridad -aprobadas en febrero de 2020 por la Asamblea Nacional- cuyos resultados se evidenciaron en las elecciones generales de 2021, así como en las seccionales de 2023. Concluye con una serie de propuestas a debatir por la sociedad civil, política, grupos de mujeres y la academia para emprender un nuevo proceso de reforma electoral en esta materia.

La comunicación política es la principal herramienta de interacción entre los partidos y sus representados. Dicha herramienta ha experimentado transformaciones significativas en las últimas décadas, desempeñando un papel fundamental en las democracias actuales, y permite, al menos idealmente, una interacción más funcional entre los actores políticos y la ciudadanía. Esto facilita, a su vez, la transmisión de ideas, propuestas y mensajes para la toma de decisiones políticas, impactando en el comportamiento de la participación ciudadana y la formación de opinión pública. Escenario del que México no puede abstraerse y donde los actores políticos han adoptado nuevas formas de comunicación, estableciendo vínculos con los ciudadanos y difundiendo su mensaje de manera más efectiva, todo ello impulsado por el avance tecnológico y la aparición de nuevas plataformas, las cuales ofrecen cambios en esa nueva interacción que no es ya solo útil en momentos electorales y de campañas, sino en el ejercicio mismo de gobierno, como ha sido el caso del Presidente mexicano Andrés Manuel López Obrador. El presente trabajo se propone indagar sobre la importancia de las nuevas formas de comunicación política como estrategia, analizando a líderes políticos como el Presidente mexicano con un enfoque discursivo particular, lo cual permea su relación con medios de comunicación e influencia a la opinión pública.

El presente ensayo tiene como objetivo realizar una reflexión sobre la protección de datos personales en el marco de la comunicación política. Para ello, se realizará un breve repaso de los conceptos de comunicación política y protección de datos personales; seguido de una revisión de instrumentos jurídicos y orientativos en la materia a nivel internacional, así como en México. De cara a la elección federal en México en 2024, se expondrán algunos de los retos para fortalecer la protección de datos personales en el marco de la comunicación política.

Objective/context: This article identifies the profiles of candidates who are more likely to report acts of electoral violence during the 2022 legislative elections. To this end, we define the concept of electoral violence, review national and international literature on the phenomenon, and identify two relevant aspects as risk factors. First, we look at identity-related characteristics such as age, sex, and ethnic background of the candidates. Second, we explore characteristics related to their political standing, for example, identifying as a left-wing candidate. Methodology: To conduct the analysis, we used a survey of 512 candidates for legislative elections designed by the authors and implemented in collaboration with the Electoral Observation Mission (MOE). With this data, we performed linear regression models to identify the characteristics of candidates associated with different forms of electoral violence reported during the campaign. Conclusions: We found that identity factors, particularly being a young candidate, a woman, and from an area affected by the armed conflict, are associated with reporting acts of electoral violence. Surprisingly, we did not find a statistically significant association with candidates who identified themselves as left-wing, as claimed by national and international literature on the subject. This finding is preliminary because the sample has an underrepresentation of candidates from ideological extremes; therefore, this result should be explored more deeply in future research. Originality: Although studies on electoral violence are abundant, few focus on the candidates. This is the first time in Colombia that a survey has been conducted with candidates that investigates forms of electoral violence that go beyond physical violence, such as psychological, economic, and sexual violence.

Objective/context: This article examines the use of emotional argumentation patterns of social forgiveness and non-forgiveness regarding Gustavo Petro’s past in the M-19 movement in the context of the 2022 Colombian presidential elections. Methodology: An inductive media framing analysis of selected Colombian newspapers was carried out. The frames analyzed exemplify the relevance different newspapers have attributed to Petro’s past in their pre-election coverage. Conclusions: This analysis demonstrates that those frames that project a negative view of Petro’s past carried especially marked patterns of non-forgiveness and an accompanying delegitimization of his person and political ambitions. The negative portrayal in a particular newspaper presented clear patterns of emotional argumentation of politically ideological opposition to Petro in contrast to the media landscape in general. The other newspapers analyzed, however, revealed a predominantly neutral pattern of argumentation that paid attention to Petro’s past but did not use it judgmentally against him. In relatively few cases, the argument of social forgiveness was even used in his favor. The results show that, especially for the ideological opposition to Petro, reference to his past in the M-19 was considered a legitimate means to undermine his political ambitions. However, considering the general overall coverage of the newspapers, Petro’s past was of marginal importance. Originality: This analysis provides insights into how Colombian media framed the past of the current Colombian president in the M-19 during the 2022 presidential campaign, potentially influencing public opinion-making processes. The results can serve as a reference for more comprehensive analyses to better understand the role of forgiveness and non-forgiveness in the context of political discourses in post-conflict states.

Objective/context: This article studies the appearance in 2014, and subsequent consolidation, of a center-periphery cleavage, in the sense of Lipset and Rokkan, in Colombia’s voting pattern in national elections. Methodology: We performed a cluster analysis of the electoral results at the municipal level of the presidential runoffs and the 2016 plebiscite. Conclusions: We show how increasingly marked geographical patterns are configured that oppose electoral behaviors of municipalities in the center and geographic periphery of the country. We also point out how we can specify the analysis of this cleavage through subcategories of electoral behaviors, to end with reflections on its nature and possible future evolution. Originality: The study draws attention to the importance of taking into account the center-periphery cleavage as a structural factor for understanding Colombian elections beyond particular circumstances, such as those that characterized the last electoral cycle of 2022.

Objective/context: In this article, we explore the determinants of voter preference for Gustavo Petro in the first round of the 2022 presidential election in Colombia. Methodology: Using a series of quantitative tools, we explore the variables associated with a preference for Gustavo Petro. We establish two groups of variables: personal and contextual, and preferences on economic and social issues (issues), and establish their relative weight as determinants of the closeness between Petro and his voters. Conclusions: We found that voters chose candidate Petro based on the satisfaction of their most important preferences, particularly regarding economic issues, and downplayed their differences with the candidate on issues related to individual liberties. Originality: This work presents original data collected during the 2022 presidential campaign and uses a combination of quantitative tools to estimate the determinants of preferences for Petro.

Using a sample of 25 European countries between 1995 and 2013, this study shows a bidirectional relationship between privatisations and public debt. Firstly, our findings suggest that governments with higher levels of debt tend to privatise state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to a greater extent than less-indebted governments. Subsequently, the results show that privatisations effectively reduce indebtedness. This means that causality between privatisation and public debt should be considered in future studies. In addition, we have found that such a strategy is used more by right-wing governments, which implies the existence of partisan effects. However, our findings do not support any effect caused by electoral cycles.