Polihot

APSR — pp. 1-24 2026-05-14 Original Attitudes Toward Electoral System Reform and Party System Change in the U.S. QUINTON MAYNE, SHANE P. SINGH Abstract Electoral reform efforts in the United States are widespread, yet little is known about how Americans evaluate alternative electoral systems or their consequences. We address this gap using conjoint and vignette experiments to study how Americans assess electoral reforms based on their implications for the number of parties and the degree of ideological polarization in the U.S. House of Representatives. Focusing on democratic voice, governability, and responsiveness, our designs emphasize party-system outcomes rather than technical institutional features that may be difficult for citizens to understand. We find that Americans are strongly averse to reforms that generate pronounced legislative polarization, even when it might be expected to enhance democratic voice. Findings pertaining to multipartism are more mixed, with some evidence that respondents respond positively to moderate departures from the two-party system. Perceived gains in voice and responsiveness do not generally compensate for losses in governability, except under arrangements that avoid polarization.

PMR — pp. 1-28 2026-05-12 Original Strategic planning and organizational performance in Turkish public hospitals: the mediating roles of strategy implementation, stakeholder participation, and accountability

PA — 2026-05-12 Original Fairness Perception, Administrative Burden, and Social Welfare Participation Yongdong Shen, Wenchi Wei, Chao An, Zhouyi Chen Abstract ABSTRACT This study examines whether and how fairness perception and administration burden relate to citizen participation in social welfare programs. We theoretically argue that both participation costs and citizens' perceptions of distributive fairness play critical roles in determining individuals' willingness to engage with welfare programs. We further propose that compliance burden (costs) may constrain frontline officials' discretion in benefit allocation, thereby reinforcing perceptions of fairness and encouraging program participation. Using a nationally representative sample from the China Urban and Rural Low‐Income Household Survey, we find that perceived unfairness is negatively associated with welfare participation, and administrative burdens constitute substantial barriers to access. Moreover, compliance burden weakens the negative correlation between perceived unfairness and welfare participation, suggesting that rigid procedures are linked with stronger perceptions of distributive fairness and institutional trust. These findings underscore the complex interplay between procedural design and citizen perceptions in shaping welfare participation in China.

PAR — 2026-05-11 Original Seeking Legitimacy Through Accountability: Is Institution‐Based Accountability More Legitimate Than Campaign‐Based Accountability?

PMR — pp. 1-28 2026-05-11 Original Managing how street-level bureaucrats make sense of the past: a case study of managerial sensegiving and its limits for policy intervention

CQ 266 pp. 309-324 2026-05-11 Original Ideology Without Unity: The Rhizomatic Logic of Xi Jinping Thought Jean Christopher Mittelstaedt Abstract Abstract This article reconceptualizes Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics (Xi Thought hereafter) not as a coherent doctrine but as a rhizomatic ideological formation. Drawing on the work of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, it treats Xi Thought as a configuration in which coherence is not presupposed but produced through the continual recombining of fragments across institutional sites. Based on an analysis of official publications, including collected works, excerpt volumes and study readers, the article shows how Xi’s speeches are disassembled and reassembled across domains such as law, economy, diplomacy and culture. These recompositions render ideology modular and resilient, allowing elements to be activated, re-weighted or sidelined without destabilizing the system as a whole. The article further argues that ideological coherence is generated through distributed and compulsory participation by Party and state actors, who are required to embed fragments of Xi Thought into institutional practice. Conceptualizing Xi Thought as a rhizome shifts analysis from doctrinal meaning to the operational logic through which ideology acquires administrative force within the Chinese party-state.

PMR — pp. 1-25 2026-05-11 Original Do third parties matter for citizens’ public programme participation? Evidence from an administrative burden perspective

CQ 266 pp. 481-490 2026-05-11 Original Discovering Controversies through Reversions: A Text-based Analysis of China’s Two-phase Bill Changes Jiying Jiang

PAR 86/5 pp. 1255-1264 2026-05-10 Original Navigating the Power of the Purse—Fiscal Irresponsibility, Process Failures, and the New Constitutional Stress Test

PMR — pp. 1-33 2026-05-09 Original Social impact bond- ing ? Evidence on interorganizational relationships in social impact bonds across the United Kingdom Elaine De Gruyter, Michael Gibson, Eleanor Carter, Fernando Deodato Domingos, Franziska Rosenbach