Modern democracy is defined by the principle of political representation. Decisions are justified by pointing to the representative character of the actors and institutions involved in the policy-making process. Over a period of three centuries, beginning in the 18 century various models of modern representative systems developed differing in the locus of sovereignty, the authorisation of repre...

How do political systems shape immigration policy-making? Explicitly or implicitly, comparative politics and migration policy theories suggest a 'regime effect' that links specific dynamics of immigration policy to liberal democracy. The literature's dominant focus on so-called 'Western liberal democracies', however, has left the 'regime effect' largely untested and research on variations and s...