Many societies in Europe and Asia are ageing rapidly. Changes in the age distribution of a society do not only impact welfare and espe-cially pension systems, but they can also in-fluence political systems on a broader level, for example through age effects on turnout. In other countries we observe shifts in the ethnic or religious composition of the population. These shifts might impact election results, power relationships within society and be-tween political parties or even individual vot-ing behavior. Migration, as another prominent demographic factor, influences politics as well. It is thus obvious that demography im-pacts politics.
This relationship is of course bidirectional: Reproductive policies that enable or hinder women's control over reproductive decisions, and subsequently affect fertility rates, provide a clear example of the impact of politics on demographics. Other demographic factors that are shaped by politics and policies in-clude mortality rates and migration flows.
Even though interactions between demo-graphic factors and politics are frequent and powerful, the intersection of political science and population studies has for a long time re-mained under-researched. This is now slowly beginning to change (e.g. Goldstone, Kauf-mann & Duffy Toft 2012, Teitelbaum 2015, Goerres & Vanhuysse 2021) – a process we would like to support. In this special issue we thus invite contributions to the field of political demography.
Call for Papers: Statistics, Politics and Policy
Special Issue: Political Demography