Volume 42 opens with a special section with two articles presented at the 2018 IAPSS Academic Convention (Convention Panels Coordinator: Katsiaryna Lozka). Here, Francisca Sassetti examines the effect of crowdsourced elections monitoring on transparency and quality of the electoral process. She finds that crowdsourcing techniques have a causal effect on electoral transparency by encouraging a more peaceful and democratic electoral process. Baptiste Brodard analyses the impact of the initiatives promoted by Islamic grassroots organisations in Switzerland, providing empirical evidence for the claim that social participation of Islamic organisations can have a positive value by rethinking and redefining social work practices. In the first of two regular articles included in the issue, Andrew Devine identifies China’s approach to promotion of its preferred norm of internet governance known as cyber sovereignty. Using a combination of frames, this form of global internet governance is being advanced especially towards developing countries in opposition to the currently prevailing ‘multistakeholder model’. Next, Velomahanina Tahinjanahary Razakamaharavo uses an innovative methodology to determine how grand narratives she calls ‘metanarratives’ shaped the dynamics of domestic conflicts in Madagascar. Collecting and coding a diverse pool of data, she conducts a qualitative comparative analysis of conditions for different dimensions of conflicts. The resulting study provides valuable insights into the recent political development of Madagascar, among others.
