On 2 July 2026, the Aranjuez Campus of Rey Juan Carlos University will host the summer course:

“Crisis and emergency management under the microscope: Lessons learned and keys to an effective response”

Organized by our researcher and professor Isabel Bazaga Fernández and Pedro Marcos García López, Ph.D., from the Ortega-Marañón University Research Institute (IUIOM).

Registration and information in the following link.

Our colleague Rut Bermejo has just published an analysis at the Elcano Royal Institute exploring the necessary conceptual shift from traditional "disinformation" to the broader framework of Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI). She argues that focusing solely on false content is insufficient to understand contemporary geopolitical interference. Instead, foreign actors, most notably Russia and China, employ highly coordinated, multi-layered strategies to manipulate the global information ecosystem.

Intersectional elements in antidemocratic attitudes.

On 2 June 2026, the Observatory will host the I Permanent Seminar on Good Governance, an interdisciplinary academic event devoted to examining the multiple factors that contribute to the emergence and consolidation of anti-democratic attitudes in contemporary political systems. Bringing together scholars from different areas of expertise, the seminar aims to foster dialogue on the social, political and institutional dynamics that undermine democratic values, weaken public trust, and contribute to processes of democratic backsliding.

The deadline for the submission of proposals is 7 May 2026. Proposals may be submitted via the following link.

Registration is now open for the free MOOC ‘Prevention of Sexual Violence and Harassment in Higher Education’, a European training course forming part of the Erasmus+ PREV-HED programme.

This course will provide you with practical tools and key knowledge to help create safe, respectful and inclusive environments, and to promote practices aimed at preventing violence.

Upon completion of the course, you will receive a certificate of completion (25 hours).

The Reading Seminar will include three further sessions, on 10 and 24 April, and 8 May, from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. It will take place in room ST39 of the Fuenlabrada Library and will carry 0.8 ECTS credits.

You can register here. 

The Observatory of Good Governance participated, as RESONANT project partner, in the FIMI cluster meeting organised on the 20th of March 2026 in Brussesls.

You can read more here.

What shapes attitudes towards military public spending in Spain?

With NATO demanding a 5% GDP defence spending target, understanding public support for military expenditure has never been more policy-relevant. Published in the Revista Española de Sociología, this article by our colleague Ruth Cicuéndez analyses four decades of Spanish public opinion (1985–2025) using 35 CIS barometers and over 106,000 respondents. Ideology emerges as the dominant predictor of defence spending preferences, followed by religiosity and educational attainment—showing that attitudes toward military budgets are driven by values and political orientations rather than social position, which explains their remarkable stability over time. 

Did you know that having a child reduces the amount of time women spend keeping up with politics, but the same isn't true for men?

Our colleague Irene Sánchez-Vítores, along with Mónica Ferrín Pereira and Gema García-Albacete, has just published a new study in the Journal of Politics that explores the so-called “motherhood penalty” in political news consumption, one of the key factors in democratic participation.

Staying informed is key to making our political demands heard and holding our representatives accountable. If motherhood systematically distances women from political discourse, we face a significant challenge to the quality of our democracies and women’s representation in the public sphere.

How can we curb corruption when it is totally widespread?

In this paper published at International Public Management Journal, Manuel Villoria, Jesús Palomo and Luis Ramos introduce the notion of Social Empowerment to understand how a holistic anti-corruption strategy should be implemented. They analyze the Region of Valencia, Spain and discover that an anti-corruption policy that empowers citizens is a key in the success to curb corruption.

Have you ever wondered why voters do not always punish corrupt politicians at the polls?

Our colleague Luis Ramos just published a new paper in in EUNOMIA. Revista en Cultura de la Legalidad, introduces the concept of Affective Perception of Corruption (APC), which explains how emotional and political loyalties can distort the way citizens judge corruption, especially when populist leaders turn it into a matter of identity rather than accountability. 

How does a political leader survive severe corruption scandals and still win elections?

Our colleagues Luis Ramos and Manuel Villoria just published a new paper in Revista Española de Ciencia Política (RECP). They explore the paradox of how the former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi managed to normalize his scandals and maintain power despite continuous investigations.

At a time when we are witnessing a growing authoritarian wave across different regions of the world, including within consolidated democracies, the debate on the resilience of the Rule of Law has become more urgent than ever. The last paper of our researcher Rut Bermejo is just released in the Hague Journal of Rule of Law. 

The paper reflects on institutional dynamics, democratic safeguards and the structural conditions that either enable or resist authoritarian backsliding. While several European countries are experiencing significant tensions in this regard, Spain continues to present a distinctive case within the current landscape.