Volume 14 opens with two contributions to ancient rhetoric and philosophy, and to their modification among later thinkers. The second cluster of articles includes a discussion on the Finnish 19th-century concept of "woman," an intellectual biography of a German-American scholar and a review article of a Spanish conceptual history dictionary. The third theme connects to debates on democracy in the journal's previous volumes with articles on the conceptualisation of emergency with a focus on Sweden, on the relationship between democracy and resentment, as well as a proposal for the parliamentarisation of elections.

Aspects of studying the politics of the past are thematied through feminist historians discussion on war and the role of the worker in communist regimes. One article and two comments deal with contemporary theories of democracy. One of the included articles discusses the chances of democratiation in the EU, and one carries out a fictional analysis of an undemocratic regime. Three articles propose rhetorical redescriptions of key political concepts, namely, objectivity, decision, and patriotism.

Kari Palonen is a professor of political science at the University of Jyvaskyla (Finland).