Ekaterina R. Rashkova is Assistant Professor of Comparative Politics at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. Her research interests lie in electoral and party systems and the strategic behavior of political actors, institutions, party system development, party regulation and gender representation. Her work compares new and established democracies and has appeared in Comparative European Politics, International Political Science Review, Party Politics, Political Studies, and Representation as well as in several edited book volumes. She is one of the co-founders of the Comparative Politics Research Group Innsbruck and a co-editor of the European Political Science journal.
Emilia Zankina is Assistant Professor of Political Science and Chair of the Department of Politics and European Studies at the American University in Bulgaria. Her research examines democratization and elite transformation in Eastern Europe, populism, civil service reform, and gender political representation. In the past, Zankina has served as Associate Director of the Center for Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pittsburgh, Managing Editor of East European Politics and Societies, and Editor-in-Chief of the Newsletter of the Bulgarian Studies Association. Her work has appeared in Problems of Post-communism, Representation East European Politics, as well as in several edited book volumes.