We are pleased to announce the publication of a new Special Issue of Politics in Central Europe (Vol. 21, No. 3), titled "Political Trust, the Challenges Faced by Democracies, and Democratic Innovations." This volume was guest edited by Meta Novak and Alenka Krašovec (University of Ljubljana), with editorial oversight by Jakub Charvát, Editor-in-Chief. The Special Issue was prepared in part within the framework of the TRUEDEM project.

This Special Issue brings together seven peer-reviewed articles that address the evolving dynamics of political trust and institutional legitimacy in democratic systems, with particular attention to the interplay between citizen engagement and institutional reform. The contributions examine various aspects of democratic governance through comparative and case-based research grounded in empirical evidence from across Central, Eastern, and Southern Europe.

The volume covers topics including political communication on social media, perceptions of democratic innovations among policymakers and civil society actors, the influence of psychological and generational factors on institutional trust, and the role of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence in shaping attitudes toward governance. Several articles also engage directly with questions of how participatory mechanisms and democratic innovations are conceptualised and applied in national contexts.