This panel deals with political cleavages and constraints, and we start with three papers on cleavages. Desmond King examines the influence of racial inequality, Anna Grzymala-Busse focuses on the role of religion, and Jonathan Hopkin looks at regional separatism. In each case, the authors will concentrate their attention on particular national or regional experiences. For King the focus will be the United States; for Grzymala-Busse the emphasis will be on Eastern Europe and the Middle East; and for Hopkin the case countries are the United Kingdom and Spain. Nevertheless each author will use these cases to tease out more general insights. The next two papers explore the impact of European integration and globalization on democratic performance, and therefore focus on external constraints. Daniel Kelemen analyzes the most obvious case, which is the promotion of democracy by the European Union in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, with a particular focus on Hungary. Matthias Matthijs broadens out the analysis to look at international trade and financial market integration as a more general constraint, and how these developments restrict the room for maneuver of democratic governments, France and the United Kingdom specifically.