The Standing Groups on Candidate and Leader Selection and Parties, Public Opinion and Elections of the Italian Political Science Association (SISP) invite panel proposals for Section 8 within this year’s Annual Conference. The Conference will take place at the Federico II University (Naples) from 4 to 6 September 2025 ( https://www.sisp.it/en/conference-2025 <https://www.sisp.it/en/conference-2025>). The deadline for panels’ submission is 6 April 2025. More information on the submission process in available here: https://www.sisp.it/en/conference-2025/call-for-panels-2025 <https://www.sisp.it/en/conference-2025/call-for-panels-2025> Please find below the call for panels for Section 8 (Parties, Leaders, Public Opinion, Elections) This section aims to include panels and papers focusing on the three areas corresponding to the interests of the Standing Group “Parties, Public Opinion, and Elections” and the Standing Group “Candidate and Leader Selection”. Prospective panels and papers may revolve around local, national and supranational elections, be theoretically and/or empirically oriented, adopt quantitative methods (for instance by analyzing survey or aggregate data) as well as qualitative methods, focus on case studies or have a more comparative perspective. The following (non-exhaustive) list suggests some possible topics for contributions to the section’s activities. 1. Political Parties A first approach focuses on party systems and on parties as organizations. The former topic includes the analysis of format, (de)institutionalization, level of polarization, and electoral volatility. The latter entails the examination of party models, party membership, and intraparty democracy (candidate selection, leader selection, intra-party ballots). A second, more recent, approach pays attention to candidates and party leaders as (more or less) powerful actors in elections, parties, and institutions (i.e., parliaments or governments, also in connection with the area of research of the personalization of politics). A third approach focuses on parties as central actors in general elections (e.g., regarding electoral supply or coalition-building strategies) but also in parliaments and governments (i.e, party elites in parliaments and cabinets, MPs’ and ministers’ careers patterns, different patterns of representation, institutional and decisional processes). 2. Public opinion We welcome contributions related to different topics. First of all, the study public opinion’ s attitudes towards political issues, public policies, both in electoral and non-electoral times. Second, the causes and consequences of a possible increase in ideological or affective polarization among different groups of citizens. 3. Elections We are particularly interested in a series of topics related to elections in both democratic and hybrid regimes; electoral campaigns and electoral systems, in connection with candidates’ and parties’ behavior and performance; negative campaigning and its consequences for affective polarization; voting behavior at any territorial level.