This first issue of 2003 also marks two major changes for Government and Opposition. First we are delighted to welcome Professor Paul Heywood of the University of Nottingham as co-editor. Professor Heywood is both a distinguished scholar of the Mediterranean world and a noted comparativist — and thus his appointment is doubly fitting for a journal which has long been designated a journal of comparative politics. His appointment confirms the commitment of Government and Opposition to publishing the best quality work in the comparative field written in an accessible way.

This is also the first issue of the journal to be published under our new contract with Blackwell Publishers. The change reflects our view that the commercial and technological demands of modern journal publishing dictate the need for the best kind of professional support, and we have chosen Blackwell because of its outstanding reputation as a publisher of scholarly journals. Readers will notice little immediate difference, but in the long term it is hoped that the partnership with Blackwell will enable us to offer an improved range of services and to reach a wider readership. The ownership of the journal remains independent, and we likewise remain committed to our overriding purpose: to publish the best of scholarship without regard to any substantive or methodological orthodoxy.