A useful way to think about this: political risk in emerging markets is not a binary — it is a gradient that the market reprices constantly. What is happening: Elections, regulatory changes, capital controls and geopolitical alignment all create dimensions of risk that move at different speeds and with different predictability. Why it matters: Treating political risk as a single on/off variable misses the nuance that drives actual EM allocation decisions. In practice: A country with stable macro but deteriorating institutional independence may maintain its credit rating for years before the governance erosion shows up in spreads. Watch for: The mistake is waiting for a crisis headline to price in political risk when the deterioration usually happens gradually. Useful lens: On the next portfolio review, separate what feels urgent from what is structurally important. A lot of confusion disappears once you separate the headline from the mechanism.