No, unfortunately not! But thanks for asking 😊

It's a new semester in Münster and that means a new start to our speaker series! We have teamed up with @thiloalbers.bsky.social + Andreas Stegmann to organize next year's talks. We are so excited to kick off w @alexjabbour.bsky.social next week 🎉

@danbischof.bsky.social @mwegemann.bsky.social

Three 2-year Postdoctoral positions at Aarhus University: Projects on personality cults and strategic communication in autocracies - Vacancy at Aarhus University Vacancy at Department of Political Science, Aarhus University

@au.dk is hiring 3 postdocs (2 yrs) on personality cults & strategic communication in autocracies, led by Jakob Tolstrup & Alexander Baturo. They're looking for profiles with text-as-data, survey experiments and/or Chinese politics experience. Start fall 2026. Looks like a great opportunity!

We are hiring a tenure track (!) senior researcher in political economy!

This is obviously a great job (permanent without teaching obligation) and I hope you all apply.

However, I would like to take a moment to share just how significant this is in the German academic context ⬇️

🚨Reminder that the nomination deadline for the inaugural
@epssnet.bsky.social
Best Book Award is March 31, details below👇

A 🧵on how the @vdeminstitute.bsky.social accountability indices help us understand how democratic backsliding is occurring in the United States.

tl;dr: in principle, vertical constraints on the president remain strong; in practice, horizontal and diagonal constraints have been greatly weakened.

This is why it is imperative that professors are honest and realistic to incoming and current PhD students and not assume or imply that they will face a similar job market as they did or suggest/tell them that only an academic (R1) career is worth their time!

EPSS Diversity Committee is happy to announce the launch of our mentoring program: a new initiative designed to develop a new network within the EPSS community.

March 31 is deadline, and program runs from May 1, 2026, to April 30, 2027.

More info: epssnet.org/about/divers...

V-Dem v.16 is now released, w. updated scores for 2025.

Most countries remain stable from 2024, but some clear improvements (on diff’t democracy indices), incl. S. Korea, Sri Lanka & Mauritius.

Largest declines came, by far, in the US.

This figure shows 10-yr changes on the Liberal Dem. index.

🔴🔴 dear hive mind: what are your favorite experimental (partisan) identity primes?

I only know of a few papers that primed partisan identities, and even fewer that did it successfully..
Any hints would be greatly appreciated 🙏

With APSA decisions out, we extended the deadline for submissions to the 4th Political Economy of Europe APSA Pre-Conference. If you are travelling to Boston in September, send us your work by March 20th!
(CC @mariacarreri.bsky.social @awiedemann.bsky.social @gemmadipoppa.bsky.social)

Are the Politically Active Better Represented? - Political Behavior Political participation is considered an important path for people to influence politics. However, whether those who participate actually see more of their preferred policies implemented remains an op...

🧵I am happy to announce a new article in Political Behavior @polbehavior.bsky.social, “Are the Politically Active Better Represented?”, co-authored with @jenny-oser.bsky.social, @rdassonneville.bsky.social, @professormpersson.bsky.social, and Anders Sundell.
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

‼️ New paper out in @polbehavior.bsky.social !

We ask whether the politically active (in terms of electoral or other forms of participation) are better represented? See Jesper's detailed 🧵 below for more info on the paper! 👇

Postdoctoral Fellow in Political Science (3-4 years) (291366) | University of Oslo Job title: Postdoctoral Fellow in Political Science (3-4 years) (291366), Employer: University of Oslo, Deadline: Friday, February 6, 2026

Interested in pursuing a career in climate governance, policy or politics research? Do you have a relevant PhD degree in political science, public administration or international relations? Then you should check out this opportunity!

www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...

🚨Jobs!🚨

3-year PostDoc positions (aka Research Officers) at @lsegovernment.bsky.social to work with me on the local consequences of border change. Please reach out for questions and apply by Jan 4th to join the team and department: I’d love to hear from you!

Job ad: jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...

The Christmas prepping was prepping, and I almost forgot to tell you that @miguelpereira.bsky.social is coming all the way to Münster to present work on politicians' ability to use evidence in policy making!

This Wednesday, find the Zoom link below 👇
@danbischof.bsky.social @mwegemann.bsky.social

The paper is joint work with a stellar team of scholars: @martinbaekgaard.bsky.social, @nathaliegiger.bsky.social, and @liorsheffer.bsky.social.

Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise cloud communications.

Come and join us via Zoom: uni-ms.zoom.us/j/62265873291

The Christmas prepping was prepping, and I almost forgot to tell you that @miguelpereira.bsky.social is coming all the way to Münster to present work on politicians' ability to use evidence in policy making!

This Wednesday, find the Zoom link below 👇
@danbischof.bsky.social @mwegemann.bsky.social

At the recent Zweitstimme.org Workshop on Elections, Public Opinion & Elite Behaviour at the Hertie School, researchers from across Europe shared new insights on elites, participation and polling, highlighting how data, methodology and communication are reshaping the study of democratic politics.

🌟 PHD FELLOWSHIP ALERT! 🌟

I’m hiring 1 PhD fellow for my ERC project ECONENGAGE (@ Gothenburg 🇸🇪)! Starting 09/26! Great PhD community + int'l & supportive environment + FUN city. 💰for conferences + workshops! Lots of mentoring & career development opportunities! Deadline Jan 29th. Please apply!

Congratulations, that's fantastic!

How Google Maps quietly allocates survival across London’s restaurants - and how I built a dashboard to see through it I wanted a dinner recommendation and got a research agenda instead. Using 13000+ restaurants, I rebuild its ratings with machine learning and map how algorithmic visibility actually distributes power.

I wanted dinner recommendations so I scraped 13,000+ London restaurants and accidentally discovered Google Maps is running a shadow economy. Anyway here's a dashboard and a political economy thesis: open.substack.com/pub/laurenle...

This is amazing! Congratulations!! 🎉

Excited to share that I’ve been awarded a PI-Grant from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) for my project "What Citizens Think They Should and Can Do in Democracies”. The project comes with 1 PhD (co-supervised w/ a proper academic adult) and 2 RA positions + funding for interviews and surveys.

1/2

📢📢 Happy to announce a new update to the PPEG database!

The data now covers

- > 3.000 parties
- 1.100 parliamentary elections
- 402 presidential elections
- 2.044 cabinets

across 73 countries (1945 - 2025, Oct 31).

All info: ppeg.wzb.eu

We hope that data is helpful to the community!

New paper! @william-dinneen.bsky.social @guygrossman.bsky.social Yiqing Xu and I use GPT to code 91k articles from 174 polisci journals (2003–2023)and track research designs, transparency practices, and citations. How has the credibility revolution reshaped the discipline? doi.org/10.31235/osf...
🧵

Congratulations! I saw an early presentation on this project, so happy the paper found a fantastic home. 🎉

Article abstract reads: Nature protected areas are hailed as an institutional solution to the global biodi-versity crisis. However, conservation entails local economic costs for some com-munities and benefits for others. We propose that the establishment of protectedareas in Africa follows an ethno-political logic which implies that governmentsdistribute protected areas such that their ethnic constituencies are shielded fromtheir costs but enjoy their benefits. We test this argument using continent-widedata on ethnic groups’ power status and protected area establishment since inde-pendence. Difference-in-differences models show that political inclusion decreasesnature protection in groups’ settlement areas. However, this effect is reversed forprotected areas that plausibly generate tourism income. We also find that ethno-political inclusion is linked to legal degradation of protected areas. Our find-ings support long-voiced concerns by activists that politically marginalized groupscarry disproportional costs of conservation. This has implications, given the likelyexpansion of protected areas the decades to come.

🚨New publication alert! 🚨

Our article “The Ethnic Politics of Nature Protection in Africa” is now out in @thejop.bsky.social 🎉-- fantastic collaboration with Stephen Dawson, @carlmc.bsky.social & Aksel Sundström

Article: doi.org/10.1086/739777

Short summary thread below 👇

Last Friday we held Munster Replication Games (@uni-muenster.de jointly with #MüCOS and #CDSC). Sixty researchers replicated fifteen papers: well done, everybody! Many thanks to the local organizers as well, @bschlipphak.bsky.social and @aufdroeseler.bsky.social and Katrin Schmietendorf :)