And above all, thanks to all my wonderful colleagues and friends from the University of Mannheim, @mzesunimannheim.bsky.social, @gessunimannheim.bsky.social, and @ub.edu who have been there along the way. Your support, input, and fun have been pure gold. ✨
A huge thank you to my examiners and supervisors Harald Schoen, Thomas Gschwend and @jordimunoz.bsky.social. This viva has truly been the cherry on top of my PhD journey. Time flew by and I really enjoyed our discussion.
So pleased to share that I passed my viva yesterday 🎓✨
What a journey these past years have been! I’m happy, proud, and undeniably also quite relieved to have wrapped this up now.
Now on to discovering what new challenges the world of political science has in store! 📚📊
Two map graphs show the state of liberal democracy according to the V-Dem Liberal Democracy index for 2025 and 2024. The higher the score (or darker blue), the more democratic the country. Lower scores (or dark red) mean less democratic. While North and South America, Western Europe and Oceania are mostly in the blue, most parts of Asia and Africa are in the red in 2025. In comparison to the map for 2024, the map graph for 2025 shows democratic backsliding in some traditionally stable democracies in Western Europe and North America, in particular the USA, United Kingdom and Italy.
📢 Out Now! V-Dem Dataset v16 & the V-Dem Institute Democracy Report 2026
💾 The V-Dem Dataset: v-dem.net/data/the-v-d...
📰 The Report "Unraveling The Democratic Era?”: v-dem.net/publications...
📈 Explore the new data with the V-Dem Graphing tools: v-dem.net/graphing/gra...
#PoliSky #PoliSciSky
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The new V-Dem report was released today. There are dramatic declines in democracy in the US. Much worse than during Trump I.
Join us tomorrow for this exciting talk by @ankuepfer.bsky.social in the MZES Social Science Data Lab!
Details and Zoom link ⬇️
🚨 Content alert 🚨
New recording and workshop materials published!
➡️ When Events Change Samples: Disentangling Causal Effects from Compositional Bias in Quasi-Experimental Designs
👤
@klaramueller.bsky.social
(Uni Mannheim)
📺 youtu.be/kYdDGgaI95w
🗒️ github.com/SocialScienc...
🗳️ Neue Prognose: Landtagswahlen in Baden-Württemberg (8. März) und Rheinland-Pfalz (22. März)
BW: Kopf-an-Kopf CDU vs. Grüne. RP: CDU und SPD fast gleichauf.
Unsere Modellvorhersage mit 5/6-Kredibilitätsintervallen und Szenario-Wahrscheinlichkeiten 👇
zweitstimme.org/posts/blog/f...
Join us tomorrow for this exciting talk by @klaramueller.bsky.social in the MZES Social Science Data Lab!
Details and Zoom link ⬇️
New paper out in the @thejop.bsky.social with @rafaelahlskog.bsky.social & @grahn.bsky.social
Your neighbours shape your politics — but can living near people like *cause* higher turnout?
We studied 20,000+ queer individuals across the entire Swedish population to find out
doi.org/10.1086/740816
Excited to kick off the @mzes-ssdl.bsky.social Spring series 🙌
I’ll talk about different threats to causal inference in quasi-experimental designs and share hands-on tools to tackle common biases.
Hybrid event, so happy to see non-Mannheim folks joining on Zoom as well!
🗓️ Feb 25th, 1.45pm CET
We‘re very excited for the next edition of the Summer School for Women* in Political Methodology in Mannheim! ✨
Join us and apply until 1 March!
More info in @melinscribe.bsky.social‘s thread below and here: summerschoolwpm.org
Application form: sosci.sowi.uni-mannheim.de/wpm/
Congrats, Rubén, really cool!🥳
🚨 Join us for the next edition Summer School for Women* in Political Methodology in Mannheim 🚨
7 days of hands-on advanced methods + networking for PhDs, postdocs & early-career researchers.
Free of charge (limited travel support).
Deadline 1 March 2026: summerschoolwpm.org
#methodsky #polisky
Why did antisemitism rise in Germany during the Covid pandemic? And why was this increase concentrated among political centrists, rather than on the fringes?
doi.org/10.1017/S153...
@kanol.bsky.social @wzb.bsky.social @uni-hamburg.de @politikuhh.bsky.social @socfub.bsky.social
Which factors affect how Americans react to political violence? Our paper in @polbehavior.bsky.social addressing this question just got a volume and issue number! link.springer.com/article/10.1...
BJPolS abstract of an academic article discussing how democratic institutions prioritize citizen preferences regarding economic and physical security, with a focus on varied democratic features across thirty countries.
NEW -
Elections Without Constraints? The Appeal of Electoral Autocracy Across the World - https://cup.org/49auQPf
- @anjaneundorf.bsky.social, @sirianned.bsky.social, Kristian Vrede Skaaning Frederiksen & @aykutozturk.bsky.social
#OpenAccess
This is a fantastic dataset for studying the evolution of political attitudes and party preferences in Germany.
Here's a mosaic plot of vote choices in 2025 by vote choices in 2021 (as reported back then).
One striking observation is the high volatility behind the overall gains of the Left Party.
Great to present yesterday in Barcelona the latest version (and hopefully last!) of joint work with @klaramueller.bsky.social. Now looking forward to expanding the project further!
It was also in some way my official debut for UAB 🙂
PS: You may want to follow @bcnpolisci.bsky.social too!
Happy to share that the German Research Foundation DFG funds my new project: “Countering Polarization: The Borda count as a basis for proportional representation”. I am recruiting 2 PhD candidates to join me in Hannover as of March 2026 or later! Feel free to reach out!
Unbeatable way to start the week! So well-deserved ❤️
Personal news! 📣
I'm very happy to share that today I've joined @dec-gr.bsky.social as a postdoc to work on the @tact-forsed.bsky.social project, studying conspiracy beliefs and democratic backsliding across Europe.
Grateful to @galais.bsky.social and @mguinjoan.bsky.social for the opportunity!
⏰ One week left to apply for SekMethoden 2026 — the annual meeting of the DVPW Section "Methods of Political Science". Submit your abstract by Sunday!
⬇️ See below for the CfP and link to the application portal.
@gessler.bsky.social @lukrudolph.bsky.social @donyhu.bsky.social @dvpw.bsky.social
Thrilled to share my new article in Political Psychology: “The psychology of political attitudinal volatility.” In it, I attempt to answer why do some people change their political views more than others? Open access at: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....
@ispp-pops.bsky.social
🎉 New publication 🎉 Why do #youngpeople vote for the #AfD? This question has kept our research project busy for quite some time, so I'm beyond excited that our first article - co-authored with @timonscheuer.bsky.social - is now out in #GermanPolitics! 🤩 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Spot on, @ainagallego.bsky.social. Esto es realmente importante… y un problema que desde luego no se limita a España.
📣 New op-ed in Süddeutsche Zeitung: What the data say about the “Brandmauer”
I summarize key findings from a study with @anninahermes.bsky.social across 57 democracies
➡️ Far-right parties don’t get weaker in government, they get stronger (~6 points by the next election)
tinyurl.com/4j6jaud2
This leaves me fascinated and uneasy at the same time…🤯
In any case, new (?) survey challenges unlocked!
Note saying "New Data!"
For those who didn’t catch it:🚨 We’ve released 3 additional panel waves via @GESIS, bringing the total to 71 waves of survey data. Spanning Sep 2012–May 2024, the GIP dataset is fully accessible for researchers studying trends, attitudes, and social changes over more than a decade.
There's still time to register - looking forward to seeing you around!