Congratulations, Tarik, to you and WZB! What fantastic and exciting news!

Very happy to share that I am going to be the new Director of the Democracy unit at the @wzb.bsky.social Berlin Social Science Center. I am excited to form a new research unit on democratic politics and to engage with people in Berlin and elsewhere to make liberal democracy more resilient.

Rechtsextreme Strukturen etablieren sich immer weiter, die Bundesregierung streicht Unterstützung für Demokratie zusammen und die angebliche Mitte faselt von wokeness als Bedrohung der Demokratie. Zivilgesellschaft zieht sich aus Resignation immer weiter zurück. Schwere Zeiten für die Demokratie.

I graduated with my #PhD from @tcddublin.bsky.social! I'm overwhelmed by gratitude for the many people who contributed to this moment -- whether by research feedback, teaching, encouragement, nurturing my interests, or "just" friendship throughout the years. Thank you so much!

Signed,
Dr. Lucas 😁

Many, many congratulations, Dr da Silva! 🥳🥳 What a big and thoroughly deserved achievement! And I'm glad that you got some untypical Dublin weather to celebrate the occasion 😉All my best wishes for what's next at Zurich!

New university free speech complaints system to come into force this year Universities could face fines of £500,000 or 2% of their income if they are found to have failed to protect free speech.

Unfortunately, the Labour government does not only empower authoritarian and populist narratives in the area of immigration. With a new system to guarantee "free speech" at universities, they legitimize a favorite talking point and gateway drug of the far right.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The programme for @epssnet.bsky.social's inaugural conference in Belfast is now live.

W\ @anacweeks.bsky.social, we were responsible for chairing the Gender & Sexuality Section.

Our section will have 13 panels over 3 days. You can see the full programme here: lnkd.in/gQbba9ev

Title and abstract of a journal article: "Eyes and ears, and potentially so much more: the role of parliamentary private secretary to the prime minister—a case study".

Reading London Playbook ("The PM seems confident, which is why he got his PPS to text all Labour MPs last night begging them not to sack him / giving important context on the Mandelson case") has reminded me: this just came out (doi.org/10.1093/pa/g...). Possibly of interest to Thatcher 'fans', too?

Refugee labor market integration at scale: Evidence from Germany’s fast-track employment program | PNAS Governments face persistent challenges in integrating refugees into the local labor market, and many past interventions have shown limited impact. ...

🚨New Paper in PNAS: "Refugee Labor Market Integration at Scale: Evidence from Germany’s Fast-Track Employment Program"

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... Ungated preprint osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/px9ew_v3

w/ J Hainmueller, D Hangartner, @niklas-harder.bsky.social & E Vallizadeh

#econtwitter #econsky

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!

🎓 I am very happy to share that I have successfully defended my PhD dissertation, "Competition Between Equals: Mainstream Party Decline, Far-Right Evolution, and the Transformation of Party Competition in Western Europe", on Monday!

Delighted our paper (with an amazing group of co-authors) is forthcoming in the APSR

Takeaway for Labour and other centre-left parties: fixing public services is key to reducing support for the populist right

👇

Fascinating thread (and paper). Raises a wider question - namely, did the Conservative Party's enthusiasm for austerity ultimately lead, every bit as much as its increasing obsession with Europe and immigration, to its being replaced by Reform UK as the pre-eminent party on the British right?

Mid- & senior-level colleagues: if you’re at all concerned about the situation our job market candidates face, or it’s been awhile since you yourselves were applying, read @ralphscott.bsky.social’s summary of our new report. And come to our launch, 12.30 today in Exam Schools (East) #psa26 #polisky

What a wonderful and thoroughly deserved achievement! Many, many congratulations, Will! 😀🥳

Our latest article, "Do political parties and youth wings shape political ambition differently? Insights from Spain", is out now! @jrteruel.bsky.social and I explore how the opportunity structure of the youth wings and the party shapes the political trajectories of young members differently.

Tuesday 15:30. Roundtable “The European far right in comparative and transnational perspective” (Wadham – Giles Badun) – together with @psagermanpol.bsky.social & @psagreekpol.bsky.social - with @matthiasdilling.bsky.social @dafnoukos.bsky.social @mlorimer.bsky.social @vtsagkr.bsky.social Graef

Tuesday 9:30. Panel “Polycrisis in Europe” (Wadham – Seminar Room 5) – together with @psagermanpol.bsky.social and @psagreekpol.bsky.social - with @matthiasdilling.bsky.social Ieraci Bokszczanin Lorencka Hofelich Rowe Turner

📣 New job at Oxford's Centre for Advanced Social Science Methods (CASSM)! 📣

The Departments of Politics & IR (DPIR) and Social Policy and Intervention (DSPI) are hiring an Associate Professor of Causal and Experimental Methods.

Come work with me and amazing Oxford peeps! Deadline NOON April 27th.

Fantastic news! Many, many congratulations, Constantin.

The old and the “new”: Slovenia’s parliamentary elections - UK in a changing Europe Ahead of the election in Slovenia on Sunday 22 March 2026, Tim Haughton and Alenka Krašovec explain the Slovenian political landscape and where the different parties stand in the polls.

#Slovenia 🇸🇮 #elections today. #newparties #volatility #electoralthresolds #campaigning a primer from Alenka Krasovec & me @catherinedevries.bsky.social @casmudde.bsky.social @timbale.bsky.social @anandmenon.bsky.social ukandeu.ac.uk/the-old-and-...

The standard model of liberal, representative democracy is increasingly being challenged from the bottom and the top. In a new paper @Party Politics, Gidi Rahat and I seek to explain why political parties differ in the conception of democracy they advance.

doi.org/10.1177/1354...

I can’t recommend this conference more strongly

Are we accurately interpreting election results? In our new paper, forthcoming in @ejprjournal.bsky.social, Tim Vlandas and I discuss the risks associated with drawing inferences about national level outcomes based on individual-level analyses- i.e. the 'atomistic fallacy'.

Democratic dissatisfaction, the far right, and party brand activation – lessons from the breakthrough (and downfall) of the Dutch New Social Contract Far-right parties have been on the rise in European democracies. Their calls for a fundamental reorganization of democracy along nativist and people-centric lines have resonated with a growing shar...

📣 New publication with the great @matthiasdilling.bsky.social in @prxjournal.bsky.social on the rise (and fall) of the Dutch NSC. Slow science meets fast-moving politics: while writing this, the party had risen - and fallen. Yet: it offers lessons on countering the far right: doi.org/10.1080/2474...

Diluting and abandoning that brand after the election when NSC entered into a coalition with the far right was a key step in the party's downfall. It highlights the importance of brand authenticity when engaging with public grievances. (5/5)

NSC used what we call “party brand activation” – offering responses to voters’ grievances in line with its own (Christian democratic) ideological tradition. NSC’s breakthrough illustrates how dormant ideological traditions can be reactivated as constructive responses to contemporary grievances. (4/)

The paper offers new insights to that question by studying the 2023 breakthrough of the Dutch New Social Contract (NSC). Using a mixed-methods design, we show that NSC appealed to voters dissatisfied w the political SQ & supportive of restricting immigration w/o reproducing far-right narratives.(3/)

Far-right parties’ calls for a fundamental reorganization of democracy along nativist and people-centric lines have resonated with a growing share of voters. Copying those calls has been inherently unsuccessful for other parties. So, what else can they do? (2/)

Democratic dissatisfaction, the far right, and party brand activation – lessons from the breakthrough (and downfall) of the Dutch New Social Contract Far-right parties have been on the rise in European democracies. Their calls for a fundamental reorganization of democracy along nativist and people-centric lines have resonated with a growing shar...

NEW PAPER in @prxjournal.bsky.social w the amazing @leoniedejonge.bsky.social. Studying the rise & fall of the Dutch NSC, the paper outlines “party brand activation” as an alternative strategy for parties to respond to a rising far right. doi.org/10.1080/2474... (1/)