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@polstudies.bsky.socialSep 30, 2026, 5:01 PM

Does radical right success change attitudes or the local climate? Stefan Dahlberg, @hilmal.bsky.social & @polhosc.bsky.social examine Sweden, finding contextual alignment, not persuasion. Read OPEN ACCESS: buff.ly/rI91be4

@polstudiesassoc.bsky.social #polsky #polsci #RadicalRight

"Abstract Electoral success of radical right parties is often argued to normalize previously stigmatized anti-immigration attitudes. Yet, it remains unclear whether such normalization reflects genuine within-individual persuasion or shifts in the local climate of political expression. We address this question by linking highly disaggregated district-level vote shares to individual-level panel survey data from Sweden (2018–2022), a period marked by sustained growth and partial normalization of the Sweden Democrats. Cross-sectional analyses reveal pronounced contextual patterns: Restrictive immigration attitudes are more prevalent in districts with higher local radical right support, particularly among voters who do not support the party, while core supporters remain comparatively stable. However, first-difference panel analyses provide little evidence that changes in local radical right support are associated with attitudinal change. The findings suggest that what appears as normalization in ecological analyses is more consistent with contextual alignment than with rapid persuasion, clarifying the micro-foundations of radical right normalization."
@polstudies.bsky.socialSep 29, 2026, 11:01 AM

Greenwashing doesn't just mislead consumers. It corrupts democratic rhetoric, letting corporations pose as agents of political change. Our everyday language helps make that possible. Corrado Fumagalli argues we have a duty to counter-frame in ordinary conversations: buff.ly/JNSnFiW

#polsky #polsci

@spsr.bsky.socialSep 29, 2026, 7:52 AM

🚨 How do populist radical right parties shape pension systems?
Thomas Mayer examines the FPĂ–'s impact on pension reforms & occupational schemes in Austria, revealing the tension between rhetoric and policy support for pension privatization đź“Š
#PolSci #Austria
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

@bschlipphak.bsky.socialSep 28, 2026, 7:08 PM

It's of course not important to #PolSci scholars, but the 2027 convention will take place in cool & beautiful Leipzig (Sept 7 to 10), the city of Bach (you know, J.S.) and the Peaceful Revolution. And yes, the party and side events are legendary. So, join us for a great panel at a great location!

@polstudies.bsky.socialSep 28, 2026, 11:02 AM

Should EU migrants receive equal welfare treatment? Pietro Intropi examines reciprocity in EU law, arguing rights and contributive duties vary by migrants’ contributions and the justice of the host state. Read more: buff.ly/O7Foc1b

@polstudiesassoc.bsky.social #polsky #polsci

@polstudies.bsky.socialSep 27, 2026, 11:01 AM

Why do senators respond differently to China trade shocks? @weitianliu.bsky.social finds Democrats became critical as import exposure rose, while Republicans responded less. Read more: buff.ly/khjZ0Tu

@polstudiesassoc.bsky.social #polsky #polsci

@klauspforr.eurosky.socialSep 26, 2026, 12:39 PM

#polsci bubble: Are there any good studies in the effect of child birth in political leanings? Probably mostly self selection going on, i guess

@polstudies.bsky.socialSep 26, 2026, 11:01 AM

Why do governments prevent crime in some places but neglect others? @juangelvezf.bsky.social examines Colombia, finding incumbents direct crime prevention funds to electorally competitive municipalities, boosting subsequent votes for the incumbent coalition. Read more: buff.ly/6ruEjgq

#polsci

@polstudies.bsky.socialSep 25, 2026, 5:02 PM

Can workplace democracy exist in practice or do democratic organisations inevitably devolve into new hierarchies? @timchristiaens.bsky.social argues channels for plebeian contestation from below are needed to withhold the formation of new hierarchies. OPEN ACCESS: buff.ly/c0RacFk

#polsky #polsci

Abstract Worker cooperatives are often lauded as the ideal institutional form of workplace democracy. While the traditional firm subjects workers to hierarchical authority, cooperatives establish workers as owners and managers of their own venture. However, since 1911 Robert Michels popularised the phrase of an “iron law of oligarchy” to argue how nominally democratic institutions, like worker cooperatives, often fall back into hierarchical patterns. I claim that this criticism against workplace democracy is based on a misreading of Michels’ philosophy and a misrepresentation of today’s empirical research on cooperative management. Both present worker cooperatives as hybrid institutions torn between oligarchic and democratic pulls. By counterbalancing tendencies towards a concentration of power at the top with countervailing institutions that help rank-and-file workers contest managerial decision-making, worker cooperatives can safeguard themselves against degeneration and the iron law of oligarchy. This proposal of instituting workplace democracy through constant anti-hierarchical conflict, I call “plebeian cooperativism."
@polstudies.bsky.socialSep 24, 2026, 5:00 PM

Can social media enable popular counter-power while reinforcing elite influence? @absander.bsky.social examines #saccageparis, finding its digital tactics gave citizens a tribunate role despite its non-popular composition.

OPEN ACCESS: buff.ly/2z1TPOo

@polstudiesassoc.bsky.social #polsky #polsci

"Abstract This article argues that the case of an idiosyncratic digital movement in Paris—#saccageparis—has much to contribute to recent debates around social media’s democratic potential. #saccageparis leaders paint themselves as contemporary tribunes of the plebs, a permanent counter-power representing the “small people” of Paris against the municipality. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, I examine in this article such claim. On the one hand, Twitter’s affordances enabled ordinary citizens to gain some of the attributes of a popular tribunate standing up to power while, on the other hand, the movement only gained this foothold because it was not itself popular. #saccageparis’s composition therefore contradicts its tactics, and the movement is best described as “bourgeois populism.” This case shows us how social media’s populist affordances can be exploited by elites and, as a result, offers precious insights for those interested in rescuing social media’s radical-democratic possibilities from elite capture."
@polstudies.bsky.socialSep 24, 2026, 11:02 AM

Does the level of government shape political trust and compliance? Susan Banducci, @l-horvath.bsky.social & Daniel Stevens argue local trust influences prosocial behaviour, unlike national trust. Read OPEN ACCESS: buff.ly/RgZMQ5R

@polstudiesassoc.bsky.social #polsky #polsci #PoliticalTrust

@polstudies.bsky.socialSep 23, 2026, 11:02 AM

Who supports martial law in a democracy? Brandon Beomseob Park & Inkwan Chung examine South Korea, finding affective polarization drives support for executive overreach. Read more: buff.ly/63rPmga

@polstudiesassoc.bsky.social #polsky #polsci #AffectivePolarization #ResearchNote

@polstudies.bsky.socialSep 22, 2026, 5:01 PM

Should we exaggerate support for #democracy to save it? Maxime Lepoutre examines the dilemma of affirming democracy during democratic backsliding. Read OPEN ACCESS: buff.ly/f0fAwu0

@polstudiesassoc.bsky.social #polsky #polsci #ethics

"Abstract Democracies around the world have increasingly faced concerted efforts to dismantle democratic institutions. How should public speakers respond to such attempts at democratic backsliding? A widespread rhetorical strategy is to affirm democracy—that is, to publicly invoke the value of democracy and vigorously insist on the need to defend it. I argue that this practice gives rise to an underappreciated democratic dilemma. On one hand, distinctive features of the backsliding process seemingly require us to affirm democracy. Yet, on the other hand, this practice also poses serious dangers for democracy. For one, it risks accelerating democratic erosion. Moreover, efforts to limit this risk seemingly violate democratic requirements of truthfulness. So, both affirming democracy and failing to do so involve significant democratic pitfalls. The best way to navigate this dilemma, I contend, is not to forgo affirming democracy. Instead, it is to do so in a way that emphasises elites’ concrete attacks on democracy, while insisting that most people are strongly committed to democracy. While this approach may indeed involve some deception—insofar as it may knowingly overstate support for democracy—this is often all-things-considered justified."
@polstudies.bsky.socialSep 21, 2026, 11:02 AM

IN NEW ISSUE: How does republican theory reimagine economic freedom? Sean Irving explores John Francis Bray’s economic republicanism and its implications for markets and justice. Read OPEN ACCESS: buff.ly/a4aGPuz

@polstudiesassoc.bsky.social #polsky #polsci

Abstract In recent years political theorists have applied republican ideas to considerations of economic freedom. The development of a distinct socialist republicanism has been one strand of this literature, while another has claimed the centrality of a free market to freedom understood in republican terms. Revisiting the work of John Francis Bray (1809–1897) can point us beyond these binaries. Bray applied republican ideas, developed in the register of constitutionalism, to issues of exchange and production. He did not, however, do so in the name of the free market or of socialism. Rather, his concern was to create a system of popular economic self-government. Doing so, Bray believed, would involve a combination of markets and economic democracy, involving worker cooperatives and indicative economic planning. In Bray’s work, we find an economic republicanism which, out of a concern to establish popular economic self-government, combined elements of what have become two distinct camps.
@polstudies.bsky.socialSep 20, 2026, 11:01 AM

IN NEW ISSUE: Polarized attitudes and anti-democratic orientation in the US - Ariel Malka, Christopher M Federico, Thomas H Costello & Adam R Panish examine paradoxical partisan asymmetries in current democratic attitudes. Read more: buff.ly/dVEZQr8

@polstudiesassoc.bsky.social #polsci #polsky

Abstract Influential perspectives on polarization in the United States imply that partisans will be more willing to degrade democracy when they are ideologically aligned with their own party and negatively oriented toward the opposing party. But psychological accounts of political ideology suggest that conservatives will be especially anti-democratic regardless of partisanship. Integrating insights from these areas, we argue that there are reasons to expect paradoxical partisan asymmetries in the ideological correlates of democratic attitudes. Across numerous surveys we find that cultural conservatism and out-party favorability are reliably associated with anti-democratic orientation among Democrats (but not Republicans), while left-leaning economic attitudes are reliably associated with anti-democratic orientation among Republicans (but not Democrats). These findings provide context for understanding how polarization might impact American democracy. They also suggest that increased centrality of sociocultural conflict and Republican cultivation of a right-wing populist reputation might sort anti-democratic Americans into the Republican Party.
@polstudies.bsky.socialSep 19, 2026, 5:01 PM

Does ideological congruence or perceived competence matter more for vote choice? @dieterstiers.bsky.social & @annkristinkolln.bsky.social argue both matter, but valence consistently outweighs spatial considerations. Read more: buff.ly/J3cy21u

@polstudiesassoc.bsky.social #polsky #polsci

Abstract Rational choice theories offer one of the major explanations for citizens’ voting behavior. The most prominent models within the rational choice framework – spatial and valence voting – share the same roots but differ in central aspects, emphasizing ideological congruence and competence evaluations, respectively. In this note, we provide a direct test of the models’ relative strength. Does a party’s issue congruence with a voter (spatial) or its effectiveness in handling important issues (valence) have a larger effect on vote choice? Our results from lab-like conditions using a novel conjoint experiment show strong evidence for both models, but valence evaluations consistently trump spatial considerations. These results have important implications for research on electoral behavior, party politics, and democratic representation.
@polstudies.bsky.socialSep 19, 2026, 11:01 AM

IN NEW ISSUE: How do populist citizens understand democracy? Patricia Rehus & @steven-vanhauwaert.bsky.social find they tend to support direct democracy & are less supportive of liberal principles. Read OPEN ACCESS: buff.ly/XhXgcjl

@polstudiesassoc.bsky.social #polsky #polsci

Abstract Populist leaders often describe democracy as being in conflict with liberal values and endorse more direct democratic measures for people to influence politics. But what about populist citizens? How do they define democracy and what aspects of democracy do they value most? Using a cross-national survey of 10 West European countries, we first explore how citizens understand democracy in general and then test the assumption that populist citizens share a different understanding of democracy to both populist elites and less-populist individuals. Our findings show that citizens’ conceptions of democracy do not exactly match scholarly models, but are still clearly structured. We also find that populist citizens tend to support direct democracy and are less supportive of liberal principles, primarily because they are less likely to support the protection of minorities. They remain, however, equally supportive of other institutions of electoral and liberal democracy. Similarly, our results show that populist individuals are not especially more or less supportive of egalitarian and authoritarian understandings of democracy. That said, they are more comfortable with the idea of having strong leaders than their less populist counterparts. These results have important implications for democratic resilience. Policy-makers aiming to strengthen liberal democracy must address citizens’ concerns about representation without compromising core democratic safeguards. Understanding these tensions can help guide more inclusive democratic reforms and better communication between political institutions and the public.
@polstudies.bsky.socialSep 18, 2026, 11:01 AM

IN NEW ISSUE: Politicized pejoration - @erikbleich.bsky.social, Husam AlZubaidy, Andrey Cao, Abigail Chang, Nikki Sadat, Abby Ward & A Maurits van der Veen develop the concept through a case study of the term “woke” in the US. Read more: buff.ly/lqoCtN7

@polstudiesassoc.bsky.social #polsky #polsci

Abstract Politicized semantic change occurs when ideological actors strategically alter the meaning of existing terms to undermine opponents and to strengthen allies. We develop the concept of politicized pejoration through a case study of the term “woke” in the United States. This word originated in the US Black community as an encouragement to stay aware of social and racial injustices; it was subsequently transformed by the political right to indicate what it perceived as the left’s hypersensitivity and oppressive tendencies. We illustrate the process of pejoration by tracking usage of “woke” in mainstream media outlets, on Twitter and in Google searches from 2010 through 2022, combining quantitative text-as-data analyses with qualitative readings of media stories. Conceptualizing politicized pejoration as a form of politicized semantic change extends scholarly and public understanding of the politics of language.
@polstudies.bsky.socialSep 17, 2026, 11:02 AM

IN NEW ISSUE: How do non-party actors view far-right parties in Australia? @imogenrichards.bsky.social, Callum Jones, Jordan McSwiney & @kurtsengul.bsky.social explore perceptions & relationships within the far-right ecosystem beyond formal politics.Read OPEN ACCESS: buff.ly/uxTW0e3

#polsky #polsci

Abstract Far-right political parties form an integral component of the broader far-right landscape globally. While these parties have received extensive scholarly attention, less is known about how they are perceived within the wider far-right milieu – a relationship with significant implications for understanding movement-party dynamics in contemporary democracies. This article investigates the relationship between far-right political parties and the non-party sector through a mixed-methods approach, combining keyword frequency analysis, sentiment analysis, and qualitative content analysis. Drawing on large-scale data sets from Telegram, X (formerly Twitter), 8kun, and far-right alternative media outlets in Australia, we explore two key research questions: How does the non-party sector perceive far-right parties and politicians? And what role do these parties play within the broader far-right ecosystem? Our findings reveal a complex and often contradictory relationship, with non-party actors expressing views that reflect deeper ideological, organisational, and strategic divisions within far-right movements. These patterns of conditional support, strategic adaptation, and ideological tension offer insights applicable beyond Australia, contributing to theoretical understanding of how extra-parliamentary actors evaluate electoral politics across democratic settings.
@ecpr.bsky.socialSep 17, 2026, 7:00 AM

🚨Deadline: Call for editors of The Loop 🚨

@ecprtheloop.bsky.social seeks Academic Editors or an editorial team from 1 Oct

Are you familiar with:
✔️ What makes a successful blog post?
✔️ The Loop's editorial process?
✔️ the role of blogs in promoting #polsci to a wider readership?

👇️ Apply today!

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