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kwalz.bsky.social
PhD Student in Political Science | Research Associate @JGU Mainz | Studying democracy, its erosion, and what we can do about it | https://kwalz91.github.io/
47 posts 869 followers 398 following
Prolific Poster

"Warum erst jetzt?" wird im Artikel gefragt. 👉 Eine Antwort liegt darin, dass Fans es mehrheitlich ablehnen, dass sich Sportlerinnen und Sportler zu politischen Themen äußern. Daten: Repräsentative 🇩🇪 Befragung im November 2023 (zusammen mit @wurthmann.bsky.social)

🚨Publication Alert 🚨 New article published in @poppublicsphere.bsky.social together with my coauthor Janika Spannagel: doi.org/10.1017/S1537592724001968 We assessed the quality of the #academicfreedomindex from the @vdeminstitute.bsky.social dataset. \1

I am looking for a postdoc in my new project on "The domestic politics of EU action against democratic backsliding". Please, check also the project website for the call for applications (as well as the calls for two more postdoc positions in Bremen and Wroclaw): sites.google.com/view/deudem

'Process Tracing Methods' by Derek Beach & @hildevanmeegdenburg.com Webinar is on TOMORROW! Sign up for free and make sure you don't miss out on this exciting event! #methods #methodstraining #webinar #methodnets #processtracing #qualitative

Schöne Grafik von @selinarudolph.bsky.social: Wie haben die siegreichen Direktkandidaten im Vergleich zu ihrer Partei abgeschnitten? Zu den Top-Performern gehören @larsklingbeil.bsky.social, @bodoramelow.bsky.social, @dorobaer.bsky.social, Gregor Gysi und Boris Pistorius. www.zeit.de/politik/deut...

BlueSky, kannst Du helfen? Bald steht unser Masterseminar zum Vergleich der polit. Systeme 🇩🇪🇨🇭 an, inkl. Studienreise nach Berlin & Austausch mit einem MdB. Nun verpasste es die Wiederwahl. Hat i-jemand einen niederschwelligen Kontakt zu einem MdB? Unsere Studierenden würden sich SO freuen! #btw25

One thing seems certain about Germany's general election on Sunday: for the first time, the former "Volksparteien" (catch all parties) will receive less than 50% of the vote. The CDU/CSU and the SPD are particularly weak among younger voters, so this trend is likely to continue. (1/2)

Next week Thursday, Derek Beach and I will be hosting a #Free online webinar on #ProcessTracing Methods. We'll talk about what PT is and what it is that we are tracing. We'll also make sure there is time for questions. Join us! 📅: Thursday Feb 27 ⏰: 15:00 CET 🌐: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

#GraphOfTheWeek Political Mobilization in Germany 📈 #Germany is a post-WWII democratic success story, but is its foundation now under threat? This week’s graph shows the development of political mobilization between 1924 and 2023. Full text with references: v-dem.net/weekly_graph... 🧵1(7) #polisky

I am keeping a diary of daily events, as they unfold open.substack.com/pub/adamprze... It is available to everyone. I am new to Substack, so please let me know if something is wrong with the link or the file.

Highly recommended by a two-time participant 👇

Are you a PhD student or early career PostDoc researching how citizens and parties behave in democracies, what factors weaken democracies, and what factors strengthen them? Are you currently working on one of your first academic manuscripts? We are organizing a workshop just for you! Please share!

SAVE THE DATE! MethodsNET Webinar Series presents: "Building Your Comparative Case-based Research Design: Key options, from smaller-N to intermediate-N to larger-N" Speaker: Benoît Rihoux Feb 25, 2025 | 16:00 CET | 1h 30min (incl. Q&A) Register here: bit.ly/4b6F2IV #webinar #researchdesign

Seems like a good time to read this beautiful paper! www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

Lieferbar!

I would say, no. Coups ride on shock value/speed, backsliding on habituation/uncertainty. In this paper we defined it as min. five years of max. 0.1 decline of lib. democracy 👇=> a) US may already be at an advanced stage (I think so) b) it is not backsliding preprints.apsanet.org/engage/apsa/...

Interessiert an politischer #Ungleichheit? In diesem neu erschienenen Beitrag zum "Handbuch Sozialstrukturanalyse" geben @leaelsaesser.bsky.social und ich einen Überblick über die Fachliteratur und diskutieren die Befunde. (1/2) link.springer.com/referencewor...

Our article 'A Crisis of Political Trust?' led by @viktorv.bsky.social is now out in @bjpols.bsky.social! We use >3,000 surveys in 143 countries between 1958 and 2019, finding that trust in representative institutions has generally been declining in recent decades. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Polity has not coded any countries other than the US since 2018, but this places the US below the 2018 scores of Russia, Venezuela, Haiti, Iraq, Zimbabwe, the Central African Republic... Perhaps the inference we should make here is about the reliability of Polity.

📢Applications Open for New Director of the V-Dem Institute V-Dem Institute and the Dept. of Political Science, University of Gothenburg is looking for a Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor in Political Science & Director of the V-Dem Institute. To application: shorturl.at/9rvmx 📆 March 27, 2025.

There is no clearer voice on democratic erosion than Steven Levitsky. This piece is perfect. It will help clarify the worried thoughts of those who already know things are bad, but it also explains what is happening to those who don't yet know. www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...

Opposition mobilizing in the streets can spur regime change via different channels such as revolutions or coups. But also indirectly through pushing OR enabling sitting regime elites to change the regime «from within» in (very!) different manners. @vldjuve.bsky.social and my new JCR article👇

Kurz nach dem Bundestagsvotum mit der AfD, drängen Wirtschaftslobbyisten und CDU-nahe Kreise auf den nächsten Tabubruch: Eine Minderheitsregierung, notfalls mit Stimmen der AfD. Neue Recherche mit @gabrielakeller und Stella Hesch, wer die CDU nach rechts treibt 🧵 correctiv.org/aktuelles/pa...

1/ 📢 New Special issue of Contemporary Politics. @sciencepoulb.bsky.social The SI explores the critical role of subnational entities – and in particular major cities – in autocratization processes. #Autocratization #ComparativePolitics #SubnationalPolitics

Anti-pluralism is a term that repeatedly appears in the discussion about early warning signs of dem. backsliding. However, AP often remains un(der)theorized. In this paper I try to clarify what anti-pluralism is & why it is a useful marker for would-be autocratizers👇 doi.org/10.1007/s122...

Anti-pluralism is a term that repeatedly appears in the discussion about early warning signs of dem. backsliding. However, AP often remains un(der)theorized. In this paper I try to clarify what anti-pluralism is & why it is a useful marker for would-be autocratizers👇 doi.org/10.1007/s122...

Besser spät als nie 😉 Die DVPW ist nun auch auf Bluesky in Sachen #Politikwissenschaft unterwegs! Wir posten erst einmal zu Aktivitäten der DVPW - Ausschreibungen, Veranstaltungen, #DVPWblog,... - und reposten gerne Calls und Termine, wenn Ihr uns erwähnt. Und dann sind natürlich Listen in Arbeit.

The call for applications for the doctoral Summer School on "Challenges to Electoral Democracy" is still open!! The application deadline is February 17. More information here: www.chairedemocratie.com/files/sites/...

In incumbent-led de-democratizations in Hungary, India, Nicaragua, Poland and Turkey, academic freedom—including freedom to research and teach—has suffered, as per V-Dem's estimates. In the US, the indices captured a decline comparable to that in Poland already by 2023. /1

Juan Luanz (1978) on the breakdown of democracies, semi-loyalty, and the affinity of system-loyal parties to disloyal groups on their political side

Great piece by @jonhenley.bsky.social. I get to outline the vicious cycle of far right support. As mainstream parties move right on immigration, voters adjust their positions to the right, far-right support increases, mainstream parties move more to the right... www.theguardian.com/world/2025/f...

Is the "firewall" breaking in Germany? Maybe. One thing is certain: if it is, its NOT because it "already broke" long ago at the local level. In our working paper, we show between 2019 & 2024, in 79% of cases all other parties still refused to work w /the Afd bibliothek.wzb.eu/pdf/2025/v24...

In #Germany, a watershed moment: Just hours after commemorating the Holocaust, the centre-right has accepted the support of the #farright #AfD to pass a (largely symbolic) motion against immigration, tearing a massive hole into the so-called 'firewall', Germany's variety of the cordon sanitaire.

🚨New publication! We introduce the “U-Turn” as a new regime transformation where autocratization is closely followed by and linked to subsequent democratization. Key findings: • 52% of autocratizations become U-Turns, • 73% when focusing on the last 30 years www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... 🧵

Hello BlueSky, nice to meet you! The V-Dem Institute is an independent research institute and the Headquarters of the V-Dem (Varieties of Democracy) project, based at the University of Gothenburg, SE. The V-Dem project is a unique approach to conceptualizing and measuring democracy. #Polisky 1(3)

Having published a book recently, I found it sometimes hard to understand how the process worked (and luckily, had very kind mentors who helped). I have uploaded a short document detailing how my experience went, in case others find it helpful: www.vicentevalentim.com/_files/ugd/a...

On a day when resistance to autocratization seems particularly urgent, Lise Rakner @liserakner.bsky.social and I are pleased that our article on "Legalized resistance to autocratisation in common law Africa" is out - and open access. @lawtransform.bsky.social www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

New paper 🚨with Natasha Wunsch in EJPR A new regime divide? Democratic backsliding, attitudes towards democracy and affective polarization We theorize & empirically explore how democratic backsliding may shape an affective divide between government & opposition supporters doi.org/10.1111/1475...

Want to learn about how to use ChatGPT and open-source LLMs for basic and advanced text analysis tasks? Join me for my full-day online workshops in February with @quantlab.bsky.social Instats - as usual, people from University of Melbourne can sign up for free! instats.org/structuredco...

Please spread the word! 👇 We are happy to announce that the next conference of the political economy section of the German Political Science association will take place @uni-mainz in September 2025. Join us to discuss "Political Economy Transformation in Hard Times" Submission deadline February 15

JOIN 2025 MethodsNET Summer School with Central European University (CEU) 📍 Central European University, Vienna 🗓️ 30 June to 18 July 2025 The full course list is online!! More details: bit.ly/4gLbv9V Early Bird Registration: Early February, 2025 #research #researchmethods #methodology #methods

Happy to see this piece out in ZfVP🥳 Democratic resilience is a widely discussed topic, but the concept still shows some shortcomings. @lionmert.bsky.social, @matthiasrosenthal.bsky.social, Jana Niedringhaus, Johannes Helgest, and I address these systematically. A🧵: doi.org/10.1007/s122...