"Wir haben eine übergriffige Kommentarkultur, die alles kommentiert, aber selbst nicht liefern muss. Erst wird lautstark Handeln gefordert, und sobald etwas passiert, kommt reflexhaft das Urteil: zu wenig, zu spät, am Ziel vorbei." 2/2

New piece in Science: Sudden elimination of USAID grants triggered waves of violence in affected regions in Africa, undermining civic governance and fueling civic unrest. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Out in Climatic Change: I show that major emitters defecting from their Paris obligations lowers citizens' support for ratcheting up climate policy - especially when citizens fear economic Green Transition costs. Likely, Trump's withdrawal matters beyond the US. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Happy Schuman Day! ✌️🇪🇺🔥

The Council and European Parliament have agreed on the AI Omnibus last night. That negotiations concluded so quickly shows the immense political pressure to act, but it remains questionable whether the AI Omnibus can really fulfil the expectations of fostering growth and innovation pinned on it 1/

UPDATE 🇨🇭🇪🇺: After the Swiss federal govt adopted the Switzerland–EU package in April 2026, parliament is now deciding which majority rules will apply in the likely 2028 referendum. Today, after a 6:6 tie, the committee chair cast the deciding vote in favor of a supermajority requirement #Ständemehr

🚨 Now out in @bjpols.bsky.social w @busbyj2.bsky.social @jordantama.bsky.social @ckafura.bsky.social: Do American foreign policy elites know what the public wants? Partnering with @global-affairs.bsky.social, we show that elites systematically misread the room 🧵 www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Delighted to share a short blog post on the dark logic of visual "strongman" propaganda — drawing on survey experiments in Venezuela, Türkiye and the US!

Public support has often been treated as a backdrop to global governance. But in a review article with @the-peio.bsky.social, @jonastallberg.bsky.social and I argue that what the public thinks matters for how (well) international organisations operate: link.springer.com/article/10.1... #poliscisky

Thrilled to announce my paper with @dianamejordan.bsky.social & sky-less Trent Ollerenshaw is now published open-access at @apsrjournal.bsky.social. In a (very) large replication & extension, we show that design effects of repeated measure experiments are nonzero but typically small. Thread:

Wir suchen Verstärkung am @bidt.bsky.social in München. Thomas Hess und ich starten ein neues Projekt „Digitale Staatlichkeit gestalten“! Lust auf quantitative empirische Sozialwissenschaft und Digitalpolitik? Hier geht es zur Bewerbung: bidt.jobs.personio.de/job/2578559

Many middle powers are fast diversifying trade ties away from the US • In May-Dec 2025 trade among UK, Canada, EU, Japan, South Korea and Switzerland rose by 12% • EU leads the way, as recent burst of free-trade deals with Mercosur, India and Australia illustrates www.economist.com/finance-and-...

This is quite extraordinary- scientists set a kind of trap for AI chat bots by inventing a fake disease. AI told people it was real and… the deliberately bogus preprints started being cited in peer reviewed literature 🫣 🧪 #MedSky www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Anymore views on this? Thanks to everyone engaging 🙏

Always good to see scientists replicating previous famous findings.

Das Flanieren, als eine keiner Zweckhaftigkeit folgenden Tätigkeit, wird zum Verdachtsfall.

🚨 TADA Speaker Series Spring 2026 schedule is here! 🚨 We've assembled a fantastic lineup of researchers exploring the future of survey research in the age of LLMs. Mar 18 - May 27, online at 17:00 CEST. Join us! More info & signup: tada.cool

MAGA's war on European civil society is escalating. Visa bans for NGO leaders and former EU officials, plus congressional demands for documents - it's all about undermining the Digital Services Act to protect Big Tech. If Europe doesn't push back hard, "the law is dead." www.ftm.eu/articles/tru...

Come work with me! Two postdoc positions open in @erc.europa.eu project PROTECT, examining how local change shapes public support for protectionist policies in areas like trade and finance. @stockholmuni.bsky.social su.varbi.com/en/what:job/... su.varbi.com/en/what:job/... #polisky #academicsky

Carney to Europeans + other middle powers: “When we only negotiate bilaterally with a hegemon, we negotiate from weakness. We accept what’s offered. We compete with each other to be the most accommodating. This is not sovereignty. It’s the performance of sovereignty while accepting subordination.”

This is dangerous for many reasons, not least the information suppression that this causes. Lots of pressure on the EU to continue defending the torch of cooperation and, frankly, collecting data for the world now

The EU CBAM "has prompted China to expand its own emissions trading system, since the levy will be reduced if a carbon price has already been paid at source." Brazil, Mexico, Japan, Colombia and Turkey may follow. via @alicemhancock.bsky.social. www.ft.com/content/9e4a...

“With the govt’s planned 10% cuts to the Swiss National Science Foundation, Switzerland is massively weakening its research, thereby putting the innovative strength of its economy & its competitiveness at risk,” says the President of the Research Council of the @snf-fns.ch www.srf.ch/audio/echo-d...

🚨🚨 Politically significant decision by @ec.europa.eu to impose a €120 million fine on Elon #Musk’s #X, the first-ever penalty issued under the EU’s flagship content moderation law, the Digital Services Act. 🧵 www.politico.eu/article/eu-s...

New working paper w/ @erikvoeten.bsky.social on the hottest topic in town: data centers! We show how concerns about #digitalsovereignty, decarbonization, electricity costs & local environmental impacts shape public support for data center construction in #Germany. osf.io/preprints/so... 🧵 ⬇️

Another day, same story in the European Parliament - talks between the centrists parties collapse, and the centre-right to far-right forms the majority, today expectedly on the deforestation regulation. At least on the simplification/deregulation agenda, it now seems to be the de facto EP majority:

"Support for prevention has the hallmarks of “real” attitudes: consistency across wordings and response formats, including open-ended probes; steadfastness in the face of arguments; and willingness to make trade-offs against disaster relief, increased taxes, and reduced spending on other programs."

"Brussels’ focus on market influence has become a dangerous blind spot. For instance, officials may treat digital protections as bargaining chips rather than a crucial bulwark of European democracy or a defence against foreign influence. That would be a terrible mistake." 👌

📣 We're hiring a postdoc in political science for our ReJust project @uni-konstanz.de! Project with Dirk Leuffen @leuffen.bsky.social and Urs Fischbacher 3-year position | Deadline: Dec. 15, 2025 | Start: April 2026 Please share widely 🙏

If it wasn't a sign: Yesterday's German-French "digital sovereignty summit" took place right during the Cloudflare outage. Chancellor Merz: "We want to speak with one European voice, and we work together toward one goal: that is European digital sovereignty." www.politico.eu/article/germ...

🤩 Party positions in the 2024 European Parliament 🇪🇺! I merged the CHES expert survey with EP composition data to visualize the political space of the current EP. The graphs make the center of gravity in the EP quite clear, on multiple dimensions and policy issues. dimiter.shinyapps.io/ches/

📊 𝗘𝗨𝗣𝗟𝗘𝗫 dataset update! 💻 We updated complexity data to 𝟭,𝟬𝟯𝟮 𝗹𝗲𝗴𝗶𝘀𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀, including entirely new data on 𝟴𝟭𝟱 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀. The dataset now includes legislative procedures from 𝗡𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟭𝟵𝟵𝟯 𝘁𝗼 𝗢𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱. 📎 The data are now available for download at www.euplex.org/data

Was für Post Apocalyptic, das is legit jede zweite deutsche uni zwischen november und mai

Keep thinking about the long established right-wing voting coalitions, too. But now ALDE/Renew is replaced by Patriots, so there is a qualitative differences. Another difference is that in years past there where options of centre-left majorities and ALDE was the pivotal group.

Great primer on today's breakdown of the cordon sanitaire in the EP including the prehistory of the vote and its implications.

🚨 New article out in @jeppjournal.bsky.social with @svenhegewald.bsky.social “The changing geography of support for European integration in the shadow of the Ukraine war." How did Russia’s invasion reshape public support for EU policies? www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Tariffs might be the word of 2025. Given the state of *looks around* we asked: is there demand for tariffs in Europe? @grahn.bsky.social @katharinalawall.bsky.social @sophiemainz.bsky.social Maria Nordbrandt & I show the answer is a resolute no @jeppjournal.bsky.social doi.org/10.1080/1350...

Out now in Competition & Change @compchange.bsky.social “Dependent development in digital capitalism: The politics of startup policies in the new periphery” @journals.sagepub.com #polisky journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1... 1/n

🇪🇺🇨🇭For a long time, most voters in Switzerland hardly cared about the country’s relationship with the EU. Now, in the wake of Trump’s 39% tariff bombshell, it has surged to become the 3rd most important issue for voters! Healthcare costs remain top concern Just revealed by @leewas.bsky.social

Residential mobility also matters: Urbanites who grew up in rural areas but later moved to cities are less polarised. Divided loyalties dampen affective divides — helping explain why ruralites are consistently more polarised than urbanites. 5/7

Missed it over the summer? For those interested in legislative behavior, multinational societies or Imperial Austria: Check out our (not so new) article in @lsqjournal.bsky.social. Thrilled to have written this with my two amazing co-authors Phil Howe & Christina Zuber. doi.org/10.1111/lsq.70029

It was a great keynote indeed in an amazing venue last week at #sisp in bella Napoli.

We already had a fifth freedom, the Freedom of Movement of Non Personal Data. What, you hadn’t heard?

As if the whole academic publishing business wasn't squeezing authors (and taxpayers) enough.

This has important implications: 1) Creating a common front (or, "firewall" / "cordon sanitaire") against a radical right challenger requires a mainstream-party consensus. Once one party leaves this broad coalition, the effects of elite messaging weaken significantly.

Interesting speech by European Council president Costa at the Bled Forum today Confirms security / Ukraine aspect of EU US deal that VDL pushed back strongly against. Clear break here

"The Brussels effect began to sputter. Now, the world that it was crafted for is to all intents and purposes dead." @abenewman.bsky.social

Thrilled to share this 16-country conjoint experiment with @catherinedevries.bsky.social & @simonhix.bsky.social. We find strong support for majoritarian reforms and tougher legal enforcement, even when paired with policies people dislike. Policy-inelastic institutional preferences exist! A 🧵...

www.bostonreview.net/articles/hen... "Yet the door to Joe’s apartment—which argues with him and refuses to open because he has not paid it the obligatory tip—sounds ominously plausible. Someone, somewhere, is pitching this as a viable business plan to Y Combinator"

The 2024 CHES included for the first time questions to measure positions on executive constraints & judicial independence, key features of horizontal accountability. Here, the rad right party family stands out as much less likely to support constraints on executives & judicial independence 4/