Aid might not make poor countries rich - but it can strengthen civil society and democracy 📢 In our new open-access study with Marike Blanken & @FelixWiebrecht we show how earmarked democracy aid via CSOs empowers CSOs and improves democracy. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Last week @nicholasaylott.bsky.social Johanna Mannergren & I did something very cool! We hosted the first workshop on 'Contemporary Politics in the Western Balkans, 10–11 April 2025.' We welcomed 20 distinguished scholars who focus on the Western Balkans at @uisweden.bsky.social

The latest #protests in #Serbia and the resignation of prime minister, over the failed Novi Sad train station renovation by Chinese firms confirm my findings in @SCID__journal: Serbian citizens prefer democratic donors over autocratic ones, they see them as less corrupt & more responsive

🚨New Publication! 🚨 This is a special one for me because it’s in @chinaquarterly.bsky.social but also because it looks at the key question that motivated me to do a PhD in the first place! What’s the point of having authoritarian institutions that by design cannot constrain? A short 🧵

📅 Save the Dates: #Demscore Conference 2025, June 9-10 in Gothenburg. 📢 Call for Papers and Panels open now, learn more at www.demscore.se/events/demsc... @ucdp.bsky.social @vdeminstitute.bsky.social @medem.bsky.social @digitalsocietyproject.org @sampol.bsky.social @prioresearch.bsky.social

‪Grateful for the opportunity to talk about potential divides between young men and women with @mdressler.bsky.social at FEPS. Truly appreciate the thoughtful questions and time to elaborate on our argument. Listen here: open.spotify.com/episode/4E2Z...

🚨new pub 🚨 Does it matter to citizens where #foreignaid comes from? Survey experiment with citizens in #Serbia (N=2500) now on @SCID__journal : link.springer.com/article/10.1... I find that donors' regime and practices impact citizens' views of their local politicians and donors