Visualizing the impacts of climate change using AI Erick Lachapelle (Université de Montréal) Thomas Bergeron (University of Toronto)Victor Schmidt (MILA)Alex Hernandez-Garcia (MILA) Yoshua Bengio (MILA) Existing research suggests that climate change is perceived as a spatially and temporally distant threat, prompting researchers to explore various forms of risk communication that better engages the general public. However, results […] Read more

Local Economies, Local Wealth, and Economic Perceptions Ben Ansell  (Nuffield College, University of Oxford)Asli Cansunar (Washington University) Recent research in political economy has demonstrated that local economic conditions have a striking impact on the evaluation of the incumbent, social policy preferences, and support for anti-establishment movements. Whether voters can correctly perceive their district’s economic reality […] Read more

Foraging for Policy: Ambiguity as a Heuristic Sarah Lachance (University of British Columbia) Notwithstanding democratic norms of transparency and accountability, electoral candidates often take ambiguous policy positions by making vague or contradictory statements. Yet, the dominant assumption in the literature on voter behaviour is that voters are risk-averse. This poses a puzzle: if voters are […] Read more

The Activation of Norms – Revisiting the Link between Citizenship Norms and Participation Kathrin Ackermann (Heidelberg University) Liberal democracies are under pressure around the globe. They are challenged by populist and authoritarian actors and movements who question and erode democratic norms. Against this backdrop, democracies depend particularly on the support and the actual participation of […] Read more

How do voters respond to elite polarization? Mass and party polarization on immigration in Europe Alina Vrânceanu (European University Institute) Much of the existing research on public attitudes toward immigration focuses on the drivers and political consequences of anti-immigrant sentiments. However, we know less about mass polarization on this issue and the extent to which it is […] Read more

Does Austerity Cause Polarization? Evelyne Hübscher (Central European University)Thomas Sattler (University of Geneva)Markus Wagner (University of Vienna) In recent decades, governments in many Western democracies have shown a remarkable consensus in pursuing austerity during periods of strained public finances. In this paper, we show that these decisions have consequences for political polarization. Our macro-level analysis […] Read more

Spatial versus valence models of voting Dieter Stiers (KU Leuven) Spatial and valence models are the workhorses of research on electoral behaviour. Yet, little is known about the factors that influence their relative strength. In this paper, I argue that the number of parties in a political system as well as their ideological dispersion affects […] Read more

The Pro-Immigration Europeans Rahsaan Maxwell (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) One of the central conflicts in Western Europe is whether nation-states should be open or closed to immigration and ethnic diversity.  These issues have been at the center of election campaigns and may structure debates about the future of European societies. However, analysis of […] Read more

Shifting Motivations? Voters Infer Credible Committment from Policy Changes Love Christensen (Postdoctoral researcher, Aarhus University), Pablo Fernández Vázquez (Associate professor, Carlos III University in Madrid) In the course of electoral competition, parties may find themselves compelled to change their policy positions. Even if these changes are motivated by substantive policy concerns, changing policy may be written […] Read more

Au-delà de l’insatisfaction démocratique: comment les citoyens évaluent-ils la légitimité du système politique? David Talukder (Université Libre de Bruxelles – ULB) Durant cette présentation, je vais présenter l’un des chapitres de ma thèse dans laquelle j’examine la manière dont les citoyens évaluent le système politique. Plus particulièrement, j’aborde la question de l’évaluation de la légitimité du […] Read more