Positivity breeds Positivity: Evidence that Positive In-party Affective Evaluations Predict Positive Out-party Evaluations in Western Publics James Adams (UC Davis) Noam Gidron (Hebrew University in Jerusalem)Will Horn (Princeton University)Yair Amitai (Hebrew University in Jerusalem) Political observers voice growing concerns over cross-party distrust and hostility in western publics, commonly labeled affective polarisation. Scholars typically measure affective polarisation […] Read more

Inequality and voting: How widening socio-economic gaps explain mainstream party decline  David Weisstanner (University of Oxford)Sarah Engler (University of Zurich)  The political landscape of Western democracies has changed substantively over the past decades; mainstream parties have lost ground to radical left and radical right parties. Previous studies focusing on socio-structural transformations, such as occupational change or globalization, […] Read more

Does bottom-up spillover effect exist for radical right party? Evidence from Germany Chan Ka-Ming Previous literature suggests that a party’s electoral result can shape its vote share and voters’ calculus in a subsequent election. Yet, can this information-updating process help explaining the success of radical right party (RRP) in a multi-level system? To answer this […] Read more

Voting for Disabled Candidates: The Roles of Voter Preferences and Belief Stereotypes Stefanie Reher (University of Strathclyde) Despite important advances in the rights of disabled people over the past decades, stigma and prejudice against them remain widespread. Given ample evidence that voters use group stereotypes when evaluating candidates and casting their votes, we might expect […] Read more

Do elections (still) matter? Mandate, institutions and policies in Western Europe Emiliano Grossman (Centre d’Étude Européennes / Sciences Po)Isabelle Guinaudeau (Centre Émile Durkheim / Sciences Po Bordeaux) Are election campaigns relevant to policymaking, as they should in a democracy? This book sheds new light on this central democratic concern based on an ambitious study of democratic […] Read more

Making Sense of Electoral Behaviour in Seniors’ Residences Florence Vallée-Dubois (Université de Montréal) Does placing polling stations in seniors’ residences have a positive impact on turnout? Does it benefit parties that are more popular among older citizens? I explore these questions using original data on electoral outcomes in seniors’ residences during the 2015 and 2019 […] Read more

What about modes? Differences Between Modes in the 21st Century’s Electoral Polls  Claire Durand (Université de Montréal)Timothy P. Johnson (University of Illinois at Chicago) The 21st Century has seen an important transition in survey modes used for electoral polls. This transition has not ended yet. It is thus possible to examine differences between modes used in […] Read more

Do Neighborhoods Empower or Disenfranchise? A Longitudinal Analysis of the Effects of Spatial Disadvantage and Ethnoracial Segregation on Voter Registration in France Haley McAvay (University of York)Pavlos Vasilopoulos (University of York) Prior research from different national contexts indicates persistent ethnic/racial disparities in  political participation. Studies have sought to explain these disparities by focusing on  compositional differences […] Read more

Vox Populi, Vox Dei? Alienation, Mobilisation and Models of Democracy Miriam Sorace (University of Kent)Diane Bolet (Policy Institute, King’s College London) Attitudes towards democracy are gaining salience, as recent populist parties’ successes, and the rise of anti-system behaviours attest. This study innovatively adjudicates between cognitive mobilisation and political alienation explanations of preferences towards elitist, representative, […] Read more

The Shadow of Confucianism: Traditional Values Condition the Negativity Bias among East Asians Baowen Liang (Université de Montréal) The negativity bias theory contends that people pay more attention to negative than to positive information. It is argued that the bias is a consequence of risk-aversion that developed through evolution and is therefore a part of […] Read more