In the third episode of „Political Science? No Problem et al.“, we talk to Dr. Magdalena Breyer about voters‘ reactions to different representation trajectories of women in politics. Does an increase in the proportion of female politicians trigger a conservative backlash? Can stagnating women’s representation mobilize female voters for progressive parties? And what does this tell us about changing gender-related status hierarchies in western societies as a whole? More broadly, we discussed general gender disparities in voting behavior, how older and younger women differ in political preferences and how different parties try to appeal to female voters.
Magda is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Basel and studies the implications of shifting class and status structures for voting behavior and party competition. You can find her website here: https://www.magdalenabreyer.net/ and follow her on Twitter here:https://twitter.com/magda_breyer. Magda’s paper discussed in the episode can be accessed here:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00104140231223745
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In the second episode of „Political Science? No Problem et al.!“ we talk to Nils Steiner about the new German party „BSW“, based on his research on the left-authoritarian supply gap. What is special about this party? What peculiar positions does it take on cultural and economic issues? What might its electorate look like? And does it pose a threat to the rise of the radical right in Germany?
Nils is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Mainz and studies voting behaviour, representation and political attitudes. You can follow him here on Twitter: https://twitter.com/NilsSteiner. If you are interested in Nils‘ research on left-wing authoritarian voting behavior and parties, here are two papers mentioned in the episode:
https://shorturl.at/BKR27
https://shorturl.at/qxEHO
https://ejpr.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1475-6765.12348
The paper by Sarah Wagner, Constantin Wurthmann and Jan Philipp Thomeczek on the voter potential of the BSW can be found here: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11615-023-00481-3
The mentioned analysis by Marc Debus, Christian Stecker and Jochen Müller on BSW party positions: https://twitter.com/DebusMarc/status/1744695079011254585
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In the first episode of „Political Science? – No Problem et al.“ we talk to Kai Arzheimer about the ongoing popularity of the far-right party AfD in Germany. Among other things, we discussed what explains support for the AfD, what the party’s electorate looks like, why the party is proving more successful in eastern Germany and to what extent the ongoing mass protests could have an impact on the party’s fortunes.
Kai Arzheimer is a professor of political science at the University of Mainz and investigates the radical right for decades. He is a leading researcher in his field.
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