What explains why some Amazon municipalities lose more forest than others? This study shows that local electoral competition causally increases deforestation — especially where private commercial actors stand to profit from forest clearing — and it identifies a specific political strategy behind that outcome.
This study asks whether electoral discrimination against minority candidates reflects negative stereotypes about those candidates or positive stereotypes about majority candidates — in other words, whether in-group favoritism explains electoral bias. Using an original moderation-of-process survey experiment in Italy, the author examines electoral responses to immigrant-origin candidates and the role stereotypes play in shaping those responses. The paper's central contribution is to shift attention from solely negative stereotyping of minorities to the possibility that positive evaluations of majority candidates produce electoral advantages for them.
This paper challenges assumptions about citizen self-censorship in authoritarian regimes.
Citizenship policies across sixteen European countries (1975-2014) have significantly evolved. Using new comparative data, this study argues that policy changes result from electoral competition facing governments.
How does politics shape seemingly non-political debates? This paper investigates voting patterns in celebrity soccer elections, specifically the Ballon d'Or. By analyzing historical results alongside an original survey of fans, we reveal a clear hierarchy favoring certain types of players (dynamic scorers) and show growing vote concentration over time. Importantly, political concepts like partisanship demonstrate surprising relevance even in sports voting.
New research explores how citizens navigate trade-offs between political parties, revealing that altruistic concerns for others' welfare and spiteful tendencies against disliked groups significantly influence voting behavior. The study shows voters often prioritize policies helping those they identify with or dislike seeing benefits go to rival parties.
New findings reveal how election monitors in Ghana's 2012 elections reshaped parties' manipulation tactics.
This paper examines how electoral competitiveness influences campaign negativity and ad spending.
This paper examines what enables political parties to change their policy positions in response to voter preferences.
A groundbreaking new study reveals that the emergence of the modern 'Shadow Cabinet' in British parliamentary politics was primarily driven by electoral reforms rather than internal party organization. Analyzing nearly a million speech utterances from 1832 to 1915, this research uncovers how political opposition parties strategically reorganized their parliamentary representation following each extension of suffrage.
New democracies often face ethnic violence, but conventional explanations focus on established democracies. This study uses district-level data from Indonesia (1990-2005) to show that ethnic riots occur where elections are uncompetitive and districts are ethnically divided.