I’ll be presenting a paper on the szlachta’s legacy in today’s entrepreneurship. Please join to hear more about this and other really cool projects!

📢 Call for Papers – London Experimental Seminar Series (LESS) in Political Science @lsegovernment.bsky.social.
We are launching a new forum for experimental political science research: First seminar: 19/11/2025. Deadline: 31/08/2025. Submit here: forms.gle/ZUJcBbZoDoaY...

❗️We are hiring at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen for two open-rank faculty positions:

✍️Comparative Politics and Area Studies
jobs.cuhk.edu.cn/jobDetails?i...

✍️International Relations and/or International Political Economy
jobs.cuhk.edu.cn/jobDetails?i...

#PoliSciJobs #PSJMinfo

🚨CFP - DEADLINE AUG 7!🚨
Apply to present at the Fall/Winter 2025-26 Series of our monthly online East European Politics Workshop for grad students!

Submit your abstract BEFORE AUG 7: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... & sign up to our mailing list: eepg-workshop.github.io

Happy to contribute my thoughts in this story on Chinese graduates' careers. I stressed that universities should actually encourage diverse career paths to broaden opportunities, emphasizing transferable skills like critical thinking. Especially important as some jobs may vanish in the future.

🚨New publication!🚨
What is the electoral cost of infringing on civil liberties? @ucmerced.bsky.social Poli Sci professor @armenon.bsky.social & co-author @charasz.bsky.social tackle this question in a forthcoming registered report in The Journal of Politics @thejop.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1086/737687

Check out the full study for details: journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/... 🔗

Many thanks to our reviewers and Tanja Börzel,
@deandulay.bsky.social, Walter Mebane, Thomas Risse,
Harunobu Saijo, Rocío Titiunik, @mwronski.bsky.social, and Baobao Zhang for helpful comments at various stages! 🙏

8/8

Big picture: As migration remains a hot issue globally, our findings suggest politicians might feel emboldened to limit liberties when the public demands action. Relevant beyond Poland and migration—think El Salvador, Philippines, or even COVID policies! 🗳️💡

7/8

We also checked voter mobilization and support for left/right opposition parties. No significant changes there either, suggesting the emergency didn’t broadly shift political landscapes. Robustness tests (e.g., placebo along Poland-Ukraine border) back our results. ✅

6/8

Why does this matter? Our study unpacks 𝗱𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁 (personal costs) vs. 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁 (policy efficacy) effects of such policies. This helps explain why “strongman” tactics are on the rise in democracies globally—voters may prioritize results over rights. ⚖️🌐

5/8

Key finding: No evidence that voters punished PiS for restricting their liberties. Vote share changes were small (-0.8 to -1.7 pp.) and not significant. Most voters seem to tolerate these trade-offs for decisive action on migration. 🤔

4/8

What’s really cool? Ahead of the 2023 election, we pre-registered a natural experiment exploiting the as-if-random border of the emergency zone. This lets us compare voting in affected vs. unaffected areas with a cutting-edge difference-in-discontinuities design.

3/8

In 2021, Poland declared a state of emergency along its Belarus border to stop a migrant surge. This came at a cost: restricted freedoms for locals (movement, assembly, press access).

Did this impact support for the incumbent Law and Justice (PiS) party?

2/8

🚨Paper Alert🚨

Excited to share our registered report forthcoming in The Journal of Politics @thejop.bsky.social!

In "Borderline Democracy?", @armenon.bsky.social and I ask: Do voters punish governments for curbing civil liberties to tackle salient issues like migration? 🧵👇

doi.org/10.1086/737687

That was fun! Great way to end #IPSA2025 and say goodbye to Seoul!

Fantastic news, and so well deserved! Congratulations, Herbert!

Please share widely: PhD workshop in June 2025 with @miguelpereira.bsky.social and Mareike Kleine

politicalsciencenow.com/2025-dissert...

Are you coming to #MPSA2025? Feel free to email me if you'd like to meet; I'm always very happy to meet with graduate students, postdocs, and faculty, working on similar things or not.

Coming to Chicago for #MPSA2025 and interested in the Historical Political Economy of Europe? Come join our #HPE panel on April 4! tinyurl.com/23rez94y @mpsa.bsky.social

NEW -

The Demand Side of Democratic Backsliding: How Divergent Understandings of Democracy Shape Political Choice - cup.org/4hy5Nrf

- Natasha Wunsch, @marcjacob.bsky.social & Laurenz Derksen

#OpenAccess