Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Simon Weschle

@simonweschle.bsky.social

1.2K followers 960 following 35 posts

Associate Professor of Political Science at UNC. www.simonweschle.com

Videos

Political science 25%

Economics 18%

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Simon Weschle @simonweschle.bsky.social · 14d

Nice write-up of our recent paper on the link between campaign finance permissiveness and the wealth of politicians.

Only the Super-Rich can Run

Campaign finance doesn't just influence winning, it decides who can even stand for elections

open.substack.com

1 5

Reposted by Karsten Mäuse, David Darmofal

Simon Weschle @simonweschle.bsky.social · 15d

We're hiring at UNC Political Science!

Tenure Track Assistant Professor in Methods (Deadline Oct 24)

unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/307...

#polisky #psjobs #poliscijobs

Assistant Professor

This tenure-track position includes 40% teaching, 40% research and 20% service to the department/college. The service portion includes, but is not limited to search committees, review committees and a...

unc.peopleadmin.com

9 15

Reposted by David Lazer, Alexander Wuttke, Simon Weschle , and 5 more David Lazer, Alexander Wuttke, Simon Weschle, Philip Cowley, Nazita Lajevardi, Noam Lupu, S. Laurel Weldon, David Darmofal

Nick Carnes @carnes.bsky.social · 23d

Just out at JOP (www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/epdf/10....) : Why do so few working-class people hold office? It's not lack of interest. Noam Lupu and I ran 10 surveys in 8 countries and found no evidence of a social class gap in how often qualified people consider running.

3 29 65

Reposted by Simon Hix, Sara B. Hobolt, Stefan Müller , and 4 more Simon Hix, Sara B. Hobolt, Stefan Müller, Stefanie Walter, Robert Huber, Simon Weschle, Stuart White

EPSS @epssnet.bsky.social · Sep 10

🚨 Reposting to avoid any confusion between EPSS & EPSA 🚨

If you want to support non-for-profit, member-led political science association, EPSS is the place to be!

More here 👇🏽

EPSS @epssnet.bsky.social · Aug 7

EPSA have announced that they will hold a conference in July 2026.

😵‍💫 We understand that there might be some confusion about EPSS and EPSA.

👉🏽 So we thought we would clarify some things.

A short 🧵

19 12

Simon Weschle @simonweschle.bsky.social · Sep 9

At this point my book is practically writing itself...

Revealed: how Boris Johnson traded PM contacts for global business deals

Exclusive: Leak exposes how former leader has used publicly subsidised office to manage commercial interests

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Simon Weschle

APSA- Political Organizations & Parties Section @apsa-pop.bsky.social · Sep 3

🌟🎉 Celebrating @luciamotoliniac.bsky.social (WashU)—recipient of the 2025 Emerging Scholar Award!
Her research is already shaping the field in big ways.
Come and celebrate with her at the business meeting (Sept 12, Friday, @12pm)
#APSA25 @apsa.bsky.social #EmergingScholar

2 5

Reposted by Simon Weschle

Lee Drutman @leedrutman.bsky.social · Aug 14

The only way to end the gerrymandering wars is proportional representation.

23 50 260

Reposted by Dani Rodrik, Dave O’Brien, Lesley A. Hall , and 4 more Dani Rodrik, Dave O’Brien, Lesley A. Hall, Simon Weschle, Holger Nehring, Thomas Hegghammer, Nikki Fairchild

Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · Aug 13

I'm delighted to advertise an exciting job as centre manager, helping me build Oxford's new Centre for Advanced Social Science Methods (CASSM). We start this academic year and aim to attract as new faculty some of the world's top people in computational, experimental and qualitative methods.

CASSM Centre Manager

Full-timeFixed-term for 5 yearsGrade 8: £48,235 - £57,255 per annum

www.politics.ox.ac.uk

2 30 60

Reposted by Steve Peers, Stefanie Walter, Simon Weschle , and 6 more Steve Peers, Stefanie Walter, Simon Weschle, Luxembourg, Michael Morris, Holger Nehring, Justin Lewis, Tom Griffin, Joseph Hone

Lewis Goodall @lewisgoodall.com · Aug 12

Godfather of AI Geoffrey Hinton at world’s biggest AI conf AI4 in Las Vegas. Is asked what could AI gain control of soon?

“Us…they’re just going to be much smarter than us. Imagine you were in charge of a playgroup of 3 year olds…it wouldn’t be very hard to get control of them….

36 15 76

Reposted by Simon Hix, Will Jennings, Sara B. Hobolt , and 31 more Simon Hix, Will Jennings, Sara B. Hobolt, Ruth Dassonneville, Stefan Müller, Stefanie Walter, Jürgen Maier, Kai Arzheimer, Nils B. Weidmann, Alexander Wuttke, Lucas Leemann, Justin H. Kirkland, Guy Grossman, Andreas Dür, Robert Huber, Simon Weschle, Anand Menon, Jane Green, Ingo Rohlfing, Mirya R. Holman, Robert Klemmensen, Tom van der Meer, Thomas M. Meyer, Alessandro Nai, Sven‐Oliver Proksch, Stuart White, Eunji Kim, Federica Genovese, Bjørn Høyland, Stuart J. Turnbull‐Dugarte, Tom Louwerse, M Josep, Tarik Abou‐Chadi, Enzo Nussio

EPSS @epssnet.bsky.social · Aug 7

1 150 180

Reposted by Simon Weschle

Inequality and Distributive Politics - IDP @inqdp.bsky.social · Aug 7

5/6 🧵In ‪@ajpseditor.bsky.social‬ @luciamotoliniac.bsky.social Klašnja & @simonweschle.bsky.social‬ show that higher pressures to spend in campaigns leads to a wealthier politician pool. Use data on MP wealth from 40 countries, & quasiexperimental evidence from 🇧🇷 & 🇨🇱 https://doi.org/pz7c

1 3 4

Reposted by Simon Weschle

Timea Balogh @tbalogh.bsky.social · Jul 29

Our paper (w/ wonderful co-authors @rwillh11.bsky.social, @simonweschle.bsky.social, @cbwlezien.bsky.social, and Jim Adams) is now out in print! 🎉 May be of interest to those studying electoral behavior, party strategy, or how citizens use information!

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Does political sophistication moderate how citizens use information to infer left-right distances between parties?

Research identifies numerous factors associated with citizens’ perceptions of party ideologies, including the Left-Right orientations of parties’ election manifestos, governing coalition arrangemen...

www.tandfonline.com

4 4

Reposted by Simon Weschle

apsainequality.bsky.social @apsainequality.bsky.social · Apr 29

Going to APSA in Vancouver this year and need some additional funding? Applications for the Class & Inequality section support grants are now open!

apsa.secure-platform.com/a/solicitati...

APSA - Login

apsa.secure-platform.com

14 10

Simon Weschle @simonweschle.bsky.social · Jul 11

Now out in @ajpseditor.bsky.social:

@luciamotoliniac.bsky.social, Marko Klašnja and I show that greater pressures to spend more money on campaigning leads not just to more politicians who are rich, but especially to more politicians who are are *super* rich

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

American Journal of Political Science | MPSA Journal | Wiley Online Library

We provide a comprehensive theoretical and empirical account of the relationship between campaign finance pressures and the wealth of politicians. We argue that the heavily right-skewed wealth distri...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

12 31

Reposted by Simon Hix, Olga Onuch, Axel Dreher , and 34 more Simon Hix, Olga Onuch, Axel Dreher, Sara B. Hobolt, Fabrizio Gilardi, Ruth Dassonneville, Carl Henrik Knutsen, Stefan Müller, Stefanie Walter, Anne Rasmussen, Nils B. Weidmann, Alexander Wuttke, Justin H. Kirkland, Colombia, Andreas Dür, Mark Hallerberg, Simon Weschle, Miriam A. Golden, Ingo Rohlfing, Lisa Dellmuth, Markus Wagner, Thomas M. Meyer, Sven‐Oliver Proksch, Thomas Hegghammer, Christian Flachsland, Toni Rodón, Damian Trilling, Christian Rauh, Heike Klüver, Tom Louwerse, Noam Lupu, Pepper D. Culpepper, Lynette H. Ong, Jani Erola, Roman Senninger, Kathrin Ackermann, Anita Gohdes

EPSS @epssnet.bsky.social · Jun 26

🚨 Big News for European Political Science 🚨

We’re thrilled to announce the launch of the European Political Science Society (EPSS): a new, member-led, not-for-profit association built to support our scholarly community.

🔗 epssnet.org

Here’s a thread with everything you need to know.

🧵

4 210 380

Simon Weschle @simonweschle.bsky.social · Jun 5

To be fair, he's tweeting that he's upset that he *didn't* get anything out of it, which suggests he thinks the causal effect of campaign finance is zero :)

1 1

Reposted by Stephen P. Jenkins, Marius R. Busemeyer, Simon Weschle , and 3 more Stephen P. Jenkins, Marius R. Busemeyer, Simon Weschle, Christian Breunig, Claudia Diehl, Dietmar Fehr

Universität Konstanz @uni-konstanz.de · May 22

The #UniKonstanz Cluster of Excellence "The Politics of Inequality @excinequality.bsky.social will continue to receive funding in the context of the German #ExcellenceStrategy @dfg.de @wissenschaftsrat.de. Details: t1p.de/ouhyj

2 16 69

Reposted by Simon Weschle, Timothy Hellwig

Lucas Novaes @lmnovaes.bsky.social · May 28

In a just-accepted paper at the @thejop.bsky.social , @MelaniCammett, Guadalupe Tuñon, and I examine how campaign finance reforms have unanticipated effects: organized actors gain an edge. In our case, the Universal Kingdom of God Church in Brazil.
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

Special Interest Trade-Offs: Campaign Finance Reforms and Religious Influence in Politics in Brazil | The Journal of Politics: Vol 0, No ja

www.journals.uchicago.edu

2 5 26

Simon Weschle @simonweschle.bsky.social · May 22

The WaPo-AI summary of the comments section on this piece is quite something

Simon Weschle @simonweschle.bsky.social · May 12

Thanks, Lukas (and your co-authors), I really appreciate it!

Reposted by Simon Weschle

Institute for Replication @i4replication.bsky.social · May 12

3-Politicians’ private sector jobs and parliamentary behavior, @ajpseditor.bsky.social

Updated report here (based on author’s feedback): ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/i4rdps...

Author: “Thanks a lot to the replication team for their careful analysis, I really appreciate all the work they put into it!”

1 6

Simon Weschle @simonweschle.bsky.social · Apr 29

Also, the APSA Class and Inequality section is finally on here. Give them a follow!

apsainequality.bsky.social @apsainequality.bsky.social · Apr 29

Going to APSA in Vancouver this year and need some additional funding? Applications for the Class & Inequality section support grants are now open!

apsa.secure-platform.com/a/solicitati...

APSA - Login

apsa.secure-platform.com

Reposted by Sara B. Hobolt, Ruth Dassonneville, Silja Häusermann , and 4 more Sara B. Hobolt, Ruth Dassonneville, Silja Häusermann, Simon Weschle, Markus Wagner, Marina Costa Lobo, Pepper D. Culpepper

Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science @skytteprize.bsky.social · Apr 23

Herbert P. Kitschelt is the winner of the 2025 Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science. 🏆

He is awarded the prize for " having increased knowledge of the functioning of democratic party systems with exquisite theoretical acuity and impressive empirical breadth and depth."

2 68 200

Reposted by Simon Weschle, Timothy Hellwig

Ian Turner @ianrturner.bsky.social · Mar 13

Dark Money and Politician Learning (w/ @keithschnak.bsky.social) now online at @thejop.bsky.social:

www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

Dark Money and Politician Learning | The Journal of Politics: Vol 0, No ja

www.journals.uchicago.edu

6 12

Reposted by Simon Weschle

Timea Balogh @tbalogh.bsky.social · Mar 13

🚨🎉Very excited to share our new paper with @rwillh11.bsky.social, James Adams, @simonweschle.bsky.social, and @cbwlezien.bsky.social!! Out today @JEPOP

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

A short thread 🧵

1/n

Does political sophistication moderate how citizens use information to infer left-right distances between parties?

www.tandfonline.com

1 7 20

Simon Weschle @simonweschle.bsky.social · Mar 5

Brian, I just got this email too...did you find helpful discussions on this? And has anyone figured out whether the expected royalties from this for authors would be a few cents, or much more? The info on royalties is very opaque, which makes me think it's the former...

1 1

Simon Weschle @simonweschle.bsky.social · Feb 19

Gute Frage, keine Ahnung...

Reposted by Juan F. Vargas, Simon Weschle, Rachel M. Gisselquist , and 3 more Juan F. Vargas, Simon Weschle, Rachel M. Gisselquist, Andreas M. Wüst, Edward T. Walker, Romain Lachat

Adam Przeworski @adamprz.bsky.social · Feb 19

I am keeping a diary of daily events, as they unfold open.substack.com/pub/adamprze... It is available to everyone. I am new to Substack, so please let me know if something is wrong with the link or the file.

Diary

Week 1

open.substack.com

16 170 450

Simon Weschle @simonweschle.bsky.social · Feb 19

Unwahrscheinlich, selbst wenn sie heute kommen müsste ich das per FedEx zurück schicken, und das fängt bei 100 Dollar an.

Simon Weschle @simonweschle.bsky.social · Feb 19

Dauert wohl länger das in die USA zu schicken...