Svend‐Erik Skaaning

Svend-Erik Skaaning

@skaaning.bsky.social

1.4K followers 370 following 36 posts

Professor of political science, Aarhus University
Democratization, autocratization, state capacity, cross-national comparisons, social science history

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Political science 61%

Sociology 24%

Posts Replies Media Videos

Reposted by Svend‐Erik Skaaning

Anja Neundorf @anjaneundorf.bsky.social · 7d

Joint work with the brilliant
@kristianvsf.bsky.social
@sirianned.bsky.social
@aykutozturk.bsky.social

Open access article here 👇
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Elections Without Constraints? The Appeal of Electoral Autocracy Across the World | British Journal of Political Science | Cambridge Core

Elections Without Constraints? The Appeal of Electoral Autocracy Across the World - Volume 56

www.cambridge.org

Reposted by Svend‐Erik Skaaning, Chris Hanretty, Damien Bol , and 3 more Svend‐Erik Skaaning, Chris Hanretty, Damien Bol, Lucy Barnes, Ben Worthy, Stuart J. Turnbull‐Dugarte

British Journal of Political Science @bjpols.bsky.social · 21d

NEW -

Elections Without Constraints? The Appeal of Electoral Autocracy Across the World - https://cup.org/49auQPf

- @anjaneundorf.bsky.social, @sirianned.bsky.social, Kristian Vrede Skaaning Frederiksen & @aykutozturk.bsky.social

#OpenAccess

BJPolS abstract of an academic article discussing how democratic institutions prioritize citizen preferences regarding economic and physical security, with a focus on varied democratic features across thirty countries.

Reposted by Svend‐Erik Skaaning

Reposted by Cas Mudde, Stuart Soroka, Steven Van de Walle , and 11 more Cas Mudde, Stuart Soroka, Steven Van de Walle, Hugo Mercier, Mark J. Brandt, Svend‐Erik Skaaning, Justin H. Kirkland, Efrén O. Pérez, Robert Huber, Christian Breunig, Sara Wallace Goodman, Raúl Pacheco-Vega, Tom Louwerse, Claudia Landwehr

Jan P. Vogler @janvogler.bsky.social · Dec 9

🚨 3-Year Postdoc in Political Science at Aarhus University 🚨

I’m seeking to recruit a postdoc for my @erc.europa.eu research project 𝑬𝑸𝑼𝑰𝑳𝑰𝑩𝑹𝑰𝑼𝑴 on state-citizen interactions.

Link and more information in second post.

Position Start: Fall 2026
Application Deadline: ‼️ February 5, 2026, 23:59 CET ‼️

Svend-Erik Skaaning @skaaning.bsky.social · Nov 15

Our study shows that escalation is shaped by patterns of state response and that exclusion sometimes emerge as result of violence. It also demonstrates how comparative qualitative case-studies can trace mechanisms, address endogeneity and measurement validity, and support cautious generalization.

Svend-Erik Skaaning @skaaning.bsky.social · Nov 15

In three of the cases, mobilization was followed by inconsistent response by the government. In the last six cases, conflict itself produced exclusion, revealing recursive dynamics rather than a one-way sequence.

Svend-Erik Skaaning @skaaning.bsky.social · Nov 15

Does ethnopolitical exclusion cause civil war onset via grievances? In a new article, @lleipziger.bsky.social, Lasse Lykke Rørbæk, and I reassess this relationship based on 15 case studies. Six of the cases followed the grievance/mobilization/rejection pathway proposed by the general theory.

Cambridge University Press Political Science & IR @cambup-polsci.cambridge.org · Nov 14

#OpenAccess from @poppublicsphere.bsky.social -

Does Ethnopolitical Exclusion Cause Civil War Onset via Grievances? Evidence from 15 Case Studies - https://cup.org/4ozgHkU

- @lleipziger.bsky.social, Lasse Lykke Rørbæk & @skaaning.bsky.social

#FirstView

Banner for "Perspectives on Politics" over a city skyline. Below, a graffiti-covered wall reads: "First they came for the journalists and I did not speak out because they said it was all 'fake news.' Then they came for me."

Reposted by Svend‐Erik Skaaning

Cambridge University Press Political Science & IR @cambup-polsci.cambridge.org · Nov 14

Reposted by Svend‐Erik Skaaning

Marc Sabatier Hvidkjær @marchvidkjaer.bsky.social · Nov 10

so well put

Reposted by Sascha O. Becker, Svend‐Erik Skaaning, Georg Weizsäcker

Jacob Edenhofer @jacobedenhofer.bsky.social · Nov 3

Fascinating paper by @grattonecon.bsky.social, @bartonelee2.bsky.social, and Hasin Yousaf!
The paper addresses a fundamental question: Why do some democracies chronically avoid ambitious, long-term reforms even when they have decent institutions?
They argue that what matters is not only

Svend-Erik Skaaning @skaaning.bsky.social · Oct 23

Interesting! Should be room to discuss this when we both visit Carl Henrik in a month from now :-)

Svend-Erik Skaaning @skaaning.bsky.social · Oct 23

The findings will hopefully deepen our understanding of public commitment to democracy and inform strategies to strengthen it.

Svend-Erik Skaaning @skaaning.bsky.social · Oct 23

Through a multifaceted theoretical framework and comparative experimental surveys, DEMTRAP investigates when and why citizens come to see democracy as costly, how crises and polarization shape these beliefs, and what this means for democratic resilience.

Svend-Erik Skaaning @skaaning.bsky.social · Oct 23

Although democracies generally perform as well as or better than autocracies, many people believe democracy can be too slow or divided to solve major problems. Such views may erode support for democratic norms and open the door to authoritarian leaders.

Svend-Erik Skaaning @skaaning.bsky.social · Oct 23

Happy to announce that I, together with @kristianvsf.bsky.social, have received DKK 3,167,689 from Independent Research Fund Denmark to pursue the project Democratic Tradeoff Perceptions (DEMTRAP). We will explore citizen perceptions of possible tradeoffs between democracy and effective governance.

Svend-Erik Skaaning @skaaning.bsky.social · Oct 23

New article out on the relationship between different dimensions of state capacity and modes of democratic breakdown.

Political Studies @polstudies.bsky.social · Oct 10

How do different forms of state capacity protect democracy? D Andersen, @chknutsen.bsky.social & @skaaning.bsky.social argue coercive & administrative capacity affect stability in distinct ways depending on threat: buff.ly/2yUrCqu

@polstudiesassoc.bsky.social @uoypolitics.bsky.social @sagepub.com

Reposted by Carl Henrik Knutsen, Svend‐Erik Skaaning

Xavier Marquez @marquezxavier.bsky.social · Oct 23

New version (0.6.0) of my #rstats package {democracyData} xmarquez.github.io/democracyData/ with @freedomhouse.bsky.social data to 2024, as well as several other sources, plus minor improvements all around

Access and Manipulate Most Available Democracy Datasets

Archives a large number of democracy datasets, many of historical interest. It also provides a number of functions to download these datasets (where available) and determine membership of a country in...

xmarquez.github.io

Reposted by Scott L. Greer, Carl Henrik Knutsen, Svend‐Erik Skaaning

Political Studies @polstudies.bsky.social · Oct 10

Reposted by Svend‐Erik Skaaning

Lotem Halevy @lotemhalevy.bsky.social · Aug 29

And another great potential read for graduate students on the measurement of "waves" of democratization and autocratization by @skaaning.bsky.social especially helpful for students thinking about periodization (including thinking about the contemporary "moment").

doi.org/10.1080/1351...

Reposted by Svend‐Erik Skaaning

Kristian Frederiksen @kristianvsf.bsky.social · Oct 24

Delighted that my paper Young People Punish Undemocratic Behavior Less Than Older People is now conditionally accepted at @bjpols.bsky.social.

I show what the title suggests using a large amount of survey experimental evidence. Thread below.

Reposted by Svend‐Erik Skaaning, Margaretha Järvinen, Damien Bol , and 1 more Svend‐Erik Skaaning, Margaretha Järvinen, Damien Bol, Tobias Bach

Suthan Krishnarajan @suthank.bsky.social · Dec 3

Join our team! 🚨

We are hiring 2 postdocs for the new Advertising Democracy project at Aarhus University.

We are looking for researchers who are passionate about advertisements & citizens’ democratic values in Western democracies.

Feel free to share!👇🏾

bss.au.dk/en/about-aar...

Postdoctoral positions in Political Science at Aarhus University – Advertising Democracy - Vacancy at Aarhus University

Vacancy at Department of Political Science, Aarhus University

bss.au.dk

Reposted by Svend‐Erik Skaaning, Stephen A. Meserve

Dan Pemstein @danpemstein.com · Apr 30

A few years ago, @danweitzel.net, John Gerring, @skaaning.bsky.social and I were curious how well one could predict subjective democracy measures using easy(ish) to code observables. Turns out, *quite* well, even out of sample. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Measuring electoral democracy with observables

Most cross-national indices of democracy rely centrally on coder judgments, which are susceptible to bias and error, and require expensive and time consuming coding by experts. We present an approach to measurement based on observables that aim to preserve the nuanced quality of subjectively coded democracy indices. Our observable-to-subjective score mapping is free of idiosyncratic coder errors arising from misinformation, slack, or biases. It is less susceptible to systematic bias that may arise from coders’ inferences about a country’s regime, for example, from the ideology of the ruler. The data collection procedure and mode of analysis are fully transparent and replicable, and the procedure is based on random forests and is cheap to produce, easy to update, and offers coverage for all polities with sovereign or semisovereign status, surpassing the sample of any existing index. We show that this expansive coverage makes a big difference to our understanding of some causal questions.

Reposted by Svend‐Erik Skaaning

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