Happy and thankful that our WP "Debating threats to authoritarian rule: Inclusion and Discrimination in the Legislative Council of Northern Rhodesia" has won the David Olson Award 2025!

rc08.ipsa.org/post/2025/09...

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With more papers to come, including a piece co-authored with @haakongjerlw.bsky.social, @oyvindstiansen.bsky.social, and @liserakner.bsky.social with debates from the founding of the colonial legislature in 1924 and up until 2024, I’m excited to have published the first paper of my dissertation.

Parliamentary work is a luxury good reserved for electorally secure MPs who consider themselves “ministers in waiting”, while less established politicians rely more heavily on constituency service.

I find that electorally vulnerable MPs are less active during debates than more established politicians, despite permissive rules of participation and weakly institutionalized parties.

Zambian politics have been quite dramatic in the last 20 years (timeline below). With that kind of competition, you’d expect MPs to fight to gain an edge in every arena, especially MPs elected on a thin margin. However, I find the opposite in Zambia’s parliament: doi.org/10.1080/1357...

I find that electorally vulnerable MPs are less active during debates than more established politicians, despite permissive rules of participation and weakly institutionalized parties.

Publication debut = bsky debut. Several years, revisions, and another Swedish election since Clara graded Frederik, Isak and my exam project, it made it into Electoral Studies: Do green parties in government benefit from natural catastrophes? authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S....