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David Attewell @davidattewell6.bsky.social · 33m

Thanks, I already downloaded it, courtesy of the Danish national library!

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David Attewell @davidattewell6.bsky.social · 2h

You're too kind! Thanks very much Marta, and your book looks fascinating- I'll be sure to check it out!

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David Attewell @davidattewell6.bsky.social · 13h

Thanks Cas, much appreciated!!

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David Attewell @davidattewell6.bsky.social · 15h

to clarify, there's a confusing typo here (and unfortunately in Bluesky font l, as in lion, looks like a capital I, meaning me). This fantastic paper was all @liesbethooghe.bsky.social and Gary Marks, I claim no credit!

David Attewell @davidattewell6.bsky.social · 15h

Thanks for the shout-out, Ruth! Your (fantastic) book on cross-pressured voters was really useful in thinking through the puzzles/challenges in our introductory piece.

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David Attewell @davidattewell6.bsky.social · 18h

Thanks so much, Alex, looking forward to continuing the conversation in Dublin!

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David Attewell @davidattewell6.bsky.social · 21h

Stay tuned for upcoming SI publications (which we'll post about) by @jacobgunderson.bsky.social, intro-ing new measures of cleavage strength and stability and a Bloc Fragmentation and Volatility Dataset (BFVD)... and potentially more 👀

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David Attewell @davidattewell6.bsky.social · 21h

10/ @annakurella.bsky.social & @milenarapp.bsky.social find party positions follow a 2D structure, but public opinion is far less structured. Voter attitudes on nationalism fit into the longstanding moral conflict dimension, but those on gender and environmentalism do not.

bsky.app/profile/weps...

WEP Journal @wepsocial.bsky.social · Feb 26

@annakurella.bsky.social & @milenarapp.bsky.social show that public opinion on new cultural policy issues is not strongly aligned with preferences on traditional economic & moral policies.

doi.org/10.1080/0140...

Part of forthc. SI "Cleavage Politics in Western Democracies"

Abstract of the article "Unfolding GAL-TAN: the multi-dimensional nature of public opinion in Western Europe" by Anna-Sophie Kurella and Milena Rapp. Published online first in West European Politics.

Figure 1, displaying the average structuring strength of latent conflicts across regions (north, central west, south).

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David Attewell @davidattewell6.bsky.social · 21h

9/ @siljahausermann.bsky.social and co-authors analyze vote preferences within the broader Right electorate, showing the blurring of the divide between preferences for center-right and far-right parties- and the far right’s marked rise among the youngest cohort.

bsky.app/profile/silj...

Silja Häusermann @siljahausermann.bsky.social · Jul 7

❗The segmentation of the right field is eroding, especially among young voters❗

New article out by @simonbornschier.bsky.social @dpzollinger.bsky.social
@mrsteenbergen.bsky.social and myself
@ipz.bsky.social ‬ @wepsocial.bsky.social

tinyurl.com/ycxfx2aj

A short 🧵

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David Attewell @davidattewell6.bsky.social · 21h

8/ Education anchors contemporary cleavage politics, but what *kind* of education? @nspmartin.bsky.social @ralphscott.bsky.social ‬ and @rolandkappe.bsky.social show the specific subjects British adolescents take in secondary school shape their voting behavior as adults.

bsky.app/profile/ralp...

Ralph Scott @ralphscott.bsky.social · Jul 14

📣 NEW PAPER ALERT! 🚨

"School subject choices in adolescence affect political party support"

Just published in @wepsocial.bsky.social with @nspmartin.bsky.social and @rolandkappe.bsky.social.

doi.org/10.1080/0140...

🧵👇

Article abstract, which says:

The educational cleavage is restructuring electoral competition in many democracies, yet there has been insufficient attention on how variation in educational content affects this. In order to address this, this article combines English administrative school records with a unique representative panel of adolescents to estimate the within-individual effect of studying different subjects at school on political party preference. This analysis finds that studying arts and humanities subjects leads to greater support for socially liberal parties, whilst studying business and economics increases support for economically right-wing parties. Students who study technical subjects become more likely to support socially conservative and economically right-wing parties. These relationships between particular subjects and party support also persist into adulthood. As such, this article provides new evidence on the importance of subjects taken in secondary school for political socialisation, during the impressionable years of adolescence.

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David Attewell @davidattewell6.bsky.social · 21h

7/ @arminschaefer.bsky.social and @nilssteiner.bsky.social show how gender & generation condition the educational divide in green & radical right voting. Education divides widen among recent cohorts, and – for green voting- especially among younger women.

bsky.app/profile/nils...

Nils Steiner @nilssteiner.bsky.social · Mar 9

Very happy to see this out as part of a great special issue on cleavage politics: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10..... Building on studies on how (1) education, (2) generation and (3) gender structure voting on the GAL/TAN cleavage, we study how they interact.

Here’s a thread summarizing the paper👇

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David Attewell @davidattewell6.bsky.social · 21h

6/ @mierkezat.bsky.social, @eborbath.bsky.social, and @swenhutter.bsky.social argue that civil society still shapes contemporary cleavage formation, but with a more varied, volatile, and external pressure-based orientation to parties than the membership orgs of old.

bsky.app/profile/mier...

Alex Mierke-Zatwarnicki @mierkezat.bsky.social · Aug 28

I’m very excited to share that my paper “Cleavage theory meets civil society: A framework and research agenda” with @eborbath.bsky.social & Swen Hutter has now been published online in ‪@wepsocial.bsky.social‬ (w/ open access funding thanks to @wzb.bsky.social‬!)

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

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David Attewell @davidattewell6.bsky.social · 21h

5/ @vincenzoemanuele.bsky.social & Bruno Marino test Lipset & Rokkan’s famous freezing hypothesis w fresh data, finding some conditions for freezing L&R hypothesize are *not* associated with cleavage structuring and other societal/institutional factors were overlooked.

bsky.app/profile/vinc...

Vincenzo Emanuele @vincenzoemanuele.bsky.social · 19d

🎯New publication out in @wepsocial.bsky.social
'Lipset and Rokkan meet data': a 🧵on our study (with Bruno Marino) on the electoral structuring of traditional cleavages (1870–1967) across 17 Western European countries 👇

Read the full article (open access):
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

www.tandfonline.com

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David Attewell @davidattewell6.bsky.social · 21h

4/How strong is the educational divide in historical context?

@liesbethooghe.bsky.social l & Gary Marks find new left and radical right parties are as strongly structured by education as socialist parties in Norway, Germany, and the UK were by class in the 1950s and 60s.

bsky.app/profile/lies...

Liesbet Hooghe @liesbethooghe.bsky.social · Feb 7

We find that (1) education structures voting for GAL and TAN parties in Western Europe; (2) social structuration is as high as for classic social democratic parties in the 1950s; (3) education structures also Republicans and Democrats. Open access, and on our homepages.

WEP Journal @wepsocial.bsky.social · Feb 6

@liesbethooghe.bsky.social & Gary Marks measure the extent to which political parties on the contemporary socio-cultural divide are cleavaged.

doi.org/10.1080/0140...

Part of the forthcoming Special Issue "Cleavage Politics in Western Democracies".

#polisky #academicsky

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David Attewell @davidattewell6.bsky.social · 21h

3/ @garritzmannj.bsky.social analyzes the past, present & future of educational conflict, arguing the uniqueness of today’s divide is the breadth of the groups it sets in conflict, its links to group identities, and its spillover into almost all political conflicts.

bsky.app/profile/garr...

Julian Garritzmann @garritzmannj.bsky.social · Jun 23

I have a new paper out in @wepsocial.bsky.social: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
The paper situates discussions about the Educational Cleavage in a longer temporal context (back to the Medieval time) to show that there have ALWAYS been conflicts between educational groups. (1/3)

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David Attewell @davidattewell6.bsky.social · 21h

2/@dpzollinger.bsky.social and I set out 3 puzzles: How does a new cleavage work without strong intermediary orgs? How to reconcile cleavage theory w fragmented party systems? How are structural divides (e.g. ed) mobilized indirectly in political conflict today?

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

Updating cleavage theory for the twenty-first century

Contemporary cleavage research has linked ‘socio-cultural’ conflicts mobilised by new left and far right parties to structural divides in post-industrial knowledge societies. Contributions in this ...

www.tandfonline.com

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David Attewell @davidattewell6.bsky.social · 21h

@dpzollinger.bsky.social and I are thrilled "Cleavage Politics in Western Democracies" is out as an SI at @wepsocial.bsky.social!

Its papers explore the foundations of the cleavage pitting new left against radical right parties, and how it compares to the classic cleavages of Lipset & Rokkan:

🧵⬇️

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Reposted by David Attewell

Vincenzo Emanuele @vincenzoemanuele.bsky.social · 19d

🎯New publication out in @wepsocial.bsky.social
'Lipset and Rokkan meet data': a 🧵on our study (with Bruno Marino) on the electoral structuring of traditional cleavages (1870–1967) across 17 Western European countries 👇

Read the full article (open access):
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

www.tandfonline.com

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Reposted by David Attewell

The British Election Study @britishelectionstudy.com · Sep 3

🚨New Research 🚨

Ahead of the release of Wave 30 of the BES Internet Panel, the team has examined Labour's decline since the 2024 GE.

Labour's support has splintered into mostly indecision or left-liberal parties, but they've also lost their few right-wing voters.

🧵⬇️

tinyurl.com/3m62exph

Looking for Labour’s lost voters - The British Election Study

www.britishelectionstudy.com

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Reposted by David Attewell

Delia Zollinger @dpzollinger.bsky.social · Sep 2

Another fantastic piece out in our "Cleavage Politics in Western Democracies" special issue! (co-edited with @davidattewell6.bsky.social )

@mierkezat.bsky.social et al investigate the role of civil society in contemporary cleavage formation.

There are a few more SI contributions still to come!

Alex Mierke-Zatwarnicki @mierkezat.bsky.social · Aug 28

I’m very excited to share that my paper “Cleavage theory meets civil society: A framework and research agenda” with @eborbath.bsky.social & Swen Hutter has now been published online in ‪@wepsocial.bsky.social‬ (w/ open access funding thanks to @wzb.bsky.social‬!)

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

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Reposted by David Attewell

Omar Wasow @owasow.bsky.social · Aug 31

“A racial reckoning?” New study by @amengel.bsky.social & Cindy Kam:

“Challenging the conventional wisdom, our analyses demonstrate that racial attitudes changed following George Floyd’s murder, but in ways dependent upon attitude measure and population subgroup.” www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

A racial reckoning? racial attitudes in the wake of the
murder of George Floyd
Andrew M. Engelhardt and Cindy D. Kam

Abstract
Did George Floyd’s murder and its ensuing protests produce a racial reckoning? Conventional social-science accounts, emphasizing the stability of racial attitudes, dismiss this possibility. In contrast, we theorize
how these events may have altered Americans’ racial attitudes, in broadly progressive or in potentially countervailing ways across partisan and racial subgroups. An original content analysis of partisan media
demonstrates how the information environment framed Black Americans before and after the summer of 2020. Then we examine temporal trends using three different attitude measures: most important problem judgments, explicit favorability towards Whites versus Blacks, and implicit associations. Challenging
the conventional wisdom, our analyses demonstrate that racial attitudes changed following George Floyd’s
murder, but in ways dependent upon attitude measure and population subgroup.

Figure 1 shows four scatterplots with Lowess smoothing lines comparing Fox (gray squares, gray line) and MSNBC (black circles, black line) coverage of Black Americans in 2020, with a vertical red line marking George Floyd’s murder on May 25.

Top left (Daily Counts of Activism Frames): Both networks show a sharp spike in activism-related mentions immediately after Floyd’s murder, then declining through the year, with similar levels across Fox and MSNBC.

Top right (Daily Proportion of Mentions containing Activism Frames): The share of mentions with activism frames rises briefly after Floyd’s murder for both networks but quickly declines, with no clear partisan difference.

Bottom left (Daily Counts of Backlash Frames): Fox shows a much larger spike in backlash-related mentions (e.g., “violence,” “mob”) after May, while MSNBC increases more modestly.

Bottom right (Daily Proportion of Mentions containing Backlash Frames): From June to October, nearly half of Fox’s mentions of Black Americans include backlash frames, roughly twice the rate of MSNBC, which remains lower throughout.

Overall, the figure shows that while both networks used more activism frames immediately after Floyd’s murder, Fox emphasized backlash frames much more heavily than MSNBC in the following months.

Figure 2 shows six scatterplots with Lowess smoothing lines tracking mentions of racism or race relations as the most important problem in Gallup polls (2017–2021). Each dot is a monthly estimate, with a vertical red line marking George Floyd’s murder in May 2020.

Top row:
Full Sample: Mentions are low (under 5%) before 2020, then spike sharply in June 2020 (~16%) before falling but remaining above pre-2020 levels.

Among Whites: Similar pattern as the full sample, with a ~10-point jump in June 2020, followed by a decline but remaining elevated relative to earlier years.

Among Blacks: Higher baseline concern compared to Whites; mentions spike by ~21 points after Floyd’s murder and remain elevated through 2021.

Bottom row:
Among White Republicans: Very low pre-2020 mentions, a modest rise (~6 points) in June 2020, then rapid decline toward baseline.

Among White Independents: Clear but moderate spike in June 2020, with some persistence above baseline.

Among White Democrats: Low pre-2020 mentions, sharp June 2020 spike (~14 points), then decline but sustained higher levels through 2021.

Overall, the figure shows a sharp discontinuity after Floyd’s murder across all groups, with the most sustained increases among Black respondents and White Democrats, and weaker persistence among White Republicans.

Figure 4 presents six scatterplots of predicted weekly average IAT D-scores for 2019 (gray squares, gray line) and 2020 (black circles, black line), with a vertical red line marking George Floyd’s murder on May 25. Higher D-scores indicate stronger implicit anti-Black bias.

Top row:

Full Sample: Bias was declining before Floyd’s murder and drops further afterward in 2020, diverging from 2019.

Among Whites: A clear decline in D-scores appears after Floyd’s murder, with lower bias sustained through 2020.

Among Blacks: No sharp discontinuity; scores remain stable across 2019 and 2020.

Bottom row:

Among White Conservatives: Noticeable decline in anti-Black bias after May 2020, sustained through the year.

Among White Neutrals: A clear drop in bias after Floyd’s murder, somewhat larger than among liberals.

Among White Liberals: Small decline in bias after May 2020, though less pronounced than among conservatives or neutrals.

Overall, the figure shows that implicit anti-Black bias decreased among White respondents across ideological groups after Floyd’s murder, with larger reductions among conservatives and neutrals than liberals. Black respondents show little change, consistent with already low baseline bias.

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David Attewell @davidattewell6.bsky.social · Aug 25

The French government is set to fall, with a politically toxic austerity budget looming and a threatened strike/protest wave set for September 10th.

www.lemonde.fr/politique/li...

En direct, vote de confiance du 8 septembre : après l’annonce de François Bayrou, le RN, LFI, Les Ecologistes et le PS affirment qu’ils ne voteront pas pour ; suivez les réactions politiques

François Bayrou a annoncé, lundi après-midi lors d’une conférence de presse, qu’il engagerait la responsabilité de son gouvernement lundi 8 septembre en vertu de l’article 49.1 de la Constitution.

www.lemonde.fr

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Reposted by David Attewell

Francesco Raffaelli @fraraffaelli.bsky.social · Aug 21

✨Very happy to see my paper "Attitudinal ambivalence toward multiculturalism" out on @jeppjournal.bsky.social !

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

1/8 🧵

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Reposted by David Attewell

British Journal of Political Science @bjpols.bsky.social · Aug 12

NEW -

Media Platforming and the Normalisation of Extreme Right Views - cup.org/4mmVIAL

"exposure to uncritical interviews increases agreement with extreme statements and perceptions of broader support in the population"

- @dianebolet.bsky.social & @florianfoos.bsky.social

#OpenAccess

BJPolS abstract discussing the effects of extensive media exposure on public perceptions and normalization. It references specific research surveys conducted on Sky News UK and Australia, analyzing changes in public attitudes and policy effects due to media strategies.

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Reposted by David Attewell

Simon Hix @simonhix.bsky.social · Aug 7

Please share this thread. It is important that political scientists, in Europe and across the world, understand why EPSS exists and why we are encouraging people to attend our inaugural conference, in Belfast next June.

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 🧵

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