Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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...

2 10

Reposted by Svend-Erik Skaaning

Jan P. Vogler @janvogler.bsky.social · Jul 23

🚨 Are you interested in Historical Political Economy? 🚨

At the Virtual Workshop in HPE (VWHPE)—organized jointly with @dkofanov.bsky.social & @tinepaulsen.bsky.social—we discuss state-of-the-art research on a regular basis.

‼️ We have just issued a new call for papers. ‼️

Link & info in post #2.

1 21 36

Reposted by Svend-Erik Skaaning

Political Studies @polstudies.bsky.social · Jul 20

How do different forms of state capacity protect democracy? Andersen, @chknutsen.bsky.social & @skaaning.bsky.social argue coercive & administrative capacity affect stability in distinct ways depending on the threat: buff.ly/Q4HDylB

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

5 11

Reposted by Svend-Erik Skaaning

Political Studies @polstudies.bsky.social · Jul 6

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/Q4HDylB

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

7 19

Svend-Erik Skaaning @skaaning.bsky.social · Jul 3

Happy to have been part this new publication on the relationship between different dimensions of state capacity and modes of democratic breakdown!

Carl Henrik Knutsen @chknutsen.bsky.social · Jul 3

Does higher state capacity go together with lower risk of democratic breakdown? Many political scientists certainly believe so!

Yet, in an article just published in @polstudies.bsky.social , David Andersen, @skaaning.bsky.social and I highlight important nuances to this general relationship.

2 10

Svend-Erik Skaaning @skaaning.bsky.social · Jun 13

Forlaget har vist udskiftet linket til bogen. Den kan nu tilgås her: unipress.dk/udgivelser/d...

Dansk demokrati i perspektiv Aarhus Universitetsforlag

unipress.dk

Svend-Erik Skaaning @skaaning.bsky.social · Jun 12

@chknutsen.bsky.social @liserakner.bsky.social @m-b-petersen.bsky.social @torewig.bsky.social @suthank.bsky.social @annebind.bsky.social @leneholmp.bsky.social @1864.bsky.social

Svend-Erik Skaaning @skaaning.bsky.social · Jun 12

Min bog - Dansk demokrati i perspektiv - skrevet med David Andersen og udarbejdet i forbindelse med Magtudredningen 2.0 er netop udgivet! Gratis E-bog og gratis lydbog er tilgængelige her:
unipress.dk/udgiv.../d/d...

unipress.dk

3 9 20

Reposted by Svend-Erik Skaaning

Roman Senninger @rsenninger.bsky.social · Jun 4

📣 Jobs, jobs, jobs!

Aarhus University’s Department of Political Science is hiring:

🔹 Assistant Professor
🗓 Deadline: 25 August
🔗 international.au.dk/about/profil...

🔹 Associate Professor
🗓 Deadline: 8 September
🔗 international.au.dk/about/profil...

3 100 100

Reposted by Svend-Erik Skaaning

Jan P. Vogler @janvogler.bsky.social · Jun 3

After 10 years of doing research in Historical Political Economy, this fall I’ll finally get a chance to teach a survey course on the field & I’m really looking forward to it! 😊

I thought this would be an opportunity to create a syllabus with many essential contributions to this growing field.

3 18 76

Svend-Erik Skaaning @skaaning.bsky.social · May 24

Thanks again for organizing! It was, indeed, a great workshop!

3

Reposted by Svend-Erik Skaaning

Lisa Janssen @lisajanssen.bsky.social · May 24

What a pleasure to direct this amazing @ecpr.bsky.social Joint sessions workshop on citizens democratic commitment with Hannah Werner - thanks to all participants for the exciting papers and stimulating discussions!

3 8 38

Svend-Erik Skaaning @skaaning.bsky.social · May 24

The same haircut - and the best. Welcome to the club ;-)

1

Reposted by Svend-Erik Skaaning

Kristian Frederiksen @kristianvsf.bsky.social · May 14

🛎️New WP with @morganlcj.bsky.social @timallinger.bsky.social and @danbischof.bsky.social

Against the surge of conjoints and other hypothetical experiments in relation to democratic backsliding, we study the consequences of using hypotheticals versus real-world scenarios.

osf.io/preprints/os...

1 19 54

Reposted by Svend-Erik Skaaning

Danbischof @danbischof.bsky.social · May 16

🚨 working paper (w. @morganlcj.bsky.social @markuswagner.bsky.social): Protesters are not judged equally - even if tactics of groups are similar.

We ran an experiment in 🇩🇪 testing how people react to farmers vs. climate activists blocking roads.

What we find is disturbing:

osf.io/preprints/os...

10 150 360

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

This might be of interest to: @chknutsen.bsky.social; @torewig.bsky.social; @sirianned.bsky.social; @mariannedahl.bsky.social; @janvogler.bsky.social; @jessfortin-ritt.bsky.social; @tomginsburg.bsky.social; @jerggutmann.bsky.social; @stefanvoigt.bsky.social; @jdoucette.bsky.social

1 2

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

The article closes with an examination of the association between de jure constitutional provisions and de facto observance of the rule of law. A two-way fixed effects regression analysis covering most independent countries from 1850 to 2010, identifies a NEGATIVE but substantively weak association.

1 1

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

It also examines the co-variation with alternative measures. The pairwise correlations with the V‑Dem index are 0.88 (Freedom House), 0.89 (World Governance Indicators), and 0.91 (World Justice Project).

1

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

The paper presents the theoretical (minimalist, procedural) underpinning of the definition and selection of indicators from different parts of the V-Dem experts survey. It also demonstrates that the indicators tap into a common underlying dimension and show high levels of scalability.

1 3

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

My paper, A Global, Historical Rule of Law Index, offering a description and evaluation of the V-Dem Rule of Law Index, has now been published: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

A global, historical rule of law index - Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft

This article introduces the V-Dem Rule of Law Index, capturing formal-procedural aspects of de facto adherence to rule of law principles. It relies on information from fifteen V-Dem indicators based o...

link.springer.com

1 9 26

Reposted by Svend-Erik Skaaning

Alexander Wuttke @kunkakom.bsky.social · May 8

🚨 We're hiring! Join us at @LMU_Muenchen for the DFG-funded project "Democratic Persuasion: How to Make the Case for Democracy."

Interested in making scholarly & societal impact?

We’re looking for:
🔹 1 Postdoc (100%)
🔹 1 PhD researcher (70%)
Starting: Oct 2025 | Apply by: July 8
More info ⬇️ (1/7)

1 110 120

Svend-Erik Skaaning @skaaning.bsky.social · May 2

Interested in debates about how to measure democracy and/or the use of observable and judgmental indicators? Then check out this piece.

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.

7 21

Reposted by Svend-Erik Skaaning

Jonas W. Schmid @jonaswschmid.bsky.social · Apr 20

Ever felt uneasy about how concepts & measures of "grey zone" autocracies are used interchangeably across the literature? Then check out my 🚨new paper🚨 in @democratization.bsky.social and get some substance to back up your gut feeling: tinyurl.com/ypdm2kna Or at least read the main points below ⬇️

Electoral autocracies, hybrid regimes, and multiparty autocracies: same, same but different?

There is a wide range of labels, such as electoral autocracy, hybrid regimes, or multiparty autocracy, and corresponding empirical measures to describe and measure political regimes that combine au...

tinyurl.com

5 28 76

Svend-Erik Skaaning @skaaning.bsky.social · Apr 8

Findings might be of interest to @torewig.bsky.social @chknutsen.bsky.social @sirianned.bsky.social @andrejkokkonen.bsky.social @anjaneundorf.bsky.social @noamlupu.bsky.social @joostvanspanje.bsky.social @kristianvsf.bsky.social @m-b-petersen.bsky.social @aarslew.bsky.social @jonaslinde.bsky.social

3

Svend-Erik Skaaning @skaaning.bsky.social · Apr 8

There is widespread skepticism regarding the use of AI tools to generate offensive content both in absolute terms and compared to similar statements by individuals. There is stronger support for allowing governments and tech companies to restrict the use of generative AI tools than social media.

1 1