Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Steffen Hurka

Jens Wäckerle @jwaeckerle.bsky.social · 23h

New data for legislative scholars! Committee Membership Dataset with @bcastanho.bsky.social, @dmpullan.bsky.social and Firuze Taner:

Committee assignments for all MPs (Wikidata IDs!) in 14 countries
Harmonized roles/policy areas

Data: doi.org/10.7802/2940
Working paper: tinyurl.com/vf54r78p

⬇️

GESIS-Suche

doi.org

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Steffen Hurka @steffenhurka.bsky.social · 22h

The hypocrisy is mind-numbing. Those who always complain the loudest about excessive EU red tape just voted in favor of banning terms like "Veggie Burger" on menus or food packaging, creating massive compliance costs for restaurants and food producers across Europe. www.euractiv.com/news/parliam...

Parliament pushes for ‘veggie burger’ ban | Euractiv

Lawmakers back stricter labelling for meat alternatives

www.euractiv.com

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Reposted by Steffen Hurka

Will Daniel @wdaniel127.bsky.social · 1d

Delighted to co-convene the track on EU Elections and Legislative Politics with Lukas Obholzer at @ecprsgeu.bsky.social 2026, next July in Catania! 🇪🇺

Learn more about what we're looking for here ▶️ ecpr.eu/Events/Event...

Submit your panels and/or papers by 10 December here ▶️ ecpr.eu/Events/341

13th Biennial Conference of the SGEU, Università di Catania, 1 – 3 July 2026

European Consortium for Political Research

ecpr.eu

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Christopher Wratil 🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine @chriswratil.bsky.social · 13d

You have work on politics in Europe, European integration or the EU?

Submit it to next year's @epssnet.bsky.social conference section on "European and EU Politics“ 👇

@bjornhoyland.bsky.social & I are open to diverse proposals with a European dimension.

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Reposted by Steffen Hurka

DEMOLAW @demolaw.bsky.social · 14d

@kaplaner.bsky.social and @steffenhurka.bsky.social had the privilege to present and discuss the DEMOLAW project at the University of Aarhus. DEMOLAW thanks @rsenninger.bsky.social and the entire department of political science for the kind invitation, the hospitality, and the great feedback!

Constantin, Roman, and Steffen at the Aarhus University Political Science Department.

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Mike Cowburn @mikecowburn.bsky.social · 21d

🚨🎉 New Publication 🎉🚨 w/ @meredithconroy.bsky.social

Where Do Women Win Primaries? Asymmetric Opportunity Theory in Congressional Nominations

We offer a party-asymmetric theory of incentives for female candidates in nominations across different districts

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

www.tandfonline.com

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Reposted by Steffen Hurka

SUPA: Sustaining Public Administration in Modern Democracies @supaproject.bsky.social · 22d

🤔 What makes a law complex—and why does it matter?
In his talk, Steffen Hurka @steffenhurka.bsky.social (a close friend of SUPA) explains:
📏 how to measure legislative complexity
⚖️ why it varies across laws & policy areas
🏛️ how it shapes institutions & implementation
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gclb...

Policy complexity - Measurement, Origins and Consequences, Steffen Hurka,

YouTube video by Theories of Regulation & Governance

www.youtube.com

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Steffen Hurka @steffenhurka.bsky.social · 22d

Close friend and biggest fan 😀. Thanks for the shout-out!

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Stefan Müller @stefanmueller.bsky.social · Sep 8

The University of Cologne plans drastic cuts to its Political Science department, potentially abolishing the MSc in Political Science and eliminating the professorships in IR and Comparative Politics. This would severely weaken the social sciences at @unicologne.bsky.social.
Petition (de/en) ⤵️

Petition unterschreiben

Keine WiSo ohne PoWi! Für eine starke Politikwissenschaft im Bachelor & Master

https://www.change.org/p/keine-wiso-ohne-powi-für-eine-starke-politikwissenschaft-im-bachelor-master

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Reposted by Steffen Hurka

Adam Scharpf @ascharpf.bsky.social · Mar 5

I started the year with a great personal achievement.

After years in the making, our book manuscript is ready and under contract with Oxford University Press.

So stay tuned for deep insights into the security apparatus of dictatorships.

Small preview 👇

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Steffen Hurka @steffenhurka.bsky.social · Sep 5

All good down here. Enjoy the celebration and say hi to Yves!

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Steffen Hurka @steffenhurka.bsky.social · Sep 4

Fantastic! Huge congrats, Jacob!

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Steffen Hurka @steffenhurka.bsky.social · Jul 17

Wir können alles...außer Lehrerstellen ausschreiben.

Anke Domscheit-Berg @anke.domscheit-berg.de · Jul 16

WTF! 20 Jahre bleibt ein Programmierfehler in einer Software im Kultusministerium BaWü... u soll der Grund für 1.400 unbesetzte Lehrerstellen sein, für die es Geld im Haushalt gab, aber irgendwie merkte das keiner, 20 JAHRE LANG!!! Bis zum Computer Update!

Screenshot: Es ist kaum zu glauben: Über 20 Jahre lang hat das Kultusministerium in Baden-Württemberg unwissentlich hunderte Lehrerstellen nicht besetzt, obwohl das Geld dafür im Haushalt eingeplant war. Der Grund sollen Programmierfehler im Personal- und Stellenprogramm der Kultusverwaltung im Jahr 2005 gewesen sein, heißt es in einer gemeinsamen Mitteilung des Kultus- und Finanzministeriums. "Diese Fehler blieben seither unbemerkt." Erst durch ein Update des Programms Dipsy vor gut einer Woche sei aufgefallen, dass derzeit 1.440
Lehrerstellen nicht besetzt sind - das sind immerhin 1,5 Prozent aller Stellen. Sowohl im Finanz- als auch im Kultusministerium kann man sich nicht erklären, warum das über die Jahre nicht auffiel.

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Christian Rauh @chrauh.bsky.social · Jul 16

🤔 The #EU 🇪🇺 aspires to be a global actor 🌍 — but do other states recognize it as such?

My new study in @intlinteractions.bsky.social develops targeted #NLP / #TextAsData tools to analyze 50 years of foreign policy discourse in the annual #UN General Debate (1970–2020).

A thread (1/n)

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Adam Scharpf @ascharpf.bsky.social · Jul 8

The new issue of @worldpolitics.bsky.social also includes a contribution from me 🥳

The article studies the targeted use of foreign influence campaigns. It examines an exchange program of a young Harvard scholar & one of the most influential politicians of the 20th century.

1/

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Christoph Knill @cknill.bsky.social · Jul 7

Administrative overload and policy triage: causal evidence from the introduction of the Acid Rain Program in the United States url: academic.oup.com/jpart/articl...

Administrative overload and policy triage: causal evidence from the introduction of the Acid Rain Program in the United States

Abstract. Recent research suggests that additional public policies can sometimes decrease overall policy effectiveness rather than improve the problem-solv

academic.oup.com

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Reposted by Steffen Hurka

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.

🧵

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Mike Cowburn @mikecowburn.bsky.social · Jun 26

Happening today! #EPSA2025

Mike Cowburn @mikecowburn.bsky.social · Jun 23

On Thursday at 11:20 (0A.08) I'll be presenting "Comparing Intra-Party Factional Conflict: An Inductive Approach Using Leadership Contests", co-authored with @blumrm.bsky.social and @malpas.bsky.social in the panel "Intra-Party Conflict in Comparative Perspective" #EPSA2025
tinyurl.com/3acmdudt

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Reposted by Steffen Hurka

DVPW @dvpw.bsky.social · Jun 17

‼️ Save the date: Die #Dreiländertagung 2026 von DVPW, @oegpw.bsky.social und SVPW/ASSP findet am 17.-19.06.2026 an der Zeppelin Universität in Friedrichshafen statt!

Thema: Europas Zukunft – Zukunft Europa. Innere Spannungen und äußere Herausforderungen

Details & #CfP folgen Anfang September 2025!

Schrift in Schwarz und Magenta auf weißem Hintergrund. Unten von links nach rechts die Logos der Deutschen Vereinigung für Politikwissenschaft (DVPW), der Österreichischen Gesellschaft für Politikwissenschaft (ÖGPW) und der Schweizerischen Vereinigung für Politische Wissenschaft (SVPW/ASSP). Text: Deutsche Vereinigung für Politikwissenschaft: Europas Zukunft – Zukunft Europa. Innere Spannungen und äußere Herausforderungen. Dreiländertagung 2026 von DVPW, ÖGPW und SVPW. 17.-19. Juni 2026, Zeppelin Universität, Friedrichshafen.

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Reposted by Steffen Hurka

Mike Cowburn @mikecowburn.bsky.social · Jun 23

On Thursday at 17:00 (-1.A.05) @kaplaner.bsky.social presents "Balancing Versatility and Precision:
A Framework for Capturing Legislative Design Choices in Democratic Systems", the first empirical paper of the @demolaw.bsky.social project. #EPSA2025

DEMOLAW conceptual paper: tinyurl.com/5auvzcbs

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Reposted by Steffen Hurka

DEMOLAW @demolaw.bsky.social · Jun 23

This week, we're in Madrid for #EPSA2025 where @kaplaner.bsky.social will present our first empirical research paper "Balancing Versatility and Precision: A Framework for Caputring Legislative Design Choice in Democratic Systems" on Thursday at 17:00 (-1.A.05).

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Reposted by Steffen Hurka

Steffen Hurka @steffenhurka.bsky.social · Jun 22

🚨New article now available #openaccess at @jeppjournal.bsky.social

"Treated by the Treaty? How the expansion of co-decision affected the volume and complexity of EU legislation"

#EU #legislation #policy #Commission #complexity

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

Short 🧵 (1/6)

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Steffen Hurka @steffenhurka.bsky.social · Jun 22

Thank you! I fully agree and I tried to address this a bit in the final paragraph. Complex legislation is not necessarily bad legislation (often quite the contrary). "Quality" is rather meant here as a contrast to "quantity", i.e. the properties of legislative texts in contrast to their number.

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Steffen Hurka @steffenhurka.bsky.social · Jun 22

Many thanks to my four fast and very good reviewers and to Berthold Rittberger, @lucasschramm91.bsky.social and Yves Steinebach, who provided very useful comments during the preparation of this article. Also thanks to @dfg.de for funding this research (6/6)

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Steffen Hurka @steffenhurka.bsky.social · Jun 22

Interestingly, subsequent changes to the complexity of the initial proposal are not affected by the introduction of bicameralism -> bicameralism works through anticipation when policy proposals are first formulated! (5/6)

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