Alexander Horn

I'm very excited to see our paper on group appeals finally formatted and published online with the JoP! www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/epdf/10....

Paper w/ @carogarriga.bsky.social: Academia’s Class Problem. PoliSci is dominated by the upper middle class / people with parents who went to university – unlike society as a whole.
dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn...

This figure shows the percentage of respondents in 35 countries across the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) and the Integrated Values Survey (IVS) who rate “hard work” as more important than structural factors for getting ahead in life. Dark blue diamonds (IVS) and dark green circles (ISSP) represent survey year averages. Light blue and light green lines plot the trend in meritocratic beliefs across the five-year cohorts, on the basis of locally weighted least squares regressions on the cohort-country means (light blue diamonds [IVS] and light green circles [ISSP]). IVS data show whether respondents rate hard work (1) or luck and connections (0) as the more important factor for achieving a better life. ISSP data show the share of respondents who rate hard work as more important than “knowing the right people” and “coming from a wealthy family” for getting ahead in life.

The figure shows annualized change scores (subtracting the earliest from the latest value and standardizing by the number of years/cohorts). This figure is only included in the supplementary material.

How has the public belief in meritocracy changed over time? We address this question in our new Data Viz (@sociusjournal.bsky.social) by examining trends in popular beliefs across cohorts and periods in 35 countries, based on two datasets.

🔗 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/23780231261425841

5/6 🧵In JEPP, @alexanderhorn.bsky.social & co-authors study equality & party competition. Text & election data in 🇦🇺🇩🇰🇩🇪🇸🇪🇨🇭🇬🇧. Show center-left parties can gain votes by emphasizing econ. equality & equal rights, postmaterialist left parties only by emphasizing the latter. doi.org/qm52

Abstract: The transition from political rivalry between loosely organized individuals to competition between political parties is a hallmark of modern democratic politics. We concentrate on a neglected aspect of this development: how national programmatic parties entered local politics—what we label “partiaization.” In our argument, parties seek to enter local politics to achieve local policy gains and mobilize voters. Their opportunities for partiaization, however, hinge on the local electoral system. A proportional representation system’s weight on pre-arranged lists, rather than personalities, gives national parties the advantage of collective organization and party brand. We test our argument using a Norwegian 1919 electoral reform requiring municipalities to switch from plurality to PR, and previously lost data on Norwegian local elections. Difference-in-difference estimates show that introducing PR in local elections led national parties to gain representation in new municipalities. Our study helps to explain how national parties became a central feature of local

Our paper "Partiaization: How National Programmatic Parties Took Hold of Local Politics" using our reconstructed local election dataset (1904-1937) is finally out in draft form in a link below! (with @oskorge.bsky.social )

The next conference of the DVPW Section Political Economy takes place 24–25 Sept 2026 at Freie Universität Berlin.

Contributions in English and German are welcome. Please send us your paper or panel proposal by next Friday, 27 Feb 2026.

All info in our Call for Papers: www.dvpw.de/fileadmin/us...

NEW PUBLICATION
“How the Media Cordon Sanitaire Crumbles: Lessons from Germany” now out in @prxjournal.bsky.social
🔓 doi.org/10.1080/2474736X.2026.2621808
I’m very happy that this paper is out – this project is particularly important to me.

Perceived inequality and populism | European Journal of Political Research | Cambridge Core Perceived inequality and populism - Volume 65 Issue 1

65.1🦋

🆕 Perceived #Inequality and #Populism 🗣️

Evidence across Denmark, Germany and Italy show that people who perceive great inequality are more likely to hold #Populist attitudes according to @lstoetze.bsky.social, Johannes Giesecke & @heikekluever.bsky.social

🔴 LIVE roundtable: AI, research integrity, and productivity

feb 25 @ 16:00 CET

can we do rigorous, transparent research while using AI tools?
4 top methodologists discuss:
→ lena janys
→ david garcia
→ peter selb
→ @evathomann.bsky.social

hybrid event (@uni-konstanz.de + livestream)

Finally, my magister artium pays off!

The Department of Political Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill invites applications for the position of Teaching Assistant Professor of Political Science. We are looking for a colleague who will teach three courses per semester in our undergraduate curriculum. The principal responsibility will be teaching in Comparative Politics, especially the introductory course, but the candidate may be invited to teach other courses, depending upon the department’s needs and the candidate’s areas of expertise. The ideal candidate will have a demonstrated record of successful undergraduate instruction. There are no research expectations associated with this position. This is a fixed term position with an initial appointment for three years and opportunities for re-appointment and advances contingent on performance and available funding. As part of the University’s teaching track, the position offers competitive benefits. More information on UNC’s career ladder and fixed term ranks is available here: https://facultyaffairs.unc.edu/policies-and-procedures/faculty-appointments/fixed-term-faculty-ranks/.

🚨 JOB ALERT 🚨

We're hiring a Teaching Assistant Professor in Comparative Politics!

Come join a great department: unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/312...

I'm on the committee, so send any questions my way.
#polisky #academicjobs

‼️ New paper out in @polbehavior.bsky.social !

We ask whether the politically active (in terms of electoral or other forms of participation) are better represented? See Jesper's detailed 🧵 below for more info on the paper! 👇

Our February Issue has been published! Read it at www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

New and open access, in @psrm.bsky.social: What happens when we make politicians draw distributions? Nic Dias, @jacklucas.bsky.social and I explore whether the large errors politicians make about public opinion are artificially inflated by how researchers ask them to estimate it /1
cup.org/4kltoyE

Yesterday, I returned to snowy Kiel to receive the award for the best political science master’s thesis. The thesis examines how cuts to local train services affected political alienation following German railway privatization in 1994. Big thanks to @swegmann.bsky.social & @chwmartin.bsky.social!

Homeownership and political efficacy: how housing wealth shapes whether people feel heard Why do some citizens feel that political institutions are responsive to people like them, while others do not? Existing research highlights the role of education and income in shaping external poli...

Just out in @wepsocial.bsky.social: how housing wealth shapes whether people feel heard. Together with @madselk.bsky.social and @benansell.bsky.social, I looked at a neglected determinant of political efficacy: homeownership.

Read the #OA paper: doi.org/10.1080/0140...

Quick overview below (1/5)

Postdoctoral Position at the Cluster of Excellence “The Politics of Inequality” Deadline: 20 February 2026, 12:00 pm CET

🚨 Postdoctoral Position at the University of Konstanz 🚨

We’re hiring a post-doc for our @excinequality.bsky.social project on political elites and decision-making.

4-year position | Deadline: Feb. 20 | Start: Sept 2026

Please share widely 🙏

The ad is here stellen.uni-konstanz.de/jobposting/f...

In just over eight months, Berlin will hold its 20th state election since 1946. While its well known East West divide in voting behaviour is often attributed to the city’s former split into capitalist and socialist halves, these differences existed even before the city’s division. A thread. 🧵

Austerity and Populism A large literature explains the rise of populist parties with the economic insecurities stemming from globalization and technological change. But despite the long-standing focus of the comparative and...

Very happy that our review article (with the @annualreviews.bsky.social) on „Austerity and Populism“ is now available as preprint: www.annualreviews.org/content/jour... - with @sattlersthomas.bsky.social

🐎 Which horse should left parties bet on: economic equality or equal rights?

💡 @alexanderhorn.bsky.social, Carsten Jensen & @dweisstanner.bsky.social find that the centre-left wins votes when it does both, while the postmaterialist left gains with equal rights

🔗 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Yet, this can affect party system structuration:

While such electoral strategies are successful, they exacerbate societal divisions. We contribute to the understanding of party competition, highlighting the intricate balance between economic equality and equal rights in strategies of left parties.

Focusing on the electoral dynamics between center-left and postmaterialist left parties, we find that center-left parties benefit from incorporating both economic equality and equal rights in their platforms, whereas postmaterialist left parties gain support primarily by emphasising equal rights.

Happy to share this new paper @jeppjournal.bsky.social with my great colleagues @dweisstanner.bsky.social & Carsten Jensen.

In "Winning with equality", we show "how left-wing parties attract votes but [in doing so] amplify electoral cleavages"

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

Key points in 📈👇

Title page of syllabus: https://muellerstefan.net/teaching/2026-spring-qta.pdf

My updated syllabus for Quantitative Text Analysis is available online. As I previous years, I made quite a few changes and added recent literature. Part 1 (still) covers classic text-as-data approaches; Part 2 focuses on transformers and LLMs.

📄 muellerstefan.net/teaching/202... (PDF)

Had a great time presenting work with Richard Nadeau at the CPPE colloquium in Konstanz. Thanks @na-wehl.bsky.social et al for the invite and super helpful suggestions!

Sunrise over the lake in the morning was a nice bonus!

@excinequality.bsky.social | @vd-researchgroup.bsky.social

🚨New publication @ Journal of European Social Policy

Despite its popularity, the political will to advance Universal Basic Income is limited. Together with @hannaschwander.bsky.social, we argue that attitude polarization severely constrains the political viability of UBI.

🔔 New paper on party brands with @swenhutter.bsky.social in @poppublicsphere.bsky.social

We study the supply (how parties call themselves) and demand (what voters reward) sides. We pair a new European dataset of party names with conjoint experiments on voter reactions

OA 👉 doi.org/10.1017/S153...

Research associate – doctoral candidate (75%) (ID 377) The Manifesto Project analyses parties’ election manifestos in order to study parties’ policy preferences. To this end, the project conducts conte...

📣 Come work with us! The @wzb.bsky.social Center for Civil Society Research is looking for a research associate/doctoral candidate (75%) for a 3 year period, starting on Apr 1, 2026. The researcher will work in the Manifesto Project. More:
wzb.hr4you.org/job/view/428...

Apply by Jan 25, 2026! 🗓️

🥳 New year, new publication

📑"Contested memories: the political effects of de-commemoration proposals" @jeppjournal.bsky.social

With Francesco Colombo, we study a street renaming proposal in Berlin and find -contrary to conventional wisdom- no political backlash, but a positive feedback effect.

🚨Job alert! 🚨

I'm advertising a PhD position (66%) in Comparative Politics at HU Berlin. Ideal candidates combine a research interest in autocratic politics, conflict, and/or political violence with strong quantitative methods skills.

⏳ 4 (+2) years | 🗓 DL 16.01; Start March/April 26

More info: