S. Erdem Aytaç

PostDoc Call

PreDoc Call

📌 Hiring one postdoctoral and two predoctoral researchers for the @erc.europa.eu project #COUNSTER, each position for up to 3 years to start on May 2026.

Postdoc: stars.bilkent.edu.tr/staffapp/IR2... (Deadline Feb 20)

Predoc: stars.bilkent.edu.tr/staffapp/IR2... (Deadline March 1)

Open access - observational evidence linking affective polarization to support for undemocratic practices from a context of high polarization & significant democratic backsliding

📢NEW ARTICLE!📢 #OpenAccess

The polarised electorate: affective polarisation and electoral loyalty in #Turkey’s 2023 critical election

🔓 Read the article by @seaytac.bsky.social, @sedairmak.bsky.social & @busrask.bsky.social here 👇
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Open access! Part of a special issue on Turkey's 2023 general election. Thanks to special issue editors Berk Esen and @mertmoral.bsky.social.

Thank you!

Link: drive.google.com/file/d/1pcQ8... (5/5).

Implication: backsliding isn’t only about breaking norms; it’s also about redefining them. Would-be autocrats can elevate a purely electoral view of democracy and erode liberal constraints without major backlash - even when mass support for “democracy” stays high...(4/5)

I show that Turkish party leaders emphasize different dimensions of democracy, these differences map onto their supporters’ views, and elite discourse can causally shift democratic priorities...(3/5)

I argue that democracy is a contested concept, and partisan elites shape what citizens think it means. Using political leaders’ speeches, an original nationally-representative survey and a population-based survey experiment from Turkey...(2/5)

Why do citizens who say they support democracy tolerate leaders who dismantle it? Delighted to share my paper “Framing Democracy: How Elite Discourse Shapes Citizens' Understandings of Democracy and Enables Backsliding” is forthcoming in World Politics...(1/5, link at the end)

The Second Advance Release of CSES Module 6 is now available. Download for free at www.cses.org ... Includes 18 election studies, 17 countries/provinces, and 33,871 respondents.

Announcement: The Second Advance Release of the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES) Module 6 dataset is now available for download! For more information, please see: cses.org/2025/12/16/m...

Assistant Professor in Political Economy at Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin Discover an exciting academic career path as a Assistant Professor in Political Economy at jobs.ac.uk. Don't miss out on this job opportunity - apply today!

🚨Our department @tcdpoliticalsci.bsky.social is advertising three tenure-track Assistant Professor positions:

👉 Political Economy (joint with Economics): tinyurl.com/yc8jsct9

👉 International Politics: tinyurl.com/u94pv433

👉 Political Science: tinyurl.com/y8p967du

Please repost/share! 🚨

BJPolS abstract discussing the influence of high inflation on recent elections, voting behavior, and potential impacts on different political parties in the United States.

From October 2025 -

Inflation and Incumbent Support: Experimental Evidence from the 2024 US Presidential Election - cup.org/3JaiZYj

"priming Americans to think about inflation reduced support for the incumbent"

- Selim Erdem Aytaç, @danielmcdowell.bsky.social & David A. Steinberg

#OpenAccess

My department is hiring! A junior position in IR with a focus on IPE. Feel free to reach for questions. More info: jobs.ku.edu.tr/open_positio...

S. Erdem Aytaç, David Steinberg and I have a new experimental study out now in @bjpols.bsky.social exploring the impact of inflation on support for Kamala Harris in the 2024 election. TL;DR: price increases hurt Harris' popularity, especially among Ds and Is, and in regions hit hardest by inflation.

LSE Collaborative Studentship with Campaign Lab LSE Collaborative Studentship with Campaign Lab

🚨 We have a cool new ESRC PhD studentship opportunity on the topic of political persuasion for someone interested in campaigning, field experiments and/or computational methods @lsegovernment.bsky.social, in collaboration with
@campaign-lab.bsky.social. All info 👇
www.lse.ac.uk/study-at-lse...

Congratulations Sarah!

Your logo/map sends a message that scholars from Turkey are not welcome (or you just don't care). The "European" part of Russia (west of Urals) is in the map but not the European part of Turkey (Thrace). Also you've been careful to include Iceland (not an EU member) but not Cyprus (EU member).

🧵1/
🚨 A new kind of political science textbook has arrived—and it might just disrupt the entire textbook industry. It’s called A Political Science Experiment, and here’s why you should care. 👇
🔗 politicsexperiment.com

🚨 We're hiring!
Join our CSES Team @gesis.org Cologne as a Senior Researcher. If you’re into comparative electoral research and love diving into data, this is your moment.
Come shape global democracy with us! 🌍📊
www.gesis.org/en/institute...

Çok tebrikler!

🧵 THREAD: Can a short online intervention help defend democracy against partisan polarization?

In our new study - just published in the @bjpols.bsky.social - my colleagues and I tested this question across 33 countries 🌍 with over 41,000 participants 🧑‍🤝‍🧑.

Here’s what we found 👇

Populist Appeals, Emotions, and Political Mobilization - Selim Erdem Aytaç, Ali Çarkoğlu, Ezgi Elçi, 2025 Populist politicians frequently employ anti-establishment appeals in their discourse by targeting an imagined or real power elite. Do such appeals have a mobili...

Our article, "Populist Appeals, Emotions, and Political Mobilization," with Erdem Aytaç and Ali Çarkoğlu, now has volume and page numbers. It is also open access! journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.... @seaytac.bsky.social @absjournal.bsky.social

Less than two weeks left to apply to the #ISPPAcademy in Prague! See link for more information:

ispp.org/resources/ac...

CSES Announcement - The First Advance Release of CSES Module 6, containing seven election studies, is now available. The dataset and documentation may be downloaded from the CSES website for free.

For more information please visit:
cses.org/2024/12/17/m...

My department is hiring! This is a junior position, preferably, though not necessarily, with a focus on CP or IPE fields. I am not on the committee but feel free to reach out to me if you have questions. jobs.ku.edu.tr/open_positio...

My department is hiring! This is a junior position, preferably, though not necessarily, with a focus on CP or IPE fields. I am not on the committee but feel free to reach out to me if you have questions. jobs.ku.edu.tr/open_positio...

🚨🚨JOB ALERT🚨🚨1-year post-doc position available in my ERC project DEPOLARIZE to be based at the University of Chicago !!! Start date is January 2025 (with some flexibility), more information available at drive.google.com/file/d/1_xYS...

📢🚨 My department is hiring!! Assistant Prof. level, open to all subfields but IPE and Comparative Politics scholars are especially encouraged. Feel free to reach me for questions and please spread the word!! jobs.ku.edu.tr/open_positio...

Check out this new special issue in Electoral Studies: www.sciencedirect.com/journal/elec... It contains 7 cool articles on the nature and causes of AP - using observational and experimental data, focusing on measurement, elites and ideology, and an important theoretical piece as well.