Kevin Walz

Pretty excited to share this. We worked on a monster for the past year, getting LLMs (AI, those ChatGPT kinds of things) to qualitatively code the levels of populism in political speeches with holistic grading. Enjoy. populism.byu.edu/large-langua...

AI-Powered Qualitative Analysis in R - Livestreamed Research Training | Instats PhD-level seminar on AI-Powered Qualitative Analysis in R with Kenneth Benoit & Seraphine Maerz . Live Q&A plus on‑demand access. Join via your university’s Instats membership or enroll directly.

Together with @kenbenoit.bsky.social we offer a hands-on workshop on @instats.bsky.social for qualitative researchers to use LLMs for annotating texts, images, audio, etc. without requiring deep programming skills but with the full flexibility and fun of R.
instats.org/seminar/ai-p...

New article out in @polstudies.bsky.social!

Why do opposition parties in authoritarian regimes so often fail to coordinate, even when unity could help them win?

doi.org/10.1177/0032...

In this article, we highlight two overlooked drivers of opposition fragmentation 🧵

Are you conducting research combining qualitative cross-case methods (comparative case studies or QCA) with process tracing? ➡️ ** We are looking to show-case your work** ⬅️

🧵 1/

🚨 Job alert! 🚨
(English in comment)

An meinem Lehrbereich ist zum 1.2.26 eine Postdoc-Stelle (100%) zu besetzen. Gesucht wird ein*e Kandidat*in mit Kenntnissen in quantitativen Methoden sowie Expertise in einschlägigen Themenbereichen. Mehr hier: www.verwaltung.uni-halle.de/dezern3/Auss...

Picture of Claudia Landwehr, Kevin Walz and Natasha Wunsch

Very proud of my PhD student @kwalz.bsky.social who successfully defended his thesis on "Pathways to breakdown resilience" today and is now Dr. (des.) Kevin Walz 🎉
Watch out for his book to learn how accountability can stop autocratization!
In Picture: Kevin🧑‍🎓, Natasha Wunsch, 2nd supervisor and me 😀

Heute um 16 Uhr begrüßen wir Natasha Wunsch (Université de Fribourg) in unserer #Forschungswerkstatt.
Das Thema ist wirklich spannend: "Democratic Commitment: Why Citizens Tolerate Democratic Backsliding".
Alle sind herzlich willkommen!

Diesen Mittwoch in der Forschungswerkstatt Politikwissenschaft @powimz.bsky.social : Nathasha Wunsch stellt ihr neues Buch vor! 16 Uhr in P5 - wir freuen uns schon 🎉

Im Rahmen unserer Forschungswerkstatt bieten wir im Wintersemester 2025/26 wieder ein spannendes Programm zu verschiedenen Themen an. Wie immer gilt: alle sind herzlich willkommen!

📢Can free academia withstand democratic backsliding? Why some universities wither while others survive. Read the recently published article in #ISPR. Together with Katrin Kinzelbach and @silindberg.bsky.social (Open Access): doi.org/10.1177/0192...

Application period for New Europe College (Bucharest) fellowships in humanities and social sciences:
nec.ro/fellowships/...

Especially if you recently got your PhD and are looking for a 1-year fellowship it is a wonderful place to work, with a scholarship that will completely cover expenses here

GitHub - IPPSR/SenateData: SenateData: A Functional Tool for the SenateData Dataset SenateData: A Functional Tool for the SenateData Dataset - IPPSR/SenateData

@liampert.bsky.social, @mattgrossmann.bsky.social, and I are thrilled to launch SenateData, a new repository pertaining to the US Senate. We have variables on facets like bills, and members, including original data on senator characteristics and an associated R package. github.com/IPPSR/Senate...

#CfP: Call for panels for the Second International Congress for Political Theory in Germany.
The #TheoryCongress will take place from 5 to 7 October 2026 at the University of #Passau.
Proposals for panels can be submitted until 6 November.

Party leaders often face a tough choice: should they join forces with other parties in pre-electoral coalitions or run alone? The stakes are even higher when opposition parties try to unseat an authoritarian incumbent.

Exciting lineup for our (@powimz.bsky.social) research colloquia—the Forschungswerkstatt and the Democracy Seminar—this coming winter semester! I’m looking forward to welcoming many great guests and hearing from my colleagues.

Screenshot of the article “Open science in democracy research: the research infrastructure ‘Monitoring Electoral Democracy’ (MEDem)” published in European Political Science. The header shows the journal name, DOI link, and the label “DEBATE.” Below, the title is followed by the author list: Hajo Boomgaarden, Alexia Katsanidou, Sylvia Kritzinger, Georg Lutz, Johanna Willmann, and Jakob-Moritz Eberl. The abstract explains the aims of MEDem as a European research infrastructure to make democracy research data FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable). Keywords listed include open science, FAIR data, ESFRI roadmap, research infrastructure, democracy research, data harmonization, data linking, and data set search. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41304-025-00534-8

They say: once there’s a paper 📝, it’s real…
🎉 #MEDem in #EPS @ecpr.bsky.social

The paper outlines how MEDem will strengthen #OpenScience by making data #FAIR in #DemocracyResearch – and how scholars across Europe are joining forces to build a truly open #ResearchInfrastructure ⚙️

How Democracies Fall Apart - Dissent Magazine An interview with Adam Przeworski.

It was a true honor to talk to legendary political scientist Adam Przeworski about how he understands the present crisis, what he learned from Chile and Poland, and how to move forward from here www.dissentmagazine.org/article/how-...

LMU Professors from various disciplines share their perspectives on the role of AI in science
www.lmu.de/en/newsroom/...

Protecting Democracy in Europe: Pluralism, Autocracy and the Future of the EU Abstract. The future of Europe as a community of democratic states is deeply uncertain. The European Union, founded to promote “ever closer” integration, a

I'm happy to share two updates about my book 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘋𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘤𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘌𝘶𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘦 (OUP/Hurst)

► A paperback edition will come out next year, in Hurst’s Spring catalogue

► The book is now also available on Oxford Scholarship Online, making it freely accessible to subscribers: academic.oup.com/book/60892

Ready to integrate ChatGPT and open-source LLMs into your research?

Join Dr. @seraphinemaerz.bsky.social for our online course on AI-assisted Text Analysis.
- Full hands-on setup
- Reproducible workflows in R
- Critical reflection on ethics

📅 23-25 Feb, 2026

🔗 afww.uni-konstanz.de/en/mc-ekomex...

🚨📢 I am hiring a PhD candidate /research assistant in Swiss Politics and/or Comparative Politics (100%)!

🚨📢 Je recrute un·e assistant·e diplômé·e en science politique en politique suisse et comparée!

Please join me @unil.bsky.social, Switzerland!

Thanks for sharing! polisky @sspunil.bsky.social

Great news! 😁I am very happy to introduce the new ECPR Research Network on Comparative Regime Studies🎉 A new space for scholars working on #democracy, #autocracy, #hybridregimes, #autocratization #democratization, and everything in between.👇 ecpr.eu/group/compar...

Das Institut @powimz.bsky.social bei der #ecprgc25. Tolle Vorträge, inspirierender Austausch und interessante Eindrücke.

The @powimz.bsky.social crowd enjoys the sunset cruise at the @ecpr.bsky.social conference in Thessaloniki. 😎
Together with @clandwehr.bsky.social, @arminschaefer.bsky.social, @stallbaum.bsky.social, @lionmert.bsky.social & @kwalz.bsky.social.

@powimz.bsky.social at #ECPRGC25 in Thessaloniki

📄 🚨 New Research on Polarization, Fragmentation, and Democracy in @democratization.bsky.social

Nils-Christian Bormann and I explore the impact of ideological polarization and fragmentation on the democratic systems of interwar Europe: lnkd.in/erjJr9qF
#polarization #democracy #data #history (1/4)

Registration is NOW OPEN for #KOMEX2026

✨ Excellence. Affordability. No flights.
In-person @uni-konstanz.de or online via #ekomex

Learn from top scholars in:
🧠 R, Python, NVivo, QCA, Process Tracing, ML, SNA & more

🗓️ Feb 2026

🔗 Join: afww.uni-konstanz.de/en/komex/kon...

@methodsnet.bsky.social

Bolivians go to polls in election that could end 20 years of socialism Rightwing candidates lead polling ahead of fragmented left amid country’s worst economic crisis in four decades

Today is election day in Bolivia! I've been closely following the country since the start of my PhD and honestly this could be one of the most consequential elections the country has ever faced.

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

I am looking for a PhD student in Comparative Politics @powimz.bsky.social. My research focuses on political (in-)equality, representation, and responsiveness. I would be grateful if you could help to spread the word.
stellenboerse.uni-mainz.de#/jgu/job/49637

I'm delighted to see this article out in @govandopp.bsky.social! Jonas Wenker and I show that losing an election has a far stronger negative effect on populist voters than on non-populist ones. For populists, losing signals that the system is broken. 1/5 www.cambridge.org/core/journal...