Magda Breyer

Angriffe auf Gesundheitseinrichtungen haben massiv zugenommen In bewaffneten Konflikten weltweit werden Angriffe auf Gesundheitseinrichtungen und Gesundheitspersonal zunehmend als strategisches Mittel eingesetzt. Auch staatliche Akteure missachten vermehrt das h...

Angriffe auf Gesundheitseinrichtungen in bewaffneten Konflikten nehmen weltweit zu – trotz völkerrechtlichem Schutz.
Mario Behrens (Politikwissenschaftler, Uni Basel / swisspeace) ordnet die Entwicklung im VSAO Journal ein.

👉 www.vsao-journal.ch/de/artikel/a...

@mbehrens.bsky.social @unibas.ch

Im Podcast Unibâle von @primenewsbasel.bsky.social spreche ich über die Auswirkungen von Hass im Netz auf die politischen Ambitionen von jungen Frauen und Männern.

🥳 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.

BJPolS Abstract discussing educational attainment, social networks, and political behavior in Germany, the UK, and Switzerland.

From October 2025 -

Educational Networks, Social Closure, and Cleavage Stabilization - cup.org/47ifc4B

"we show that educational divides are diminished in the presence of countervailing networks"

- @davidattewell6.bsky.social & @dpzollinger.bsky.social

#OpenAccess

European progressives must tackle housing crisis to beat far right, say researchers Centre left can win broad support by addressing soaring house prices and rents, according to data analysis

For the Guardian, @jonhenley.bsky.social reports on our new research briefs on the politics of housing. Current policies too often treat housing as an asset. Housing as a social right has nearly disappeared from the agenda of even progressive parties.

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...

🔔Job Alert 🔔
Thrilled to share that @stefaniebailer.bsky.social and I have been awarded 1.5 million CHF in SNSF funding for our new project: “Electoral choice: Which role does legislators’ quality play?”
We’re recruiting 1 postdoc and 2 PhD candidates to join us in Basel and Geneva!

Acknowledgments We would like to thank Tarik Abou-Chadi, David Attewell, Diane Bolet, Mathilde van Ditmars, Silja Häusermann, Lena Huber, Thomas Kurer, Peter Egge Langsæther, Briitta van Staalduinen, and Tim Vlandas for their helpful feedback and suggestions. Earlier versions were presented at the Publication Seminar at the Department of Political Science at the University of Zurich, at the Inequality Workshop in Oxford, in the Text-as-Data Political Science Reading Group, at the Institutions and Political Economy Research Group Seminar in Barcelona and at the Connected Politics Seminar Series at University College Dublin, and we would also like to thank audiences at these events for their generous feedback.

This is the first outcome of a very inspiring collaboration with Delia and Tabea - and we have many people to thank for feedback over the years 🥰

And we find that different sociocultural conflicts differ regarding their political contention. We find zero-sum thinking around shifts in racial hierarchies among social conservatives. But for gender and sexuality, these shifts are much more salient to progressives, and perceived positively.

We show that static, top-vs.-bottom perceptions of societal hierarchies are dominated by economic characteristics (wealth, income, occupation), wheras sociocultural groups (women, ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+ people) show up in dynamic perceptions of status shifts.

Abstract It is widely accepted in political science – and remarkably established in public discourse – that status anxieties fuel a far right backlash against progressive politics. This narrative suggests that right-wing conservatives perceive the status of women, racial, or sexual minorities as threatening. Using open-ended survey questions fielded in Germany, we show that women and minorities indeed figure in people’s perceptions of status hierarchies, but in very specific ways: First, overall, people still perceive status as largely socioeconomically determined. Second, sociocultural groups figure in perceptions of who is gaining/losing status, less so in perceptions of the top/bottom of society. Third, more than conservative voters, it is social progressives who mention women and minorities as “winners”. While on race/ethnicity, we find evidence for a backlash, on gender and sexuality we find more evidence for a progressive momentum. This matters for progressive politics today and for how we empirically study status concerns.

New article out in @cpsjournal.bsky.social with Tabea Palmtag and @dpzollinger.bsky.social 📝
We use open-ended survey questions (in Germany) to assess how and among whom social status shifts are perceived. This tests cultural backlash narratives in voters' perceptions.

🔗 doi.org/10.1177/0010...

"But the SVP is different":

I hear this often, especially compared to A/fD.

But 2024 data confirm different story: programmatically, the overlaps are strikingly close.
The real difference is govt participation, not ideology.

And yet, many still label the SVP as a center-right ("bürgerlich") party

Events European Consortium for Political Research

Paper proposals for the @ecpr.bsky.social Joint Sessions, taking place in beautiful Innsbruck, April 7-10 2026, are now open. If you're working on an exciting gender paper using quants methods, please apply to our workshop: ecpr.eu/Events/Event... @mtplk.bsky.social @sgparliaments.bsky.social

Share widely with your students in Switzerland 🇨🇭thinking about a PhD @eui-eu.bsky.social

𝗢𝗻𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗘𝗨𝗜 𝗣𝗵𝗗 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝗽 𝗧𝗮𝗹𝗸 🇨🇭
21 Nov 2025 | 2:30pm CET

@alissasiara.bsky.social introduces the program & life at EUI, I share my experience, and we answer your questions.

👉 Register: www.eui.eu/events?id=58...

Konservativer Anti-Migrationskurs befeuert die AfD Wenn konservative Kräfte die Narrative von Rechtspopulisten übernehmen, hilft das den Rechts-Außen-Parteien statt sie zu schwächen. Das zeigt die EU-weite Forschung des Politologen Tarik Abou-Chadi.

Mit WDR 3 Resonanzen habe ich heute über die Aussagen von Friedrich Merz gesprochen, darüber wie sein Kurs die radikale Rechte normalisiert und stärkt und warum er vielleicht mal öfter mit jungen Frauen sprechen sollte.

www1.wdr.de/mediathek/au...

An Early Leak in the Pipeline – Online Abuse as a Barrier for Young Women’s Political Engagement To what extent does online abuse on social media platforms obstruct an equal representation of women and men in politics? We investigate the frequency, character, and consequences of online abuse a...

🗣️ Our new study in @jwpp.bsky.social shows that online abuse on social media discourages young women from pursuing political offices—before their actual political careers have even begun.

With @stefaniebailer.bsky.social and Tomoko Latteier

#GenderSky

👉 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Sozialpolitik: Wer wenig hat, ist in ihren Augen selbst schuld Mehr Sozialstaat könnte den Aufstieg der Rechtspopulisten bremsen, heißt es oft. Umfragen zeigen aber: Die Wähler der AfD verstehen unter Gerechtigkeit etwas anderes.

Mehr Sozialstaat und eine "antifaschistische Wirtschaftspolitik" werden häufig als Mittel gegen den AfD-Erfolg genannt. Doch was ist dran an der These & welche Sozialpolitik wünschen sich die AfD-Wähler tatsächlich? Eine Datenanalyse von @schieritz.bsky.social und mir.

www.zeit.de/politik/deut...

A very inspiring read, congrats! :)

Yay, congrats! Such an important project

Herzlichen Glückwunsch, tolle Neuigkeiten! 🎉

Ever asked yourself how to detect and extract social groups from texts with computational social science? @haukelicht.bsky.social and me have a solution for you out at @bjpols.bsky.social. You can also find the pre-trained models on huggingface!

Autoritäre Kräfte schränken Frauenrechte gezielt ein.

👉 Wie wird Antifeminismus als politisches Mittel eingesetzt?

👉 Und warum unterstützen auch Frauen Akteure, die ihre Rechte angreifen?

@mabreyer.bsky.social
‪@sarahbuetikofer.bsky.social

www.polit-forum-bern.ch/veranstaltun...

BJPolS abstract discussing the role of symbolic right-wing politics in cultural consumption, specifically referencing wine and classical music in pubs, based on a survey from Switzerland with 1,550 respondents.

NEW -

The Electoral Appeal of Symbolic Class Signalling Through Cultural Consumption - cup.org/44rcdVW

- @dweisstanner.bsky.social & @saengler.bsky.social

#OpenAccess

Intra-party Competition, Geographic Responsiveness and Incumbent Deselection in Closed-List PR | The Journal of Politics: Vol 0, No ja

Another piece on candidate selection of mine is forthcoming in @thejop.bsky.social : Intra-party Competition, Geographic Responsiveness and Incumbent Deselection in Closed-List PR” (doi.org/10.1086/734244)

🚨 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.

🧵

Thrilled that my article on women's activism in PRR parties has been published open access today in @cpsjournal.bsky.social 💫

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

This is my favourite article from my PhD thesis. I love the topic, its findings, and the literature it draws on.

A quick 🧵:

If you happen to have capacity for an extra first-time attendee do drop me a DM. :)

Can government policies moderate political backlash to structural change?

Yes, the effect operates through material benefits and social recognition.

🚨New WP by @retobuergisser.bsky.social, @siljahausermann.bsky.social, @thmskrr.bsky.social and @susanadptavares.bsky.social 🚨

shorturl.at/zFbZE

Thank you Peter 😊

And more cool research by @noracwe.bsky.social, @danjdevine.bsky.social, Rasmus Kappelgaard Gustafsson, Viktoriia Muliavka, David Beck, @robinweisser.bsky.social, @linerenn.bsky.social, @leaelsaesser.bsky.social, @johannaplenter.bsky.social, Mikolaj Czesnik & @manuelwagner.bsky.social (days 2.5-4)😊