Partisan affect and political tolerance in the context of shifting norms: the effect of coalition signals towards the radical right Mainstream political actors in many countries face the challenging decision of how to engage with radical-right parties. While some systematically exclude them from power, others accept them as coa...

🤝 @jochemvanagt.bsky.social, Katrin Praprotnik, @luanarusso.bsky.social, and @markuswagner.bsky.social show that when the mainstream right signals openness to govern with the far right, it eases tensions on the right but amplifies antipathy on the left 👇

🔗 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Another festive week at @dfuturevub.bsky.social 🎉

Benjamin Blanckaert succesfully defended his dissertation "Holding Together or Falling Apart? Electoral Politics Across the Linguistic Divide in the Brussels-Capital Region."

About last night...

🎉 Congratulations Dr. @kamilbernaerts.bsky.social ! 🎓

📖 Dr. Bernaerts defended his dissertation on polarisation and its complex, dynamic relationship with democracy and institutions.

Needless to say, it was fantastic!

Find out more about Kamil's work via kamilbernaerts.com

Today I found in my pigeonhole 📬 the printed version of the Handbook of Affective Polarization! 😍
Thanks again to the wonderful editors @marianotorcal.bsky.social & @eelcoharteveld.bsky.social
Best bit: you do not need to buy it! It is accessible open access 👉 www.elgaronline.com/edcollbook-o...

Opinion | The ‘Boy Crisis’ Is Overblown

Interesting article, particularly the last part. Nothing new, necessarily, but it is clear that it has to be said, and not just to conservatives.

🏳️‍🌈🎉

👇this

Marie Curie Call for Postdoctoral Fellowship is still open:
‼️ DEADLINE 31/05 ‼️

🗳️ What’s next for democracy?

📍 June 05 in Brussels → Join the BRIAS Public Forum on Democratic Governance – Challenges & Innovations.

👥 Free, open to all, packed with sharp minds & bold ideas.
🔗 brias.be/en/brias-pub...

🚨 Call for Postdocs! 🚨

VUB’s Democratic Futures Research Centre is looking for candidates for the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowships 2025!

Want to boost your research career in Brussels with top training & international mobility?
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Hoe kunnen we Amerikaanse universiteiten helpen? De aanval van Trump op de Amerikaanse universiteiten heeft duidelijke politieke motieven. Wat kunnen Europese academici, journalisten, universiteiten en staten doen om te helpen?

Hoe kunnen we Amerikaanse universiteiten helpen?

Enkele suggesties van een blanke man, houder van een Green Card, en met ‘tenure’ werkzaam aan een openbare universiteit in een door de Republikeinen gecontroleerde staat.

Lees de opinie van @casmudde.bsky.social 👇
(www.sampol.be/2025/04/hoe-...)

While Kilmar Abrego Garcia is at the forefront, we must also remember others unjustly deported.

Frengel Reyes Mota, a 24-year-old father with no criminal record, was sent to a torture prison in El Salvador with no removal order.

He deserves to be remembered.

Please share his story.

Looking back on a very fulfilling day at @polstudiesassoc.bsky.social #psa25! ✨
I presented a co-authored paper with my colleague from @dfuturevub.bsky.social Daan Vermassen, to an audience filled with friendly faces from @warwickpais.bsky.social. 🙌🏼

Come join us in Mannheim as Professor for Survey Methodology! ✨ #academicsky #polisci
www.uni-mannheim.de/media/Univer...

Anyone not deeply disturbed by this is either an authoritarian or delusional about their own protections.

“There is value to this idea, under two conditions: critics remain free to speak their minds (something that cannot be taken for granted (…) ), and universities remain free to defend their core mission. After all, they can hardly be neutral about their own existence.”

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“To be sure, many universities have recently committed to “institutional neutrality”(…): institutions of higher learning should not comment of all kinds of issues of the day. A university should be, according to a seminal statement of the principle, a home for critics, not itself be the critic.”
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“Universities must avoid the trap of “we’ll sacrifice humanities if you leave us the hard sciences”. Humanities (and social sciences) are, after all, disciplines: its practitioners are disciplined by professional standards in (…) “transparent, testable processes”.”

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Our Dutch neighbors should read this piece carefully too.

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The continuing crimes against humanity in Gaza and the West Bank & the deafening silence that ensues are an affront to the values that we (selectively) preach. It’s absolutely good to criticize the democratic collapse of the US and provide support, but the double standard will come back to haunt us.

Very proud of my university (and our French-speaking sister-university) today. If you are a researcher in the US who needs/wants to get out, get in touch with research.welcome@vub.be

List of Stand Up for Science events—official events in red, solidarity events in blue.

SO MANY STAND UP FOR SCIENCE EVENTS TO CHOOSE FROM—153 and COUNTING!

To get more information on our local events and to register your own, head to www.standupforscience2025.org/local-event-information/ ☀️⬇️🌎

We're excited to host @lalamur.bsky.social at the Centre for Voting & Democracy on 25 March for the launch of her Cambridge Element!

We'll have a discussion of the book with comments from Karen Celis, @annakern.bsky.social and @neerdaels.bsky.social

Join us for this event if you're around!

Only 6% of gen Z actually favour dictatorship – not half, as some reports would have you believe Gen Z don’t hate democracy, they have a problem with the way it is being delivered.

There's no way "over half of Gen Z want a dictator" - our new study gets more like 6%

This is vital to get right - we're sowing generational division, giving fake momentum to the sense that young people are rejecting democracy + missing the real message

theconversation.com/only-6-of-ge...

Trump 2.0: an assault on science anywhere is an assault on science everywhere US President Donald Trump is taking a wrecking ball to science and to international institutions. The global research community must take a stand against these attacks.

US President Donald Trump is taking a wrecking ball to science and to international institutions. The global research community must take a stand against these attacks.

https://go.nature.com/4kd1vIu

It’s not just the act of terminating ongoing grants that is infuriating, it’s the content that is utterly mind blowing. These grants have not been granted on a whim. They were awarded after competitive calls and reviewed and ranked by expert scientists. They simply deny science. Period.

Editorial: A president just disrespected America in the Oval Office. It wasn’t Zelensky It’s time to say it plainly. America’s leadership has switched sides in the war. The American people have not, and they should speak up. In the past several weeks, the U.S. leadership has demonstrate...

It’s time to say it plainly. America’s leadership has switched sides in the war. The American people have not, and they should speak up.

Putin’s Three Years of Humiliation The Russian president can’t win his war against Ukraine unless he persuades its allies to betray it.

Russia doesn’t have the resources to fight indefinitely against Ukraine’s organization and determination, @anneapplebaum.bsky.social writes. The only way for Putin to defeat Ukraine is to convince Ukraine’s allies to be sick of the war.

Le gouvernement belge vire à droite, sous l’égide des séparatistes Bart De Wever, le leader nationaliste flamand, a été investi comme premier ministre d’une coalition de cinq partis. Avec l’aide des libéraux francophones, il a défini un agenda de réduction de l’État…

📰 Our colleague @thomlegein.bsky.social was interviewed by the French online media of @mediapart.fr to talk about the new Belgian government and the broader European phenomenon of shifts to the right of traditional right-wing parties.

Read it here 🔍 : www.mediapart.fr/journal/inte...

🚨 New article!

Colleagues Henry Maes, Ambroos Verwee and Lien Smets published an article in @plc-journal.bsky.social toghether with V. Van Ingelgom & L. Knops.

'Affective Polarisation in Citizens’ Own Words: Understanding Group Construction'

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