Klaudia Wegschaider

If you want to learn more about our Migrant Electoral Rights dataset, please register for our launch event next week:

migcitsky

bsky.app/profile/glob...

We close with a research agenda on suffrage incongruency:

1) documenting: how common are divergences in voting + candidacy rights across demographic groups?
2) explaining: why do they arise?
3) what is the impact of incongruency on existing and new voters?

Why did non-citizen residents of the canton of Geneva gain voting but not candidacy rights?

The existing electorate was more supportive of immigrant enfranchisement excluding voting rights.

Public support is crucial in direct democracies, but it is also relevant in representative settings.

Why did non-resident citizens of the UK have candidacy rights before voting rights were added?

This suffrage incongruency was an unintended consequence of an electoral law written before the idea of non-resident candidates was meaningful. It is an example of policy drift.

With the help of two case studies, based on in-depth archival fieldwork, we explore why incongruency arises.

🇬🇧 UK: only candidacy rights for non-residents until mid 1980s

🇨🇭Switzerland, canton Geneva: only voting rights for non-citizens

For non-citizen residents, we find that slightly more than half of countries with local suffrage provide both voting + candidacy rights.

The remaining cases only offer voting rights but not candidacy rights.

There are no cases of candidacy-only incongruencies.

For non-resident citizens, we find that almost two thirds of countries that provide suffrage have extended both voting + candidacy rights at the national level.

But there are still many cases--across regimes types--where non-resident citizens can only vote OR only run for office.

So how common is a discrepancy between candidacy and voting rights? And why does it occur? 🧐

With MER data, we address this for non-citizen residents and non-resident citizens (often migrants).

But, historically, there are many examples of incongruency beyond migrants.

bsky.app/profile/glob...

Suffrage incongruency represents an empirical and normative puzzle.

🧩 Empirically, existing theories of suffrage expansion struggle to explain incongruency.

🧩 Normatively, incongruency sits unwell with the idea of suffrage equality.

Title: Incongruent Suffrage Authors: Klaudia Wegschaider, Rainer Bauböck, Sebastián Umpierrez de Reguero Abstract: Candidacy rights and voting rights are not always congruent. Although voting rights are extensively studied, historical and contemporary incongruencies in suffrage have been widely overlooked. We propose a typology of suffrage incongruency that we apply to the enfranchisement of non-citizen residents and non-resident citizens—two categories recently at the center of enfranchisement scholarship and reform efforts. Using an original dataset that covers 165 countries and 61 years (1960-2020), we identify past and present voting-only incongruencies and candidacy-only incongruencies. Existing theories of suffrage extension focus on the voteshare maximizing logic of incumbents. However, these explanations cannot account for why only one part of suffrage is extended. With two exploratory case studies of Switzerland and the United Kingdom, we inductively arrive at potential explanations for why voting-only and candidacy-only incongruencies arise and resolve in democracies. We conclude with a research agenda on the causes and consequences of suffrage incongruencies.

🚨 New Working Paper with R.Bauböck + @sumpierrez.bsky.social

We introduce the concept of incongruent suffrage.

This describes when there are voting rights but no candidacy rights for a group. Or vice versa.

The paper includes descriptive data & exploratory case studies.

doi.org/10.33774/aps...

Opinion | You Beat Trumpism by Banding Together. It’s as Hard and as Simple as That.

Our future depends on who can coordinate best and how Americans answer the two most urgent questions in our politics: Will the administration succeed in picking off enough of the opposition such that resistance seems useless?

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/o...

Prevalence varies sharply across platforms. Our most conservative estimate shows:

- 1.7 % of Facebook respondents are professionals
- 7.6 % on YouGov
- 34.7 % on Lucid

Professionalism is a real phenomenon, but it varies widely across samples!

How common are “survey professionals” - people who take dozens of online surveys for pay - across online panels, and do they harm data quality?

Our paper, FirstView at @politicalanalysis.bsky.social, tackles this question using browsing data from three U.S. samples (Facebook, YouGov, and Lucid):

This is your heads up that the deadline for submitting your abstract to the inaugural @epssnet.bsky.social conference in Belfast is a month from now (Nov 7)! I'm chairing the Migration Politics section w/ @aalrababah.bsky.social and we're excited to receive contributions from across the discipline🕺🏻

New SI "Cleavage Politics in Western
Democracies" @wepsocial.bsky.social!

If you're interested in transforming social & political divides in advanced democracies, this is for you.

The intro by @davidattewell6.bsky.social & me maps contributions around 3 challenges for contemp. cleavage research.

Anton Pelinka : Niemand hat Österreich besser erklärt Mit Anton Pelinka verliert das Land seinen bekanntesten Politikwissenschaftler. Der ORF-Moderator Armin Wolf erinnert sich an seinen Lehrer – und an sein Vorbild.

Die ZEIT hat mich gebeten, etwas über den großen Anton Pelinka zu schreiben - dessen Nachfolger ich werden wollte, als ich vor genau 40 Jahren seinetwegen begann, Politikwissenschaft zu studieren:

🚨 Why do people protest against authoritarian regimes even when facing extreme danger? 🚨

In our new paper on Romania's 1989 Revolution, we find that communities exposed to the communist Gulag showed 5x higher dissent levels.

doi.org/10.1177/0010...

1/🧵

Democracy Notes Explainer: What is democratic resilience? The term ‘democratic resilience’ is increasingly common in the public lexicon, making prominent appearances in official policy documents, in academic and

we at the IDEA democracy assessment team have written an explainer on 'democratic resilience': what it means, where it came from, and what it needs to mean if we're to have a democratic future. hope you give it a read!

www.idea.int/blog/democra...

🚨 Publication alert!

Thrilled to share our new #Global #Dataset on #Migrant #Electoral #Rights 🎉 Developed together with @wegschaider.bsky.social and #Rainer #Bauböck.

🔜 Join us online for the launch event on Oct 15 — details coming soon!

🤔 Curious about our new open access dataset on migrant electoral rights?

Join us for the webinar to get an overview. 📊

🚨 Webinar Alert 🚨

Join us for the online launch of the new Migrant Electoral Rights (MER) Dataset, the most comprehensive global dataset on migrant suffrage to date 🌐

📅 Oct 15 | 17:00 CEST
📍 Online
🔗 Register www.eui.eu/events?id=58...

Strategic Inclusion Without Transformation: How Populist Radical Right Parties Engage With Women’s Interests - Bonnie M. Meguid, Hilde Coffé, Ana Catalano Weeks, Miki Caul Kittilson, 2025 Despite their Männerparteien reputation, populist radical right (PRR) parties have recently expanded their agendas to include women’s interests. When do they em...

🚨 New article out today in @cpsjournal.bsky.social !

📄 “Strategic Inclusion Without Transformation: How Populist Radical Right Parties Engage With Women’s Interests”

With Bonnie Meguid, @hildecoffe.bsky.social & Miki Kittilson

🔗 doi.org/10.1177/0010...

Deskilling of migrants in the labour market Deskilling affects many highly educated and academic migrants from Central and Eastern European countries living in Vienna. A research project shows how language barriers, bureaucratic hurdles and discrimination affect their career opportunities.

Lost potential: Hurdles for skilled immigrants in Vienna

Deskilling affects many highly educated and academic migrants from Central & Eastern European countries living in Vienna. A research project shows how language barriers, bureaucratic hurdles & discrimination affect their career opportunities.

🚨Deadline for submissions is today!🚨

Final day to submit to 24h of Political Psychology in February! We hope to see many of you in Vienna! 📚🎊

Great new paper by Phil Howe, @davidsteinecke.bsky.social & Christina Zuber on voting behavior of deputies in the Imperial Austrian Reichsrat: doi.org/10.1111/lsq....

🚨 New paper in @thejop.bsky.social

Why do politicians often misperceive what citizens' policy positions are?

@simonotjes.bsky.social and I study ~10,000 estimates of public opinion by politicians in Denmark & the Netherlands to uncover the sources of these (mis)perceptions

Thread 🧵1/10

Influence or support? Member perspectives on youth wings in political parties - European Political Science Political parties maintain connections with various sub-organisations to engage different segments of society. Common among these are party youth wings. These relationships are often described as mutual, where votes are exchanged for policies. However, little research delves into how members of these sub-organisations perceive their roles in relation to the senior party. Based on a web survey of approximately 3000 respondents, this study investigates the views of youth wing members within Swedish political parties. Specifically, it explores whether members believe their youth wing’s primary role should be to influence or support the senior party. Drawing on theories of political engagement incentives, it examines the connection between members’ political and career motivations and their perceptions of these roles. Results suggest that those with career-oriented incentives tend to view the youth wing as supportive, while politically motivated members prioritise influencing the senior party. This research contributes to our understanding of the complex dynamics within political parties and their affiliated organisations, shedding light on how individual motivations shape organisational roles.

🚨New article out 🚨

Party youth wings are often described as partners that trade votes for influence with their senior parties. But how do their own members see it?

In this article I examine whether they think their organizations' mission is to influence the senior party or to support it.

Two award recipients stand smiling in front of an ÖGPW banner. Both hold rolled certificates. The banner reads “Österreichische Gesellschaft für Politikwissenschaft – Das Netzwerk für Politikwissenschaft in Österreich. Vernetzen. Fördern.”

Slide projected on a screen with the heading “PhD Awards 2025.” On the left, text reads: Christina Gahn, Universität Wien. Supervisor: Thomas Meyer. Title: Debunking the Myth of Targeted and Tailored Political Advertising. On the right, a portrait of Christina Gahn smiling, wearing a dark blue top.

A large screen displays a slide titled “Master Awards 2025.” The slide shows a portrait of Benjamin Riesch smiling, with text: Benjamin Riesch, Universität Wien. Supervisor: Laurenz Ennser-Jedenastik. Title: Negative Campaigning in the Austrian National Election. In the foreground, three people stand at a lectern in a lecture hall, with empty chairs and glasses on the table.

A large screen shows a slide titled “Bachelor Awards 2025.” The slide includes a portrait of Luca Conte smiling with arms crossed, and text: Luca Conte, Universität Wien. Supervisor: Katharina Pfaff. Title: How Experiencing Climate Change Affects Climate Change Attitudes in Austria. In the foreground, three presenters stand at a lectern in a lecture hall with chairs and glasses on a table.

Awards, awards, awards! 🏆✨

At the 11th Annual @oegpw.bsky.social Conference, three members of the Department of Government @univie.ac.at were among the awardees:

🎓 Best PhD – @christinagahn.bsky.social
📘 Best MA – Benjamin Riesch
📗 Best BA – Luca Conte

👏 Huge congrats to all! 🎉

#PoliSky 🧪

How can we understand the forces that keep political conflict alive in social life, even when its political salience has waned? In my and Anna van Vree's new working paper, we analyse 27 focus groups on immigration to show how moral boundaries make division sticky & potent: osf.io/preprints/so...