Lucas Leemann

I have been at every single EPSA conference since EPSA was founded. I am excited to attend EPSS 2026 in Dublin - below some clarifications on EPSA and EPSS

The European Political Science Society is now accepting paper & panel proposals for its annual conference!

📢 Call for Papers: EPSS 2026 – Belfast

🗓️ June 18–20, 2026

📍 ICC Belfast

📬 Deadline: Nov 7, 2025

🧵

The WZB Transformations of Democracy unit hosted a great workshop on how ideas of Democracy evolve over time . A great group & lots of scholarly progress.

I am so honored, happy, and still a bit in disbelief that my book "The Normalization of the Radical Right" has won APSA's Dahl Award and the best book prize for the Democracy and Autocracy Section.

I can't thank enough everyone who has helped out with this project throughout the years.

cup.org/3GTsE3W

Inflation narratives: government spending, as emphasized by Republicans, and corporate greed, highlighted by Democrats.

"Economic voting behaviour depends not only on objective economic conditions but also on how political parties subjectively frame these conditions."

CPDS update 1960-2023 is online 🤓 👇/with @dweisstanner.bsky.social @lucasleemann.bsky.social @klarabruhn.bsky.social

🚨 Newest Comparative Political Data Set released!🚨

Updated until 2023

Available here 👉cpds-data.org/data

@leuphana.bsky.social
@uniluzern.bsky.social
@ipz.bsky.social

EPSS – European Political Science Society In June 2025, the EPSA Governing Council voted to establish the not-for-profit organisation European Political Science Society (EPSS). Join our listserv and follow this website for more information and join us next summer for Belfast 2026.

You can read about why we did this and what this all means on our webpage: www.epssnet.org and follow us on Bluseky @epssnet.bsky.social

Last week, with 11 other colleagues I look up to, we did something major & formed a new non-profit association, @epssnet.bsky.social . It is a lot of work and can only be successful if people support it. Please consider becoming a member today & let us know if you want to be involved.

‼️ There are a few more days left to apply for the PhD positions in my group at KU Leuven. Make sure to send in applications by July 4! 👇

AI model for Parkinson’s based on earwax volatiles (wtf), all over the media… dug around for 5 minutes: ~22 year average age difference between cases and controls…

Buchpreisverleihung "Das politikwissenschaftliche Buch" für das Jahr 2024 - Stiftung Wissenschaft und Demokratie Im Rahmen der DGfP-Jahrestagung wurde der Buchpreis 2024 an Lukas Haffert verliehen.

Freue mich sehr über die Auszeichnung von "Stadt, Land, Frust" als politikwissenschaftliches Buch des Jahres. Vielen Dank an die Deutsche Gesellschaft für Politikwissenschaft und die Stiftung Wissenschaft und Demokratie!
www.swud.org/buchpreisver...

Thrilled to share my new publication @epsrjournal.bsky.social!

When we think of lobbying, we often picture big businesses or NGOs. But regional governments lobby, too!

But what makes govts-as-lobbyists successful?

I study intergovt lobbying success based on a multi-year data collection effort

Traditionally, the far-right SVP & center-right parties have seen themselves as natural guardians of Switzerland’s key political institutions.

Now, they have preempted state & local govts from setting their own minimum wages, overturning democratic decisions made through referendums

My interview⬇️

Two weeks left to apply!

Sorry for tagging
@fgilardi.bsky.social @heikekluever.bsky.social @indubioproreto.bsky.social @bertous.bsky.social @lucasleemann.bsky.social @stefwalter.bsky.social @gessler.bsky.social @reidingerve.bsky.social @dpzollinger.bsky.social

Switzerland is world champion of direct democracy, but there’s very little „people” behind it. ≈80% of all initiatives are launched by political parties or business lobbies, *not* grassroots citizens.

And initiatives backed by org interests are far more likely to succeed www.nzz.ch/schweiz/in-v...

📢📢📢 JOBS: 4 postdocs 📢📢📢

Uni Münster has opened a call for 4! postdoc positions. I'm involved in one hiring and really hope that suitable candidates (in particular quants) apply!

Why would you apply? Check out @thiloalbers.bsky.social FAQ!

sites.google.com/site/tnhalbe...

Image of book titled “Cultural Appropriation: Wrongs and Rights” by Aurélia Bardon and Jennifer M. Page

Here it is!
For anyone interested in cultural appropriation, or curious about what 2 political philosophers might have to say about Aladdin, RuPaul’s Drag Race, Victoria’s Secret or Kendall Jenner (all listed in the index)

List of names and affiliations with a green border

We are pleased to announce the winners of the 2025 BJPolS Excellence in Reviewing Award.

Find out more here - cup.org/4k8SFL3

When the mailbox is full of invitations to review, I sometimes want to hide from them, but when I get an award for it, it's fine 🤓 On a serious note, I like reviewing because it forces me to take the time to read, and reading is one of my favourites parts of the job. So thank you for this award!

The dataset created with Patrick Emmenegger, @lucasleemann.bsky.social and @megapeng.bsky.social provides 1.3 million observations from over 600 national votes spanning more than 150 years.

Municipality‐Level Outcomes of Direct‐Democratic Votes in Switzerland, 1866–2023 Switzerland relies heavily on direct-democratic institutions to decide on a wide range of political issues. Since 1848, more than 600 direct-democratic votes have taken place at the national level. H...

Excited to share our new article published in @spsr.bsky.social! We compiled Swiss municipality-level direct-democratic vote results from 1866 to 1944 through extensive archival work and filled some gaps in existing datasets up to 2023.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Cultural Appropriation: Wrongs and Rights From the fashion label Dior being accused of cultural appropriation after using American Indian imagery in an ad campaign for its “Sauvage” fragrance, to the backlash against Kendall Jenner’s afro-esq...

Aurélia Bardon @aureliabardon.bsky.social and Jennifer Page have just published a great book on cultural appropriation, when (exactly) it is wrong and what we should do about it. Original, enjoyable, and extremeley well argued!
www.routledge.com/Cultural-App...

position_jitter()

position_jitter_ellipse()

position_sunflower()

position_circlepack()

New visualization tool alert!

The vayr package version 1.0.0 is now on CRAN.

It contains position adjustments for ggplot2 that help with overplotting in pleasing ways. My favorite is position_sunflower().

- install.packages("vayr")
- alexandercoppock.com/vayr

#rstats #ggplot2 #dataviz

Professor of Health Economics

Come join me in Zurich! We’re hiring a Professor of Health Economics (deadline April 30).

DM me if you have any questions about our department, ETH 🏫, or Switzerland🇨🇭

ethz.ch/en/the-eth-z...

Deeply grateful for the opportunity to stand with fellow Penn professors from 4 departments to read the Declaration of Independence, The Bill of Rights, & select Federalist Papers yesterday to call us back to our founding ideals.

Grateful, too, to the DP for coverage: www.thedp.com/article/2025...

A leading Swiss newspaper uses a single poll showing a tie between the far-right AfD and the CDU as an occasion to speculate about whether the CDU might be better off governing with the AfD than with the SPD.

But the polisky findings are crystal clear—as we lay out in our op-ed #Politkolumne below

Support for the new EU-Swiss deal varies significantly by gender and age. A large share of women (25%) and young voters (35%) remain undecided—making them a key target for both supporters and opponents.

Approval tends to increase with age and income according to the latest @leewas.bsky.social poll

In December 2024, Ursula von der Leyen & the Swiss govt announced a new EU-Swiss deal—but will Swiss voters approve it in a referendum?

An exclusive survey by @leewas.bsky.social offers a first glimpse: 47% would vote YES, 35% NO, 18% still undecided leewas.ch/referenzen/ @lucasleemann.bsky.social

Speak Up. Now. Donald Trump isn’t trying to silence Mahmoud Khalil. He’s trying to silence you.

With another student being arrested for dissent, I am reupping this. The time to stand up is now. Before it is too late.
ryandenos.substack.com/p/speak-up-now