Dominik Schraff

My recent paper on the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on political trust has now been accepted at the European Journal of Political Research. I argue that anxiety in the face of rising Covid-19 has pushed standard cognitive evaluations of the political regime to the background, leading to a rally around the flag effect. Using Dutch survey data from March/April 2020, I show that rising trust is explained by increasing Covid-19 incidents. The specific lockdown measures, in contrast, have had no direct causal effect on political trust. These findings raise interesting questions for future research on the role of emotions for political trust formation in a crisis. The pre-print is available here.

My recent paper with Frank Schimmelfennig investigates the effects of opt-out votes in single EU member states on perceptions of EU regime legitimacy. We find that differentiated integration has the potential to accommodate heterogeneous preferences on EU integration, narrowing the gap in legitimacy perceptions between Eurosceptic and Europhile voters.

I am grateful that my recent article in the Swiss Political Science Review receives the 2020 Fritz Thyssen prize for the best article published in the social sciences of the German-speaking world. Some research publishes more easily, most is difficult to publish, and some gets not published at all. This piece was one of the more difficult ones. So I am even more pleased to see it winning a price. Thanks to SPSR for nominating my contribution!

I have written a short paper on the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on institutional trust. You can download the draft here: Political trust during Covid Preprint.

In a recent project, Frank Schimmelfennig and I have analyzed the effect of differentiated integration on citizens’ perceptions of democratic legitimacy in the EU. A summary is now available on the EUROPP blog.

My recent work with Frank Schimmelfennig on the citizen-level consequences of differentiated integration has been published in the working paper series at the European University Institute.

My recent paper on income inequality and European regime evaluations has been accepted at the Journal of Common Market Studies. I argue that income inequality is an influential antecedent cause of regime evaluations in Europe’s multi-level governance system. While rising inequality depresses citizens’ evaluations of national regimes, European regime support benefits. You can also find a preprint on my researchgate site. Replication material is coming soon.

I have received a SNSF Ambizione Grant for my project “Regional inequality and the political geography of EU support”. The grant will allow me to research this topic over the next four years, providing generous funding and the possibility to employ a PhD student.

The economist has printed my recent comment on their piece “the satisfaction paradox“.

My recent work with Jana Lipps on estimation strategies for regional public opinions across Europe as been accepted at Political Science Research & Methods. A pre-print and replication material are coming soon.