Paper on Covid-19 and political trust accepted at EJPR

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.

Fritz Thyssen Prize for best article in the social sciences

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!

Paper on inequality and EU regime support accepted at JCMS

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.