Bruno Castanho Silva, Fabian G. Neuner, and Christopher Wratil As populists celebrate electoral successes across the globe, researchers have been debating what causes people to vote for these populist parties and candidates. One line of argumentation places heavy emphasis on the role of the public’s populist attitudes. According to this view, citizens with a populist … Read more
Aaron Erlich, Thomas Soehl, and Annie Y. Chen Restrictions on immigration are nearly universal in two ways. First, they are universal because every country restricts immigration. Second, most countries try to appear as universal as possible — in the sense of not openly discriminating against migrants from some countries, religions, or ethnic groups while preferring … Read more
SangEun Kim and Kristin Michelitch Do politicians tend to be more responsive to their own social groups, such as their own gender or ethnic group? In particular, when politicians from historically-marginalized groups attain elected office, do they tend to be more responsive to their fellow group members? Many experimental studies in Global North countries find … Read more
Frederik Godt Hansen Every day, government institutions and bureaucrats handle citizens’ applications for services such as welfare benefits or healthcare. When bureaucrats reject or approve applications, it has significant implications for individual citizens’ welfare. Even though a rejection is legitimate and correct, citizens may not accept and trust a negative decision because their interests are … Read more
Love Christensen An important way for political actors to shape public opinion is by influencing voters’ beliefs about policy outcomes. For example, in debates on trade reforms, U.S. politicians have frequently made predictive appeals about the effects of free trade on, for instance, manufacturing employment. But political actors face a trade-off when they try to … Read more
Xianwen Chen and Øivind Schøyen People participating in revolutions, elections, and civil society often exert a great deal of effort to align the world with their sense of fairness. However, the preferences of the people affected by these political activities often vary and prescribe mutually excluding policies. How does people’s motivation to impose their fairness … Read more
Sarah Croco, Jared McDonald, and Candace Turitto How do executives avoid catching heat when their administration is caught in a lie? Can they deflect blame by using a subordinate as a public shield? In this article we investigate how the public reacts when a subordinate member of an administration is made the “face of … Read more
Ryan Jablonski, Mark T. Buntaine, Daniel L. Nielson, and Paula M. Pickering We used SMS messages about public services to help Ugandans make informed voting decisions, but find no effect on voting. Here is why information alone is sometimes insufficient to affect political behavior. Like in many countries, citizens’ ability to access quality services from … Read more
Naima Green-Riley, Dominka Kruszewska-Eduardo, and Ze Fu More and more in the current age, protesters in cities around the world are making international headlines. For international relations scholars, this raises an interesting question: how do foreign audiences react to footage of protests overseas? Do certain types of videos garner greater support for foreign policy actions … Read more
Taylor N. Carlson and Seth J. Hill In a June 23, 2016 referendum, citizens of the United Kingdom voted 52 percent to 48 percent to leave the European Union. The result surprised pundits and journalists who, supported by contemporaneous opinion surveys, had been confident that remain would win. The result surprised many voters, too. Anecdotes … Read more