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rdassonneville.bsky.social
Ruth Dassonneville
@rdassonneville.bsky.social
4.7K followers 1.5K following 330 posts

Prof at KU Leuven
CRC in Electoral Democracy at Université de Montréal
https://ruthdassonneville.netlify.app/

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Political science 67%
Economics 10%
Posts Replies Media Videos

Reposted by Ben H. Ansell, Will Jennings, Ruth Dassonneville , and 3 more

jamesbreckwoldt.bsky.social
James Breckwoldt @jamesbreckwoldt.bsky.social · 7d
I use @electionstudies.bsky.social data from 1972 to model how characters in The Simpsons would have voted in presidential elections

It turns out to be very revealing about how the demographic coalitions of the Democratic and Republican parties have completely rearranged themselves...
How The Simpsons Explain America's Political Realignment
How the Democrats lost Homer Simpson but gained Mr Burns
jamesbreckwoldt.substack.com

rdassonneville.bsky.social
Ruth Dassonneville @rdassonneville.bsky.social · 7d
Last Friday, @jochemvanagt.bsky.social brilliantly defended his PhD dissertation on affective polarization in multiparty systems.

Check out Jochem's thread for a summary of his main findings and access to the full (fantastic!) dissertation 👇
jochemvanagt.bsky.social Jochem Vanagt @jochemvanagt.bsky.social · 7d
PhD successfully defended!

"Beyond the Two-Party Divide" examines how affective polarization works in Europe, and when it matters for democracy.

Short answer: Europe's multiparty systems have particularly good "safeguards" to prevent polarization from spiraling out of control like in the U.S.

Reposted by Ruth Dassonneville

jochemvanagt.bsky.social
Jochem Vanagt @jochemvanagt.bsky.social · 7d
PhD successfully defended!

"Beyond the Two-Party Divide" examines how affective polarization works in Europe, and when it matters for democracy.

Short answer: Europe's multiparty systems have particularly good "safeguards" to prevent polarization from spiraling out of control like in the U.S.

Reposted by Stefan Müller

rdassonneville.bsky.social
Ruth Dassonneville @rdassonneville.bsky.social · 11d
Super excited to be participating in this Una Europa project on "Democracy and AI" ! And looking forward to co-leading the Leuven team with @bzar.bsky.social !
stefanmueller.bsky.social Stefan Müller @stefanmueller.bsky.social · 11d
Delighted that our project “Democracy and AI” has been selected for Una Europa Seed Funding.

Our project establishes a network of 25 researchers from six Una Europa institutions: University of Zurich, KU Leuven, University of Edinburgh, FU Berlin, Leiden, UCD.

➡️ www.una-europa.eu/stories/10-n...
10 new projects receive Una Europa Seed Funding to shape Europe’s future | Una Europa
Eleven European research universities have come together to create a unique alliance – Una Europa. Our universities have been educating Europe for almost 1,000 years. Together, we teach more than 400,...
www.una-europa.eu

Reposted by Fabrizio Gilardi, Ruth Dassonneville, Tom Louwerse

stefanmueller.bsky.social
Stefan Müller @stefanmueller.bsky.social · 11d
Delighted that our project “Democracy and AI” has been selected for Una Europa Seed Funding.

Our project establishes a network of 25 researchers from six Una Europa institutions: University of Zurich, KU Leuven, University of Edinburgh, FU Berlin, Leiden, UCD.

➡️ www.una-europa.eu/stories/10-n...
10 new projects receive Una Europa Seed Funding to shape Europe’s future | Una Europa
Eleven European research universities have come together to create a unique alliance – Una Europa. Our universities have been educating Europe for almost 1,000 years. Together, we teach more than 400,...
www.una-europa.eu

Reposted by Ruth Dassonneville, Ben Barr, Jonathan Hopkin , and 3 more

evehubscher.bsky.social
Evelyne Hübscher @evehubscher.bsky.social · 11d
Very happy that our review article (with the @annualreviews.bsky.social) on „Austerity and Populism“ is now available as preprint: www.annualreviews.org/content/jour... - with @sattlersthomas.bsky.social
Austerity and Populism
A large literature explains the rise of populist parties with the economic insecurities stemming from globalization and technological change. But despite the long-standing focus of the comparative and...
www.annualreviews.org

Reposted by Ruth Dassonneville, Robert Huber

ejprjournal.bsky.social
European Journal of Political Research @ejprjournal.bsky.social · 12d
🛐 How is #Secularisation changing the way we vote?

@melff.bsky.social @rdassonneville.bsky.social & Kamil Marcinkiewicz examine patterns in Western Europe to find how the relationship between religion and vote choice have changed over time. 🗳️
After secularisation? A comparative analysis of religious cleavages in Western Europe | European Journal of Political Research | Cambridge Core
After secularisation? A comparative analysis of religious cleavages in Western Europe
buff.ly

rdassonneville.bsky.social
Ruth Dassonneville @rdassonneville.bsky.social · 12d
‼️ The Consortium of National Election Studies (@nesconsortium.bsky.social) is such a valuable and important initiative!

Follow their account to stay updated on the excellent work CNES is doing in terms of information sharing about election studies, data harmonization, and the CNES knowledge bank!!
nesconsortium.bsky.social Consortium of National Election Studies @nesconsortium.bsky.social · 12d
What a great way to kick off 2026 for our Consortium 🛫 Yesterday's Scientific Advisory Board meeting gave us exciting new ideas on how to develop our community 💡Thanks to the Board: Henrik Ekengren Oscarsson @sarahobolt.bsky.social @rdassonneville.bsky.social Eva Anduiza Dave Howell and Orit Kedar 👏

Reposted by Ruth Dassonneville

nesconsortium.bsky.social
Consortium of National Election Studies @nesconsortium.bsky.social · 12d
What a great way to kick off 2026 for our Consortium 🛫 Yesterday's Scientific Advisory Board meeting gave us exciting new ideas on how to develop our community 💡Thanks to the Board: Henrik Ekengren Oscarsson @sarahobolt.bsky.social @rdassonneville.bsky.social Eva Anduiza Dave Howell and Orit Kedar 👏

Reposted by Ruth Dassonneville

alexanderhorn.bsky.social
Alexander Horn @alexanderhorn.bsky.social · 15d
Happy to share this new paper @jeppjournal.bsky.social with my great colleagues @dweisstanner.bsky.social & Carsten Jensen.

In "Winning with equality", we show "how left-wing parties attract votes but [in doing so] amplify electoral cleavages"

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Key points in 📈👇

Reposted by Steve Peers, Ruth Dassonneville, Federica Genovese , and 3 more

valentimvicente.bsky.social
Vicente Valentim @valentimvicente.bsky.social · 16d
Portugal is having a presidential election tomorrow (Sunday).

It is a fairly unusual one, which is representative of how much the political landscape has changed in the country.

Here is some quick context about it, in case that is of interest:

1/9

Reposted by Ruth Dassonneville

eborbath.bsky.social
Endre Borbáth @eborbath.bsky.social · 17d
🚨New publication on cleavages in party competition in Central and Eastern Europe 🚨

CEE party systems are famously volatile, but does that mean that they are unstructured?
❓I ask whether competition has become programmatically organized around enduring cleavages

🔗 doi.org/10.1177/1354...

Thread 👇

rdassonneville.bsky.social
Ruth Dassonneville @rdassonneville.bsky.social · 18d
This paper was a *long* time in the making. We started working on the project in 2020 (!), had a first draft in 2021, and got distracted by other projects way too often. So very happy the paper came together and found a home at the EJPR!

rdassonneville.bsky.social
Ruth Dassonneville @rdassonneville.bsky.social · 18d
3️⃣ Furthermore, Catholics and Protestants, who were quite similar in their voting behaviour at the beginning of the time frame of our analysis, diverge from one another over time, with the Protestants becoming more conservative.

rdassonneville.bsky.social
Ruth Dassonneville @rdassonneville.bsky.social · 18d
2️⃣ We also find that the voting behaviour of members from non-Christian religious groups is more similar to that of non-religious voters than it is to that of Christian voters.

rdassonneville.bsky.social
Ruth Dassonneville @rdassonneville.bsky.social · 18d
Some key findings:
1️⃣ The results indicate that voting differences between religious Christian and non-religious citizens in Western Europe are not declining, they even increase!

rdassonneville.bsky.social
Ruth Dassonneville @rdassonneville.bsky.social · 18d
We theorize how secularization should affect the connection between religious denomination as well as religious practice and voting, and test our expectations using @ess-survey.bsky.social and @chesdata.bsky.social data.

Reposted by Jens Rydgren

rdassonneville.bsky.social
Ruth Dassonneville @rdassonneville.bsky.social · 18d
Glad to see our paper on religious cleavages in Western Europe (with @melff.bsky.social & Kamil Marcinkiewicz) out at the @ejprjournal.bsky.social ! 



cup.org/4qhTx3j

Reposted by Joanna Bryson, Ruth Dassonneville, Stefanie Walter

rsenninger.bsky.social
Roman Senninger @rsenninger.bsky.social · 18d
We’re organizing a workshop at Aarhus University. Please share and consider submitting!

🗓️ 13–14 April 2026 | 📝 Deadline: Mon, 16 Feb 2026 (extended abstract) — junior scholars prioritized

🎤 Keynotes: @stefwalter.bsky.social (Univ. of Zurich) & @hhuang.bsky.social (Ohio State)

rdassonneville.bsky.social
Ruth Dassonneville @rdassonneville.bsky.social · 19d
Great to see the result of this collaboration with Justin (all credits to him!), that started when he visited the CRC in Electoral Democracy @sciencepo-udem.bsky.social, published in Electoral Studies!

rdassonneville.bsky.social
Ruth Dassonneville @rdassonneville.bsky.social · 19d
Like previous work that has leveraged proximity to elections, we find that when partisan identities are more salient, AP increases. Importantly, we show there is within-country variation in this salience – that has to be examined to understand the sources of AP.

rdassonneville.bsky.social
Ruth Dassonneville @rdassonneville.bsky.social · 19d
However, we find that out-party spending is unrelated to affective polarization. Finally, the results indicate that the closer the contest, the more a voter grows to dislike the party that offers the largest competition in their local race.

rdassonneville.bsky.social
Ruth Dassonneville @rdassonneville.bsky.social · 19d
We use @britishelectionstudy.com data for the 2015, 2017 and 2019 elections to test our expectations. The results indicate that when a party exerts more effort (via campaign spending) in a local campaign, its supporters grow more affectively polarized.

rdassonneville.bsky.social
Ruth Dassonneville @rdassonneville.bsky.social · 19d
These differences, we argue, are due to variation in campaign intensity between constituencies. Where parties spend more and elections are more closely-fought, partisan identity priming, the omnipresence of party cues, and heightened out-group threat should lead to more affective polarization.

Reposted by Jens Rydgren

rdassonneville.bsky.social
Ruth Dassonneville @rdassonneville.bsky.social · 19d
New paper with Justin Robinson @nuffieldcollege.bsky.social out at @electoralstudies.bsky.social! Our starting point is the observation that there is much variation in affective polarization across the UK.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Conflict on the campaign trail? How campaign effort and electoral competitiveness shape affective polarization
Concerns about the consequences of affective polarization for governing and democracy have resulted in a strong surge of publications on the topic. Th…
www.sciencedirect.com

Reposted by Ruth Dassonneville

ollefolke.bsky.social
Olle Folke @ollefolke.bsky.social · 20d
📣Help needed! We are trying to reach people outside Europe with our short survey on research graphs! Could you share the link with someone? Take the survey yourself? Thanks in advance!! 🙏🌷🙏 (Europeans still welcome, of course!) supsy.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...
Qualtrics Survey | Qualtrics Experience Management
The most powerful, simple and trusted way to gather experience data. Start your journey to experience management and try a free account today.
supsy.eu.qualtrics.com

rdassonneville.bsky.social
Ruth Dassonneville @rdassonneville.bsky.social · 20d
Had a great time presenting work with Richard Nadeau at the CPPE colloquium in Konstanz. Thanks @na-wehl.bsky.social et al for the invite and super helpful suggestions!

Sunrise over the lake in the morning was a nice bonus!

@excinequality.bsky.social | @vd-researchgroup.bsky.social

Reposted by Ruth Dassonneville, Ferdi De Ville

sampolmaandblad.bsky.social
Samenleving & Politiek @sampolmaandblad.bsky.social · 22d
Op woensdag 14 januari verschijnt SamPol New Style, ons totaal vernieuwd magazine.
💳 www.sampol.be/abonneer

Reposted by Will Jennings, Ruth Dassonneville, Carl Henrik Knutsen , and 7 more

peterla.bsky.social
Peter Egge Langsæther @peterla.bsky.social · 26d
Very happy to see this out in CPS! We study class identities and their social and political relevance over several decades in Britain, Denmark, Norway, and the US. A small thread:

journals.sagepub.com/eprint/SIRW4...

rdassonneville.bsky.social
Ruth Dassonneville @rdassonneville.bsky.social · 26d
🤷‍♀️ More work is needed, though, to determine which factors and dynamics have triggered this activation of the rural-urban identities in US politics.