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polisciatnu.bsky.social
In autocratic countries with “extractive” institutions ... directly entering politics offers the superrich more reliable ways to protect their wealth.

Professors Daniel Krcmaric & Stephen C. Nelson via @goodauth.bsky.social goodauthority.org/news/billion... #polisky #NUResearch
Billionaires often jump into politics, our research finds.
The billionaires interested in serving in the new Trump administration may looking to safeguard their own business interests.
goodauthority.org
December 21, 2024 at 7:14 PM
polisciatnu.bsky.social
MUST READ new article from @gustavodiaz.org, @viroliveros.bsky.social, Rebecca Weitz-Shapiro & Matthew S. Winters via @bjpols.bsky.social

Ignoring Women’s Performance: A Survey Experiment on Policy Implementation in Argentina

doi.org/10.1017/S000...

#openaccess #polisky #NUResearch
Diaz, Gustavo, Virginia Oliveros, Rebecca Weitz-Shapiro, and Matthew S. Winters. “Ignoring Women’s Performance: A Survey Experiment on Policy Implementation in Argentina.” British Journal of Political Science 55 (2025): e54. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007123424000668. Abstract How does a politician’s gender shape citizen responses to performance in office? Much of the existing literature suggests that voters hold higher expectations of women politicians and are more likely to punish them for malfeasance. An alternative perspective suggests that voters view men politicians as more agentic and are, therefore, more responsive to their performance, whether good or bad. Using an online survey experiment in Argentina, we randomly assign respondents to information that the distribution of a government food programme in a hypothetical city is biased or unbiased, and we also randomly assign the gender of the mayor. We find that respondents are more responsive to performance information – both positive and negative – about men mayors. We find little evidence that respondents hold different expectations of malfeasance by men versus women politicians. These results contribute to our understanding of how citizens process performance information in a context with few women politicians.
April 4, 2025 at 9:12 PM
polisciatnu.bsky.social
Linking datasets on organizations using half a billion open-collaborated records

Brian Libgober (@blibgober.bsky.social) & Connor T. Jerzak (@jerzakconnor.bsky.social) via PRSM @psrm.bsky.social doi.org/10.1017/psrm... #polisky #NUResearch
Brian Libgober and Connor T. Jerzak. Linking datasets on organizations using half a billion open-collaborated records. Political Science Research and Methods. Published online 2024:1-20. doi:10.1017/psrm.2024.55 Abstract Scholars studying organizations often work with multiple datasets lacking shared identifiers or covariates. In such situations, researchers usually use approximate string (“fuzzy”) matching methods to combine datasets. String matching, although useful, faces fundamental challenges. Even where two strings appear similar to humans, fuzzy matching often struggles because it fails to adapt to the informativeness of the character combinations. In response, a number of machine learning methods have been developed to refine string matching. Yet, the effectiveness of these methods is limited by the size and diversity of training data. This paper introduces data from a prominent employment networking site (LinkedIn) as a massive training corpus to address these limitations. By leveraging information from the LinkedIn corpus regarding organizational name-to-name links, we incorporate trillions of name pair examples into various methods to enhance existing matching benchmarks and performance by explicitly maximizing match probabilities. We also show how relationships between organization names can be modeled using a network representation of the LinkedIn data. In illustrative merging tasks involving lobbying firms, we document improvements when using the LinkedIn corpus in matching calibration and make all data and methods open source.
January 2, 2025 at 6:03 PM
polisciatnu.bsky.social
Forty Acres and a Mule: Symbolic Politics and the Pursuit for Black Reparations in the United States

@mattnelsen.bsky.social, Ph.D. candidate Monique Newton, & @asdurso.bsky.social via @poppublicsphere.bsky.social doi.org/10.1017/S153... #NUResearch #polisky
Forty Acres and a Mule: Symbolic Politics and the Pursuit for Black Reparations in the United States Nelsen, Matthew D., Monique Newton, and Amanda Sahar d’Urso Perspectives on Politics, 2025, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592725000751. Reparations for African Americans reflect both material concerns aimed at eliminating the Black–White racial wealth gap and symbolic political aspirations, including the end of structural racism. But do material or symbolic considerations drive policy evaluations across racial and partisan divides? What knowledge and experiences undergird processes through which individuals weigh the symbolic importance of a policy against its actual benefits? Leveraging a set of forty-one in-depth interviews with Black and White residents of Evanston, Illinois—the first municipality in the United States to approve a publicly-funded reparations-related ordinance—we highlight a mechanism through which individuals develop their opinions about reparations: political socialization. Black interviewees linked their understanding of reparations to robust financial compensation while White Democrats viewed their support for Evanston’s policy as symbolic of their longstanding, affective commitments to racial equality. Drawing from these observations, we present a framework highlighting policy attributes that frame how different constituencies respond to reparations-related policies. We test this framework using a conjoint experiment about reparations policies fielded in the 2022 Cooperative Election Study. We find Americans—especially White Republicans—possess less familiarity about reparations and remain strongly opposed to these policies, regardless of the form they take. While White Democrats are more familiar with reparations and more supportive of policies mirroring Evanston’s, Black Americans—those who are most familiar with reparations—support direct cash payments regardless of their political identification.
July 18, 2025 at 4:59 PM
polisciatnu.bsky.social
FIRST VIEW / MUST READ:

Professor Danielle Gilbert (@danigilbert.bsky.social), "Partners in Crime: Comparative Advantage and Kidnapping Cooperation" via Comparative Political Studies (cpsjournal.bsky.social) doi.org/10.1177/0010... #polisky #NUResearch
Danielle Gilbert (2024). Partners in Crime: Comparative Advantage and Kidnapping Cooperation. Comparative Political Studies, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/00104140241302726 Abstract What explains cooperation between armed groups? Challenging existing literature that assumes armed groups must be similar or not cooperate at all, I argue that explicit differences are key to some cooperation. Comparative advantage explains why rebels and criminals—organizations that typically eschew collaboration—cooperate to produce violence. This article introduces “black market white labeling”—cooperation that emerges when one actor buys an illicit good or service from another and re-brands it as their own. To demonstrate this phenomenon and the conditions under which it occurs, I focus on kidnapping, an underexplored but common form of armed group violence. Drawing on 113 interviews with Colombian kidnappers and hostage recovery personnel from Colombia and the United States, I theorize the conditions under which rebels “outsource” violence to criminal gangs or produce it “in house.” This article explains the organizational dynamics of rebel-criminal cooperation that perpetuate violence against civilians.
December 23, 2024 at 9:10 PM
polisciatnu.bsky.social
Professor Dani Gilbert (@danigilbert.bsky.social) joins ABC News to discuss what a ceasefire and hostage release may look like between Israel and Hamas. #NUResearch

abcnews.go.com/Internationa...
Video Senior Israeli official: Israeli cabinet will meet Friday to ratify ceasefire deal
Dani Gilbert, assistant professor at Northwestern University, discusses what a ceasefire and hostage release may look like between Israel and Hamas.
abcnews.go.com
January 16, 2025 at 6:56 PM
polisciatnu.bsky.social
"I am inspired by the work of other scholars who base their research in meticulous and respectful engagement with the communities and cultures they are studying.”

Ph.D. candidate Matej Jungwirth in the @tgsatnu.bsky.social spotlight #NUResearch www.tgs.northwestern.edu/about/our-pe...
January 7, 2025 at 6:37 PM
polisciatnu.bsky.social
🎵🎶🎵 "What's APD Got to Do with It", new chapter by Professor Daniel J. Galvin in Jenkins, ed, Causal Inference and American Political Development link.springer.com/chapter/10.1... #polisky #NUResearch
What’s APD Got to Do with It?
American political development (APD) is a distinctive field of research that should not be conflated with, or flattened into a caricature of, historical research that uses historical data to make flaw...
link.springer.com
January 8, 2025 at 3:20 PM
polisciatnu.bsky.social
Now in Print!

Elizabeth Good (@tgsatnu.bsky.social Ph.D. & @stanfordcisac.bsky.social Postdoc), "Power Over Presence: Women’s Representation in Comprehensive Peace Negotiations and Gender Provision Outcomes" via @apsrjournal.bsky.social

doi.org/10.1017/S000... #NUResearch
Power Over Presence: Women’s Representation in Comprehensive Peace Negotiations and Gender Provision Outcomes ELIZABETH GOOD Northwestern University, United States American Political Science Review (2025) 119, 3, 1099–1114 doi:10.1017/S000305542400073X The Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) sector assumes increasing the number of women involved in peace negotiations drives better outcomes for local women. However, empirical support for this assumption is inconsistent. This article tests how power alters the relationship between women’s formal (Track 1) involvement in peace negotiations and the inclusion of women-specific provisions in peace agreements. Using an original dataset comprised of 2,299 Track 1 delegates involved in 116 comprehensive peace agreements finalized between 1990 and 2021, I find women’s involvement in peace negotiations is positively correlated to comprehensive agreements containing provisions for women. However, this correlation is dependent on women holding positions of power—simply having women in the room is insufficient. This article offers a novel quantitative approach to WPS studies, provides nuance to theories linking descriptive and substantive representation, and casts doubt on the longstanding assumption that increasing women’s involvement inherently enhances gender equality.
August 14, 2025 at 5:16 PM
polisciatnu.bsky.social
"Conflict relocation and blood diamond policy shifts"

Must read new article by Andrew Saab, Ph.D. candidate, out in the Journal of Peace Research (@jpeaceresearch.bsky.social) doi.org/10.1177/0022... #polisky #NUResearch
Saab, A. (2025). Conflict relocation and blood diamond policy shifts. Journal of Peace Research, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/00223433241295838 Abstract There is substantial evidence that various aspects of violent civil conflict are tied to natural resources, of which diamonds are perhaps the most notorious. While the presence of resources themselves has been given substantial attention, existing works have overlooked a key issue: substitute resources. This article focuses on the geographic distribution of violent conflict relative to natural resource sites as a provider of information on the geostrategic organization and extraction behaviors of insurgents. Using the rise of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, a multilateral regime aimed at regulating the illicit diamond trade, and accounting for the presence of potential substitute resources, empirical evidence indicates that the regulations disrupted and delocalized conflicts away from diamond sites. Moreover, the geography of violent conflict shifted and relocated toward substitute resources such as tin, tungsten, tantalum and gold. These findings suggest that such policy efforts may have adverse unintended consequences on the structure of violent conflict and the expansion of other black markets as a byproduct of regulation-induced changes in extraction incentives.
February 14, 2025 at 2:44 PM
polisciatnu.bsky.social
Hot off the Press & Open Access!!!

Jordan Gans-Morse (tw @J_GansMorse / #NUResearch) and Aaron Erlich (@aaronerlich.bsky.social lich.bsky.social / @mcgill.ca ca), "Can norm-based information campaigns reduce corruption?" via AJPS @ajpseditor.bsky.social #polisky doi.org/10.1111/ajps...
Erlich, Aaron, and Jordan Gans-Morse. 2025. “ Can norm-based information campaigns reduce corruption?” American Journal of Political Science 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12940 Abstract Can norm-based information campaigns reduce corruption? Such campaigns use messaging about how people typically behave (descriptive norms) or ought to behave (injunctive norms). Drawing on survey and lab experiments in Ukraine, we unpack and evaluate the distinct effects of these two types of social norms. Four findings emerge: First, injunctive-norm messaging produces consistent but relatively small and temporary effects. These may serve as moderately effective, low-cost anti-corruption tools but are unlikely to inspire large-scale norm transformations. Second, contrary to recent studies, we find no evidence that either type of norm-based messaging “backfires” by inadvertently encouraging corruption. Third, descriptive-norm messages emphasizing corruption's decline produce relatively large and long-lasting effects—but only among subjects who find messages credible. Fourth, both types of norm-based messaging have a substantially larger effect on younger citizens. These findings have broader implications for messaging campaigns, especially those targeting social problems that, like corruption, require mitigation of collective action dilemmas.
January 9, 2025 at 5:34 PM
polisciatnu.bsky.social
Above politics: The construction of human rights in the negotiation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Nathalia Justo, Journal of Human Rights, 1–16. #NUResearch doi.org/10.1080/1475...
Above politics: The construction of human rights in the negotiation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
This article contributes to the academic debates on the legacies of the negotiation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for human rights and global politics. Shifting the conversation abou...
doi.org
July 31, 2025 at 8:27 PM
polisciatnu.bsky.social
Hot off the press! 🔥

Ph.D. candidate Jacob Fortier (@fortierjacob.bsky.social), "Unraveling the Radical Flank Effect: The Role of Moderate Organizations in the Face of Radical Flank Violence" via Terrorism and Political Violence (@tandfresearch.bsky.social) doi.org/10.1080/0954... #NUResearch
Unraveling the Radical Flank Effect: The Role of Moderate Organizations in the Face of Radical Flank Violence TERRORISM AND POLITICAL VIOLENCE https://doi.org/10.1080/09546553.2025.2486458 Jacob Fortier Department of Political Science, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA ABSTRACT Why do moderate social movement organizations sometimes benefit from or avoid the negative effects of radical flank violence, while in other cases, they suffer strategic setbacks due to such extremism? Scholars have diverged in their conclusions regarding the impact of radical flank actions on more moderate organizations, a phenomenon known as the Radical Flank Effect (RFE). Some argue that radical elements within a movement can inadvertently boost the credibility and support for moderate groups by offering a contrast. Others believe that violence can tarnish the movement’s overall image as extremist, negatively impacting moderates. I propose that these varying conclusions stem partly from a lack of focus on the agency of moderate organizations in managing the extent to which radical factions harm their core interests. Examining the emergence of radical flank violence in the Quebec pro-independence movement during the 1960s and 1970s, this study investigates how and when moderates might enhance their distinction from radical elements and avoid detrimental associations. Relying on in-depth interviews with moderate leaders and archival research, the findings reveal that moderates can achieve this by publicly denouncing violence, avoiding interactions with radicals, and signal to state authorities intent to de-escalate the conflict.
June 1, 2025 at 7:05 PM
polisciatnu.bsky.social
🔥Hot off the press & #OpenAccess !!!

"Diverging Trajectories of Post-Soviet Constitutional Courts" by J.D./Ph.D. candidate & TGS Presidential Fellow Alisher Juzgenbayev (@alisher.bsky.social) & Alexi Trochev (Nazarbayev U) via @constlstudies.bsky.social #NUResearch

doi.org/10.15781/43f...
Diverging Trajectories of Post-Soviet Constitutional Courts Alexei Trochev, Alisher Juzgenbayev Vol. 11 No. 1 (2025): State of the Field https://doi.org/10.15781/43f33f59 ABSTRACT Three decades of constitutional law in the former non-Baltic Soviet republics reveal significant variation. Almost all post-Soviet states—whether autocracies or not—have established constitutional courts with judicial review powers to uphold their constitutions, but these tribunals operate differently: some are relatively invisible, while others are central to heated political disputes. We examine this variation across three areas. First, we consider the roles of constitutional courts in high politics, noting that in autocracies, pressured courts lack the authority to protect outgoing leaders. In freer regimes, courts face attacks from various political factions, leading to rulings based on temporary alliances rather than stable principles, complicating alignment with European democratic standards. Second, we analyze how these courts contribute to nation-building efforts, including decolonization and de-Sovietization. Some shape national identities through language, gender norms, and citizenship, displaying a range of judicial agency from autonomy to compliance with the regime. Finally, we explore how post-Soviet constitutional courts address fundamental rights disputes—encompassing social, criminal, and civil rights—which significantly influence the trajectories of constitutional law. While many tribunals still lack rigorous reasoning and broad public backing, a minority now serve as credible forums for constitutional debate and decision making---incrementally strengthening accountability and the protection of human rights.
July 19, 2025 at 4:16 PM
polisciatnu.bsky.social
How do voters respond to elected officials wielding their powers of office for retributive purposes?

Prof Mary McGrath, Evan Myers & Anna Wander, "Electoral costs of political retaliation: bipartisan rejection of attacks on corporate speech" doi.org/10.1017/bap.... #NUResearch @ipratnu.bsky.social
Electoral costs of political retaliation: bipartisan rejection of attacks on corporate speech Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 May 2025 Evan S. Myers , Anna M. Wander and Mary C. McGrath Abstract Overt political retribution, typically considered outside the bounds of American democracy, has recently risen to the surface of American political discourse. How do voters respond to elected officials wielding their powers of office for retributive purposes? In the current partisan political climate, do voters’ views of retribution depend on whether the official is a member of their party? Politicians in both parties have demonstrated willingness to threaten or pursue retaliation against corporations for using their political voice to publicly express opposition. Due to the American public’s ambivalence about the role of business in politics and the rights of corporations to political speech, the scenario of corporate political speech provides a useful case in which to test for partisan acceptance of the use of political retaliation. In an original and replication experiment, we find strong bipartisan rebuke of an elected official’s employment of “abusive legalism” in response to corporate political criticism. Strikingly, the negative consequences are greatest for an in-party official. The drop in support suffered by the official is equivalent to the effect of partisanship, such that an in-party official using their powers of office to “keep business out of politics” is viewed as unfavorably as a non-responsive out-party official.
June 9, 2025 at 1:57 PM
polisciatnu.bsky.social
Please join us in congratulating College Fellow and Assistant Professor of Political Science Isabella Bellezza (@isabellabellezza.bsky.social) for receiving the Joukowsky Dissertation Prize in the Social Sciences from Brown University! #NUResearch graduateschool.brown.edu/news/2025-05...

👏👏👏🎉🎉🎉
Mapping the Invisible Web: Political Science Scholar on Border Security Research Earns Top Dissertation Honor
Isabella Bellezza-Smull's Groundbreaking Work Reveals How Trust and Professional Networks Shape Global Security Collaboration.
graduateschool.brown.edu
June 2, 2025 at 2:19 PM
polisciatnu.bsky.social
🚨 Must read new article alert! 🚨

Ph.D. candidate Qin Huang (@tgsatnu.bsky.social), "Towards machine-learning enhanced QCA: optimizing coverage and empirical significance" via Quality & Quantity doi.org/10.1007/s111... #NUResearch #polisky
Towards machine-learning enhanced QCA: optimizing coverage and empirical significance - Quality & Quantity
Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) relies on case knowledge and existing theories to select conditions and calibrate sets. However, as the number of cases grows, researchers’ case knowledge tends ...
doi.org
June 4, 2025 at 9:21 PM