Dimiter Toshkov

14 Mar 2025

How do attitudes to 🇪🇺 European integration relate to political ideology and policy preferences? A major update of my study: - I added the latest 2023 ESS data for citizens and 2024 CHES data for parties - I built an app to explore these relationships across datasets, indicators, years & countries

ecpr.eu13th Biennial Conference of the SGEU, Università di Catania, 1 – 3 July 2026European Consortium for Political Research

17 Apr

Last chance to register for the 13th SGEU Biennial Conference in Catania 🇮🇹, 1-3 July 2026. The registration deadline is this Sunday (19 April)! ecpr.eu/Events/341 Join the biggest academic event on EU politics and governance @ecprsgeu.bsky.social

Dimiter Toshkov reposted

Anne Rasmussen

@annerasmussen.bsky.social

15 Apr

Happy to see our @ejprjournal.bsky.social article on political representation on policy issues across European countries cited in this piece in @economist.com Article link: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... With fantastic co-authors: @stefaniereher.bsky.social @dtoshkov.bsky.social

onlinelibrary.wiley.comThe opinion‐policy nexus in Europe and the role of political institutionsA strong link between citizen preferences and public policy is one of the key goals and criteria of democratic governance. Yet, our knowledge about the extent to which public policies on specific iss...

School of Politics and Economics@kcl-spe.bsky.social

Research by Professor Anne Rasmussen on the misalignment of policy and public opinion in the UK features in a new article by @economist.com Read more here 👇 www.economist.com/britain/2026...

economist.comWhy can’t Britain pass an assisted-dying bill?A case study of legislative failure

doi.orgDecomposing the net fiscal position of migrants in Europe - International Tax and Public FinanceIn this study, we examine differences in the net fiscal positions of migrants and native-born individuals across 15 EU countries between 2007 and 2018. To do so, we combine EU-SILC cross-sectional dat...

18 Feb

Intra-EU migration has positive fiscal effects on the net fiscal position, while extra-EU migration has a negative effect when background characteristics are controlled for. This is the main result of a new comparative study of the net fiscal position of migrants in Europe. doi.org/10.1007/s107...

16 Feb

Our article with @honoratam.bsky.social on ✨motivated causal judgements✨ is out in @polpsyispp.bsky.social! When something bad happens, whose actions produced the outcome and who bears responsibility? It depends much more on the identity of the actors than on the details of the situation.

onlinelibrary.wiley.comMotivated causal judgments and responsibility for civilian casualties in military conflictsCausal judgments are ubiquitous in politics and crucial for assigning responsibility and blame. Cognitive science has demonstrated that people are more likely to pick factors as “causal” when they ma...

16 Feb

Loyalty to favoured groups trumps the effects of causal structure in making causal judgments on issues of politics. When identities are not provided, causal structure matters; when they are known, they are almost all that matters. Here is the link to our study onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

16 Feb

We are grateful to @tadegquillien.bsky.social and the @hotpoliticslab.bsky.social group for very useful comments on earlier drafts. The editor and reviewers @polpsyispp.bsky.social were also very helpful in improving this study 🙏.

14 Feb

Is this a joke 🤡? The sweeping claims are based on a sample of 813 self-selected responses on a survey posted on the author's feeds. Respondents *self-declared* to be scientists 😉and were *required* to have a bluesky account. The 'survey' was open for one month (it doesn't say in which year 🤷).

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14 Feb

data is not shared because of 'privacy concerns' .... huh? how difficult is it to delete the column with the twitter handles and share the rest?! And what would be an 'unreaasonble' request to obtain the data?

journals.plos.orgjournals.plos.org

10 Feb

Our study of the impact of policy on excess mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic is out @plosone.org. We find that the policy measures saved lives. They did so by reducing mobility (in addition to people's direct reactions to the pandemic) and other channels. journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

10 Feb

I wish this was a settled question already, but it ain't. Conspiratorial claims that the government reactions to the pandemic were unnecessary abound. Yes, it's really hard to identify the causal impact of policy. But, to the extent that we can do that, it apepars to be significant and positive.

academic.oup.comContested Competences in the European Union: The Law and Politics of Institutional ChoiceAbstract. What role do rules really play in shaping the behaviour of legislative actors? In theory, competences and procedures provide a framework within w

22 Jan

The European Parliament voted yesterday to refer the MERCOSUR deal to the European Court of Justice. The two biggest party groups were quite split: - 28% of the present European Socialists (S&D) voted in favor of this motion; - 24% of the present European People's Party (EPP) MPs voted in favor.

Dimiter Toshkov reposted

Michal Ovádek

@movadek.bsky.social

18 Dec 2025

well, well, well if it isn't the book I started working on in 2017: academic.oup.com/book/61769

reuters.comBulgarian government resigns after weeks of street protestsBulgarian Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov handed in his government's resignation on Thursday following weeks of street protests over its economic policies and its perceived failure to tackle corruptio...

The Bulgarian government resigns in the wake of the mass protests. Now the current parliament will fail to form another government, the president will appoint an interim cabinet and schedule new elections, which - most likely - will lead to another stealmate. www.reuters.com/world/europe...

It is almost 10 years since Hanspeter Kriesi published his seminal article on the politicization of European Integration @jcms-eu.bsky.social. A short thread on how things stand as of 2024, with @chesdata.bsky.social, looking at salience, clarity, and unity of party positions towards the EU 🧵:

View full thread

Next, we look at the measure of internal party dissent with regard to EU positions. Dissent is of course related to the clarity of positions, but the two are not the same. Western European parties with moderate positions on Europe have the highest levels of internal dissent, on average.

Finally, the classic Left-Right vs. pro-anti Europe plot of party positions, to confirm that at the party level the pattern still holds in 2024, with some small but significant variations across regions. You can explore the country-level relationships in the app here: dimiter.shinyapps.io/ches/

First, let's look at salience: A rather pronounced inverted U-curve, with the most Eurosceptic and the most pro-European parties having the highest levels of saliance. Not much difference across Europen regions, but in Western Europe, the dip in saleince for centrist parties is the deepest

Next, blur of positions on European integration: Again, Eurosceptic and pro-European parties have the clearest positions, whille the parties in the middle are the most likely to have blurred or unclear positions on Europe. This is especially true for parties in Eastern and Southern Europe.

cogitatiopress.comPolitical Ideology, Policy Attitudes, and Public Support for European Integration | Article | Politics and GovernanceDimiter Toshkov

10 Dec 2025

My study of 🇪🇺 public opinion is now published! Check it out if you want to know how attitudes towards European integration really covary with political ideology, which policy views predict EU support, and how party positions structure public opinion. www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandg...

Dimiter Toshkov@dtoshkov.bsky.social

Dimiter Toshkov reposted

European Consortium for Political Research

9 Dec 2025

Deadline extended until 14 December (Sunday) ⌛! You can still apply to the ECPR SGEU 2026 conference (1 – 3 July 2026) until the end of thes week! Join us in sunny Sicily, in the air-conditioned rooms of Università di Catania! ecpr.eu/Events/341

Dimiter Toshkov reposted

Randy Besco

@randybesco.bsky.social

4 Dec 2025

New work on on Immigration attitudes, out in @irpp.org with @natashagoel.bsky.social We show dramatical increase in anti-immigration opinion in Canada over the past couple of years. Its very different than previous shifts like in 1990s...

IRPP@irpp.org

In 2015, only 16% strongly agreed Canada had too much immigration. By 2024, that number doubled to 33%. This IRPP paper by @randybesco.bsky.social and @natashagoel.bsky.social reveals a striking reversal in Canadians’ views on immigration: centre.irpp.org/research-stu...

Dimiter Toshkov reposted

@ecpr.bsky.social

1 Dec 2025

🚨 Today in #ECPRSeminars on the EU from 15:00 @ecprsgeu.bsky.social Our speakers argue that climate disasters can push voters 🗳️ away from mainstream parties, shaped by local economic conditions 🎙️@lisadellmuth.bsky.social @evemariejon.bsky.social @tntounias.bsky.social @cjschneider.bsky.social

buff.lyTODAY: Register FREEStanding Group on European Union (SGEU) Seminar Series

parlgov.orgRetiring from ParlGov - ParlGov project

24 Nov 2025

It's quite absurd that there is no funding to keep ParlGov updated: this is essential data infrastructure for political science! No funder is interested in keeping the data backbone of comparative politics alive, while millions get spent on all kinds of BS. Ridiculous!

Thomas M. Meyer@thomasmmeyer.bsky.social

Just learned that Holger Döring retired from ParlGov in October. If I'm not misreading his message, then this great resource will not be updated anymore 🖤 parlgov.org/2024/10/01/r...

Dimiter Toshkov reposted

ecpr.eu13th Biennial Conference of the SGEU, Università di Catania, 1 – 3 July 2026European Consortium for Political Research

21 Nov 2025

The deadline (10 December) for the call for papers and panels for the 13th biennial SGEU conference (1-3 July 2026, Università di Catania) is approaching fast! Submit your panels and papers to one of 18 sections via the @ecpr.bsky.social webpage: ecpr.eu/Events/341.

19 Nov 2025

🤩 Party positions in the 2024 European Parliament 🇪🇺! I merged the CHES expert survey with EP composition data to visualize the political space of the current EP. The graphs make the center of gravity in the EP quite clear, on multiple dimensions and policy issues. dimiter.shinyapps.io/ches/

doi.orgBeyond innumeracy: measuring public misperceptions about immigration | Political Science Research and Methods | Cambridge CoreBeyond innumeracy: measuring public misperceptions about immigration

19 Nov 2025

For example, here are the positions on deregulation and the environment, relevant for the vote on the Omnibus Simplification directive last week. It is no mystery why the EPP voted with the ECR, PfN and ESN: their positions are much closer and allow the EPP to achieve its policy objectives.

Dimiter Toshkov reposted

Philipp Lutz

@lutzphilipp.bsky.social

17 Nov 2025

Our study on public immigration misperceptions is out! Prior research overstated their prevalence due to flawed measurement. Our new approach separates real misperceptions from uninformed guessing — showing they’re less common than widely assumed and ideologically motivated. doi.org/10.1017/psrm...

5 Nov 2025

Reviewer 2: You have no definition of 'sanctions'. Also, I don't like your definition of 'sanctions'. 😂😡🥹

5 Nov 2025

It is truly disappointing how small-minded some political scientists can be 😮‍💨. For a recent study on enforcement in the EU, we dug deep into the general literature on enforcement, which spans evolutionary psychology, anthropology, economic behavior, etc. Here is what Reviewer 2 has to say:

5 Nov 2025

So findings from general studies of human behavior are invalid because people don't know much about international organizations 🤷‍♂️ ... One of the joys of doing social science for me is reading and learning from different fields. But too often reviewers encourage the exact opposite. Why?

4 Nov 2025

This is some very thorough empirical work on judicial bias in Germany 👏

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3 Nov 2025

For my course on Conflict and Representation in the EU, I made an interactive Shiny app that plots CHES party positions, for all countries, years (1999-2024) and (most) dimensions in the dataset. Enjoy! dimiter.shinyapps.io/ches/ #polsci #Polisky #EUsky #Comparativesky #polbehaviorsky

4 Nov 2025

by the way, from the app, you can download the integrated Chapel Hill Expert Survey dataset on party positions (1999-2024) with proper country codes and variable names that reference the polarity of the party positions 🤓.

Dimiter Toshkov reposted

3 Nov 2025

Planning a panel related to the EU 🇪🇺 or European integration for the next @ecpr.bsky.social General Conference (8-11 September 2026 in Krakow 🇵🇱)? The section proposal on the EU is prepared by Adam Holesch (IBEI) and @nathaliebrack.bsky.social. Get in touch with them before 7 November to co-ordinate!

30 Oct 2025

Pedantic point, but the reported increases/decreases are not in % (percentages), as suggested by this @nieuws.nos.nl table, but in percentage *points*. NSC lost 97% of its vote share, not 12.5%.

30 Oct 2025

Affective polarization (negative/positive feelings towards voters of different parties), for prospective voters of D66 and CDA, as of june 2025. Dots show the averages per groups of party voters. DD6 voters were much more negative towards JA21 than CDA voters were negative towards GL-PvdA voters.

30 Oct 2025

Same graph for prospective voters of VVD (in blue) and GL-PvdA (red). VVD supporters are quite negative of GL-PvdA voters already, shortly after the fall of the cabinet. Feelings seem to be mutual, with GL-PvdA supporters quite negative towards VVD voters as well.

28 Oct 2025

Call me old-fashioned, but I find such open endorsement of political figures by university professors on professional social networks inappropriate. It is actions like this one that erode the credibility of social scientists as independent experts.

28 Oct 2025

I find it quite remarkable that in the past 8 years, the Netherlands has had no regular government for 2.5 years, or 30% of the time. For two-and-a-half years the country has been governed by 'demissionary' cabinets with a very limited mandate (prepare elections and take care of ongoing business).

trouw.nlOpinie: De steun voor democratie hangt af van haar resultatenHet is niet zo gek dat burgers aandringen op een systeem van ‘de meerderheid beslist alles’, schrijven Lars Brummel en Dimiter Toshkov.

28 Oct 2025

The period without a proper government will only be extended after the elections this week, until a new governing coaltion is formed. Last time this took more than seven months, to form a cabinet that lasted 11 months 🤷.

Dimiter Toshkov reposted

Lars Brummel

@larsbrummel.bsky.social

20 Oct 2025

Vandaag in Trouw: Veel kiezers steunen de democratie, maar niet iedereen verstaat hetzelfde onder "democratie". Waarom wil een grote groep kiezers een onbegrensde meerderheidsdemocratie? Lees mijn bijdrage (samen met @dtoshkov.bsky.social) hier: www.trouw.nl/opinie/opini...

Dimiter Toshkov reposted

Lars Brummel

@larsbrummel.bsky.social

16 Sept 2025

💡New publication in Governance @govjournal.bsky.social! Read our article, together w/ @dtoshkov.bsky.social and Brendan Carroll, on the perceived legitimacy of region-specific crisis interventions in Germany and the Netherlands, here ➡️ doi.org/10.1111/gove... Short summary of our main findings ⬇️

Dimiter Toshkov reposted

ecpr.euNew call for the SGEU FUTURE GrantsEuropean Consortium for Political Research

16 July 2025

🚨 New call for the SGEU FUTURE Grants! 🚨 Are you a PhD student doing research on 🇪🇺 European integration? Do you need financial support for your fieldwork? If yes, apply to the new edition of the SGEU Future Grants. Deadline is 30 September 2025. Details here: ecpr.eu/news/news/de...

Dimiter Toshkov reposted

Public Opinion Quarterly - POQ

@poqjournal.bsky.social

15 July 2025

Why do people support policies that go against their interests? Miroslav Nemčok and coauthors show that voters shift their views to match their party, even when that means supporting painful welfare cuts. Out now in POQ: doi.org/10.1093/poq/... @miroslavnemcok.bsky.social @hannawass.bsky.social

27 June 2025

There is a very strong support among people in Holland for an active role of the Dutch government in international cooperation and defence. There are also big, cross-partisan majorities in favor of increasing the defence budget and continuing sending weapons to Ukraine. shorturl.at/svcZp

werkenbij.uva.nlVacancy — 2 Assistant Professors: International Relations (option a) and EU Politics and Governance (option bThe Department of Political Science at the University of Amsterdam invites applications for two tenure-track Assistant Professor (Universitair Docent) positions in Political Science with a specializat...

27 June 2025

The reintroduction of compulsory military service is more contentious, as well as military exercises in protected nature areas. These are the first results from our new survey of the population of South Holland, with @larsbrummel.bsky.social Stay tuned for more insights on policy polarization in NL.

Dimiter Toshkov reposted

Tom van der Meer

@tomwgvdmeer.bsky.social

23 May 2025

Two vacancies for assistant professor (tenure track) at our Department of Political Science. One on International Relations, the other on EU Politics and Governance. I may be biased, but would 100% recommend applying. We are a warm, collegial, ambitious department. werkenbij.uva.nl/en/vacancies...