Political Science Research and Methods

👩‍⚖️ Do larger polities hinder women’s representation? ➡️ M. Frödin Gruneau, J. Teorell & K. Vernby find that municipal amalgamations slow gains in women’s representation as populations outgrow council sizes. Adding seats mitigates—but does not erase—the effect doi.org/10.1017/psrm...

🇸🇳 Can informal workers be mobilized away from clientelism and toward programmatic politics? ➡️ Bhandari, Borba & Gottlieb find that priming workers' coordination capacity weakens clientelism, leading to political disengagement, not programmatic support doi.org/10.1017/psrm...

🚙Can everyday encounters with foreign brands shape political attitudes? ➡️ @gonzalezrostani.bsky.social & @judechays.bsky.social find that exposure to foreign car brands raises opposition to trade and immigration and support for Trump among nationalists, but not cosmopolitans doi.org/10.1017/psrm...

🏘️ Does racial bias shape opposition to new housing construction? ➡️ @cnbecker14.bsky.social finds that factorial experiments show little evidence of racial bias, while a list experiment reveals concerns about racial change among a meaningful share of respondents doi.org/10.1017/psrm...

🗣️ Can government-led citizens' assemblies strengthen democratic attitudes? ➡️ @mcduarte.bsky.social, @jmfernandes86.bsky.social & @miguelpereira.bsky.social use random selection to Lisbon's citizens' assemblies and find participation increases knowledge, efficacy and trust doi.org/10.1017/psrm...

⛪️ Does a politician's religiosity influence their policymaking? ➡️ Luca Vitale finds that narrowly elected religious Catholic mayors in Italy increase debt repayment, showing how religious values can shape politicians' fiscal decisions doi.org/10.1017/psrm...

🧩 Masking or lexicographic preferences? The same choice patterns can reflect very different processes. ➡️ @scandersen.bsky.social & @mortenhjortskov.bsky.social show how conjoint experiments can distinguish between these two explanations of political choice doi.org/10.1017/psrm...

📈 Does the intensity of citizens' policy preferences matter for political representation? ➡️ Zachary Peskowitz & Eddy S.F. Yeung find that preference intensity does not reliably predict policy outcomes across US states, even when measured in multiple ways doi.org/10.1017/psrm...

🤖 Can transformer-based language models deliver accurate text classification at a low cost? ➡️ Cecilia Y. Sui shows how pretrain-finetune models can classify political text with modest labeled data and computing resources, using toxicity in US Senators' X conversation threads doi.org/10.1017/psrm...

⚔️ Do wars follow predictable patterns, or are they inherently unpredictable? ➡️ T. Schincariol & @thomaschadefaux.bsky.social use entropy-based analysis to show that conflict fatalities exhibit high levels of randomness, making their dynamics particularly difficult to predict doi.org/10.1017/psrm...

🇪🇺When does the European Parliament use vague language in EU policy negotiations? ➡️ A. Khokhlova, N. Yordanova & A. Ershova find that the EP adopts concrete positions in inter-institutional conflict, but uses vagueness when public opinion is divided and issues are contentious doi.org/10.1017/psrm...

👵 Do pension expansions mobilise older voters? ➡️ M. Ganslmeier, M. Klymak & T. Vlandas find that a 36% pension increase in Illinois had no effect on turnout—even among low-income retirees—challenging expectations that material gains increase political participation doi.org/10.1017/psrm...

📰How should researchers debrief participants after exposing them to misinformation? ➡️ @emmahoes.bsky.social & @sachaltay.bsky.social show that specific debriefings with fact-checks reduce belief in false claims, while general warnings may increase skepticism toward true news doi.org/10.1017/psrm...

🧪 Can measuring racial attitudes before a survey experiment bias its results? ➡️ @leahchristiani.bsky.social, Nathan Kelly & @janamorgan.bsky.social find little evidence of treatment bias overall, but show that stereotype endorsement measures are an important exception doi.org/10.1017/psrm...

🗳️ How does far-right terrorism affect support for the far right? ➡️ Studying anti-Roma attacks in Hungary, Simonovits et al. find that Jobbik gained 11-14 percentage points more support in attacked villages, with effects persisting and spreading to nearby areas doi.org/10.1017/psrm...

🏛️ How does patronage shape communication within government bureaucracies? ➡️ Employing rare new data from China, Haemin Jee & @kaipingchen.bsky.social find that patronage ties increase upward information flows, but not public-facing performance and responsiveness in practice doi.org/10.1017/psrm...

🏛️ Do caretaker governments really stop making policy? ➡️ Using original data on government bills from 238 cabinets in Western Europe, Mingyi Zhang shows that caretaker governments remain active policymakers during government transitions, challenging long-standing assumptions doi.org/10.1017/psrm...

🌍 Why do people support the democratic peace? ➡️ In this new article, @juhokim.bsky.social revisits a recent embedding analysis and finds that it is associated with racial and ethnocentric motivations, and offers guidance for embedding analysis in political science doi.org/10.1017/psrm...

📈 How do people update their perceptions of the economy? ➡️ Derek A. Epp and Christopher Wlezien show that people interpret the same economic changes differently depending on their prior perceptions, suggesting that public opinion is shaped by benchmarking www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

🤝 Do parties reward allies or recruit rivals for cabinet? ➡️ Alexander Herzog and David Schmuck show that rather than favoring moderates, parties prefer loyal MPs: strong government defenders and fierce opposition critics are more likely to become ministers www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

🌐What shapes high-end cooperation among militant groups? ➡️Using network data on 53 groups in Northeast India, @ilaydaonder.bsky.social shows that cooperation is more likely between groups with complementary capabilities and distinct constituencies. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

🚨Can courts and the media stop democratic backsliding when citizens don't trust them? ➡️@bobbygulotty.bsky.social & @luozhaotian.bsky.social model oversight of subversion, show that when the oversight body is contested, a "fake news effect" undermines it & enables backsliding. doi.org/10.1017/psrm...

A new chapter for PSRM’s social media! We’d like to thank @tonirodon.bsky.social for his outstanding work as Social Media Editor over the past years. As of today, @irenerodriguez.bsky.social will be taking over. We look forward to continuing to share the latest research published in PSRM with you📚✨

🗳️ How much does electability matter to voters? ➡️ Using survey experiments, @mayyakomis.bsky.social & A. Albarello show voters remain driven mainly by policy preferences and often view electability as a signal of candidate quality www.cambridge.org/core/journal... #FirstView

🏆 Congratulations to Elisha Cohen @elishacohen.bsky.social (University of Illinois), recipient of the 2025 PSRM Reviewer of the Year Award. The award recognises outstanding service and dedication to maintaining the quality and rigour of research published in PSRM. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

🌍 What drives conflict risk within fragile states? ➡️ Studying Nigeria, J.J. Villar-Roldán, A. Galiano & J.M. Martín-Álvarez show wealth lowers conflict risk, while resources and energy infrastructure fuel violence www.cambridge.org/core/journal... #FirstView

🗳️ Do multiple vote ballots increase women’s representation? ➡️ Using a survey experiment, @yoshiono.bsky.social H. Miwa & Y. Kasuya show multiple vote ballots encourage more gender balanced voting, though men retain an overall advantage www.cambridge.org/core/journal... #FirstView

🎲 Do political lotteries change how legislators vote? ➡️ Studying 19th century Belgium, @bvancoppenolle.bsky.social J. De Rongé & S. Riegger show random committee assignments affected legislators’ likelihood of rebelling against party majorities www.cambridge.org/core/journal... #FirstView

⚖️ Does electoral uncertainty make governments short sighted? ➡️ Using Swedish local data, @axelcronert.bsky.social & Pär Nyman show electoral competition moderates tax policy, but find little evidence of policy myopia www.cambridge.org/core/journal... #FirstView

🏛️ Does women's representation shape perceived fairness of decisions? ➡️ @reidingerve.bsky.social @lucasleemann.bsky.social & @jbslapin.bsky.social show effects vary by policy type, sometimes reducing fairness perceptions when women are overrepresented www.cambridge.org/core/journal... #FirstView

⚖️ Do major campaign scandals change voters’ minds? ➡️ @maclockhart.bsky.social G. Huber, A. Gerber, J. Walker II show Donald Trump’s felony conviction had virtually no effect on his supporters, while common survey methods produce conflicting estimates www.cambridge.org/core/journal... #FirstView

🤖Can open source machine translation match commercial tools? ➡️ @haukelicht.bsky.social @ronjasczepanski.bsky.social @moritzlaurer.bsky.social & A Bekmuratovna show open source MT models perform similarly to Google Translate and DeepL in multilingual text www.cambridge.org/core/journal... #FirstView

💰 Do community donations reduce support for paying taxes? ➡️ Using a survey experiment in Kenya, C. A. Jansson, E. Lust & A. Oguso show community donations lower tax compliance attitudes, while public goods increase support for taxes www.cambridge.org/core/journal... #FirstView

🇸🇪 Does far right entry into local politics affect minority representation? ➡️ Using an RDD, @grahn.bsky.social & @turnbulldugarte.com show far right entry reduced immigrant candidates on the right, while left parties increased immigrant recruitment www.cambridge.org/core/journal... #FirstView

💍 Do interethnic marriages measure social cohesion? ➡️ Using census data from Zambia, @danielposnermd.bsky.social introduces a new approach showing intermarriage estimates change once local exposure to outgroup members is considered www.cambridge.org/core/journal... #FirstView

NEW ISSUE from @psrm.bsky.social - Political Science Research and Methods Volume 14 - Issue 2 - April 2026 - https://cup.org/4uMWbkh #OpenAccess

🌍 Why do not all immigrant groups support progressive parties? ➡️ @korinlind.bsky.social & @antvalentim.bsky.social show immigrants from established democracies are more likely to back green parties than those from (post-)authoritarian regimes www.cambridge.org/core/journal... #FirstView

🏙️ Do district-based elections change who gets elected locally? ➡️ Studying California's recent shift, M Cushing-Daniels, D Jones & @brookenshannon.bsky.social show they increased representation from lower-income areas and reduced business influence www.cambridge.org/core/journal... #FirstView