Comparative Politics

Estimating the Dark Figure of Crime Using Bayesian Additive Regression Trees Plus Poststratification (BARP)

Isabel Laterzo (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)

Abstract: Studies of both crime victimization and violence often suffer from demonstrably unreliable crime figures. Consequently, researchers typically use homicide rates as an indicator to reflect all types of violence, despite this figure’s biases. The...

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Framing Democracy: Identifying Autocratic Anti-Democratic Propaganda Using Word Embeddings

Patrick Chester (New York University)

Abstract: There is substantial empirical evidence that indicates that democracy can spread between countries through observational learning. But do autocracies try to bias learning against...

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Decoding Propaganda Slogans in China: Reading Between the Lines Using Word Embeddings

Yin Yuan (University of California, San Diego)

Abstract: Propaganda slogans in China (a.k.a. “catchphrases” or “tifa”) are widely believed to be artifacts of propaganda aimed at indoctrinating the general public that convey little substantive political or policy information. This paper intends to show instead that these...

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Measuring Political Elite Networks With Wikidata

Omer Faruk Yalcin (Pennsylvania State University)

Abstract: An important issue in the study of comparative political elite networks is the elusiveness of cross-country empirical measurement. Most studies of political elites focus on country or region-specific institutions and use ad-hoc data collection methods like surveys...

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The Moral Narrative of the European Sovereign Bond Crisis

Nicola Nones (University of Virginia)

Abstract: In this paper, I take a first step towards assessing if and to what extent the debt crisis has given rise to a moral narrative that starkly divides virtuous Northern European countries on the one side, and spendthrift, lazy Southern European ones on the other side. Such moral...

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A New Multilevel-Based Indicator for Party System Nationalization

Kazuma Mizukoshi (University College London)

Abstract: “Science is impossible without an evolving network of stable measures” (Wright 1997: 33), but to what extent should measures be stable? Though measures seem still stable as...

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Value Shift: Immigration Attitudes and the Sociocultural Divide

Caroline Lancaster (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)

Abstract: Socially-liberal attitudes towards cultural issues, such as women's rights, enjoy broad acceptance in Western Europe, particularly among younger generations. Yet, despite theoretical claims that immigration and multiculturalism would likewise become broadly...

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How Criminal Organizations Expand to Strong States: Migrants' Exploitation and Vote Buying in Northern Italy

Gemma Dipoppa (University of Pennsylvania)

Abstract:  Criminal organizations are widely believed to emerge in weak states unable to protect the property rights and safety of their citizens. Yet, criminal groups often expand to states with strong capacity and well-functioning institutions. This paper proposes a theory accounting...

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The Persuasion Effect and Contrast Effect of Radical Right Voters – the case of Germany

Ka-Ming Chan (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich)

Abstract: During the 2013-2017 electoral cycle, Alternative for Germany (AfD) emerged as a radical right party in the electoral market and it broke into thirteen subnational parliaments. This research investigates whether its voters shifted their ideological self-position in the rightward direction throughout these concatenated elections. This rationalization process, in which...

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(How) Do Elections Build States? Evidence from Liberian Electoral Administration

Jeremy Bowles (Harvard University)

Abstract: In contexts where the state otherwise has limited reach, effective electoral administration permits the projection of state authority and increases levels of state-citizen interaction....

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Collective Property Rights Reduce Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon

Kathryn Baragwanath and Ella Bayi (University of California, San Diego)

Abstract: In this paper, we draw on common-pool resource theory to argue that indigenous territories, when granted full property...

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When Inequality Matters: The Role of Wealth During England's Democratic Transition

Ali Ahmed (New York University)

Abstract: Do democratic reforms confer equal benefits to all citizens? Or are the material gains from such transitions conditioned by pre-existing inequalities? In this study, I exploit quasi-random...

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