Bastian Becker
Comparative political scientist @ Humboldt University Berlin | inequality, redistribution, social policy | www.beckerbastian.net
- Reposted by Bastian Becker🚨New publication! Thrilled to finally see this paper out in @psrm.bsky.social 🎉 📊I study how gender shapes coalition preferences among politicians. Turns out mayors prefer forming governments with women-led parties, perceiving them as better communicators and more competent governors.
- 🧑🤝🧑Do politicians consider the gender of leaders when selecting coalition partners? ➡️Using a conjoint on 979 Spanish mayors, @albahuidobro.bsky.social finds that mayors, especially those on the center and left, prefer coalitions with parties led by women www.cambridge.org/core/journal... #FirstView
- Here's a short write-up of our recently published study: 📰"What People Really Think About Taxing the Rich – the surprising beliefs behind progressive taxation" TLDR: Most believe taxing the rich brings equality & growth! Elite fears are not shared. www.cambridge.org/core/blog/20...
- ..and here a longer thread and link to the original study bsky.app/profile/beck...
- 🚨Elites often warn: taxing the rich hurts everyone. 🤔But do citizens buy that story? With @bcastanho.bsky.social & Hanna Lierse, we find: They don’t! Most people believe progressive taxes can deliver both — more equality and more growth. @jpublicpolicy.bsky.social #openaccess cup.org/3JVuvHm
- Reposted by Bastian BeckerVery excited about Alexander De Juan's talk today in the Politics Lecture Series! Topic is "Devolving the Monopoly on Violence." 🗓️Today, 12-1pm, Room 002, ISW. Stop by, if you're interested!
- 🚨New publication @ Journal of European Social Policy Despite its popularity, the political will to advance Universal Basic Income is limited. Together with @hannaschwander.bsky.social, we argue that attitude polarization severely constrains the political viability of UBI.
- 📣Thrilled to share our new article with @beckerbastian.bsky.social in JESP on attitude polarization around UBI. We show that despite high aggregate support for UBI, attitude polarization over policy design strongly shapes its political feasibility. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
- 📧 Ahead of a basic income campaign in a German city, we survey residents about their attitudes towards UBI. To identify polarization we distinguish proponents and opponents of the policy and analyze where and why their attitudes diverge.
- 📊 A conjoint analysis shows that proponents and opponents disagree strongly about key features of UBI – its generosity, unconditionality, and financing. Common ground only exists for limited basic income scheme that deviate little from existing welfare institutions.
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View full threadRead the article in full here #openaccess doi.org/10.1177/0958...
- 🥳 New year, new publication 📑"Contested memories: the political effects of de-commemoration proposals" @jeppjournal.bsky.social With Francesco Colombo, we study a street renaming proposal in Berlin and find -contrary to conventional wisdom- no political backlash, but a positive feedback effect.
- 💡We argue that memory policies, in particular the de-commemoration of majority group figures, affect public opinion and voting behavior, even before their adoption. We provide causal evidence from a survey experiment and a difference-in-differences analysis of localized election data.
- 🛣️ At the center of our study is a 2021-report that identified 290 antisemitic streets all across Berlin and proposed the renaming of most. Backed by the city government, the report stirred a controversial debate in Berlin and beyond.
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View full threadThe full article is available here #openaccess doi.org/10.1080/1350...
- Great to see the central role of survey experiments in revolutionizing political science--makes it all the more important to maintain high-quality human samples, especially online, and address risks posed by LLMs! Otherwise I fear their fall might be just as fast..
- New paper! @william-dinneen.bsky.social @guygrossman.bsky.social Yiqing Xu and I use GPT to code 91k articles from 174 polisci journals (2003–2023)and track research designs, transparency practices, and citations. How has the credibility revolution reshaped the discipline? doi.org/10.31235/osf... 🧵
- 🚨What are the political consequences of memory policy? In a new paper @francescocolombo.bsky.social and I show that a public initiative to rename antisemitic streets in Berlin mobilized left voters, induced no backlash, and benefited left parties in the subsequent election. osf.io/preprints/so...
- Reposted by Bastian BeckerIs affective polarization rooted in ideology, identity, or both? By using agent-based modeling in 11 datasets with N ~70,000, Jens Lange, Alex Koch, hansalves.bsky.social & myself investigate the underlying mechanisms of attitude formation in political contexts. Accepted at PSPB, preprint here ⬇️
- Reposted by Bastian BeckerNew Publication with @lhaffert.bsky.social in @ejprjournal.bsky.social! We study the role of generations in the urban-rural divide, which is increasingly shaping the politics of many democracies. Studying Switzerland, we show: The urban-rural divide is stronger among younger generations. (1/10) 🧵👇
- Reposted by Bastian BeckerAI presents a fundamental threat to our ability to use polls to assess public opinion. Bad actors who are able to infiltrate panels can flip close election polls for less than the cost of a Starbucks coffee. Models will also infer and confirm hypotheses in experiments. Current quality checks fail
- Reposted by Bastian Becker📣 New op-ed in Süddeutsche Zeitung: What the data say about the “Brandmauer” I summarize key findings from a study with @anninahermes.bsky.social across 57 democracies ➡️ Far-right parties don’t get weaker in government, they get stronger (~6 points by the next election) tinyurl.com/4j6jaud2
- Today at the Politics Lecture Series @humboldtuni.bsky.social Frank Borge Wietzke (IBEI) will give a talk on "The Puzzle of Africa's 'Class Conscious' Farmers" Join us if you are in Berlin! 12pm, ISW #002
- 🥳 Hyped about our new publication! 🥳 Can't tax the rich because it will harm the economy? People don't think so! 👇
- A new interesting article by @beckerbastian.bsky.social , @bcastanho.bsky.social and Hanna Lierse is now available on our FirstView page. It is entitled "Taxing your cake and growing it too: public beliefs on the dual benefits of progressive taxation". Enjoy it here: tinyurl.com/2cc7x4jf
- Here a thread for all you quick readers: bsky.app/profile/beck...
- 🚨Elites often warn: taxing the rich hurts everyone. 🤔But do citizens buy that story? With @bcastanho.bsky.social & Hanna Lierse, we find: They don’t! Most people believe progressive taxes can deliver both — more equality and more growth. @jpublicpolicy.bsky.social #openaccess cup.org/3JVuvHm
- Reposted by Bastian BeckerVery interesting paper — and highly relevant to current Swiss politics. 📮 Swiss voters will decide on a 50% inheritance tax for bequests exceeding CHF 50 million (only the portion above 50 million would be taxed) on 30.11.2025.
- 🚨Elites often warn: taxing the rich hurts everyone. 🤔But do citizens buy that story? With @bcastanho.bsky.social & Hanna Lierse, we find: They don’t! Most people believe progressive taxes can deliver both — more equality and more growth. @jpublicpolicy.bsky.social #openaccess cup.org/3JVuvHm
- 🚨Elites often warn: taxing the rich hurts everyone. 🤔But do citizens buy that story? With @bcastanho.bsky.social & Hanna Lierse, we find: They don’t! Most people believe progressive taxes can deliver both — more equality and more growth. @jpublicpolicy.bsky.social #openaccess cup.org/3JVuvHm
- We ran a large-scale survey during Germany’s 2021 national election. 🇩🇪🗳️ Respondents compared different tax-reform packages varying income, inheritance, and corporate taxes.
- The big reveal: Most believe taxing the rich not only promotes equality — it also fosters growth. 📈 This "dual benefit" belief is strongest for income and inheritance taxes. People are more skeptical about corporate tax hikes.
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View full threadThanks for reading this far. If you are interested in the full article, you can find it here, open access: cup.org/3JVuvHm
- Reposted by Bastian Becker🚨 New working paper alert 🚨 Missing summer — and the Tour de France? Don’t worry, we got you covered. 🚴♂️🚴♂️🚴♂️ In this paper, we show that being on the route of Tour de France reduces far-right voting. osf.io/preprints/so...
- Reposted by Bastian Becker🚨 Reposting to avoid any confusion between EPSS & EPSA 🚨 If you want to support non-for-profit, member-led political science association, EPSS is the place to be! More here 👇🏽
- Reposted by Bastian BeckerYesterday EPSS was founded, today we answer members’ questions. A 🧵 1. Who formed EPSS? EPSS was founded by a supermajority vote of the EPSA Council, made up of 3 EPSAL shareholders & 9 elected, appointed, or ex officio members. 1/
- Reposted by Bastian BeckerNeu im @pwportal: Wir starten die PPRnet Brief Serie zur politischen Machbarkeit von Klimapolitik mit der Einleitung: „Klimapolitik – aber machbar“. Warum Klimapolitik nur wirkt, wenn sie tragfähig ist #Klima #Polisky #PPRnet Mit @bjoernbremer.bsky.social & Jane Gingrich
- 📢Come and join the Politics Lecture Series @humboldtuni.bsky.social Berlin next week: Kris-Stella Trump, JHU (@kstrump.bsky.social) "Perceptions of Income vs Wealth Inequality: A distinction without a difference?" When? Tuesday, June 17, 12pm Where? ISW #002 All welcome!
- Today's speaker at the Politics Lecture Series is @na-wehl.bsky.social! Join us at noon @humboldtuni.bsky.social to learn about what the kids are up to these days: "Perceptions of Unfairness and Political Engagement among Adolescents"
- 📣 We are very excited to announce the next iteration of the Politics Lecture Series @humboldtuni.bsky.social for the summer term 2025 🥳 Come and join us for many exciting talks!
- What's the future of historical political economy in Europe? To find out, we (w/ @cathrinmohr.bsky.social @lhaffert.bsky.social) conducted a survey and workshop. Here are our main take-aways. Special thanks to all who participated!
- New Broadstreet post! By Lukas Haffert, Cathrin Mohr, and Bastian Becker www.broadstreet.blog/p/the-future...
- Super excited about our forthcoming paper @europeansocieties.bsky.social on how the origins of wealth shape demands for redistribution 👇 (full thread to follow soon)
- Reposted by Bastian Becker🚨 please share! We will be running our annual workshop on the political economy of development in Berlin @wzb.bsky.social in June. This is a really fun workshop doing deep reads of a small number of new papers. Call for papers / participants below! ⬇️ www.wzb.eu/en/events/mo...
