Dimiter Toshkov
comparative politics, European Union governance, research methods and design, data visualization, bureaucracy and public administration
- 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.
- Reposted by Dimiter Toshkovwell, well, well if it isn't the book I started working on in 2017: academic.oup.com/book/61769
- 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 🧵:
- 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
- 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...
- Reposted by Dimiter Toshkov[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by Dimiter ToshkovNew 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...
- 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...
- Reposted by Dimiter Toshkov[Not loaded yet]
- 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!
- Reposted by Dimiter Toshkov[Not loaded yet]
- 🤩 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/
- 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.
- Reposted by Dimiter Toshkov🌱 How do environmental protests affect public option? And what if they are disruptive? We have a 💫 new study 💫 out in the BJPS about public support for environmental protests. (cc @catherinedevries.bsky.social , @simonvanteutem.bsky.social ) Summary below 👇
- NEW - Public Support for Pro-environment and Environment-Critical Movements - cup.org/3XzCAEJ - @dirckdekleer.bsky.social, @catherinedevries.bsky.social & @simonvanteutem.bsky.social #OpenAccess
- Reposted by Dimiter ToshkovOur 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...
- Reviewer 2: You have no definition of 'sanctions'. Also, I don't like your definition of 'sanctions'. 😂😡🥹
- 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:
- This is some very thorough empirical work on judicial bias in Germany 👏
- New paper with @mhamjediers.bsky.social German judges have discretion to apply rehabilitative juvenile criminal law (Jugendstrafrecht) or punitive adult criminal law to 18–20-year-old offenders. We show that immigrant youths are ~10 percentage points less likely to be sentenced under juvenile law
- 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
- 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 🤓.
- Reposted by Dimiter Toshkov[Not loaded yet]
- 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%.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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).
- Reposted by Dimiter Toshkov[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by Dimiter Toshkov[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by Dimiter Toshkov🚨 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...
- Reposted by Dimiter Toshkov[Not loaded yet]
- 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
- Reposted by Dimiter ToshkovTwo 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...
- Another consequence of granting ever more powers to the president is that a democratic transition becomes ever less likely. Do we really believe Republicans will accept a Democratic president with this sort of unchecked power in 4 years?
- Reposted by Dimiter Toshkov[Not loaded yet]
