Eri Bertsou
Ass. Professor of Political Science at the University of St. Gallen, School of Economics and Political Science (CH)
Mom of three and one border collie
- Reposted by Eri BertsouI wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Stay free
- Europe* really needs to wake up Europe = the European continent, including UK, Switzerland and other non EU countries.
- Good news and an excellent study!
- 🚨 out at @apsrjournal.bsky.social 🚨 ➡️ We ran a large media literacy experiment to fight misinformation ➡️ 13,500 students, 583 villages in Bihar, India ➡️Created custom misinfo curriculum of 4 months ➡️Partnered w the government to roll it out as an official course in classrooms hopeful findings👇🏽
- Reposted by Eri Bertsou#Science is not doing well, true or false?🔬Between 15 years of decline in #AcademicFreedom and strong but dented #confidence: introspection from within the world of research with @eribertsou.bsky.social @colognaviktoria.bsky.social @angelovpanaro.bsky.social.👇
- Reposted by Eri Bertsou[This post could not be retrieved]
- Reposted by Eri BertsouFour journalists were killed by an Israeli strike on a Gaza hospital today, including Mariam Dagga, a freelancer with the @apnews.com. She has a 12-year-old son, who was evacuated from Gaza earlier in the war. She was a true hero, like all of our Palestinian colleagues in Gaza. tinyurl.com/3cn5c9vb
- Reposted by Eri Bertsou🔥 Call for papers for EPSS 2026 in Belfast: migration, forced displacement, mobility, borders, asylum, diaspora, and other migration-related topics. Excited to co-chair the Migration Politics section with @kristinabsimonsen.bsky.social. Submit proposals by Nov 7! #EPSS2026
- This is an important opportunity for European poli sci: contribute to getting EPSS off to a fantastic start by submitting your work to next year’s conference. I’m section chair for Migration Politics together with @aalrababah.bsky.social and can’t wait to see the cool mig research you have for us 🔥
- Synthetic sampling is gaining momentum in a lot of the social sciences and, while I have been ambiguous about it myself, this white paper provides more information to ground the debate
- In polling world, “synthetic sampling” (using LLMs to replace human respondents) has been getting a lot of attention recently. Last wk, Ipsos announced a synthetic panel! But does it actually work? Here’s a white paper I wrote: “Your Polls on ChatGPT” report.verasight.io/synthetic-sa...
- Reposted by Eri BertsouIn polling world, “synthetic sampling” (using LLMs to replace human respondents) has been getting a lot of attention recently. Last wk, Ipsos announced a synthetic panel! But does it actually work? Here’s a white paper I wrote: “Your Polls on ChatGPT” report.verasight.io/synthetic-sa...
- Reposted by Eri Bertsou📢 EPSS 2026 Call for Papers! @hannaeback.bsky.social and I are excited to invite submissions for the Political Representation section at EPSS 2026 in Belfast. EPSS has some exciting new panel formats this year - read on! 🧵
- Reposted by Eri BertsouScience for democracy. Much needed. Powerful @science.org editorial by @gretchentg.bsky.social & @chenoweth.bsky.social “The ability to tell the truth, especially when it does not suit any particularly partisan aims, is an essential prerequisite for a free society” www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
- Reposted by Eri BertsouWhat--and I say this with my chest--the hell are we doing here people
- This week we had to say goodbye to our dearest Lana, very suddenly and way too soon. A dedicated polisci dog, she conducted elections fieldwork for LSE's EPOB, became an honorary member of IPZ Zurich and visited the EUI. My loudest cheerleader, patient proofreader & the bestest girl that ever was ❤️🩹
- Reposted by Eri Bertsou🚨 Big News for European Political Science 🚨 We’re thrilled to announce the launch of the European Political Science Society (EPSS): a new, member-led, not-for-profit association built to support our scholarly community. 🔗 epssnet.org Here’s a thread with everything you need to know. 🧵
- Reposted by Eri BertsouExcited to kick off #EPSA2025 on Day 1, Panel 1! 🎉 I’ll present my co-authored research with @michaelimre.bsky.social on 50 years of gender representation in political science publications. We analyze nearly 100,000 articles across 72 journals to uncover long-term trends. 🔍 @epsanet.bsky.social
- Reposted by Eri Bertsou[This post could not be retrieved]
- Great thread and breadth of resources to learn more on this topic 👇🏼. Thank you @profsaunders.bsky.social
- 🧵IR scholars, let's start a thread of what we know that's relevant for a US attack on Iran. Won't change any minds, but might help us teach this crisis and learn new angles. Please add (incl. your own work!), forgive/correct omissions. Nobody can cover everything and it's great to find new work. 1/?
- Reposted by Eri BertsouThis is a view from the surface of Comet 67P. The busy particles in the foreground are cosmic rays or bits of dust and ice. The dots moving in the background are stars.
- Shout out to Lea Heyne and Luca Manucci @populismblog.bsky.social whose work on populist radical right electorate in Portugal was mentioned on my fav politics podcast @therestpolitics.bsky.social this morning!
- Watch/listen to the full episode👇 📺 youtu.be/WhTBNc5bB_8 🎙️ linktr.ee/restispolitics
- Reposted by Eri BertsouCanceling research on misinformation is not only an attack on science and academic freedom. It is also a democracy, safety, and security threat. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/15/b...
- Reposted by Eri BertsouIn short, Starmer has taken a massive hit among Labour voters, for no gain elsewhere, while boosting Farage's popularity, including doubling his ceiling among Labour voters. I.e., the political scientists were right, Morgan McSweeney was horrendously wrong.
- Reposted by Eri Bertsouif you teach, you are engaged in an inherently political--but not necessarily partisan--act the political vs partisan distinction stays kicking people's ass this old @asociologist.bsky.social is very helpful on this scatter.wordpress.com/2020/11/10/p...
- Reposted by Eri BertsouPoliticians share similar climate policy views with citizens, but are slightly less supportive. Crucially, they underestimate public support for climate policies, potentially limiting climate action www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
- Reposted by Eri Bertsou🧵 THREAD: Can a short online intervention help defend democracy against partisan polarization? In our new study - just published in the @bjpols.bsky.social - my colleagues and I tested this question across 33 countries 🌍 with over 41,000 participants 🧑🤝🧑. Here’s what we found 👇
- She’s got guts. Chilling to watch, but necessary
- Amazing. After nearly losing her house, and being locked away in a legal battle for years because of one innocuous line in her last TED Talk, @carolecadwalla.bsky.social returns to the Lion’s Den, and calls out the Broligarchs This Is What a Digital Coup Looks Like youtu.be/TZOoT8AbkNE?...
- This final publication from the project on #technocratic attitudes among citizens, serves to boost confidence in the survey measure, to trace the stability of the construct following the #COVID19 pandemic and to provide evidence on technocratic attitudes in the #US (plus some bonus thoughts!) 🧵below
- Crises like the COVID-19 pandemic make the role of experts in politics more relevant & boost technocratic attitudes - increased involvement of scientific expertise in politics - among citizens. New empirical evidence by @eribertsou.bsky.social doi.org/10.1080/0140... #polisky #academicsky
- ✅ Technocratic attitudes, understood as people’s support for a technocratic approach to politics, can be measured as a latent construct using measures of expert preferences, antipolitics, elitism and anti-populism. The study uses data from 9 European countries and US, collected in Dec 2020
- Results show the measures work and the construct is stable, even after the COVID19 shock. Some changes can be seen across citizen groups (following a latent class analysis) with a moderate increase in the size of the technocratic class across most countries under study
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View full threadBig thank you 🙏 to colleagues who provided helpful comments to this project. I hope this study will be of interest to @pablofernandezv.bsky.social @lavezzolo.bsky.social @luisramiro.bsky.social @jbpilet.bsky.social @matmota.bsky.social @joanfontfab.bsky.social @profkatedommett.bsky.social
- Reposted by Eri BertsouLevitsky & @ryanenos.bsky.social in The Crimson hit the challenge that must be overcome: "Weaponized states create a difficult collective action problem for civil society. Individual leaders seek to protect their organizations against costly government reprisal." www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
- Reposted by Eri BertsouMany of the scientists that the Trump administration is defunding and persecuting will be working on strategically important technologies and research areas. The UK and other European countries should urgently establish programmes to bring those researchers here.
- Reposted by Eri BertsouWe are thrilled to anounce the release of the 2024 CHES-Europe at chesdata.eu/2024-chapel-.... As always, the data are freely available on the website. Thank you to the hundreds of experts who share their expertise to make these data possible!
- Reposted by Eri BertsouThe average American voter thinks that the government is too big but that it should spend more money on everything it does. This explains a decent share of the political chaos of this country.
- Reposted by Eri BertsouEuropean leaders met with 🇺🇦, 🇪🇺 & NATO officials to discuss 🇺🇦 support & defence cooperation. This is all very welcome & needed. But for peace & defence efforts to be future-proof & credible, public support is essential. Building it won’t be easy. 🧵with @eupinions.bsky.social data
- Reposted by Eri BertsouAfter the AfD's surge on Sunday, far right parties are the most voted-for of any grouping in Europe, for the first time in history: www.economist.com/graphic-deta...
- Reposted by Eri BertsouAlmost 20 European leaders, incl Emmanuel Marcon & Friedrich Merz, plus VDL, have posted in support of @ZelenskyyUa after White House showdown. Notably, Keir Starmer has not. No 10 is referring reporters to PM’s comments this week on a just & lasting peace, with Ukraine at heart of talks.
- Reposted by Eri BertsouThe parallels to the Swiss social democrats in 2023 are evident: 1) Appeals to young (female) voters with a credible progressive agenda and heavy emphasis on housing 2) Strong results in urban centers 3) Rather young co-leadership 4) Targeted campaigning with clear appeals
- Reposted by Eri BertsouThe election proved the narrative wrong. For the Linke the election was a huge success while BSW failed to make it above the 5%-threshold. The Linke managed to win young progressives especially in cities. Ironically, this would probably not have been possbile had Wagenkencht stayed in the party
- Reposted by Eri BertsouOne winner last night were the pollsters (both pre-election polls and exit polls). They got the story right, picked up on the Linke surge and got the smaller parties approximately right as well. Not easy to do.
- What happened in East Germany? A great thread on #germanelection results and the #AfD showing in #EastGermany by @anjaneundorf.bsky.social (a brilliant political scientist and extremely knowledgeable about the area!)
- The most striking result from yesterday’s German election #btw2025 🇩🇪: 🔹 35 years after reunification: The GDR is redrawn on this map. 🔹 The AfD won 45 out of 48 electoral districts in the East. 🔹 In some parts of Saxony, they came close to 50%! Why is this happening? Here’s my take 👇
- Reposted by Eri BertsouEven more distinct among young women:
- Check out @florianfoos.bsky.social thread on what to look for in today’s #germanelection 👇🏼
- Reposted by Eri BertsouOur latest voting intention poll (9-10 Feb) has Reform UK on their highest figure to date Reform: 26% (+1 from 2-3 Feb) Lab: 25% (+1) Con: 21% (=) Lib Dem: 14% (=) Green: 9% (=) SNP: 3% (=) yougov.co.uk/politics/art...
- Reposted by Eri BertsouThe anti-climate backlash seems to be in full swing. The EU (and its member states) are poorly prepared because the EU ETS2, the linchpin of the Green Deal (in terms of emissions reduction potential), covers sectors (transport and buildings) with visible and www.politico.eu/article/lets...
- “Symbols matter, especially when it comes to institutions. Once it becomes accepted that institutions are not functioning and cannot be trusted, their slide intensifies and people are further discouraged from defending them.” Excellent FT piece by @dacemoglumit.bsky.social www.ft.com/content/4e3f...
- Reposted by Eri BertsouHats off to @spiegel.de for this piece. A very rigorous analysis of the response of center-right parties to far-right challengers, based on expert interviews (@saengler.bsky.social) and scholarly work. In times like these, this is what journalism should be doing. www.spiegel.de/geschichte/m...
- Reposted by Eri Bertsou*head desk* *endless screaming* *Gen X face*
- Reposted by Eri BertsouAre you interested in age or cohort or period effects? I have just updated my primer on the topic! Now with a new framing, a handy flow chart to determine which approach may be suitable, and a new empirical example. What do people in Germany think about mothers who work? osf.io/preprints/ps...
- A fantastic project and useful resource for anyone interested in public perceptions of science, trust in scientists & how citizens want scientists involved in politics & policy. ❗Spoiler alert: Pluralities, and in many cases majorities, support a more active role for scientists in public matters!
- Congratulations to @colognaviktoria.bsky.social and @nielsmede.bsky.social for organising this amazing data collection effort! It was a pleasure to be part of this project.
- Reposted by Eri BertsouEssential corrective/myth busting from @profjanegreen.bsky.social
- Reposted by Eri BertsouAn excellent essay in the FT Weekend by @davidallengreen.bsky.social. One thing I'd add: yes, content moderation is expensive. But Meta's profit margin was nearly 40% last year; net profits were $14bn. Why shouldn't governments ask it to pay to reduce the harm it causes? www.ft.com/content/917c...
- Reposted by Eri BertsouAbsolutely a BFD, esp after you read her statement.
- This is, or should be, a big deal -- Ann Telnaes, an absolute legend, quitting WaPo due to censorship of a cartoon criticizing billionaires anntelnaes.substack.com/p/why-im-qui...
- Reposted by Eri BertsouDoes public #trust in scientists suffer or grow when they #advocate for #climate policies? ✊ We tested this during the referendum on the #Swiss Climate Protection Law on 18 June 2023 – which was preceded by a statement by 252 scientists supporting the law 🗳️ Paper: iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...
- Reminder that EPSA submission deadline is today! Which EPSA paper will you be? behavioursky polisky polphy comparative politics
- Inspired by @dtoshkov.bsky.social and the upcoming conference abstract season, types of EPSA papers
- Reposted by Eri Bertsou🚨 Open Position at the University of Vienna 🚨 University Assistant (Postdoc) 📅 Start: June 1, 2025 ⏳ Duration: 6 years (fixed-term) 💼 Focus: Political representation, party competition, institutions, & behavior 📌 Deadline: Jan 24, 2025 Join us! 🇦🇹 jobs.univie.ac.at/job/Universi...
- Reposted by Eri Bertsou⚠️ Six-year position at our department - work in lovely Vienna with a friendly team, 2 classes a term, and follow/develop your own research agenda. Feel free to ask me questions you might have. Deadline 24/01/25 jobs.univie.ac.at/job/Universi...
- Reposted by Eri BertsouI am increasingly convinced that comparative politics (including especially me) has fundamentally misunderstood contemporary democratic backsliding. We are attending to elections and the rule of law, when the politics is more fundamental, about a vision for the state and society within it 1/x
- Reposted by Eri BertsouToday, feeling close to cosmopolitans or feminists separates voters of the left from right voters who identify with people who are down to earth and hard working. Yet, these identities do have structural roots, just like class identities did. Our short CUP book on cleavage formation is out in OA.
- New Cambridge Element 'Cleavage Formation in the 21st Century' by Simon Bornschier, @lhaffert.bsky.social, @siljahausermann.bsky.social, Marco Steenberge & @dpzollinger.bsky.social out now! Read #OpenAccess here: cup.org/3ZLtQ0o #cambridgeelements #politics
- Interested in GenAI and education? 👇 Fascinating study from EPFL
- Reposted by Eri BertsouIf you are planning to go to EPSA 💃 next year, (seriously) consider submitting a panel. Here's how to do it. For more questions: conference@epsanet.org
- Reposted by Eri Bertsou
Reposting for the morning crowd -- self and other nominations encouraged. Looking for political psych books published in 2024 and elections-public opinion-voting behavior published in 2020 or earlier! - Reposted by Eri BertsouThis is absolutely not the news I would have dreamed of waking up to. South Korea's Yoon declares emergency martial law. to I have some scattered thoughts to follow. m-en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN2024...
- 🚨Great thread on EU politics, radical right support and what the second Trump Presidency might have in store for 🇪🇺
- Reposted by Eri BertsouDoes women's rise threaten men's status? Rettl et al find that although Swiss women's employment has surged, and triggered men's private anxieties, this hasn't been politicised. So is "the battle of the sexes" just something politicians manufacture? open.substack.com/pub/dralicee...
- This week we hosted André Bächtiger and the ERC project Designing Democracy on Mars and Earth at @unisg.ch for a 2-day workshop 🤓 with our SNF project Varieties of Expertise (with @amberzen.bsky.social and Pradeep Krishnan). We had rich discussions on what citizens want from their democracies 🗳️,
- what should be the role of elected representatives📜, scientific experts 🎓 and citizens themselves. With our big data collection effort this winter, we look forward to more insights and collaborations to come! @vanessaschwaiger.bsky.social, @anjarieker.bsky.social, @seraphinearnold.bsky.social
- Reposted by Eri Bertsou⭐I am looking for a Postdoc in Computational Social Science in my ERC project INCONEX at University of Salzburg! More on the project: sites.google.com/view/inconex... Applications due by 8 January 2025. Full ad: sites.google.com/view/inconex... #EUsky #poliscijobs #computationalsocialscience
- Reposted by Eri Bertsou[This post could not be retrieved]
- Reposted by Eri BertsouTest 2 hrs in Here 🦋 47 shares and 50 likes ❤️ in meaningful networks 🙏🏻 There X: 4 and 4 respectively #academictwitter RIP #academicsky 🚀 🌙 🌈
- Reposted by Eri BertsouThe “science is always political” trope is very frustrating—at some level it is trivially true, but we can make science less political and that would be good! Highly recommend this essay by @stuartjritchie.bsky.social on this: open.substack.com/pub/stuartri...
- Removed by author.Since some seem determined not to get it: Arguing science shouldn’t be political is like arguing that ducks shouldn’t be waterfowl. Sure, whatever floats your boat, but they wouldn’t be ducks then would they? Science is a collective human effort at sensemaking—the very definition of political.
