Former GOVPET postdoctoral researcher Lukas Graf was appointed as the new head of the Observatory for Vocational Education and Training (OBS) at the Swiss Federal University for Vocational Education and Training (Link). Congratulations, Lukas!

The European Political Science Review just accepted the paper “Partisan Districting and the Adoption of Proportional Representation: Gerrymandering and its Discontents” for publication (co-authored with André Walter). Here is the abstract:

Electoral engineering strategies in majoritarian electoral systems, in particular the possibility to contain insurgent parties by manipulating electoral districts for partisan gain, are key determinants of parties’ position on the adoption of proportional representation (PR). Providing both qualitative and quantitative evidence, this paper demonstrates that partisan districting can be an effective strategy to protect incumbent parties’ dominant political position. In addition, it shows how insurgent parties push for the adoption of PR to end the practice of partisan districting. Finally, it demonstrates that incumbents – in the face of increasing electoral threats – cling to the existing majoritarian system if partisan districting allows them to influence vote-seat distortions in their favor. Together, these findings suggest that the possibility to contain insurgent parties by means of partisan districting is an important but overlooked alternative to the adoption of PR. Moreover, by demonstrating that vote-seat distortions moderate the relationship between district-level electoral threats and legislators’ support for PR adoption, this paper offers an important corrective to Stein Rokkan’s influential electoral threat thesis.

Great News! The article “International Trade, the Great War, and the Origins of Taxation: Sister Republics Parting Ways” (co-authored with André Walter, published in the Swiss Political Science Review) was selected as the second-best social science article published in 2022 in a German-language journal by the Fritz-Thyssen Stiftung. For more information on the Fritz-Thyssen Preis, see the foundation’s website: Link

Great news from the Swiss Political Science Review. Our paper “How Coordinated Capitalism Adapts to the Knowledge Economy: Different Upskilling Strategies in Germany and Switzerland” (with Scherwin Bajka and Cecilia Ivardi) just got accepted for publication. Here is the abstract:

The rise of the knowledge economy challenges coordinated models of capitalism by requiring their skill formation systems to produce a workforce with higher skills. This paper examines how coordinated capitalism adapts to upskilling pressures by jointly studying general education and vocational education and training (VET) at both upper-secondary and tertiary levels. Employing a comparative research design covering German and Swiss upskilling efforts over the past 50 years, we observe important differences. Switzerland, with influential small firms and weak union presence, focuses on keeping VET an attractive option at upper-secondary level by favoring VET graduates’ access to tertiary education. By contrast, Germany, marked by large firm dominance and influential unions, concentrates on expanding general education throughout and adding vocational elements later. Our analysis suggests that firms’ reform preferences are conditioned by their size and political constraints to reform.

Great news from the British Journal of Political Science. Our paper, “Landholding Inequality, Social Control, and Mass Opposition to Suffrage Extension”, got accepted for publication (together with Andreina Thoma and André Walter). Great way to start the week. Here is the abstract of the paper.

Does landholding inequality undermine democratization? Pointing to endogeneity concerns, recent contributions have challenged the established argument that landholding elites oppose suffrage extension if geographically fixed assets are unequally distributed. We advance research on this long-standing question by exploiting exogenous variance to reinvestigate the relationship. Using multiple instruments, we find that landholding inequality decreases support for suffrage extension. In addition, by focusing on traditional patterns of social control, we explore a hitherto empirically neglected mechanism linking landholding inequality and democratization. Taking advantage of four direct democratic votes between 1866 and 1877 in Switzerland, we demonstrate that landholding inequality also influences the political preferences of ordinary citizens who do not control these resources. The paper thus shows that high levels of landholding inequality provide local elites not only with the incentive but also with the means to align the local population’s voting behavior with their political goals. Supplementary analyses using qualitative and quantitative data further substantiate this social control mechanism.

We are making great progress with our special issue on “Education as Social Policy: New Tensions in Maturing Knowledge Economies”. The special issue is scheduled to appear in volume 57, issue 2 in 2023 of Social Policy & Administration. Next to the introduction, co-authored with Martin B. Carstensen (Roskilde University), the special issue is to contain contributions by (in alphabetical order):

• Annatina Aerne and Christine Trampusch
• Giuliano Bonoli and Ihssane Otmani
• Marius Busemeyer and Elvire Guillaud
• Niccolo Durazzi, Emmanuele Pavolini, and Fabio Battaglia
• Timo Fleckenstein, Soohyun Christine Lee, and Mohun Himmelweit
• Julian L. Garritzmann, Silja Häusermann, and Bruno Palier
• Jane Gingrich and Anja Giudici
• Lukas Graf
• Cathie Jo Martin with Matthew Pastore and Peter Munk Christiansen
• Orestis Papadopoulos and Katy Jones
• Ilze Plavgo

Please check it out!

Comparative Political Studies just accepted our paper on “Ethnic Minorities, Interstate War, and Fiscal Capacity Development” (with André Walter). Here is the abstract:

Do ethnic majorities and minorities have diverging preferences for fiscal capacity? Do these preferences converge during national emergencies such as interstate war? In this paper, we provide evidence from a natural experiment to demonstrate that politically salient minority-majority divisions undermine the development of fiscal capacity. In addition, we show that the pressure of interstate war is insufficient to supersede differences in support for the expansion of state’s capacity for taxation between majority and minority groups. More specifically, we employ a regression discontinuity design using a natural border that separates linguistic groups and municipality outcomes of a popular vote on the introduction of direct taxation at federal level in Switzerland during the First World War. The findings suggest that salient minority-majority divisions have a negative effect on the expansion of states’ capacity for taxation even during periods of interstate war.

Our newest book on collective skill formation in the knowledge economy (together with Giuliano Bonoli) has now appeared in print. The volume contains contributions by, amongst others, Marius Busemeyer, Niccolo Durazzi, Christian Ebner, Philipp Gonon, Lukas Graf, Christian Lyhne Ibsen, Kathleen Thelen, and Christine Trampusch.

Great news. The Swiss Political Science Review just accepted our paper “International Trade, the Great War, and the Origins of Taxation: Sister Republics Parting Ways” (together with André Walter). Here is the abstract:

The First World War was a watershed moment for the development of the modern tax state. Yet whereas the tax yield strongly increased in this period, little is known about how the tax mix changed, in particular regarding the turn to direct taxation. Examining the two ‘Sister Republics’ Switzerland and the USA, this paper demonstrates that tax reforms in this critical period for modern tax systems were conditioned by coalitions among producer groups, which had already come into existence before the war. Most notably, farmers and their position on international trade were important in shaping coalitions on the turn to direct taxation. The Great War’s main role was to temporarily interrupt (Switzerland) or cement (USA) the tax system’s reorientation. The paper thus shows that war-induced tax reforms have a lasting impact on the tax mix only if powerful coalitions support these reforms independent of the war effort.

The Journal of Politics just accepted our article entitled “Designing Electoral Districts for New Proportional Representation Systems: How Electoral Geography and Partisan Politics Constrain Proportionality and Create Bias” (together with André Walter, conditional on successful replication). Here is the abstract:

Proportional representation (PR) electoral systems have grown widespread because they are expected to ensure the representation of interests with small or geographically inefficiently distributed voter bases. Yet in reality, most PR systems consist of a large number of districts that vary strongly in size and some have surprisingly low magnitude. Existing research shows that such differences matter greatly for political outcomes but offers no explanation for their origins. We argue that the design of electoral districts in newly adopted PR systems is systematically linked to electoral geography and partisan politics. If parties with concentrated voter bases can influence the design of the new electoral system, they will create a significant number of low magnitude districts. In general, parties involved in designing districts benefit from electoral disproportionalities under the new PR rules. Empirically, we use newly collected district-level data for several Western European countries in the early 20th century.