Podcast - Political Science Matters

The Netherlands goes to the polls on 22 November in what is set to be a nail-biting general election. Pieter Omtzigt’s New Social Contract, a challenger party created only last summer, is predicted to become one of the major political parties in the Dutch parliament - and probably, too, in the next Dutch government. What does the new party stand for? How will its emergence affect the Dutch party system? What are the other key contenders in this election? And why did former Prime Minister Rutte decide to call a snap election in the first place? In this episode, Raul Gomez, co-editor of the ⁠Political Data Yearbook⁠, discusses the upcoming Dutch general election with Léonie De Jonge (University of Groningen) and Simon Otjes (University of Leiden). This podcast was recorded on 24 October.

How do group-based cross-pressures lead to instability in voters' choices? What explains increased net electoral volatility in the democracies of advanced countries? Ruth Dassonneville (University of Montreal) discusses the research and outcomes of her latest book ⁠Voters under Pressure: Group-Based Cross-Pressure and Electoral Volatility⁠ with Nick Martin (University of Amsterdam). Chaired by Luis Ramiro, Reviews Editor of European Political Science.

On October 15 2023, Polish citizens went to the polls to the renew the Parliament, producing the highest turnout ever in post-Communist Poland. The main result has been the defeat of the ruling PiS led by Jarosław Kaczyński and the victory of the opposition coalition, led by Donald Tusk. What were the main points of contentions between and withing the two political camps? Why did many Polish citizens go to vote for the opposition parties? What can one expect with regard to government formation and future policies? Michelangelo Vercesi, co-editor of the Political Data Yearbook, talks about these issues with Krzysztof Jasiewicz (Washington and Lee University of Lexington) in this episode, recorded three days after the elections.

The recent victory of the populist party Smer (Direction) in the 2023 Slovak parliamentary election has sparked concerns about Slovakia’s return to national populism. Are these fears warranted? Is Slovakia sliding into illiberalism and drifting away from the West? Or is the excessive focus on populism preventing analysts from seeing underlying opposing changes in Slovakia’s political landscape? In this episode, recorded two days after the election, Raul Gomez, co-editor of the Political Data Yearbook, discusses these issues with Kevin Deegan-Krause (Wayne State University), Erika Harris (University of Liverpool), and Erik Láštic (Comenius University).

What are the prospects of the radical right entering the next Spanish government? Will the coalition government between the Social Democrats and the radical left survive the general election? What are the main issues in this campaign? And what might Spanish politics look like after 23 July? With only a few weeks remaining before Spain’s next general election, Raul Gomez, co-editor of the Political Data Yearbook, talks to Ana Mar Fernandez-Pasarin (Autonomous University of Barcelona) and Asbel Bohigues (University of Valencia) about upcoming events.

In this instalment of our Seminar Series on Migration and Ethnicity, our speaker discusses planetary movements in the 21st century and how it challenges traditional political agency through activism and resistance for justice.

Held in conjunction with the 2023 ECPR Joint Sessions of Workshops in Sciences Po Toulouse and part of our House Series, this year's Stein Rokkan Lecture's speaker illustrates how Fariba Adelkhah's embodiment of scientific freedom, including her preservation of autonomy from political authorities and defense of independence from intellectual or scientific trends, can inspire a broader discussion on current trends challenging scientific freedom in authoritarian countries like Iran and democracies alike.

In this instalment of our Seminar Series on the European Union, our speakers talk about how the EU struggles with a lack of coordination in its asylum and migration policies, but the pandemic has accelerated the digitalization of public services for migrants, and they have used a comparative analysis of four European cities to reveal varying approaches to coordinative Europeanization based on a discourse of humanitarian civic duty.

In this instalment of our Seminar Series on European Union, our speakers investigate the multilevel politics of the European Minimum Wage. Their article shows that the emergence of pro-minimum wage coalitions in key-member states and the increase of party-competition dynamics at the EU level was crucial to overcoming the manifold lines of conflict that had long braked EU initiatives on minimum wage coordination.