About

Matthew obtained his MA and PhD in political science at the University of California, San Diego. Thereafter he lectured on the topics of comparative and international political economy, public policy analysis, research design, and legal reasoning. He is the founding director of the Krinsk-Houston Law & Politics Initiative at UCSD, which serves as a bridge between students, alumni, and the San Diego legal community. He served as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Vienna from 2020 to 2023 in the Department of Government and joined Corvinus University in 2024 as an assistant professor in the Institute for Social and Political Sciences. Matthew also makes media contributions on topics relating to European politics. His research interests include political institutions, political economy, electoral systems, comparative politics, voting behaviour, party-voter linkages, European and Italian politics, populism, parties, elections, and public opinion, issue competition. Hanna Bäck is a professor in the Department of Political Science at Lund University. Her research focuses mainly on political parties and coalition politics in Western European parliamentary democracies, focusing on topics such as coalition formation, portfolio allocation, cabinet reshuffles, policy-making in multiparty governments, and legislative behavior. Before joining the department in Lund (2011), she was a junior professor at the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES). She received her Ph.D. from Uppsala University (2003), and has held post-doctoral fellowships at the European University Institute, and the University of Twente. She is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities, and is currently co-editor of the journal Research & Politics. Wolfgang C. Müller is professor of Political Science, Department of Government, University of Vienna. He directs four funded research projects and is editor of the journal West European Politics. Previous to holding the professorship of Democratic Governance at the University of Vienna, he held the Comparative Government chair at the University of Mannheim and served as Director of the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES), one of the most important German social science research institutes and one of the world’s leading centres of research on European politics. From 2008 to 2016 he served as rapporteur for the Social Sciences in the Austrian Research Fund (FWF). He specializes in Comparative Government and Politics, with a special interest in coalition politics, party competition, party politics, political institutions, Austrian politics, and Political Economy.

Research Interests

Comparative Politics, Elections, European Politics, Party Manifestos, Political Economy, Political Parties, Populism, Referendums and Initiatives, Social Policy, Social Welfare, Welfare State, Electoral Behaviour, Public Opinion, Southern Europe, Survey Research, Voting Behaviour

Current/Upcoming Events

Standing Groups and Research Networks

• Comparative Political Institutions
• Knowledge and Governance
• Mediterranean Politics and Society
• Teaching and Learning Politics
• Political Economy and Welfare State Politics
• Southern European Politics
• Public Opinion and Voting Behaviour in a Comparative Perspective