Duncan McDonnell
@duncanmcdonnell.com
Professor of Politics | š®šŖš¦šŗ| Australian Research Council Future Fellow | populism and party youth wings | https://duncanmcdonnell.com/
Political science
78%
Sociology
10%
Pinned
Duncan McDonnell
@duncanmcdonnell.com
Ā· Oct 28
I'm thrilled to see @ammassarisofia.bsky.social, Ferran Martinez i Coma & I have won over $825,000 in funding from the Australian Research Council for our Discovery Project "Generation-Z engagement with political parties".
(When you're recovering from drinking Lima tap water, this helps a lot).
(When you're recovering from drinking Lima tap water, this helps a lot).
Thanks Hugo. Same to you!
Skipped it this year in favour of local calamari.
The bugs have come out well.
The bugs have come out well.
Christmas Eve dinner.
Oysters, Moreton Bay bugs (like lobster, but nicer), and calamari.
Washed down with a fine Pinot Grigio from Victoria.
Happy Christmas/Buon Natale!
Oysters, Moreton Bay bugs (like lobster, but nicer), and calamari.
Washed down with a fine Pinot Grigio from Victoria.
Happy Christmas/Buon Natale!
Reposted by Duncan McDonnell, Aidan OāSullivan
Every time I'm in a restaurant I remember Kevin McAleer's reply to a waiter who told him the Soup Of The Day.
"Where there any other contenders?"
"Um, no?"
"A hollow victory, then".
"Where there any other contenders?"
"Um, no?"
"A hollow victory, then".
Reposted by Kai Arzheimer, Duncan McDonnell
An old favourite - āI never truly feel the Christmas spirit until I see the "Tony Blair being held back from attacking you in the pub" cardā
Bravo Matthijs!!
Thanks Joni!
Reposted by Tim Bale, Duncan McDonnell
š Christmas has come early for @ammassarisofia.bsky.social & me with the publication of our article "The geography of the party on the ground: Local branches in Italy and Sweden in the late twentieth century" in @politicalgeography.bsky.social:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
The geography of the party on the ground: Local branches in Italy and Sweden in the late twentieth century
The idea that the presence of Western European political parties at grassroots level rose and fell in the twentieth century is central to some of the ā¦
www.sciencedirect.com
Very cool article
Cheers Ben!
Thanks Luis!
Thanks Nacho! Your comments were particularly helpful with this paper.
Thanks David!
Secondly, and much more importantly, I want to thank @ammassarisofia.bsky.social and my old friend Marco Valbruzzi who in recent years insisted it was not a dumb idea and that it was worth trying.
Seems they were right š
Seems they were right š
Finally, I personally want to first thank a senior party scholar who, at a 2012 workshop in honour of Peter Mair at the EUI, told me in front of everyone that looking at phone directories was a dumb idea. I also want to thank them for then adding "sorry, what is your name?" (they had met me before).
We need to thank so many people who gave feedback. On bluesky, these are: @henrikseeberg.bsky.social, @niklasbolin.bsky.social, @sofiabrei.bsky.social, @pcorreavila.bsky.social, @davidfarrell-ucd.bsky.social, @maxgroemping.bsky.social, @jholloway.bsky.social, @leoniedejonge.bsky.social,
Our study underscores the value of "bringing territory in" to the study of party organisations, and adds nuance to the "rise & fall of the party on the ground" story. For example, in Italy, the extent to which you saw that rise & fall depended on where you were - it was not geographically uniform.
(3) In Sweden šøšŖ, where politics was much more nationalised, party investment and then withdrawal was uniform across the country, with few differences among the major parties.
(2) All major parties, to varying extents, neglected the national periphery in the South. Parties on the left invested more in big cities & towns close to regional capitals than Christian Democrats did.
(1) In Italy š®š¹, where politics was less nationalised, the rise and fall of the party on the ground largely followed two geographically-based cleavages: centre vs periphery and urban vs rural.
By accessing historical phone directories, we were able to track the presence of local branches of the three major parties in Italy & Sweden in all general election years from the 1960s to the early 2000s.
Using spatial lag regressions, this is what we found:
Using spatial lag regressions, this is what we found:
And, if branches had a telephone, every year its number, along with the branch's exact address, would be listed in telephone directories.
This means we can find out not only *how many* functioning branches there were, but *where* they were across the country & *when* they were present.
This means we can find out not only *how many* functioning branches there were, but *where* they were across the country & *when* they were present.
But... what if there was an unobtrusive method that you could use to map the territorial presence of local party branches in the late XX century? š§
Well, there is. Because there was something that well-functioning party branches (unlike those just existing on paper) had back then.
This:
Well, there is. Because there was something that well-functioning party branches (unlike those just existing on paper) had back then.
This:
(1) We do not know if that decline was geographically uniform within countries.
(2) Most of what we know is based on membership numbers, rather than local branches.
(3) The data we have about branches is party-provided, i.e. extremely patchy and unreliable. And only about the national level.
(2) Most of what we know is based on membership numbers, rather than local branches.
(3) The data we have about branches is party-provided, i.e. extremely patchy and unreliable. And only about the national level.
There's a long story behind this article (see the last two posts of this thread), but first some key points about the research:
The idea that the presence of Western European political parties at grassroots declined in the late XX century is central to theories of party organisation.
However:
The idea that the presence of Western European political parties at grassroots declined in the late XX century is central to theories of party organisation.
However:
The geography of the party on the ground: Local branches in Italy and Sweden in the late twentieth century
The idea that the presence of Western European political parties at grassroots level rose and fell in the twentieth century is central to some of the ā¦
www.sciencedirect.com
š Christmas has come early for @ammassarisofia.bsky.social & me with the publication of our article "The geography of the party on the ground: Local branches in Italy and Sweden in the late twentieth century" in @politicalgeography.bsky.social:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Transnational publics of the populist radical right: patterns of topic convergence across Europe and the United States
In recent years, populist radical right parties (PRRPs) have constructed a shared transnational discourse around issues like immigration and culture wars. However, we do not know how their publics ...
www.tandfonline.com
It's based on his recent @ausjpolsci.bsky.social article which you can read open access.
Francesco has been doing excellent work over the past couple of years, that is now coming to fruition. And there are some VERY cool new things in his publishing pipeline...
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Francesco has been doing excellent work over the past couple of years, that is now coming to fruition. And there are some VERY cool new things in his publishing pipeline...
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
š® Populist publicsĀ are becoming increasinglyĀ transnational
Brought together by a shared ideology, converging around global events, and united in their support for radical-right leaders,Ā populist audiences on social media are becoming increasingly global. Fran...
theloop.ecpr.eu
Last week, our excellent PhD researcher @fravittonetto.bsky.social published this piece on @ecprtheloop.bsky.social:
theloop.ecpr.eu/populist-pub...
theloop.ecpr.eu/populist-pub...
I think people who have worked on left populists like Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales might have a different view on that!