David Attewell
LightNews LightNews
davidattewell6.bsky.social
David Attewell
@davidattewell6.bsky.social
2.1K followers 2.2K following 110 posts
SNSF Postdoc Mobility Fellow in political science at Aarhus University, by way of the University of Zurich. Research on deservingness, solidarity, and social cleavages in politics.

Website: https://www.davidattewell.net/
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by David Attewell
julianlimberg.bsky.social
New in @bjpols.bsky.social!

Dave Hope, @lhaffert.bsky.social and I show that low taxes on the rich have a hidden cost: They undermine public support for broad-based taxation. 🖋️ cup.org/45lgPwN
How does tax regressivity at the top affect public support for taxation? In this article, we run an information provision experiment in the United States with a quota-representative sample of around 4,000 people and randomly present respondents with factual information about total tax rates by income group. We find that informing respondents that the superrich pay lower total tax rates than other people not only increases support for raising taxes on the rich but also lowers support for taxing the middle class. Our results highlight an important hidden cost of tax regressivity at the top: if left unaddressed, it risks undermining public support for broad-based taxation.
December 29, 2025 at 1:37 PM
Reposted by David Attewell
iguinaudeau.bsky.social
New position at @sciencespo-cee.bsky.social, dont’t hesitate to apply if you study ecological transitions👇👇👇
December 22, 2025 at 9:04 AM
Reposted by David Attewell
bertous.bsky.social
New publication with @turnbulldugarte.com in @psrm.bsky.social! 🧵

We study whether citizens’ liberal values are selective: do people support policies based on who promotes them?

Short answer: Yes, and it's driven by ethnic out-group disidentification. (1/11) 👇

doi.org/10.1017/psrm...
December 19, 2025 at 12:47 PM
Reposted by David Attewell
bjpols.bsky.social
From October 2025 -

Educational Networks, Social Closure, and Cleavage Stabilization - cup.org/47ifc4B

"we show that educational divides are diminished in the presence of countervailing networks"

- @davidattewell6.bsky.social & @dpzollinger.bsky.social

#OpenAccess
BJPolS Abstract discussing educational attainment, social networks, and political behavior in Germany, the UK, and Switzerland.
December 10, 2025 at 6:40 AM
Reposted by David Attewell
gessler.bsky.social
We're looking for a colleague (postdoc) 📢 @politikuhh.bsky.social
3+3 years
Doing your own research while teaching 2.5 courses per semester
Research agenda with links to our team (democracy, digital politics, political competition/behaviour)
DL 🗓️ 05/01
stellen.uni-hamburg.de/jobposting/6...
Research Associate (Postdoc) Political Science § 28 Subsection 2 HmbHG
stellen.uni-hamburg.de
December 1, 2025 at 8:56 AM
Reposted by David Attewell
vtiberj.bsky.social
1/n : Vote RN et renouvellement générationnel

On m’interroge souvent sur le paradoxe apparent entre mes résultats sur l’ouverture culturelle des nouvelles générations et la progression de ce parti

Du coup, pan, un thread sur cet article qui explique ce phénomène : shs.cairn.info/revue-europe...
shs.cairn.info
December 9, 2025 at 11:08 AM
davidattewell6.bsky.social
Merci pour ce thread hyper-intéressant!

Cet aspect intergénérationnel me fait penser à ce nouvel article de @siljahausermann.bsky.social @simonbornschier.bsky.social @dpzollinger.bsky.social et @mrsteenbergen.bsky.social qui pourrait vous intéresser.

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Realignment within the right field: competition between the mainstream right and the far right
Advanced democracies have seen the emergence of a new cleavage between universalism and particularism. While alignments to the new left and the far right – at the extremes of the cleavage – are hig...
www.tandfonline.com
December 9, 2025 at 1:40 PM
Reposted by David Attewell
isabellamweber.bsky.social
The affordability crisis is an inequality crisis. When prices spike in key sectors, it's not just inflation—it's a massive redistribution shock that hits poor households hardest.
In our **new working paper**, we identify the sectors that matter most. A thread 🧵
scholarworks.umass.edu/entities/pub...
December 8, 2025 at 8:42 PM
Reposted by David Attewell
elizabethelder.bsky.social
Out today! I argue companies that dominate local economies can durably shape the capacity of local governments. Read on if you’re interested in business power, local political economy, or (for some reason) how coal companies were (not) taxed by early 20th century local governments.
bjpols.bsky.social British Journal of Political Science @bjpols.bsky.social · Dec 5
NEW -

Company Towns: Single-Industry Dominance and Local Government Capacity - https://cup.org/48yJZcG

- @elizabethelder.bsky.social

#OpenAccess
BJPolS abstract discussing the economic dependency of localities on single industries, focusing on the coal industry in the United States, and its impact on local government policy and economic sustainability.
December 5, 2025 at 1:57 PM
davidattewell6.bsky.social
Congratulations!!!
December 4, 2025 at 12:53 PM
Reposted by David Attewell
iguinaudeau.bsky.social
With @elisadeisshelbig.bsky.social, @theresmatthiess.bsky.social, we are designing a survey experiment with low-income Germans 🇩🇪 Survey folks: any tips on reliable institutes, good practices, or any useful approach for harder-to-reach groups? We are really grateful for any hint or experience 🙏
November 24, 2025 at 10:32 AM
Reposted by David Attewell
profjanegreen.bsky.social
UK politics followers, these graphs are in a paper by @jamesdgriffiths.bsky.social and co (inc. me).

There's so much useful info in them.

The long-term context for the politics of our time, how the 'Brexit elections' differed, though note the Y axes may need to be bigger for the next election!!
November 28, 2025 at 9:29 AM
Reposted by David Attewell
roderikrekker.bsky.social
(1/10) 🚨Preprint alert!🚨

In this article, I challenge claims of a generational rise of conservative men. In the media and recent academic publications, the so-called ‘youth gender gap’ has been interpreted as a generational phenomenon.

doi.org/10.31234/osf...
OSF
doi.org
November 16, 2025 at 2:24 PM
davidattewell6.bsky.social
A fascinating-looking set of papers on a central and under-explored issue of our political moment ⬇️
tabouchadi.bsky.social Tarik Abou-Chadi @tabouchadi.bsky.social · Nov 27
With the Progressive Politics Research Network, we have published 8 new research briefs on the politics of housing. What does a progressive agenda on housing look like? Which elements are important? What the hurdles are and how can they be overcome?
politicscentre.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/progressive-...
November 27, 2025 at 10:44 AM
Reposted by David Attewell
gefjonoff.bsky.social
New publication w/ my friend & amazing coauthor @fedetrastulli.bsky.social in @ejprjournal.bsky.social! 🎉

doi.org/10.1017/S147...

We explore: Who considers which political issues as important & how is this related to sociodemographic/socioeconomic variables?
Who prioritises what? Determinants and measurement of voters’ issue prioritisation | European Journal of Political Research | Cambridge Core
Who prioritises what? Determinants and measurement of voters’ issue prioritisation
doi.org
November 21, 2025 at 3:34 PM
Reposted by David Attewell
dpzollinger.bsky.social
In this new paper, we use open-ended survey questions to study how people perceive (changes in) social hierarchies. 

We show how and among whom status gains of women, ethnic minorities, or LGBTQ+ people are saliently perceived–namely among progressives, not just conservatives!
mabreyer.bsky.social Magda Breyer @mabreyer.bsky.social · Nov 20
New article out in @cpsjournal.bsky.social with Tabea Palmtag and @dpzollinger.bsky.social 📝
We use open-ended survey questions (in Germany) to assess how and among whom social status shifts are perceived. This tests cultural backlash narratives in voters' perceptions.

🔗 doi.org/10.1177/0010...
Abstract It is widely accepted in political science – and remarkably established in public discourse – that status anxieties fuel a far right backlash against progressive politics. This narrative suggests that right-wing conservatives perceive the status of women, racial, or sexual minorities as threatening. Using open-ended survey questions fielded in Germany, we show that women and minorities indeed figure in people’s perceptions of status hierarchies, but in very specific ways: First, overall, people still perceive status as largely socioeconomically determined. Second, sociocultural groups figure in perceptions of who is gaining/losing status, less so in perceptions of the top/bottom of society. Third, more than conservative voters, it is social progressives who mention women and minorities as “winners”. While on race/ethnicity, we find evidence for a backlash, on gender and sexuality we find more evidence for a progressive momentum. This matters for progressive politics today and for how we empirically study status concerns.
November 21, 2025 at 8:29 AM
davidattewell6.bsky.social
Fantastic paper and yet another great example of the power of open-ended survey questions.
mabreyer.bsky.social Magda Breyer @mabreyer.bsky.social · Nov 20
New article out in @cpsjournal.bsky.social with Tabea Palmtag and @dpzollinger.bsky.social 📝
We use open-ended survey questions (in Germany) to assess how and among whom social status shifts are perceived. This tests cultural backlash narratives in voters' perceptions.

🔗 doi.org/10.1177/0010...
Abstract It is widely accepted in political science – and remarkably established in public discourse – that status anxieties fuel a far right backlash against progressive politics. This narrative suggests that right-wing conservatives perceive the status of women, racial, or sexual minorities as threatening. Using open-ended survey questions fielded in Germany, we show that women and minorities indeed figure in people’s perceptions of status hierarchies, but in very specific ways: First, overall, people still perceive status as largely socioeconomically determined. Second, sociocultural groups figure in perceptions of who is gaining/losing status, less so in perceptions of the top/bottom of society. Third, more than conservative voters, it is social progressives who mention women and minorities as “winners”. While on race/ethnicity, we find evidence for a backlash, on gender and sexuality we find more evidence for a progressive momentum. This matters for progressive politics today and for how we empirically study status concerns.
November 21, 2025 at 8:45 AM
davidattewell6.bsky.social
"The entrepreneurs in the slump are longing for a boom; why do they not gladly accept the synthetic boom which the government is able to offer them? It is this difficult and fascinating question with which we intend to deal in this article."
November 20, 2025 at 10:53 AM
Reposted by David Attewell
sophieehill.bsky.social
My antitrust attitudes paper with Nick Short and Jacob Brown is out now @poppublicsphere.bsky.social

doi.org/10.1017/S153...

We find:
- voters are skeptical about M&A
- current law marginalizes important public concerns (layoffs, bailout risk, lobbying)
- expert/public cleavage > partisan diffs
What Is Ideological Capture and How Do We Measure It? Using Antitrust Reform to Understand Expert-Public Cleavages Nicholas Short, Sophie Hill and Jacob Brown Scholarship on regulatory capture—when businesses lobby regulators to act contrary to the public interest—has thrived since the 1970s. Yet it ignores an important dimension of influence, what we call ideological capture. This occurs when experts design regulatory frameworks that marginalize important public values and produce favorable outcomes for special interests even in the absence of lobbying. We present a theoretical and empirical framework for understanding ideological capture, rooted in expert-public cleavages, and measure its presence in an important policy domain (antitrust review of business mergers) with an original survey of the public and of antitrust lawyers. Our results suggest that the main framework for evaluating anticompetitive conduct, the consumer welfare standard, marginalizes important public concerns but is deeply popular among antitrust lawyers. With prior vork showing the standard arose not from conventional processes but from judicial and bureaucratic activism, we conclude that antitrust policy evidences ideological capture. Keywords: political economy, bureaucracy, regulatory capture, economic ideas, public opinion Figure 4 The Public Is Skeptical that Large Mergers Deliver Some Economic Benefits Bar charts Note: A plurality of the public disagrees that large mergers lower prices (their main purported benefit) or make it easier to start a new business but agrees that large mergers increase innovation. Respondents were less certain about the effect of large mergers on product quality. Figure 5 The Public Agrees that Large Mergers Have Significant Social Risks Note: A majority of the public agree that large mergers weaken the ties between companies and local communities, create companies that are too big to fail, have too much power to infringe on individual liberties, and have too much influence in politics. Figure 3 Expertise Outweighs Partisanship in Shaping Support for Replacing the CWS
November 18, 2025 at 10:39 AM
Reposted by David Attewell
heimbergecon.bsky.social
"academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it... The dominant four collectively generated... $12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024."
November 18, 2025 at 6:48 AM
Reposted by David Attewell
tabouchadi.bsky.social
Next week, with the Progressive Politics Research Network, we are going to publish 8 new research briefs on the politics of housing. While housing has become a huge grievance across Europe, it is often absent from progressive parties‘ agendas. Our group of experts discusses different aspects of this
November 18, 2025 at 11:33 AM
Reposted by David Attewell
westervangaal.bsky.social
Almost certain now EPP will rely on far-right groups, including Germany’s AfD, to push through amendments on #csddd #csrd, despite Manfred Weber’s promise never to collaborate with them. Will anybody in Berlin notice?
November 12, 2025 at 4:47 PM
Reposted by David Attewell
benbraun.bsky.social
The central argument in this excellent paper & thread is that the open-access turn has neglected profit; indeed, it turbo-charged publishers’ margins. As political economists who know a thing or two about profit and power we should speak up a lot more. As it says below: What we’re doing is crazy.
hansonmark.bsky.social Mark A. Hanson @hansonmark.bsky.social · Nov 11
We wrote the Strain on scientific publishing to highlight the problems of time & trust. With a fantastic group of co-authors, we present The Drain of Scientific Publishing:

a 🧵 1/n

Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820
Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
Oligopoly: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
A table showing profit margins of major publishers. A snippet of text related to this table is below. 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year. A figure detailing the drain on researcher time. 1. The four-fold drain 1.2 Time The number of papers published each year is growing faster than the scientific workforce, with the number of papers per researcher almost doubling between 1996 and 2022 (Figure 1A). This reflects the fact that publishers’ commercial desire to publish (sell) more material has aligned well with the competitive prestige culture in which publications help secure jobs, grants, promotions, and awards. To the extent that this growth is driven by a pressure for profit, rather than scholarly imperatives, it distorts the way researchers spend their time. The publishing system depends on unpaid reviewer labour, estimated to be over 130 million unpaid hours annually in 2020 alone (9). Researchers have complained about the demands of peer-review for decades, but the scale of the problem is now worse, with editors reporting widespread difficulties recruiting reviewers. The growth in publications involves not only the authors’ time, but that of academic editors and reviewers who are dealing with so many review demands. Even more seriously, the imperative to produce ever more articles reshapes the nature of scientific inquiry. Evidence across multiple fields shows that more papers result in ‘ossification’, not new ideas (10). It may seem paradoxical that more papers can slow progress until one considers how it affects researchers’ time. While rewards remain tied to volume, prestige, and impact of publications, researchers will be nudged away from riskier, local, interdisciplinary, and long-term work. The result is a treadmill of constant activity with limited progress whereas core scholarly practices – such as reading, reflecting and engaging with others’ contributions – is de-prioritized. What looks like productivity often masks intellectual exhaustion built on a demoralizing, narrowing scientific vision. A table of profit margins across industries. The section of text related to this table is below: 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year. The costs of inaction are plain: wasted public funds, lost researcher time, compromised scientific integrity and eroded public trust. Today, the system rewards commercial publishers first, and science second. Without bold action from the funders we risk continuing to pour resources into a system that prioritizes profit over the advancement of scientific knowledge.
November 12, 2025 at 8:30 AM
Reposted by David Attewell
donmoyn.bsky.social
Three German universities offering post-docs for researchers "who cannot conduct or continue their work in the USA appropriately because of actual political pressure. "
www.uni-konstanz.de/zukunftskoll...
Early Career Rescue Fellowship
www.uni-konstanz.de
November 11, 2025 at 7:10 PM
davidattewell6.bsky.social
French public broadcaster admits (with no apology) outrageous falsehoods in interview asking LFI MP to condemn Zohran Mamdani:

1) Mamdani had not condemned October 7th
2) Mamdani called to "Globalize the Intifada"
3) Mamdani raised $ for Hamas-colluding UNRWA

www.radiofrance.fr/franceinter/...
Manuel Bompard : "Il me semble évident qu'avant Noël, il y aura une nouvelle motion de censure"
Budget, PLFSS, union de la gauche, Mamdani, Mercosur... Le député Manuel Bompard, coordinateur national de La France insoumise, est l'invité de Questions politiques.
www.radiofrance.fr
November 11, 2025 at 8:21 PM