Nils B. Weidmann | Lightnews

Nils Weidmann

@nilsweidmann.bsky.social

1.7K followers 240 following 72 posts

Professor of Political Science, University of Konstanz, Germany. https://www.polver.uni-konstanz.de/cnc/people/weidmann/

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Political science 29%

Computer science 23%

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Nils Weidmann @nilsweidmann.bsky.social · Jun 21

After 26 days, 2424 kilometers, 16 talks and only two flat tires, #BikeAndTalk2024 from Konstanz to Oslo is over! It was a fantastic trip, and I’m so grateful for meeting so many great colleagues along the way. Hope to do another iteration of this format next year.

Nils Weidmann @nilsweidmann.bsky.social · 5d

Five papers from our group should already be submitted! Looking forward to the conference.

Nils Weidmann @nilsweidmann.bsky.social · 13d

This version is likely going to be the last release of this database, after more than 12 years of (slow) development.

Reposted by Alexander Wuttke

Nils Weidmann @nilsweidmann.bsky.social · 13d

Thanks to the great help by @rstrauch.bsky.social, Gabriele Spilker and the Cluster of Excellence "The Politics of Inequality" @excinequality.bsky.social, version 5.0 of the "Mass Mobilization in Autocracies Database" (coverage until 2022) is now available at mmadatabase.org!

Mass Mobilization in Autocracies Database

mmadatabase.org

Reposted by Nils B. Weidmann, Markus Krajewski

Lars Lott @larslott.bsky.social · Oct 1

Auf der Suche nach einer Postdoc-Stelle im Bereich der empirischen Menschenrechtsforschung? An der @fau.de suchen wir eine*n Postdoc für 3+3 Jahre für unser Team. tinyurl.com/4d3w3th6

www.pol.phil.fau.de

Reposted by Nils B. Weidmann

Cambridge University Press Political Science & IR @cambup-polsci.cambridge.org · Sep 25

#OpenAccess from the new issue of @psrm.bsky.social -

Intra-ethnic divisions and disagreement over self-determination demands in ethnic movements - https://cup.org/481UkPS

- @frederikgremler.bsky.social, Manuel Vogt & @nilsweidmann.bsky.social

PSRM abstract of a scholarly article discussing the challenges ethnic movements pose to state governments, analyzing variables like group income sources and internal divisions, and introducing the Ethnic Power Relations-Organizations dataset.

Nils Weidmann @nilsweidmann.bsky.social · Sep 24

Great news, Fabien! Congratulations.

Reposted by Nils B. Weidmann

Friederike Quint @friederikeq.bsky.social · Sep 17

📄 Does the Community Understand the Community Guidelines?
with @yannistheocharis.bsky.social , @mianahrgang.bsky.social , @nilsweidmann.bsky.social & Molly Roberts

Nils Weidmann @nilsweidmann.bsky.social · Sep 9

This is an excellent special issue! Highly recommended.

Andrea Ruggeri @andrearuggeri.bsky.social · Sep 9

Thanks to @jpeaceresearch.bsky.social for giving us the possibility to guest edit a special issue on "Political violence in democracies". Ursula Daxecker, @neerajprsd.bsky.social and I wrote an open access introduction: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
Thanks to all authors of 14 articles!

Political violence in democracies: An Introduction - Andrea Ruggeri, Ursula Daxecker, Neeraj Prasad, 2025

It is well established that democracies experience less political violence than autocracies. Paradoxically, however, this widely accepted fact has led scholars ...

journals.sagepub.com

Reposted by Nils B. Weidmann, Fabrizio Coticchia

Andrea Ruggeri @andrearuggeri.bsky.social · Sep 9

Political violence in democracies: An Introduction - Andrea Ruggeri, Ursula Daxecker, Neeraj Prasad, 2025

It is well established that democracies experience less political violence than autocracies. Paradoxically, however, this widely accepted fact has led scholars ...

journals.sagepub.com

Nils Weidmann @nilsweidmann.bsky.social · Aug 13

Thanks for the endorsement, @kailmarkvart.bsky.social! This work was only possible because there's a large coding project with full transparency in its procedures and data, and with unrestricted access. Kudos (again) to the @vdeminstitute.bsky.social for providing this huge public good.

Kyle Marquardt @kailmarkvart.bsky.social · Aug 13

Now with page numbers! Really happy to already see excellent work applying these findings to similar projects regarding LLMs. For example: doi.org/10.1017/S104...

Reposted by Nils B. Weidmann

Kyle Marquardt @kailmarkvart.bsky.social · Aug 13

Now with page numbers! Really happy to already see excellent work applying these findings to similar projects regarding LLMs. For example: doi.org/10.1017/S104...

Reposted by Anna O. Law, David M. Farrell, Maarten Vink , and 2 more Anna O. Law, David M. Farrell, Maarten Vink, Nils B. Weidmann, Naazneen H. Barma

Daniel Naujoks @danielnaujoks.bsky.social · Aug 9

Please share: by Sept 1, we solicit nominations for @isanet.bsky.social Karl Deutsch Award to recognize 𝘀𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗮𝗿𝘀 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝟰𝟱, 𝗼𝗿 ≤𝟭𝟱 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗱𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 who have made significant contribution to the study of #𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗥𝗲𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 & #𝗣𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗲𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵
🔗 www.isanet.org/Programs/Awa...
#IR

Karl Deutsch Award

www.isanet.org

Reposted by Simon Hix, Will Jennings, Sara B. Hobolt , and 31 more Simon Hix, Will Jennings, Sara B. Hobolt, Ruth Dassonneville, Stefan Müller, Stefanie Walter, Jürgen Maier, Kai Arzheimer, Nils B. Weidmann, Alexander Wuttke, Lucas Leemann, Justin H. Kirkland, Guy Grossman, Andreas Dür, Robert Huber, Simon Weschle, Anand Menon, Jane Green, Ingo Rohlfing, Mirya R. Holman, Robert Klemmensen, Tom van der Meer, Thomas M. Meyer, Alessandro Nai, Sven‐Oliver Proksch, Stuart White, Eunji Kim, Federica Genovese, Bjørn Høyland, Stuart J. Turnbull‐Dugarte, Tom Louwerse, M Josep, Tarik Abou‐Chadi, Enzo Nussio

EPSS @epssnet.bsky.social · Aug 7

EPSA have announced that they will hold a conference in July 2026.

😵‍💫 We understand that there might be some confusion about EPSS and EPSA.

👉🏽 So we thought we would clarify some things.

A short 🧵

Reposted by Nils B. Weidmann

PS: Political Science & Politics @pspolisci.bsky.social · Aug 4

Now online ft. @nilsweidmann.bsky.social & coauthors!

Large language models can help us assess the state of democracy for comparative research, but they do so with their own attitudes.

doi.org/10.1017/S104...

Nils Weidmann @nilsweidmann.bsky.social · Jul 30

This article should have been published alongside the one it responds to. The original article finds that the authors' own (commercial) data outperforms the free UCDP data. Conflict of interest? Nah. But at least we know now that this conclusion is based on "a series of unfounded claims." 👇

Magnus Öberg @magnusoberg.bsky.social · Jul 30

My new article with Mert Can Yilmaz out in Research & Politics! An investigation into what does drive differences between UCDP and ACLED data and a response to a series of unfounded claims made by Clionadh Raleigh et al in a 2023 article. (1/4) Read it here doi.org/10.1177/2053...

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

doi.org

Reposted by Nils B. Weidmann

Melanie Sauter @melinscribe.bsky.social · Jul 30

ACLED locking researchers out feels less like data protection, more like damage control. Especially when the numbers already… don’t add up because they're sourced from people doing the fighting. 📉

👉
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Reposted by Nils B. Weidmann

Magnus Öberg @magnusoberg.bsky.social · Jul 30

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

doi.org

Reposted by Nils B. Weidmann

Carl Henrik Knutsen @chknutsen.bsky.social · Jul 30

Very interesting on LLMs and democracy coding: Quite good at «easy» cases, but very problematic for tough ones:

«Some LLMs are too pessimistic and others [too optimistic] … it is difficult to replace human coders with LLMs because the extent and direction of these attitudes is not known a priori.»

Cambridge University Press Political Science & IR @cambup-polsci.cambridge.org · Jul 30

#OpenAccess from @pspolisci.bsky.social -

Large Language Models Are Democracy Coders with Attitudes - cup.org/3H8EebY

- @nilsweidmann.bsky.social, Mats Faulborn & @dgarcia.eu

#FirstView #LLM

Reposted by Nils B. Weidmann

Cambridge University Press Political Science & IR @cambup-polsci.cambridge.org · Jul 30

#OpenAccess from @pspolisci.bsky.social -

Large Language Models Are Democracy Coders with Attitudes - cup.org/3H8EebY

- @nilsweidmann.bsky.social, Mats Faulborn & @dgarcia.eu

#FirstView #LLM

Reposted by Nils B. Weidmann

Gerlinde Theunissen @gerlinde.bsky.social · Dec 17

🎓 Last Thursday, I successfully defended my doctoral dissertation. I am grateful for all the support during these last four years! A huge thank you to my advisors, @nilsweidmann.bsky.social @claireadida.bsky.social and Anke Hoeffler, co-authors, @keremoglu.bsky.social , and amazing colleagues.

Reposted by Fabrizio Gilardi, Nils B. Weidmann

Fabrizio Gilardi @fgilardi.bsky.social · Apr 16

Call for Papers!

📢 6th Annual Digital Democracy Workshop
🏫 University of Zurich
📅 13-14 November 2025
⏳ Deadline to submit paper abstracts: 31 May 2025

democracy.dsi.uzh.ch/app/uploads/...

Reposted by Eszter Hargittai, Nils B. Weidmann, Karina Kosiara‐Pedersen

Karsten Donnay @karstendonnay.bsky.social · Oct 4

🚨 I have an opening for a PhD position (4-year) in my team in the Department of Political Science, University of Zurich, starting Jan 1, 2024. Join our vibrant research environment and come to beautiful Zurich, Switzerland! Focus of the position is on studying the #digitaltransformation of politics.

Nils Weidmann @nilsweidmann.bsky.social · Jul 21

... and here's a short press release about the article: www.uni-konstanz.de/en/universit...

Nils Weidmann @nilsweidmann.bsky.social · Jul 18

Very happy that the joint paper with Ore Koren on infectious diseases and trust in politics has now been published: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... A nice result of his fellowship at @uni-konstanz.de, funded by the @humboldt-foundation.de!

Infectious disease outbreaks drive political mistrust | PNAS

The COVID-19 pandemic has renewed attention to the far-reaching social implications of emerging infectious diseases, an issue with historical paral...

www.pnas.org

Reposted by Nils B. Weidmann

Eva Wegner @evawegner.bsky.social · Jul 11

This fall, we’re launching two new Master’s programs focused on applied methods in the social sciences at Uni Marburg. More info + details 👉

Graphic from Universität Marburg promoting two new Master's programs in social sciences.

Reposted by Christian Breunig

Nils Weidmann @nilsweidmann.bsky.social · Jul 1

I still don’t understand why we’re not adjusting the semester dates such that the teaching ends before the summer heat kicks in? If the University of Mannheim (and many other institutions worldwide) can do it, we can too. What we’re currently going through is completely avoidable.

Nils Weidmann @nilsweidmann.bsky.social · Jun 27

I know. The description in the report is telling, and shows that a fresh start was unavoidable.

Reposted by Nils B. Weidmann

Stefanie Walter @stefwalter.bsky.social · Jun 26

Introducing #EPSS - the European Political Science Society and non-Profit alternative to #EPSA!

EPSS @epssnet.bsky.social · Jun 26

🚨 Big News for European Political Science 🚨

We’re thrilled to announce the launch of the European Political Science Society (EPSS): a new, member-led, not-for-profit association built to support our scholarly community.

🔗 epssnet.org

Here’s a thread with everything you need to know.

🧵

Reposted by Stefanie Walter

Nils Weidmann @nilsweidmann.bsky.social · Jun 26

Terrific news! Count me in for Belfast 2026.

Stefanie Walter @stefwalter.bsky.social · Jun 26

Introducing #EPSS - the European Political Science Society and non-Profit alternative to #EPSA!

EPSS @epssnet.bsky.social · Jun 26

Reposted by Alexander Wuttke

Nils Weidmann @nilsweidmann.bsky.social · Jun 26

This is fantastic news, and I'm grateful to the members of the EPSA Reform Working Group for managing this transition. "Reform" would have been the preferred outcome, since this also would have resolved the ownership question of @psrm.bsky.social, but let's take one step at a time. Belfast 2026!!

EPSS @epssnet.bsky.social · Jun 26

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