“The American president visited Paris today, instead of shooting Budweiser bottles out of his pickup truck”

📌

I am an ardent Beamer user, but this take is correct 🥲

Lastly, Friday 4.50pm, @fkjoeller.bsky.social will present a paper on the link between commuting costs and geographic inequality in representation 🌉 (thx to @carlsbergfondet.dk for support 🙏 ) 5/5

Thursday 1.10pm, I will present a paper on the role of family background in explaining affective polarization 👪 (thx to @erc.europa.eu for support 🇪🇺 ) 4/5

Thursday 11.20am, @olivialevinsen.bsky.social will present a paper on party nominations and long-term trends on women's descriptive representation 👩‍💼 (thx to @carlsbergfondet.dk for support 🙏 ) 3/5

Thursday 9.30am, @torewig.bsky.social will present a paper on measuring and explaining global variation in "critical social science" 🌎 2/5

Tak for de pæne ord Søren!

Thanks Federica! And absolutely agree—reviewers very reasonably pushed me to discuss scope constraints

Thanks Rob, means a lot!

Second, this can help us understand the appeal of populists, who often claim governing elites have "lost touch".

Preprint here: osf.io/r53gj. Thanks for reading this far! 🙏 10/10

I highlight two main implications: first, the rhetorical cost of governing adds to our understanding of the constraints faced by governing parties (and the advantages oppositions enjoy). 9/10

Do voters prefer simple rhetoric? Yes. In a preregistered survey experiment (N ≈ 4k), citizens preferred the exact same policy stated simply over complex wording by 0.34 pts on a 0-10 scale. 8/10

Instead, it's likely about agenda constraints. Topic model evidence shows ministers pivot toward technocratic & crisis issues (e.g., EU treaties, COVID-19) and away from easy ideological staples (taxes, immigration) → govt. agendas are harder to talk about simply. 7/10

It is not about formal speech requirements. To show this, I consider high profile opening/closing debates where ministers aren’t forced to read bills. Same simplicity gap. 6/10

🔄 Once politicians leave cabinet, simplicity bounces back. No evidence of a permanent drift—this is office-specific, not aging or learning. 5/10

Main finding: The moment an MP becomes a minister, readability drops sharply—about 0.13–0.20 SD below their own pre-government baseline. 4/10