Papers by Nils D. Steiner
Journal of European Public Policy, Oct 14, 2019
Many studies describe how globalisation-the global integration of the economic, political, and cu... more Many studies describe how globalisation-the global integration of the economic, political, and cultural domains of society-transforms party competition in Western Europe. At the citizen level, however, our knowledge about globalisation attitudes and their electoral consequences remains limited. Using data from a large-scale panel survey of the German public, we show that, first, citizens hold stable rather than fluid attitudes towards the concept of globalisation. Second, these attitudes are rather closely related to positions on specific economic, cultural, and political issues that social scientists understand as facets of globalisation but unrelated to positions on traditional redistribution issues. Third, attitudes towards globalisation are systematically associated with voting decisions even when controlling for specific issue attitudes. We conclude that individuals hold integrated belief systems concerning globalisation and that globalisation matters as a contentious political symbol. We discuss the implications of these findings for the politics of globalisation in Germany and beyond.
British Journal of Political Science, Oct 3, 2022
The June 2016 Brexit referendum sent international shock waves, possibly causing adjustments in p... more The June 2016 Brexit referendum sent international shock waves, possibly causing adjustments in public opinion not only in the UK, but also abroad. We suggest that these adjustments went beyond substantive attitudes on European integration and included procedural preferences towards direct democracy. Drawing on the insight that support for direct democracy can be instrumentally motivated, we argue that the outcome of the Brexit referendum led (politically informed) individuals to update their support for referendums based on their views towards European integration. Using panel data from Germany, we find that those in favour of European integration, especially those with high political involvement, turned more sceptical of the introduction of referendums in the aftermath of the Brexit referendum. Our study contributes to the understanding of preferences for direct democracy and documents a remarkable case of howseemingly basicprocedural preferences can, in today's internationalized information environment, be shaped by high-profile events abroad.
Politische Vierteljahresschrift, Apr 23, 2018
Dieser Beitrag untersucht den Einfluss eines populistischen Demokratieverständnisses auf die Wahl... more Dieser Beitrag untersucht den Einfluss eines populistischen Demokratieverständnisses auf die Wahl populistischer Parteien anhand des Falls der AfD. Im Anschluss an dominierende Populismusdefinitionen machen wir ein populistisches Demokratieverständnis an drei Elementen festder Priorisierung des Mehrheitswillens gegenüber Minderheitenschutz, der Forderung nach unbedingter Responsivität von Repräsentanten gegenüber dem Mehrheitswillen sowie einer ablehnenden Haltung gegenüber politischem Pluralismusund entwickeln ein entsprechendes Messmodell. Unsere empirische Analyse zeigt, dass populistische Demokratiekonzeptionen bei Anhängern der AfD besonders häufig auftreten. Sie haben zudem auch in multivariaten Analysen einen deutlichen Einfluss auf die Wahlpräferenz für die AfD und sind, unter Ausnutzung der Panelstruktur des Datensatzes, in der Lage zu prognostizieren, welche Individuen ihre Wahlpräferenz in Richtung AfD geändert haben.
Politische Vierteljahresschrift
The GLES Open Science Challenge 2021 was a pilot project aimed at demonstrating that registered r... more The GLES Open Science Challenge 2021 was a pilot project aimed at demonstrating that registered reports are an appropriate and beneficial publication format in quantitative political science that helps to increase transparency and replicability in the research process and thus yields substantial and relevant contributions to our discipline. The project resulted in the publication of this special issue, which includes seven registered reports based on data from the German Longitudinal Election Study (GLES) collected in the context of the 2021 German federal election. This concluding article of the special issue brings together the perspectives of the participating authors, reviewers, organizers, and editors in order to take stock of the different experiences gained and lessons learned in the course of the project. We are confident that future projects of a similar nature in political science, as well as authors, reviewers, and editors of registered reports, will benefit from these re...
A prominent but underspecified explanation for the rise of populism points to individuals’ feelin... more A prominent but underspecified explanation for the rise of populism points to individuals’ feelings of being “left behind” by the development of society. At its core lies the claim that support for populism is driven by the feeling of lacking the societal recognition one deserves. Our contribution builds on the insight that individuals can feel to lack recognition in different ways and for different reasons. We argue that—due to this multifaceted character—the common perception of being neglected societal recognition unites otherwise heterogeneous segments of the population in their support for populism. Relying on data from the GLES Pre-Election Cross-Section 2021, our pre-registered study investigated the multiple roots of populist attitudes in feelings of lacking societal recognition in two steps. First, our results indicate that, from rural residents to socio-cultural conservatives or low-income citizens, seemingly unrelated segments of society harbor feelings of lacking recogni...
Journal of European Public Policy, 2019
Many studies describe how globalisation-the global integration of the economic, political, and cu... more Many studies describe how globalisation-the global integration of the economic, political, and cultural domains of society-transforms party competition in Western Europe. At the citizen level, however, our knowledge about globalisation attitudes and their electoral consequences remains limited. Using data from a large-scale panel survey of the German public, we show that, first, citizens hold stable rather than fluid attitudes towards the concept of globalisation. Second, these attitudes are rather closely related to positions on specific economic, cultural, and political issues that social scientists understand as facets of globalisation but unrelated to positions on traditional redistribution issues. Third, attitudes towards globalisation are systematically associated with voting decisions even when controlling for specific issue attitudes. We conclude that individuals hold integrated belief systems concerning globalisation and that globalisation matters as a contentious political symbol. We discuss the implications of these findings for the politics of globalisation in Germany and beyond.
Politische Vierteljahresschrift, 2018
Dieser Beitrag untersucht den Einfluss eines populistischen Demokratieverständnisses auf die Wahl... more Dieser Beitrag untersucht den Einfluss eines populistischen Demokratieverständnisses auf die Wahl populistischer Parteien anhand des Falls der AfD. Im Anschluss an dominierende Populismusdefinitionen machen wir ein populistisches Demokratieverständnis an drei Elementen festder Priorisierung des Mehrheitswillens gegenüber Minderheitenschutz, der Forderung nach unbedingter Responsivität von Repräsentanten gegenüber dem Mehrheitswillen sowie einer ablehnenden Haltung gegenüber politischem Pluralismusund entwickeln ein entsprechendes Messmodell. Unsere empirische Analyse zeigt, dass populistische Demokratiekonzeptionen bei Anhängern der AfD besonders häufig auftreten. Sie haben zudem auch in multivariaten Analysen einen deutlichen Einfluss auf die Wahlpräferenz für die AfD und sind, unter Ausnutzung der Panelstruktur des Datensatzes, in der Lage zu prognostizieren, welche Individuen ihre Wahlpräferenz in Richtung AfD geändert haben.
Political Studies, 2017
While support for the essential norms of liberal electoral democracy is high in almost all develo... more While support for the essential norms of liberal electoral democracy is high in almost all developed democracies, there is arguably also a gap between democratic aspirations and democratic practice, leading to dissatisfaction among citizens. We argue that citizens may hold very different normative conceptions of democracy which are equally compatible with support for liberal democracy, but lead to different expectations where institutional design and democratic practice are concerned. Satisfaction with democracy may thus depend on congruence between such normative conceptions and institutionally entrenched norms. Drawing on survey data from Germany with a comprehensive item battery on attitudes towards democratic decision-making, we identify four distinct factors leading to disagreements over democratic decision-making. We explore how these are related to personality, styles of cognition and political attitudes, and show that different expectations arise from them, such that regime ...
British Journal of Political Science
The June 2016 Brexit referendum sent international shock waves, possibly causing adjustments in p... more The June 2016 Brexit referendum sent international shock waves, possibly causing adjustments in public opinion not only in the UK, but also abroad. We suggest that these adjustments went beyond substantive attitudes on European integration and included procedural preferences towards direct democracy. Drawing on the insight that support for direct democracy can be instrumentally motivated, we argue that the outcome of the Brexit referendum led (politically informed) individuals to update their support for referendums based on their views towards European integration. Using panel data from Germany, we find that those in favour of European integration, especially those with high political involvement, turned more sceptical of the introduction of referendums in the aftermath of the Brexit referendum. Our study contributes to the understanding of preferences for direct democracy and documents a remarkable case of how – seemingly basic – procedural preferences can, in today's internat...
Journal of European Social Policy, 2014
In times of increasing cost pressures, public healthcare systems in Organisation for Economic Co-... more In times of increasing cost pressures, public healthcare systems in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries face the question of whether and to which extent new high-tech drugs are to be financed within their public healthcare systems. Systematic empirical research that explains across-country variation in these decisions is, however, almost non-existent. We analyse an original dataset that contains coverage decisions for 11 controversial drugs in 25 OECD countries using multilevel modelling. Our results indicate that the ‘generosity’ with which controversial new drugs are publicly financed is unrelated to a country’s wealth and general expenditure levels for healthcare. However, healthcare systems financed through social insurance contributions tend to be more generous than tax-financed ones. Moreover, we uncover evidence suggesting that the institutional characteristics of the decision-making process matter systematically for decisions on whether to...
While support for the essential norms of liberal electoral democracy is high in almost all develo... more While support for the essential norms of liberal electoral democracy is high in almost all developed democracies, there is arguably also a notable gap between democratic aspirations and democratic practice, leading to dissatisfaction among citizens. We argue that citizens may hold very different normative conceptions of democracy which are equally compatible with support for liberal democracy, but lead to different expectations where institutional design and democratic practice are concerned. Satisfaction with democracy may thus depend on congruence between such normative conceptions and institutionally entrenched norms. Drawing on unique survey data from Germany with a relatively comprehensive item-battery on attitudes towards democratic decision-making, we identify four distinct factors leading to disagreements over democratic decision-making. In a first step, we explore how these are related to personality, styles of cognition and political attitudes. In a second step, we go on to show that different aspirations and expectation arise from them, such that regime support is affected by the normative conception(s) of democratic decision-making individuals subscribe to.
Journal of European Social Policy, 2014
In times of increasing cost pressures, public healthcare systems in Organisation for Economic Co-... more In times of increasing cost pressures, public healthcare systems in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries face the question of whether and to which extent new high-tech drugs are to be financed within their public healthcare systems. Systematic empirical research that explains across-country variation in these decisions is, however, almost non-existent. We analyse an original dataset that contains coverage decisions for 11 controversial drugs in 25 OECD countries using multilevel modelling. Our results indicate that the ‘generosity’ with which controversial new drugs are publicly financed is unrelated to a country’s wealth and general expenditure levels for healthcare. However, healthcare systems financed through social insurance contributions tend to be more generous than tax-financed ones. Moreover, we uncover evidence suggesting that the institutional characteristics of the decision-making process matter systematically for decisions on whether to finance controversial drugs.
Eurokrise, Economic Voting und der Erfolg der Union bei der Bundestagswahl 2013. Positions- und performanzbasierte Sachfragenorientierungen als Determinanten der Wahlentscheidung
Wirtschaft, Krise und Wahlverhalten, 2015
Economic Globalization, Perceptions of the Room to Maneuver of National Governments and Individual Electoral Participation
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000
Economic globalization and the change of electoral rules
Constitutional Political Economy, 2015
Economic Integration and Electoral Turnout - Searching for a Causal Link via Party Positions
ABSTRACT
Wirtschaft und Wahlverhalten in Westdeutschland zwischen 1977 und 2007: Wer sind die ökonomischen Wähler?
Wählen in Deutschland, 2011
ABSTRACT Employing an innovative multi-level design and data for the period between 1977 and 2007... more ABSTRACT Employing an innovative multi-level design and data for the period between 1977 and 2007 this article asks which voters react most strongly to the economic situation in West Germany. In a first step, we analyze how levels of education influence the transformation of objective economic information into subjective assessments of the economic situation. In a second step, we investigate which groups of voters react most strongly to the economy in casting their votes. The results imply that economic voting is stronger among citizens without party identification and those who are in the center of the ideological left-right spectrum. Education does not have any effect on the extent of economic voting and only weakly moderates the transformation of objective economic conditions into subjective perceptions of the economy.
How Electoral Institutions Change the Influence of World Trade Integration on Trade Policies
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000
ABSTRACT
Comparing Freedom House Democracy Scores to Alternative Indices and Testing for Political Bias: Are US Allies Rated as More Democratic by Freedom House?
Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice, 2014
There is by now a rather developed literature on the determinants of individual-level preferences... more There is by now a rather developed literature on the determinants of individual-level preferences over international economic integration. Yet attitudes towards international economic integration are usually measured through survey questions on abstract preferences in contexts where policies on international economic integration are arguably of rather low salience in the public mind. The ongoing controversy accompanying the negotiations over the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) presents an opportunity to re-examine the determinants of individual-level preferences over international economic integration on a specific real-world case of relatively high salience. In this paper, I draw on a recent Eurobarometer survey (EB 83.3) conducted in the 28 EU member states in May 2015 to explore the determinants of individual preferences towards a free trade and investment agreement between the EU and the USA. Using hierarchical multilevel models, I find support for each of three approaches to explaining preferences over international economic integration: economic self-interest, socio-cultural attitudes towards openness and internationalization, and elite cues and general ideological orientations. Perhaps most notably, I obtain strikingly strong effects of estimated aggregate welfare gains at the country-level that, moreover, increase with the economic knowledge of an individual. In contrast to previous research on general preferences towards international economic openness in developed countries, but in line with the broad theoretical expectations from factor endowment models of international trade applied to the specific case of TTIP, the study finds no skill-level divides.
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Papers by Nils D. Steiner