I study party politics, paying sustained attention to organization and history, two dimensions which remain central to understanding democratic competition but are often overlooked in contemporary research. My work examines how parties mobilize social groups into politics, how organizational contexts shape their mobilization strategies, and how contemporary dynamics differ from the canonical mass party era. I focus on Western Europe and work across historical and contemporary cases, using computational and qualitative methods to trace patterns of party-building and coalition formation, with an emphasis on "good description."
Challenger parties gain electoral footing by appealing to group identities, but they can do so in strikingly different ways. While some focus on rallying support for an ingroup, other primarily mobilize in opposition to outgroups. This book distinguishes these strategies as contrasting styles of identity politics and explains the structural and political conditions which favour either approach. Through mixed-methods analysis of socialist, fascist, ethno-regionalist, green, and far right parties across Germany, Great Britain, and the Netherlands, I show how identity politics emerges during periods of party system transformation. Revising for submission in Spring 2026.
The dissertation on which this project is based received the Honorable Mention for APSA's Ernst B. Haas Best Dissertation Award.
My other recent and ongoing work examines the organizational foundations of the emerging educational divide, and theorizes how parties use group-based appeals in political competition.
The educational divide reshaping European politics lacks the deep organizational roots that characterized past cleavages. I map cross-national variation in how parties and civil society actors embed (or fail to embed) this divide, and explore the consequences for representation and political stability.
"Cleavage Theory Meets Civil Society: A Framework and Research Agenda" (with Endre Borbáth and Swen Hutter). Published in West European Politics.
"Parties of the Lower-Educated? Cleavage Theory and the Far Right." Under review.
"Pathways to Party-Building on the Right in Western Europe: A Longue Durée Analysis." Major revisions in progress.
"Can civil society still anchor cleavages? Mapping social closure in associational life" (with Alexander Pries and Swen Hutter). Early stage.
How and why do parties differ in how they invoke social groups? I examine variation in group-based appeals between challengers and mainstream parties, identifying key differences and asking whether they stem from organizational structure, strategic considerations, or a combination of both. Using computational text analysis of manifestos, speeches, and historical campaign materials, I trace the bases of parties' respresentational choices.
"A Group by Any Other Name: Conceptualizing and Measuring Group-based Appeals" (with Ronja Sczepanski). Working paper available upon request.
"How Party-Building Shapes Group-based Appeals: Evidence from the British Labour Party." Revisions in progress.
"Representational Resonance: Tracing the Spread of Group-based Appeals in British Election Addresses 1892-1931" (with Julia Leschke). Early stage.