Do youth wings produce the party members parties want? Niklas Bolin et al examine 5,000+ members, showing active participation matters more than time served. Read OPEN ACCESS: buff.ly/Mphqpok @polstudiesassoc.bsky.social #polsky #polsci #PoliticalParties

The added value of youth wings: Do they nurture the members their parties want? - Niklas Bolin, Duncan McDonnell, Sofia Ammassari, Annika Werner, Marco Valbruzzi, Reinhard Heinisch, Ann-Cathrine Jungar, Carsten Wegscheider, 2026

Political parties expect youth wings to recruit and socialize young people into the norms and values of the party, nurturing aligned future grassroots members, ...

doi.org

Happy to see this beautiful volume out! I really enjoyed reflecting on the next agenda for research on internal democracy in parties. Thank you @niklasbolin.bsky.social and @mhagevi.bsky.social for your excellent coordinating work! www.e-elgar.com/shop/usd/a-r...

A Research Agenda for Political Parties

‘This wide-ranging, approachably-written, and innovative compendium features an impressive cast of contributors and provides plenty of food for thought for anyone who studies – or wants to study – twe...

e-elgar.com

I am happy to share that "A Research Agenda for Political Parties", co-edited by @niklasbolin.bsky.social and me, has now been published. More information about the book is available here: www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/a-r...

Do youth wings produce the party members parties want? Niklas Bolin et al examine 5,000+ members, showing active participation matters more than time served. Read OPEN ACCESS: buff.ly/Mphqpok @polstudiesassoc.bsky.social #polsky #polsci #PoliticalParties

🚨New article out 🚨 In @polstudies.bsky.social, we explore whether youth wings nurture the members parties want, using data from 5,000+ youth wing members in six European countries. Youth wings appear to shape members, but not always in the ways parties might expect.

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Dags för Snabbtänkt igen! www.snabbtankt.se/aktuellt/202...

Rekordmånga forskare vill analysera det svenska valet

13 september går Sverige till val och det svenska riksdagsvalet är just nu kanske hetare än någonsin, givet de senaste veckornas inrikespolitiska turbulens. Tio dagar efter valet i höst släpps en unik...

snabbtankt.se

🚨New article out 🚨 (with Joel Jacobsson) In the Journal of Social Science Education (w/ Joel Jacobsson): “Inviting politics in: When and how school party visits matter for democratic learning” doi.org/10.11576/jss...

New book coming June 2026! Edited with @mhagevi.bsky.social: "A Research Agenda for Political Parties" covers key developments in party politics, from organisation and leadership to digital campaigns, AI, and coalition governance. www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/a-r...

A Research Agenda for Political Parties

‘This wide-ranging, approachably-written, and innovative compendium features an impressive cast of contributors and provides plenty of food for thought for anyone who studies – or wants to study – twe...

e-elgar.com

3 YOUMEM articles published in the last few years. 3 accepted for publication and coming out in the next few months (in European Journal of Political Research, Politics & Gender, and, now, Political Studies). And more under review...

Niklas Bolin@niklasbolin.bsky.social · 4mo ago

New article accepted! Do youth wings produce the party members parties hope for? Using data from 5,000+ members in 12 youth wings across 6 countries, we show that active members are more ideologically aligned and engaged than passive ones – but longer membership is linked to lower ambition.

New article accepted! Do youth wings produce the party members parties hope for? Using data from 5,000+ members in 12 youth wings across 6 countries, we show that active members are more ideologically aligned and engaged than passive ones – but longer membership is linked to lower ambition.

The best email to wake up to on a Monday morning ☀️ Coming soon in @politicsgenderj.bsky.social: our study on gender differences in political efficacy and ambition among youth wing members, drawing on original survey data from 12 parties across Australia, Austria, Germany, Italy, Spain and Sweden.

We’ve just released the Youth Wing Membership Survey (YOUMEM) dataset: dataverse.harvard.edu/dataverse/ha... It’s the largest comparative study of party youth wing members ever conducted, with survey responses from over 5,000 members of 12 centre-left and centre-right youth wings in 6 countries. 🧵

Are you interested in the #RadicalRight in Sweden and Denmark? → N. Bolin. “A Loyal Rookie? The Sweden Democrats" First Year in the European Parliament”. In: The Polish Quarterly of International Affairs 11.2 (2015), pp. 59-77.

🎁 Christmas has come early for @ammassarisofia.bsky.social & me with the publication of our article "The geography of the party on the ground: Local branches in Italy and Sweden in the late twentieth century" in @politicalgeography.bsky.social: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

The geography of the party on the ground: Local branches in Italy and Sweden in the late twentieth century

The idea that the presence of Western European political parties at grassroots level rose and fell in the twentieth century is central to some of the …

sciencedirect.com

Glad och hedrad! www.miun.se/kontakt/pres...

Nordea prisar engagerad och driven statsvetare

Årets mottagare av Nordeas vetenskapliga pris på 100 000 kronor är Niklas Bolin, docent i statsvetenskap vid Institutionen för humaniora och samhällsvetenskap på Mittuniversitetet.

miun.se

@epsjournal.bsky.social has just published the articles of a special issue on "Political parties and youth’s political (under) representation", with an introduction by Daniel Stockemer (@uottawa.ca ) link.springer.com/article/10.1... 🧵

🚨New article out 🚨 Party youth wings are often described as partners that trade votes for influence with their senior parties. But how do their own members see it? In this article I examine whether they think their organizations' mission is to influence the senior party or to support it.

Influence or support? Member perspectives on youth wings in political parties - European Political Science

Political parties maintain connections with various sub-organisations to engage different segments of society. Common among these are party youth wings. These relationships are often described as mutual, where votes are exchanged for policies. However, little research delves into how members of these sub-organisations perceive their roles in relation to the senior party. Based on a web survey of approximately 3000 respondents, this study investigates the views of youth wing members within Swedish political parties. Specifically, it explores whether members believe their youth wing’s primary role should be to influence or support the senior party. Drawing on theories of political engagement incentives, it examines the connection between members’ political and career motivations and their perceptions of these roles. Results suggest that those with career-oriented incentives tend to view the youth wing as supportive, while politically motivated members prioritise influencing the senior party. This research contributes to our understanding of the complex dynamics within political parties and their affiliated organisations, shedding light on how individual motivations shape organisational roles.

link.springer.com

Our article "Radicals, Moderates, & Aligned" is out in the latest issue of @ejprjournal.bsky.social. [yes, it's been online for months but we all use this (non)milestone to pretend print editions still exist & re-publicise our articles] So, a thread 🧵 ejpr.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Young radicals, moderates and aligned: Ideological congruence and incongruence in party youth wings

The ideological fit between party grassroots and leaderships has long been a concern for political science, with members in general, and young members in particular, thought to be more radical. Howev...

ejpr.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Our article on radicals, moderates, and aligned members in party youth wings is now out in the latest issue of @ejprjournal.bsky.social ejpr.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Young radicals, moderates and aligned: Ideological congruence and incongruence in party youth wings

The ideological fit between party grassroots and leaderships has long been a concern for political science, with members in general, and young members in particular, thought to be more radical. Howev....

ejpr.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

New publication Huge congrats to Valdemar Holt on his first peer-reviewed publication – as first author! Co-authored with me and Ingela Wadbring. We analyze Jimmie Åkesson’s speeches in the Swedish parliament (2010–2024) and track how the Sweden Democrats’ populist rhetoric has changed over time.

Partiledarmatchen: ♂️-♀️ 2-5 omni.se/mohamsson-fo...

Klart: Simona Mohamsson föreslås ta över Liberalerna

Simona Mohamsson föreslås bli ny partiledare för Liberalerna, meddelar valberedningen i ett pressmeddelande. Mohamsson är just nu partisekreterare.

omni.se

Thrilled that my article on women's activism in PRR parties has been published open access today in @cpsjournal.bsky.social 💫 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... This is my favourite article from my PhD thesis. I love the topic, its findings, and the literature it draws on. A quick 🧵:

How do mock elections shape students’ political engagement and democratic understanding? Our new research project explores how mock elections are organized in Swedish schools and what role they play in civic education.

Mock Elections and the Democratic Mission of Schools

This project examines how mock elections are organized and integrated into upper secondary education and their significance for students’ democratic learning and civic engagement.

miun.se

We are hiring a doctoral student in political science at Mid Sweden University. www.miun.se/en/work-at-t...

We are hiring a doctoral student in political science at Mid Sweden University. www.miun.se/en/work-at-t...

🚨 Talking about harassment in politics hurts your political career. Yes, even in 🇸🇪. And, yes, for both women & men. Here’s what me and @sandrahkansson.bsky.social found in our Political Behavior paper using both experimental and descriptive approaches: link.springer.com/article/10.1... 👇

The Cost of Debating Harassment Against Politicians: Are Women and Men Affected Equally? - Political Behavior

Harassment of politicians is a growing global phenomenon, which threatens to erode the quality of democracy and descriptive representation. Past research has examined gender patterns of this violence ...

link.springer.com

Coming soon!

KI: "Vi försöker nu bygga upp Bluesky som vårt nya X. Det är framför allt där vi kommer att redovisa forskningsnyheter på sociala medier".

Svenska lärosäten lämnar X - Universitetsläraren

Nästan alla svenska lärosäten har lämnat X, före detta Twitter. Motiveringarna är oftast att antalet följare och interaktioner har blivit allt färre samt att plattformen utvecklats mot alltmer desinfo...

universitetslararen.se

Nice piece about our recent YOUMEM project article in the European Journal of Political Research about ideological congruence in party youth wings in today's The Australian newspaper. www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/progr...