Director of the Research area
Political Sociology
University of Zurich
Cleavages and Party System Change
My research focuses on party system formation and change, and the role of ideological polarization in fostering the substantive representation of voter preferences. I am also interested in how protest politics interacts with the electoral arena.
Latin America
In my work on Latin American party systems, I study how historical legacies interact with the competitive strategies of contemporary political parties, producing vast differences in the quality of representation.
Western Europe
Building on my earlier work, I continue to study cleavages in Western Europe. In a collaborative project, we study the role of group identities in the crystallization of the universalism-particularism cleavage, and in the growing antagonism between the New Left and the radical populist right.
Comparative Political Sociology at IPZ
I direct the Research Area Political Sociology at the Department of Political Science (IPZ) at the University of Zurich. My teaching focuses on comparative democratization, party systems and party system change in Latin America and Western Europe, as well as on political protest.
New book: Cleavage Formation in the Twenty-First Century. How Social Identities Shape Voting Behavior in Contexts of Electoral Realignment.
Simon Bornschier, Lukas Haffert, Silja Häusermann, Marco Steenbergen, and Delia Zollinger. 2024. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press - Elements in European Politics.
New chapter: Polarization, Political Cleavages, and Elites in Old and New Democracies
This chapter builds upon and extends an earlier attempt I made to theorize differences in cleavage politics in old and new democracies.
New article: Mining, Institutions, and Social Protest in Latin America
The Politics of Extractivism: Mining, Institutional Responsiveness, and Social Resistance
Research Projects
Cleavage Formation in Latin American Party Systems
This project used comparative history to analyze two critical junctures that have shaped South American party systems. It then develops a quantitative measurement of party system responsiveness to test the historical predictions and to chart diverging party system trajectories during Latin America’s “Left Turn”.
Social Identities and Social Structure in 21st Century Electoral Politics – How Understandings of ‘Us’ and ‘Them’ Translate into Voting Behavior
Joint project by myself, Delia Zollinger, Silja Häusermann, Lukas Haffert and Marco Steenbergen (all UZH) that explores the social identity component of the universalism-particularism cleavage.
“El agua vale más que el oro” (Water is worth more than gold) – Mining and Social Protest in Latin America
Project conducted jointly Manuel Vogt (UCL), Livia Schubiger (Duke) and Marco Steenbergen (University of Zurich)
Current Courses
Party Systems, Political Behavior, and Democracy in Latin America
Bachelor’s-level course in Political Behavior.
Democratization and Autocratization: Western Europe and New Democracies Compared
Two-term Master’s-level Research Seminar in ‘Democracy, Development, and International Relations’.
Political Behavior
Introductory lecture, co-taught with Marco Steenbergen
