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8 April 2026
16:15 – 17:30 BST / 17:15 – 18:30 CEST
Online and FREE
Streamed from the University of Innsbruck
Silja Häusermann
Department of Political Science, University of Zurich
In this year's Stein Rokkan Lecture, Silja Häusermann explores how party politics in European democracies have transformed over recent decades. Drawing on cleavage theory, she examines this transformation and highlights the specific insights this approach offers for understanding both left- and right-wing political parties in Europe.
Cleavage theory’s emphasis on structural foundations and collective identities allows for a more robust assessment of similarities across countries despite party system fragmentation. It offers insights into the stability and prospective development of party competition in Europe, as well as the policy demands related to the cleavage.
Looking ahead, Silja argues that we need a truly comparative analysis to assess whether these processes of cleavage formation are conducive to democratic erosion or resilience.
The renowned Stein Rokkan Lecture, an annual highlight of the Joint Sessions of Workshops, will be freely accessible to the wider ECPR community as part of our House Series.
Silja Häusermann is a Full Professor at the Department of Political Science at the University of Zurich, where she teaches classes on Swiss politics, comparative political economy, comparative politics and welfare state research. She has previously been Max Weber Fellow at the EUI, Assistant Professor in political science at the University of Konstanz, and Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies (Wissenschaftskolleg) Berlin. She has directed the ERC Grant WELFAREPRIORITIES, and is Deputy Director of the UZH Research Priority Program Equality of Opportunities at the University of Zurich.
Her research interests are in comparative politics, comparative political economy, and political behaviour. More specifically, she studies socio-structural change, electoral and party system change, and their impact on distributive policies, as well as inequality and the transformation of welfare state and labour market politics in advanced post-industrial democracies.
Silja's recent book publications include Beyond Social Democracy. The Transformation of the Left in Emerging Knowledge Societies (2024, OA with Cambridge University Press, with Herbert Kitschelt); Cleavage Formation in the 21st Century. How Social Identities Shape Voting Behaviour in Contexts of Electoral Realignment (2024, OA with Cambridge University Press, with Simon Bornschier, Lukas Haffert, Marco Steenbergen and Delia Zollinger), and Inclusion or Segmentation. The Politics of Welfare Reform in 21st Century Western Europe (forthcoming 2026, OA with Oxford University Press, with Macarena Ares, Matthias Enggist and Michael Pinggera).
The House Series is FREE to attend and open to scholars from all institutions. Registration is required and you'll need a My ECPR account to register.
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