Dennis Christopher Spies
Biographic Data
| ID | 3717640 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Dennis Christopher Spies |
| GIVEN NAMES | Dennis Christopher |
| FAMILY NAME | Spies |
| SIGNATURE | SPIES D C |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Cologne |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4468-9834 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 21 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 480 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 21 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 13 |
Integration in the Host Country, Mean Political Interest and Focus Shift towards Host Country Politics: Patterns of Transnational Political Interest among Germans from Turkey
Transnational political interest is the sustained attention to politics in at least two polities. Why do some immigrant-origin citizens show high levels of political interest in both their host countries and their familial countries of origin, some none, and others favour one over the other? With the 2017 Immigrant German Election Study, we describe the diverse patterns of transnational political interest among Germans from Turkey and their child…
Surveying immigrant-origin voters in a post-migrant society: The first Immigrant German Election Study, 2017
This paper introduces the Immigrant German Election Study (IMGES) as the first survey that explicitly targeted immigrant-origin voters in Germany. IMGES fills the gap of insufficient data in the field of immigrant-origin voters with a combination of proven and novel survey measures of the electoral behavior of people with a background from either Türkiye or from the former Soviet Union or its successor states. The study was carried out in a post-…
Comparing the mobilising effects of in-person canvassing to postal reminders – experimental evidence from a longitudinal election study
For hard-to-survey populations such as ethnic minorities and immigrants, increasing survey response rates is a crucial element of the fieldwork as these populations often show a higher likelihood of not participating compared with the native population. However, no study has so far compared different strategies for mobilisation within this group. Using data from the Immigrant German Election Study II, this experiment systematically compares the e…
Why do immigrants support an anti-immigrant party? Russian-Germans and the Alternative for Germany
By reaching a vote share of 12.6 percent in the 2017 federal election, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) ended Germany’s rare status as a Western European polity lacking a significant Populist Radical Right Party (PRRP). Some of this support comes from a group not usually expected to vote for PRRPs: immigrant-origin voters. Recent survey data shows high levels of support for the AfD especially within the group of Russian-Germans – immigrants from…
From immigration over redistributive attitudes to welfare spending. The moderating role of social program design
Whereas individual-level studies find that encompassing welfare states might in general be incompatible with large-scale immigration, studies on welfare spending find inconclusive results. We address this puzzle by pointing to the moderating role of social program design. We separate programs according to their degree of natives’ interest based on coverage, generosity and stratification characteristics for the social areas of unemployment, sickne…
A New Electorate? Explaining the Party Preferences of Immigrant-Origin Voters at the 2017 Bundestag Election
Immigrants now constitute a sizeable and rapidly growing group among many Western countries' electorates, but analyses of their party preferences remain limited. Theoretically, immigrants' party preferences might be explained with both standard electoral theories and immigrant-specific approaches. In this article, we rigorously test both perspectives against each other using the most recent data from Germany. Applying the Michigan model, with its…
What are we missing? Explaining immigrant-origin voter turnout with standard and immigrant-specific theories
Immigrant voters against their will: A focus group analysis of identities, political issues and party allegiances among German resettlers during the 2017 bundestag election campaign
This article provides an analysis of the political preferences of ethnic Germans who emigrated from the Soviet Union or its successor states. These resettlers (Aussiedler) and their descendants represent the biggest group of immigrant voters in Germany and reveal a rare combination of citizenship, ethnic identity and party support that makes it particularly interesting for applying existing approaches to immigrant voting behaviour. The analysis e…
Party Competition and Vote Choice
The Gender Gap in Youth Political Participation: Evidence from Germany
In this article, we consider the gender gap in political participation by analyzing recent survey data about German adolescents. Differentiating between institutional, non-institutional, and expressive participation, we show that, even in Germany where there is strong gender equality, type-specific gender differences persist. Testing for resource, socialization, and attitudinal explanations, in multivariate regression analyses, we identify social…
Immigration and Welfare Support in Germany: Methodological Reevaluations and Substantive Conclusions
Replications of published studies are of vital importance in any science, and especially in the social sciences, which seem to be particularly vulnerable to issues of reproducibility. Therefore, we gratefully acknowledge Auspurg, Brüderl, and Wöhler’s replication of our own study and thank them for their rigorous reanalysis of our data and models. Needless to say, we are also pleased that the replication of our models worked out smoothly
Public support for European Union economic policies
General attitudes of citizens toward the European Union (EU) have frequently been analyzed. However, European integration represents a multifaceted process and citizen attitudes may well depend on the precise nature of policy proposals. In this contribution, we analyze the determinants of specific support for three prominent EU economic policy proposals: the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, Eurobonds, and a EU financial transaction…
The impact of Populist Radical Right Parties on socio-economic policies
Because they are now members of most Western European parliaments, Populist Radical Right Parties (PRRPs) have the potential to influence the formulation of socio-economic policies. However, scholarly attention so far has nearly exclusively focussed on the impact of PRRPs on what is considered their ‘core issue’, that is migration policy. In this paper, we provide the first mixed methods comparative study of the impact of PRRPs on redistributive …
The Electoral Supporter Base of the Alternative for Germany
Using data from a recent nationwide survey, we provide the first analysis of the supporter base of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) since the party's split and ideological re‐orientation in mid‐2015. Hypotheses are derived from the literature on Populist Radical Right Parties (PRRPs) in Western Europe. Our findings indicate that AfD support—despite the party's euro crisis origins and rapid organizational and ideational changes—is by now due to l…
Immigration and Welfare Support in Germany
In recent years, several international-comparative studies have analyzed the relationship between migration and native populations' decreasing support for redistributive policies. However, these studies use cross-sectional designs and aggregate the number of foreign-born residents at the national level. Both aspects are theoretically and methodologically problematic. We address these shortcomings by investigating cross-sectional as well as longit…
Migration, migrant integration and support for social spending: The case of Switzerland
An extensive body of scholarship has claimed that the relationship between migration and the welfare state is a potentially troublesome one, because the native population might be concerned about the fiscal, economic and cultural threats this poses. At the same time, studies have argued that ‘migrants differ’, not only in their actual numbers but also in their similarities or differences compared with the native population. Taking these differenc…
Do Parties “Playing the Race Card” Undermine Natives’ Support for Redistribution? Evidence From Europe
In this article, we address the question of whether the policy statements of political parties with regard to migration affect the link between individual anti-immigrant sentiment and support for redistributive policies. While the effect of political parties “playing the race card” is well documented and repeatedly discussed in the American context, it has received little attention in comparative studies. We test our measurements of issue-salienc…
Does the mode of candidate selection affect the representativeness of parties
In this article, we analyse the impact of intra-party procedures of candidate selection for national elections on the representativeness of parties towards their voters. With regard to candidate selection we distinguish between two dimensions: inclusion and centralization. While the first identifies the type of selectorate for candidate nominations (members, delegates or committees), the second captures the territorial unit in which the nominatio…
Agricultural Interests and the Origins of Capitalism: A Parallel Comparative History of Germany, Denmark, New Zealand, and the USA
Addressing the literature on the historical origins of capitalism, this study analyses the role agriculture played in the formation of non-market economic coordination in economic and social affairs around 1900. It argues that the dominant rural production profile dictated whether farmers did exert a significant impact on socio-economic institution and policy formation outside the rural sector. By applying the method of parallel demonstration of …
Explaining working-class support for extreme right parties: A party competition approach
A Two-Dimensional Approach to the Political Opportunity Structure of Extreme Right Parties in Western Europe
Previous studies on the electoral fortunes of extreme right parties (ERPs) have pointed to the importance of variables of party competition for the success – or failure – of ERPs. These studies vary greatly when it comes to describing the political opportunity structure of the extreme right. Apart from their methodological differences, existing studies differ especially with regard to the assumed underlying dimension of party competition. This ar…
The impact of Populist Radical Right Parties on socio-economic policies
Because they are now members of most Western European parliaments, Populist Radical Right Parties (PRRPs) have the potential to influence the formulation of socio-economic policies. However, scholarly attention so far has nearly exclusively focussed on the impact of PRRPs on what is considered their ‘core issue’, that is migration policy. In this paper, we provide the first mixed methods comparative study of the impact of PRRPs on redistributive …
Immigration and Welfare Support in Germany
In recent years, several international-comparative studies have analyzed the relationship between migration and native populations' decreasing support for redistributive policies. However, these studies use cross-sectional designs and aggregate the number of foreign-born residents at the national level. Both aspects are theoretically and methodologically problematic. We address these shortcomings by investigating cross-sectional as well as longit…
Do Parties “Playing the Race Card” Undermine Natives’ Support for Redistribution? Evidence From Europe
In this article, we address the question of whether the policy statements of political parties with regard to migration affect the link between individual anti-immigrant sentiment and support for redistributive policies. While the effect of political parties “playing the race card” is well documented and repeatedly discussed in the American context, it has received little attention in comparative studies. We test our measurements of issue-salienc…
Does the mode of candidate selection affect the representativeness of parties
In this article, we analyse the impact of intra-party procedures of candidate selection for national elections on the representativeness of parties towards their voters. With regard to candidate selection we distinguish between two dimensions: inclusion and centralization. While the first identifies the type of selectorate for candidate nominations (members, delegates or committees), the second captures the territorial unit in which the nominatio…
A Two-Dimensional Approach to the Political Opportunity Structure of Extreme Right Parties in Western Europe
Previous studies on the electoral fortunes of extreme right parties (ERPs) have pointed to the importance of variables of party competition for the success – or failure – of ERPs. These studies vary greatly when it comes to describing the political opportunity structure of the extreme right. Apart from their methodological differences, existing studies differ especially with regard to the assumed underlying dimension of party competition. This ar…
The Gender Gap in Youth Political Participation: Evidence from Germany
In this article, we consider the gender gap in political participation by analyzing recent survey data about German adolescents. Differentiating between institutional, non-institutional, and expressive participation, we show that, even in Germany where there is strong gender equality, type-specific gender differences persist. Testing for resource, socialization, and attitudinal explanations, in multivariate regression analyses, we identify social…
The Electoral Supporter Base of the Alternative for Germany
Using data from a recent nationwide survey, we provide the first analysis of the supporter base of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) since the party's split and ideological re‐orientation in mid‐2015. Hypotheses are derived from the literature on Populist Radical Right Parties (PRRPs) in Western Europe. Our findings indicate that AfD support—despite the party's euro crisis origins and rapid organizational and ideational changes—is by now due to l…
What are we missing? Explaining immigrant-origin voter turnout with standard and immigrant-specific theories
Explaining working-class support for extreme right parties: A party competition approach
Why do immigrants support an anti-immigrant party? Russian-Germans and the Alternative for Germany
By reaching a vote share of 12.6 percent in the 2017 federal election, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) ended Germany’s rare status as a Western European polity lacking a significant Populist Radical Right Party (PRRP). Some of this support comes from a group not usually expected to vote for PRRPs: immigrant-origin voters. Recent survey data shows high levels of support for the AfD especially within the group of Russian-Germans – immigrants from…
Immigrant voters against their will: A focus group analysis of identities, political issues and party allegiances among German resettlers during the 2017 bundestag election campaign
This article provides an analysis of the political preferences of ethnic Germans who emigrated from the Soviet Union or its successor states. These resettlers (Aussiedler) and their descendants represent the biggest group of immigrant voters in Germany and reveal a rare combination of citizenship, ethnic identity and party support that makes it particularly interesting for applying existing approaches to immigrant voting behaviour. The analysis e…
Public support for European Union economic policies
General attitudes of citizens toward the European Union (EU) have frequently been analyzed. However, European integration represents a multifaceted process and citizen attitudes may well depend on the precise nature of policy proposals. In this contribution, we analyze the determinants of specific support for three prominent EU economic policy proposals: the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, Eurobonds, and a EU financial transaction…
A New Electorate? Explaining the Party Preferences of Immigrant-Origin Voters at the 2017 Bundestag Election
Immigrants now constitute a sizeable and rapidly growing group among many Western countries' electorates, but analyses of their party preferences remain limited. Theoretically, immigrants' party preferences might be explained with both standard electoral theories and immigrant-specific approaches. In this article, we rigorously test both perspectives against each other using the most recent data from Germany. Applying the Michigan model, with its…
Immigration and Welfare Support in Germany: Methodological Reevaluations and Substantive Conclusions
Replications of published studies are of vital importance in any science, and especially in the social sciences, which seem to be particularly vulnerable to issues of reproducibility. Therefore, we gratefully acknowledge Auspurg, Brüderl, and Wöhler’s replication of our own study and thank them for their rigorous reanalysis of our data and models. Needless to say, we are also pleased that the replication of our models worked out smoothly
Migration, migrant integration and support for social spending: The case of Switzerland
An extensive body of scholarship has claimed that the relationship between migration and the welfare state is a potentially troublesome one, because the native population might be concerned about the fiscal, economic and cultural threats this poses. At the same time, studies have argued that ‘migrants differ’, not only in their actual numbers but also in their similarities or differences compared with the native population. Taking these differenc…
Agricultural Interests and the Origins of Capitalism: A Parallel Comparative History of Germany, Denmark, New Zealand, and the USA
Addressing the literature on the historical origins of capitalism, this study analyses the role agriculture played in the formation of non-market economic coordination in economic and social affairs around 1900. It argues that the dominant rural production profile dictated whether farmers did exert a significant impact on socio-economic institution and policy formation outside the rural sector. By applying the method of parallel demonstration of …
Surveying immigrant-origin voters in a post-migrant society: The first Immigrant German Election Study, 2017
This paper introduces the Immigrant German Election Study (IMGES) as the first survey that explicitly targeted immigrant-origin voters in Germany. IMGES fills the gap of insufficient data in the field of immigrant-origin voters with a combination of proven and novel survey measures of the electoral behavior of people with a background from either Türkiye or from the former Soviet Union or its successor states. The study was carried out in a post-…
Party Competition and Vote Choice
Comparing the mobilising effects of in-person canvassing to postal reminders – experimental evidence from a longitudinal election study
For hard-to-survey populations such as ethnic minorities and immigrants, increasing survey response rates is a crucial element of the fieldwork as these populations often show a higher likelihood of not participating compared with the native population. However, no study has so far compared different strategies for mobilisation within this group. Using data from the Immigrant German Election Study II, this experiment systematically compares the e…
From immigration over redistributive attitudes to welfare spending. The moderating role of social program design
Whereas individual-level studies find that encompassing welfare states might in general be incompatible with large-scale immigration, studies on welfare spending find inconclusive results. We address this puzzle by pointing to the moderating role of social program design. We separate programs according to their degree of natives’ interest based on coverage, generosity and stratification characteristics for the social areas of unemployment, sickne…
A Two-Dimensional Approach to the Political Opportunity Structure of Extreme Right Parties in Western Europe
Previous studies on the electoral fortunes of extreme right parties (ERPs) have pointed to the importance of variables of party competition for the success – or failure – of ERPs. These studies vary greatly when it comes to describing the political opportunity structure of the extreme right. Apart from their methodological differences, existing studies differ especially with regard to the assumed underlying dimension of party competition. This ar…
Agricultural Interests and the Origins of Capitalism: A Parallel Comparative History of Germany, Denmark, New Zealand, and the USA
Addressing the literature on the historical origins of capitalism, this study analyses the role agriculture played in the formation of non-market economic coordination in economic and social affairs around 1900. It argues that the dominant rural production profile dictated whether farmers did exert a significant impact on socio-economic institution and policy formation outside the rural sector. By applying the method of parallel demonstration of …
Explaining working-class support for extreme right parties: A party competition approach
Do Parties “Playing the Race Card” Undermine Natives’ Support for Redistribution? Evidence From Europe
In this article, we address the question of whether the policy statements of political parties with regard to migration affect the link between individual anti-immigrant sentiment and support for redistributive policies. While the effect of political parties “playing the race card” is well documented and repeatedly discussed in the American context, it has received little attention in comparative studies. We test our measurements of issue-salienc…
Does the mode of candidate selection affect the representativeness of parties
In this article, we analyse the impact of intra-party procedures of candidate selection for national elections on the representativeness of parties towards their voters. With regard to candidate selection we distinguish between two dimensions: inclusion and centralization. While the first identifies the type of selectorate for candidate nominations (members, delegates or committees), the second captures the territorial unit in which the nominatio…
Migration, migrant integration and support for social spending: The case of Switzerland
An extensive body of scholarship has claimed that the relationship between migration and the welfare state is a potentially troublesome one, because the native population might be concerned about the fiscal, economic and cultural threats this poses. At the same time, studies have argued that ‘migrants differ’, not only in their actual numbers but also in their similarities or differences compared with the native population. Taking these differenc…
Immigration and Welfare Support in Germany
In recent years, several international-comparative studies have analyzed the relationship between migration and native populations' decreasing support for redistributive policies. However, these studies use cross-sectional designs and aggregate the number of foreign-born residents at the national level. Both aspects are theoretically and methodologically problematic. We address these shortcomings by investigating cross-sectional as well as longit…
Public support for European Union economic policies
General attitudes of citizens toward the European Union (EU) have frequently been analyzed. However, European integration represents a multifaceted process and citizen attitudes may well depend on the precise nature of policy proposals. In this contribution, we analyze the determinants of specific support for three prominent EU economic policy proposals: the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, Eurobonds, and a EU financial transaction…
The impact of Populist Radical Right Parties on socio-economic policies
Because they are now members of most Western European parliaments, Populist Radical Right Parties (PRRPs) have the potential to influence the formulation of socio-economic policies. However, scholarly attention so far has nearly exclusively focussed on the impact of PRRPs on what is considered their ‘core issue’, that is migration policy. In this paper, we provide the first mixed methods comparative study of the impact of PRRPs on redistributive …
The Electoral Supporter Base of the Alternative for Germany
Using data from a recent nationwide survey, we provide the first analysis of the supporter base of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) since the party's split and ideological re‐orientation in mid‐2015. Hypotheses are derived from the literature on Populist Radical Right Parties (PRRPs) in Western Europe. Our findings indicate that AfD support—despite the party's euro crisis origins and rapid organizational and ideational changes—is by now due to l…
Party Competition and Vote Choice
The Gender Gap in Youth Political Participation: Evidence from Germany
In this article, we consider the gender gap in political participation by analyzing recent survey data about German adolescents. Differentiating between institutional, non-institutional, and expressive participation, we show that, even in Germany where there is strong gender equality, type-specific gender differences persist. Testing for resource, socialization, and attitudinal explanations, in multivariate regression analyses, we identify social…
Immigration and Welfare Support in Germany: Methodological Reevaluations and Substantive Conclusions
Replications of published studies are of vital importance in any science, and especially in the social sciences, which seem to be particularly vulnerable to issues of reproducibility. Therefore, we gratefully acknowledge Auspurg, Brüderl, and Wöhler’s replication of our own study and thank them for their rigorous reanalysis of our data and models. Needless to say, we are also pleased that the replication of our models worked out smoothly
What are we missing? Explaining immigrant-origin voter turnout with standard and immigrant-specific theories
Immigrant voters against their will: A focus group analysis of identities, political issues and party allegiances among German resettlers during the 2017 bundestag election campaign
This article provides an analysis of the political preferences of ethnic Germans who emigrated from the Soviet Union or its successor states. These resettlers (Aussiedler) and their descendants represent the biggest group of immigrant voters in Germany and reveal a rare combination of citizenship, ethnic identity and party support that makes it particularly interesting for applying existing approaches to immigrant voting behaviour. The analysis e…
From immigration over redistributive attitudes to welfare spending. The moderating role of social program design
Whereas individual-level studies find that encompassing welfare states might in general be incompatible with large-scale immigration, studies on welfare spending find inconclusive results. We address this puzzle by pointing to the moderating role of social program design. We separate programs according to their degree of natives’ interest based on coverage, generosity and stratification characteristics for the social areas of unemployment, sickne…
A New Electorate? Explaining the Party Preferences of Immigrant-Origin Voters at the 2017 Bundestag Election
Immigrants now constitute a sizeable and rapidly growing group among many Western countries' electorates, but analyses of their party preferences remain limited. Theoretically, immigrants' party preferences might be explained with both standard electoral theories and immigrant-specific approaches. In this article, we rigorously test both perspectives against each other using the most recent data from Germany. Applying the Michigan model, with its…
Comparing the mobilising effects of in-person canvassing to postal reminders – experimental evidence from a longitudinal election study
For hard-to-survey populations such as ethnic minorities and immigrants, increasing survey response rates is a crucial element of the fieldwork as these populations often show a higher likelihood of not participating compared with the native population. However, no study has so far compared different strategies for mobilisation within this group. Using data from the Immigrant German Election Study II, this experiment systematically compares the e…
Why do immigrants support an anti-immigrant party? Russian-Germans and the Alternative for Germany
By reaching a vote share of 12.6 percent in the 2017 federal election, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) ended Germany’s rare status as a Western European polity lacking a significant Populist Radical Right Party (PRRP). Some of this support comes from a group not usually expected to vote for PRRPs: immigrant-origin voters. Recent survey data shows high levels of support for the AfD especially within the group of Russian-Germans – immigrants from…
Surveying immigrant-origin voters in a post-migrant society: The first Immigrant German Election Study, 2017
This paper introduces the Immigrant German Election Study (IMGES) as the first survey that explicitly targeted immigrant-origin voters in Germany. IMGES fills the gap of insufficient data in the field of immigrant-origin voters with a combination of proven and novel survey measures of the electoral behavior of people with a background from either Türkiye or from the former Soviet Union or its successor states. The study was carried out in a post-…
Integration in the Host Country, Mean Political Interest and Focus Shift towards Host Country Politics: Patterns of Transnational Political Interest among Germans from Turkey
Transnational political interest is the sustained attention to politics in at least two polities. Why do some immigrant-origin citizens show high levels of political interest in both their host countries and their familial countries of origin, some none, and others favour one over the other? With the 2017 Immigrant German Election Study, we describe the diverse patterns of transnational political interest among Germans from Turkey and their child…
Political science (20 works) · Economics (18 works) · Law (16 works) · Politics (15 works) · Law (13 works) · Sociology (12 works) · Demographic economics (11 works) · Immigration (11 works) · Political economy (11 works) · Populism, Right-Wing Movements (10 works)