Gidon Cohen
Biographic Data
| ID | 3731295 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Gidon Cohen |
| GIVEN NAMES | Gidon |
| FAMILY NAME | Cohen |
| SIGNATURE | COHEN G |
| AFFILIATIONS | Durham University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9899-5389 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 35 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2001 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Political polarisation of climate-policy-relevant attitudes: Longitudinal evidence from Britain
This article provides a longitudinal study of political polarisation of climate-policy-relevant attitudes in Britain, 2014–2025. It shows that, in a context of increased climate salience, Britons’ climate-policy-relevant attitudes have become much more strongly associated with party support (partisan polarisation) and with other political attitudes (ideological polarisation). Consistent with findings from other West European countries, partisan p…
When Legislators Do Not Differentiate: A Field Experiment on British MPs’ Responses to Constituent Policy Queries
How do legislators respond to constituent policy queries? Existing research suggests that legislators vary their responsiveness and tailor response content depending on constituent congruence, raising normative concerns about legislator–constituent communication. We report results from a pre-registered audit study of UK MPs which is the first to test whether legislators in party-centred parliamentary democracies vary substantive response rates an…
Long-run trends in partisan polarization of climate policy-relevant attitudes across countries
We summarize long-run trends in partisan polarization of voters’ climate policy-relevant attitudes across 36 countries and multiple decades (1993–2020). We find substantial growth in partisan polarization of these attitudes in the US, other Anglophone countries and much of Western Europe, but not elsewhere. Comparing Western European to Anglophone countries, partisan polarization is more prominent on different climate policy-relevant attitudes, a…
Electoral Violence in England and Wales, 1832-1914
This article analyses over 19,000 articles from newspapers and parliamentary commission reports to reveal endemic electoral violence in England and Wales between 1832 and 1914. It offers a new understanding of the phenomenon in three main ways. First, the extent of election violence, which regularly featured major riots requiring police and military intervention, disturbances of the peace, and deaths, questions conventional understandings of Brit…
Advantages, Challenges and Limitations of Audit Experiments with Constituents
Audit experiments examining the responsiveness of public officials have become an increasingly popular tool used by political scientists. While these studies have brought significant insight into how public officials respond to different types of constituents, particularly those from minority and disadvantaged backgrounds, audit studies have also been controversial due to their frequent use of deception. Scholars have justified the use of decepti…
Depolarization, Repolarization and Redistributive Ideological Change in Britain, 1983–2016
This article examines party sorting, elite cue and ideological polarization accounts of polarization dynamics. The study tests their differing expectations about trends in redistributive ideological polarization and partisan polarization in the British case using repeated cross-section and panel data. The authors reject party sorting accounts, which require ideology to be stable and changes in party support to drive partisan polarization, because…
For a Life beyond Governing Persons: Alternative Reflections on Political Life History in Britain (and Beyond)
R.A.W. Rhodes is to be applauded for restating the case for life history methods within the field of political studies, and many of his arguments will be found unexceptionable by those actively working with such methods. Ironically, in his recent contribution to Political Studies Review Rhodes nevertheless eschews biographical and other forms of complexity in favour of essentialising comparison. A ‘British tradition of political biography’ is con…
The Labour Party and the Politics of War and Peace, 1900-1924, by Paul Bridgen
Journal Article The Labour Party and the Politics of War and Peace, 1900–1924, by Paul Bridgen Get access The Labour Party and the Politics of War and Peace, 1900–1924, by Paul Bridgen (Woodbridge: The Boydell P. for the Royal Historical Society, 2009; pp. 223. £50). Gidon Cohen Gidon Cohen Durham University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The English Historical Review, Volume 128, Issue 534, October 2013,…
Grassroots Conservatism in Post‐War Britain: A View from the Bottom Up
It is well known the membership of British Conservative Party in the 1950s dwarfed that of other parties, but despite this there has been very little examination of the party's grassroots in this crucial period. What literature there is comes predominantly from the top‐down focus of national politics and revolves around four disputed images. Firstly, high‐levels of membership are associated with commendable engagement with formal politics. Second…
Capture-Recapture Methods and Party Activism in Britain
Capture-recapture methods are of general interest because they can be applied to conventional historical sources to address otherwise intractable questions about the size and dynamics of historical populations. When employed to assess alternative explanations for the long-term trajectory of party activism in Britain-based on data drawn from the South Lewisham Labour Party-they suggest that the falling supply of individuals prepared to become poli…
Propensity-Score Methods and the Lenin School
Although social scientists often use propensity-score methods to study databases that contain substantial amounts of bias and missing information, these techniques have not been applied in the historical literature. This article uses propensity-score matching to investigate the impact of Moscow training on the selection of leadership cadres within Britain's Communist Party. These matching techniques can enable the quantitative analysis of a range…
British Students at the International Lenin School 1926-37: A Reaffirmation of Methods, Results, and Conclusions
Alan Campbell, John McIlroy, Barry McLoughlin, and John Halstead have offered a sweeping, if incoherent, criticism of the research presented in ‘Stalin's Sausage Machine’, our recent article on British students at the International Lenin School. By expanding upon and reaffirming the methods, results, and conclusion of our original article, we address each of the main criticisms made and show that none can be substantiated. Using statistical analy…
Stalin's Sausage Machine. British Students at the International Lenin School, 1926-37
Between 1926 and 1937 at least 160 British communists attended the Communist International's International Lenin School (ILS) in Moscow. The aims of the school were to produce a new stratum of leading communist party cadres, young, proletarian, disciplined, and free of the taint of reformism. Using materials from the Comintem archives in Moscow, this article assesses the degree to which the school was successful in meeting these objectives. It sh…
Missing, Biased, and Unrepresentative: The Quantitative Analysis of Multisource Biographical Data
With the growth in interest in collective biography as a historical technique, many predominantly qualitative historians find themselves faced with large amounts of information. These data, collected from a variety of sources, are often highly irregular, making statistical analysis extremely problematic. Current practice is to ignore these problems and proceed with quantitative analysis suitable only for much more regular data. It is argued that …
The Independent Labour Party, Disaffiliation, Revolution and Standing Orders
Advantages, Challenges and Limitations of Audit Experiments with Constituents
Audit experiments examining the responsiveness of public officials have become an increasingly popular tool used by political scientists. While these studies have brought significant insight into how public officials respond to different types of constituents, particularly those from minority and disadvantaged backgrounds, audit studies have also been controversial due to their frequent use of deception. Scholars have justified the use of decepti…
Depolarization, Repolarization and Redistributive Ideological Change in Britain, 1983–2016
This article examines party sorting, elite cue and ideological polarization accounts of polarization dynamics. The study tests their differing expectations about trends in redistributive ideological polarization and partisan polarization in the British case using repeated cross-section and panel data. The authors reject party sorting accounts, which require ideology to be stable and changes in party support to drive partisan polarization, because…
Stalin's Sausage Machine. British Students at the International Lenin School, 1926-37
Between 1926 and 1937 at least 160 British communists attended the Communist International's International Lenin School (ILS) in Moscow. The aims of the school were to produce a new stratum of leading communist party cadres, young, proletarian, disciplined, and free of the taint of reformism. Using materials from the Comintem archives in Moscow, this article assesses the degree to which the school was successful in meeting these objectives. It sh…
British Students at the International Lenin School 1926-37: A Reaffirmation of Methods, Results, and Conclusions
Alan Campbell, John McIlroy, Barry McLoughlin, and John Halstead have offered a sweeping, if incoherent, criticism of the research presented in ‘Stalin's Sausage Machine’, our recent article on British students at the International Lenin School. By expanding upon and reaffirming the methods, results, and conclusion of our original article, we address each of the main criticisms made and show that none can be substantiated. Using statistical analy…
Missing, Biased, and Unrepresentative: The Quantitative Analysis of Multisource Biographical Data
With the growth in interest in collective biography as a historical technique, many predominantly qualitative historians find themselves faced with large amounts of information. These data, collected from a variety of sources, are often highly irregular, making statistical analysis extremely problematic. Current practice is to ignore these problems and proceed with quantitative analysis suitable only for much more regular data. It is argued that …
Long-run trends in partisan polarization of climate policy-relevant attitudes across countries
We summarize long-run trends in partisan polarization of voters’ climate policy-relevant attitudes across 36 countries and multiple decades (1993–2020). We find substantial growth in partisan polarization of these attitudes in the US, other Anglophone countries and much of Western Europe, but not elsewhere. Comparing Western European to Anglophone countries, partisan polarization is more prominent on different climate policy-relevant attitudes, a…
For a Life beyond Governing Persons: Alternative Reflections on Political Life History in Britain (and Beyond)
R.A.W. Rhodes is to be applauded for restating the case for life history methods within the field of political studies, and many of his arguments will be found unexceptionable by those actively working with such methods. Ironically, in his recent contribution to Political Studies Review Rhodes nevertheless eschews biographical and other forms of complexity in favour of essentialising comparison. A ‘British tradition of political biography’ is con…
Grassroots Conservatism in Post‐War Britain: A View from the Bottom Up
It is well known the membership of British Conservative Party in the 1950s dwarfed that of other parties, but despite this there has been very little examination of the party's grassroots in this crucial period. What literature there is comes predominantly from the top‐down focus of national politics and revolves around four disputed images. Firstly, high‐levels of membership are associated with commendable engagement with formal politics. Second…
Capture-Recapture Methods and Party Activism in Britain
Capture-recapture methods are of general interest because they can be applied to conventional historical sources to address otherwise intractable questions about the size and dynamics of historical populations. When employed to assess alternative explanations for the long-term trajectory of party activism in Britain-based on data drawn from the South Lewisham Labour Party-they suggest that the falling supply of individuals prepared to become poli…
The Independent Labour Party, Disaffiliation, Revolution and Standing Orders
Stalin's Sausage Machine. British Students at the International Lenin School, 1926-37
Between 1926 and 1937 at least 160 British communists attended the Communist International's International Lenin School (ILS) in Moscow. The aims of the school were to produce a new stratum of leading communist party cadres, young, proletarian, disciplined, and free of the taint of reformism. Using materials from the Comintem archives in Moscow, this article assesses the degree to which the school was successful in meeting these objectives. It sh…
Missing, Biased, and Unrepresentative: The Quantitative Analysis of Multisource Biographical Data
With the growth in interest in collective biography as a historical technique, many predominantly qualitative historians find themselves faced with large amounts of information. These data, collected from a variety of sources, are often highly irregular, making statistical analysis extremely problematic. Current practice is to ignore these problems and proceed with quantitative analysis suitable only for much more regular data. It is argued that …
British Students at the International Lenin School 1926-37: A Reaffirmation of Methods, Results, and Conclusions
Alan Campbell, John McIlroy, Barry McLoughlin, and John Halstead have offered a sweeping, if incoherent, criticism of the research presented in ‘Stalin's Sausage Machine’, our recent article on British students at the International Lenin School. By expanding upon and reaffirming the methods, results, and conclusion of our original article, we address each of the main criticisms made and show that none can be substantiated. Using statistical analy…
Propensity-Score Methods and the Lenin School
Although social scientists often use propensity-score methods to study databases that contain substantial amounts of bias and missing information, these techniques have not been applied in the historical literature. This article uses propensity-score matching to investigate the impact of Moscow training on the selection of leadership cadres within Britain's Communist Party. These matching techniques can enable the quantitative analysis of a range…
Capture-Recapture Methods and Party Activism in Britain
Capture-recapture methods are of general interest because they can be applied to conventional historical sources to address otherwise intractable questions about the size and dynamics of historical populations. When employed to assess alternative explanations for the long-term trajectory of party activism in Britain-based on data drawn from the South Lewisham Labour Party-they suggest that the falling supply of individuals prepared to become poli…
The Labour Party and the Politics of War and Peace, 1900-1924, by Paul Bridgen
Journal Article The Labour Party and the Politics of War and Peace, 1900–1924, by Paul Bridgen Get access The Labour Party and the Politics of War and Peace, 1900–1924, by Paul Bridgen (Woodbridge: The Boydell P. for the Royal Historical Society, 2009; pp. 223. £50). Gidon Cohen Gidon Cohen Durham University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The English Historical Review, Volume 128, Issue 534, October 2013,…
Grassroots Conservatism in Post‐War Britain: A View from the Bottom Up
It is well known the membership of British Conservative Party in the 1950s dwarfed that of other parties, but despite this there has been very little examination of the party's grassroots in this crucial period. What literature there is comes predominantly from the top‐down focus of national politics and revolves around four disputed images. Firstly, high‐levels of membership are associated with commendable engagement with formal politics. Second…
For a Life beyond Governing Persons: Alternative Reflections on Political Life History in Britain (and Beyond)
R.A.W. Rhodes is to be applauded for restating the case for life history methods within the field of political studies, and many of his arguments will be found unexceptionable by those actively working with such methods. Ironically, in his recent contribution to Political Studies Review Rhodes nevertheless eschews biographical and other forms of complexity in favour of essentialising comparison. A ‘British tradition of political biography’ is con…
Depolarization, Repolarization and Redistributive Ideological Change in Britain, 1983–2016
This article examines party sorting, elite cue and ideological polarization accounts of polarization dynamics. The study tests their differing expectations about trends in redistributive ideological polarization and partisan polarization in the British case using repeated cross-section and panel data. The authors reject party sorting accounts, which require ideology to be stable and changes in party support to drive partisan polarization, because…
Advantages, Challenges and Limitations of Audit Experiments with Constituents
Audit experiments examining the responsiveness of public officials have become an increasingly popular tool used by political scientists. While these studies have brought significant insight into how public officials respond to different types of constituents, particularly those from minority and disadvantaged backgrounds, audit studies have also been controversial due to their frequent use of deception. Scholars have justified the use of decepti…
Long-run trends in partisan polarization of climate policy-relevant attitudes across countries
We summarize long-run trends in partisan polarization of voters’ climate policy-relevant attitudes across 36 countries and multiple decades (1993–2020). We find substantial growth in partisan polarization of these attitudes in the US, other Anglophone countries and much of Western Europe, but not elsewhere. Comparing Western European to Anglophone countries, partisan polarization is more prominent on different climate policy-relevant attitudes, a…
Electoral Violence in England and Wales, 1832-1914
This article analyses over 19,000 articles from newspapers and parliamentary commission reports to reveal endemic electoral violence in England and Wales between 1832 and 1914. It offers a new understanding of the phenomenon in three main ways. First, the extent of election violence, which regularly featured major riots requiring police and military intervention, disturbances of the peace, and deaths, questions conventional understandings of Brit…
Political polarisation of climate-policy-relevant attitudes: Longitudinal evidence from Britain
This article provides a longitudinal study of political polarisation of climate-policy-relevant attitudes in Britain, 2014–2025. It shows that, in a context of increased climate salience, Britons’ climate-policy-relevant attitudes have become much more strongly associated with party support (partisan polarisation) and with other political attitudes (ideological polarisation). Consistent with findings from other West European countries, partisan p…
When Legislators Do Not Differentiate: A Field Experiment on British MPs’ Responses to Constituent Policy Queries
How do legislators respond to constituent policy queries? Existing research suggests that legislators vary their responsiveness and tailor response content depending on constituent congruence, raising normative concerns about legislator–constituent communication. We report results from a pre-registered audit study of UK MPs which is the first to test whether legislators in party-centred parliamentary democracies vary substantive response rates an…
Political science (12 works) · Politics (11 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Law (8 works) · Law (7 works) · Electoral Systems and Political Participation (6 works) · Economics (4 works) · Political economy (4 works) · Communism (3 works) · Computer Science (3 works)