Johannes Vüllers
Biographic Data
| ID | 386759 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Johannes Vüllers |
| GIVEN NAMES | Johannes |
| FAMILY NAME | Vüllers |
| SIGNATURE | VÜLLERS J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Duisburg-Essen |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0194-6570 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 254 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 19 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Protest without influence? A meso-level analysis of women's inclusion in civil resistance movements
While female participation in rebel groups is well studied, women's roles in nonviolent uprisings remain less understood. Using novel data on women's participation in 1135 dissenting organizations in Africa (1990-2015), we test hypotheses that organizational ideology (leftist, liberal, gender-equal) increases the likelihood of women's involvement. We find that the only ideology with a consistently positive effect on female participation—across or…
Who runs the NGOs? Women’s access to leadership in Nepal
Extending gender leadership research beyond politics, this study examines women’s access to leadership in Nepal’s local NGOs. • NGO leaders preferred female candidates in a conjoint experiment involving 385 NGO representatives. • Qualitative insights reveal persistent gender inequalities rooted in organizational culture and everyday barriers. • We identify three mechanisms that explain the gap between stated preferences and real outcomes. Studies…
Dynamics and determinants of right-wing populist mobilisation in Germany
Western Europe has recently experienced increasing protest mobilisation by right-wing populist movements. Although these movements are receiving increasing scholarly attention, systematic data on protest activities is limited. In this research note, original data is used to describe the protest activity of Germany’s Pegida movement across space and time and to explore the city-level determinants of protest mobilisation. The protest dataset record…
Does counter‐mobilization contain right‐wing populist movements? Evidence from Germany
Right‐wing populist (RWP) movements have been on the rise in Western democracies. Outside of party politics, such movements regularly organize demonstrations against political elites and minority groups. At the same time, civil society coalitions have mobilized against these movements. Yet we know little about the effect of counter‐demonstrations on RWP protest activities. We derive competing theoretical expectations from previous work. On the on…
From detection to sentencing
Homicide engenders broad moral concerns in society, and its aftermath can be understood as a barometer for criminal justice policy. Of all homicides committed, however, only some lead to arrest, to prosecution and ultimately to conviction in court. So far, no study has assessed the entire flow of homicide cases through the criminal justice system based on a nationwide sample. This study seeks to fill this empirical void by describing the entire f…
The value of sub-national data
Over the last decade, a renewed interest in the empirical analysis of contentious politics has led to significant improvements in the quality and quantity of data. The related wave of research has thus turned to analysis of the dynamics of contentious politics from a comparative perspective. Unfortunately, these studies use country level datasets for their analysis, creating a mismatch between the original actor-based theoretical framework and th…
Raise your voices! Civilian protest in civil wars
Mobilization for peace
Under what conditions do religious groups engage in peace activism? Religious groups engage in peace activism if the associated costs are low and they compete with either conflict party over the interpretation of their religious content concerning war and peace. Peace activism is a promising action as peace activists maintain their positive self-evaluation. I introduce a novel dataset of peace activism for 511 religious groups in 128 countries fr…
The Power of Words
Organizations often announce their protest activities prior to their implementation to mobilize awareness, recruit supporters, and receive media attention. We are interested in the effectiveness of protest announcements—that is, under what conditions governments make concessions to avoid having an announced protest take place. Governments assess the costs and benefits of providing concessions by taking into account the level of credible threat of…
Bad Religion? Religion, Collective Action, and the Onset of Armed Conflict in Developing Countries
Anecdotal evidence from many armed conflicts suggests that religion incites violence. Theoretically speaking, several facets of religion can create motives and opportunities to overcome the collective action problems associated with organized violence. However, empirical research has hitherto found no conclusive answer on the extent to which religion is connected to armed conflict onset. Contributing to the filling of this gap, we use a new datab…
Does discrimination breed grievances—and do grievances breed violence? New evidence from an analysis of religious minorities in developing countries
Since Ted Gurr’s Why Men Rebel it has become conventional wisdom that (relative) deprivation creates grievances and that these grievances in turn lead to intergroup violence. Recently, studies have yielded evidence that the exclusion of ethnic groups is a substantial conflict risk. From a theoretical angle, the relationship is straightforward and is likely to unfold as a causal chain that runs from objective discrimination to (subjective) grievan…
Measuring the Ambivalence of Religion
Despite ample anecdotal evidence, previous research on violent conflict has found little evidence that religion is an important factor in organized violence. Quantitative work in this area has been largely confined to the interreligious character of conflict and measures of religious diversity, and has strongly neglected the peace aspect of religion. The Religion and Conflict in Developing Countries (RCDC) dataset helps to fill this gap with inno…
The Pacifying Effects of Local Religious Institutions
This paper tests whether local religious institutions have a dampening effect on the probability of communal violence. It argues that a dense layer of institutions strengthens horizontal and vertical contacts and networks within religious communities. Horizontal linkages help to bridge social, economic, and ethnic divisions. Vertical contacts enable religious leaders to stay informed about communal grievances among their followers and to coordina…
The Power-Sharing Event Dataset (PSED)
Past research on the relationship between power-sharing arrangements and the recurrence of civil conflict has primarily analyzed the promises of power-sharing stipulated in peace agreements. What happens afterwards, however, has not yet been sufficiently explored. This represents a major research gap, as the actual practices of power-sharing in post-conflict countries are likely to be influential in the possibility of civil conflict recurring. To…
Speech Is Silver, Silence Is Golden? The Consequences of Failed Mediation in Civil Wars
Despite the frequent failure of mediation efforts, the potential negative impact of this outcome on conflict dynamics in civil wars has not been systematically studied. Starting from the assumption that the failure of mediation may cause the conflict parties to conclude that non-violent strategies are ineffective, we develop a rationalist model to explain under what conditions mediation failure might lead to the escalation of violence. Shifts in …
What Drives Inter-Religious Violence? Lessons from Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, and Tanzania
Given its religious demography, sub-Saharan Africa seems particularly prone to the outbreak of violent clashes between Christians and Muslims. This article compares three sub-Saharan countries—Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, and Tanzania—that display different levels of inter-religious violence despite each having in common similar population ratios of Christians and Muslims, as well as all sharing a number of the classical risk factors for conflict onse…
Religiöses Friedensengagement in innerstaatlichen Gewaltkonflikten
Warum kommt es zu Friedensengagement von Religionsgemeinschaften in innerstaatlichen Gewaltkonflikten? Friedensnormen allein können das Verhalten von Religionsgemeinschaften nicht erklären. Die Studie zeigt vielmehr, dass die Beziehungen der Religionsgemeinschaften zu den Konfliktparteien und die Konkurrenz der Gemeinschaft zu anderen religiösen Gruppen bzw. zwischen den eigenen Eliten bestimmend sein können. Eine Fuzzy-QCA Analyse von 65 Religio…
Do Religious Factors Impact Armed Conflict? Empirical Evidence from Sub‐Saharan Africa
Do Religious Factors Impact Armed Conflict? Empirical Evidence From Sub-Saharan Africa
Theoretically, the “mobilization hypothesis” establishes a link between religion and conflict by arguing that particular religious structures are prone to mobilization; once politicized, escalation to violent conflict becomes more likely. Yet, despite the religious diversity in sub-Saharan Africa and the religious overtones in a number of African conflicts, this assumption has not yet been backed by systematic empirical research on the religion–c…
Bad Religion? Religion, Collective Action, and the Onset of Armed Conflict in Developing Countries
Anecdotal evidence from many armed conflicts suggests that religion incites violence. Theoretically speaking, several facets of religion can create motives and opportunities to overcome the collective action problems associated with organized violence. However, empirical research has hitherto found no conclusive answer on the extent to which religion is connected to armed conflict onset. Contributing to the filling of this gap, we use a new datab…
Does discrimination breed grievances—and do grievances breed violence? New evidence from an analysis of religious minorities in developing countries
Since Ted Gurr’s Why Men Rebel it has become conventional wisdom that (relative) deprivation creates grievances and that these grievances in turn lead to intergroup violence. Recently, studies have yielded evidence that the exclusion of ethnic groups is a substantial conflict risk. From a theoretical angle, the relationship is straightforward and is likely to unfold as a causal chain that runs from objective discrimination to (subjective) grievan…
The Power-Sharing Event Dataset (PSED)
Past research on the relationship between power-sharing arrangements and the recurrence of civil conflict has primarily analyzed the promises of power-sharing stipulated in peace agreements. What happens afterwards, however, has not yet been sufficiently explored. This represents a major research gap, as the actual practices of power-sharing in post-conflict countries are likely to be influential in the possibility of civil conflict recurring. To…
The Pacifying Effects of Local Religious Institutions
This paper tests whether local religious institutions have a dampening effect on the probability of communal violence. It argues that a dense layer of institutions strengthens horizontal and vertical contacts and networks within religious communities. Horizontal linkages help to bridge social, economic, and ethnic divisions. Vertical contacts enable religious leaders to stay informed about communal grievances among their followers and to coordina…
Does counter‐mobilization contain right‐wing populist movements? Evidence from Germany
Right‐wing populist (RWP) movements have been on the rise in Western democracies. Outside of party politics, such movements regularly organize demonstrations against political elites and minority groups. At the same time, civil society coalitions have mobilized against these movements. Yet we know little about the effect of counter‐demonstrations on RWP protest activities. We derive competing theoretical expectations from previous work. On the on…
Do Religious Factors Impact Armed Conflict? Empirical Evidence From Sub-Saharan Africa
Theoretically, the “mobilization hypothesis” establishes a link between religion and conflict by arguing that particular religious structures are prone to mobilization; once politicized, escalation to violent conflict becomes more likely. Yet, despite the religious diversity in sub-Saharan Africa and the religious overtones in a number of African conflicts, this assumption has not yet been backed by systematic empirical research on the religion–c…
Measuring the Ambivalence of Religion
Despite ample anecdotal evidence, previous research on violent conflict has found little evidence that religion is an important factor in organized violence. Quantitative work in this area has been largely confined to the interreligious character of conflict and measures of religious diversity, and has strongly neglected the peace aspect of religion. The Religion and Conflict in Developing Countries (RCDC) dataset helps to fill this gap with inno…
What Drives Inter-Religious Violence? Lessons from Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, and Tanzania
Given its religious demography, sub-Saharan Africa seems particularly prone to the outbreak of violent clashes between Christians and Muslims. This article compares three sub-Saharan countries—Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, and Tanzania—that display different levels of inter-religious violence despite each having in common similar population ratios of Christians and Muslims, as well as all sharing a number of the classical risk factors for conflict onse…
Raise your voices! Civilian protest in civil wars
Mobilization for peace
Under what conditions do religious groups engage in peace activism? Religious groups engage in peace activism if the associated costs are low and they compete with either conflict party over the interpretation of their religious content concerning war and peace. Peace activism is a promising action as peace activists maintain their positive self-evaluation. I introduce a novel dataset of peace activism for 511 religious groups in 128 countries fr…
Dynamics and determinants of right-wing populist mobilisation in Germany
Western Europe has recently experienced increasing protest mobilisation by right-wing populist movements. Although these movements are receiving increasing scholarly attention, systematic data on protest activities is limited. In this research note, original data is used to describe the protest activity of Germany’s Pegida movement across space and time and to explore the city-level determinants of protest mobilisation. The protest dataset record…
The Power of Words
Organizations often announce their protest activities prior to their implementation to mobilize awareness, recruit supporters, and receive media attention. We are interested in the effectiveness of protest announcements—that is, under what conditions governments make concessions to avoid having an announced protest take place. Governments assess the costs and benefits of providing concessions by taking into account the level of credible threat of…
The value of sub-national data
Over the last decade, a renewed interest in the empirical analysis of contentious politics has led to significant improvements in the quality and quantity of data. The related wave of research has thus turned to analysis of the dynamics of contentious politics from a comparative perspective. Unfortunately, these studies use country level datasets for their analysis, creating a mismatch between the original actor-based theoretical framework and th…
From detection to sentencing
Homicide engenders broad moral concerns in society, and its aftermath can be understood as a barometer for criminal justice policy. Of all homicides committed, however, only some lead to arrest, to prosecution and ultimately to conviction in court. So far, no study has assessed the entire flow of homicide cases through the criminal justice system based on a nationwide sample. This study seeks to fill this empirical void by describing the entire f…
Do Religious Factors Impact Armed Conflict? Empirical Evidence from Sub‐Saharan Africa
Do Religious Factors Impact Armed Conflict? Empirical Evidence From Sub-Saharan Africa
Theoretically, the “mobilization hypothesis” establishes a link between religion and conflict by arguing that particular religious structures are prone to mobilization; once politicized, escalation to violent conflict becomes more likely. Yet, despite the religious diversity in sub-Saharan Africa and the religious overtones in a number of African conflicts, this assumption has not yet been backed by systematic empirical research on the religion–c…
Religiöses Friedensengagement in innerstaatlichen Gewaltkonflikten
Warum kommt es zu Friedensengagement von Religionsgemeinschaften in innerstaatlichen Gewaltkonflikten? Friedensnormen allein können das Verhalten von Religionsgemeinschaften nicht erklären. Die Studie zeigt vielmehr, dass die Beziehungen der Religionsgemeinschaften zu den Konfliktparteien und die Konkurrenz der Gemeinschaft zu anderen religiösen Gruppen bzw. zwischen den eigenen Eliten bestimmend sein können. Eine Fuzzy-QCA Analyse von 65 Religio…
Speech Is Silver, Silence Is Golden? The Consequences of Failed Mediation in Civil Wars
Despite the frequent failure of mediation efforts, the potential negative impact of this outcome on conflict dynamics in civil wars has not been systematically studied. Starting from the assumption that the failure of mediation may cause the conflict parties to conclude that non-violent strategies are ineffective, we develop a rationalist model to explain under what conditions mediation failure might lead to the escalation of violence. Shifts in …
What Drives Inter-Religious Violence? Lessons from Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, and Tanzania
Given its religious demography, sub-Saharan Africa seems particularly prone to the outbreak of violent clashes between Christians and Muslims. This article compares three sub-Saharan countries—Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, and Tanzania—that display different levels of inter-religious violence despite each having in common similar population ratios of Christians and Muslims, as well as all sharing a number of the classical risk factors for conflict onse…
The Power-Sharing Event Dataset (PSED)
Past research on the relationship between power-sharing arrangements and the recurrence of civil conflict has primarily analyzed the promises of power-sharing stipulated in peace agreements. What happens afterwards, however, has not yet been sufficiently explored. This represents a major research gap, as the actual practices of power-sharing in post-conflict countries are likely to be influential in the possibility of civil conflict recurring. To…
Does discrimination breed grievances—and do grievances breed violence? New evidence from an analysis of religious minorities in developing countries
Since Ted Gurr’s Why Men Rebel it has become conventional wisdom that (relative) deprivation creates grievances and that these grievances in turn lead to intergroup violence. Recently, studies have yielded evidence that the exclusion of ethnic groups is a substantial conflict risk. From a theoretical angle, the relationship is straightforward and is likely to unfold as a causal chain that runs from objective discrimination to (subjective) grievan…
Measuring the Ambivalence of Religion
Despite ample anecdotal evidence, previous research on violent conflict has found little evidence that religion is an important factor in organized violence. Quantitative work in this area has been largely confined to the interreligious character of conflict and measures of religious diversity, and has strongly neglected the peace aspect of religion. The Religion and Conflict in Developing Countries (RCDC) dataset helps to fill this gap with inno…
The Pacifying Effects of Local Religious Institutions
This paper tests whether local religious institutions have a dampening effect on the probability of communal violence. It argues that a dense layer of institutions strengthens horizontal and vertical contacts and networks within religious communities. Horizontal linkages help to bridge social, economic, and ethnic divisions. Vertical contacts enable religious leaders to stay informed about communal grievances among their followers and to coordina…
Bad Religion? Religion, Collective Action, and the Onset of Armed Conflict in Developing Countries
Anecdotal evidence from many armed conflicts suggests that religion incites violence. Theoretically speaking, several facets of religion can create motives and opportunities to overcome the collective action problems associated with organized violence. However, empirical research has hitherto found no conclusive answer on the extent to which religion is connected to armed conflict onset. Contributing to the filling of this gap, we use a new datab…
Mobilization for peace
Under what conditions do religious groups engage in peace activism? Religious groups engage in peace activism if the associated costs are low and they compete with either conflict party over the interpretation of their religious content concerning war and peace. Peace activism is a promising action as peace activists maintain their positive self-evaluation. I introduce a novel dataset of peace activism for 511 religious groups in 128 countries fr…
The Power of Words
Organizations often announce their protest activities prior to their implementation to mobilize awareness, recruit supporters, and receive media attention. We are interested in the effectiveness of protest announcements—that is, under what conditions governments make concessions to avoid having an announced protest take place. Governments assess the costs and benefits of providing concessions by taking into account the level of credible threat of…
The value of sub-national data
Over the last decade, a renewed interest in the empirical analysis of contentious politics has led to significant improvements in the quality and quantity of data. The related wave of research has thus turned to analysis of the dynamics of contentious politics from a comparative perspective. Unfortunately, these studies use country level datasets for their analysis, creating a mismatch between the original actor-based theoretical framework and th…
Raise your voices! Civilian protest in civil wars
From detection to sentencing
Homicide engenders broad moral concerns in society, and its aftermath can be understood as a barometer for criminal justice policy. Of all homicides committed, however, only some lead to arrest, to prosecution and ultimately to conviction in court. So far, no study has assessed the entire flow of homicide cases through the criminal justice system based on a nationwide sample. This study seeks to fill this empirical void by describing the entire f…
Does counter‐mobilization contain right‐wing populist movements? Evidence from Germany
Right‐wing populist (RWP) movements have been on the rise in Western democracies. Outside of party politics, such movements regularly organize demonstrations against political elites and minority groups. At the same time, civil society coalitions have mobilized against these movements. Yet we know little about the effect of counter‐demonstrations on RWP protest activities. We derive competing theoretical expectations from previous work. On the on…
Dynamics and determinants of right-wing populist mobilisation in Germany
Western Europe has recently experienced increasing protest mobilisation by right-wing populist movements. Although these movements are receiving increasing scholarly attention, systematic data on protest activities is limited. In this research note, original data is used to describe the protest activity of Germany’s Pegida movement across space and time and to explore the city-level determinants of protest mobilisation. The protest dataset record…
Protest without influence? A meso-level analysis of women's inclusion in civil resistance movements
While female participation in rebel groups is well studied, women's roles in nonviolent uprisings remain less understood. Using novel data on women's participation in 1135 dissenting organizations in Africa (1990-2015), we test hypotheses that organizational ideology (leftist, liberal, gender-equal) increases the likelihood of women's involvement. We find that the only ideology with a consistently positive effect on female participation—across or…
Who runs the NGOs? Women’s access to leadership in Nepal
Extending gender leadership research beyond politics, this study examines women’s access to leadership in Nepal’s local NGOs. • NGO leaders preferred female candidates in a conjoint experiment involving 385 NGO representatives. • Qualitative insights reveal persistent gender inequalities rooted in organizational culture and everyday barriers. • We identify three mechanisms that explain the gap between stated preferences and real outcomes. Studies…
Political science (16 works) · Law (12 works) · Sociology (12 works) · Political Conflict and Governance (11 works) · Law (9 works) · Psychology (9 works) · Religion and Society Interactions (9 works) · Economics (7 works) · Politics (7 works) · Religion, Society, and Development (7 works)