Dr. Fabio Ellger
I am a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the WZB Transformations of Democracy Unit, directed by Daniel Ziblatt. I am interested in Comparative Politics and Political Behavior, with a focus on challenges to contemporary democracies. My primary research areas cover democratic representation, participation and voter mobilization. I also study the emergence of societal and electoral polarization, as well as their implication for democratic governance and resilience.
My work has been published in journals such as the Journal of Politics, British Journal of Political Science, Comparative Political Studies, and West European Politics. In my research, I employ a broad range of empirical methods, such as field and survey experiments, quasi-experimental designs, and quantitative text analyses with large language models. For a comprehensive overview of my ongoing projects and previous publications, please visit my Personal Website page. I also enjoy teaching classes on political behavior, research design and applied research methods.
Lebenslauf
As a postdoc, I have been a research fellow at Nuffield College, University of Oxford, (Summer 2024) and the Center for European Studies at Harvard University (Fall 2022). In 2022, I obtained my doctoral degree at the Chair of Comparative Political Behavior of Humboldt University Berlin and graduated from DYNAMICS – a joint PhD program of Humboldt University and the Hertie School.
Selected Publications on Democratic Polarization & Representation
Does Political Violence Undermine Descriptive Representation? The Case of Women in Politics. (2025) With Jeyhun Alizade, Marius Grünewald, Thomas Tichelbaecker. European Journal of Political Research.
Local Newspaper Decline and Political Polarization – Evidence from a Multi-Party Setting. (2024) With Hanno Hilbig, Sascha Riaz and Philipp Tillmann. British Journal of Political Science.
The Mobilizing Effect of Affective and Spatial Polarization. Evidence from Europe. (2024) Comparative Political Studies.
Do Politicians Discriminate Against Constituents with an Immigration Background? Field Experimental Evidence from Germany. (2022) With Jeyhun Alizade. The Journal of Politics.