Biography

Andres Reiljan defended his PhD at the European University Institiute in the Department of Political and Social Sciences in 2021. From 2021 to 2023, he conducted his research at the University of Tartu as a postdoctoral fellow, managing a project that was funded by the Estonian Research Council. His main fields of expertise are comparative politics and political behaviour.

Both his PhD and postdoctoral project focused on the concept of affective polarization. During his Max Weber Fellowship, Andres will continue his work on affective polarization. His objective is to consolidate his extensive research on the topic since 2015 into a comprehensive book that enhances our understanding of the nature, origins, and ramifications of this deeply concerning phenomenon in contemporary democracies.

Andres has also worked on numerous voting advice application (VAA) projects and during his fellowship he will contribute to ’euandi2024’: an EUI-developed VAA for the European Parliament elections, set to be launched for its fourth edition in April 2024.

During his stay at the University of Tartu, Andres taught two different master’s level courses on political behaviour and party politics. He has also supervised four master’s theses on topics ranging from political behaviour to education policy.

Research projects, clusters and working groups

• Corruption and affective polarisation: How party-level corruption perceptions drive partisan affect
• Transnational Democracy in the 21st century

Mentor

• Ellen Margaretha Immergut

Mentor

• Simon Hix

Recent research output

• TORCAL, Mariano; REILJAN, Andres; ZANOTTI, Lisa (2023), Affective polarization in comparative perspective, Article
• BETTARELLI, Luca; REILJAN, Andres; VAN HAUTE, Emilie (2023), A regional perspective to the study of affective polarization, Article
• REILJAN, Andres; GARZIA, Diego; FERREIRA DA SILVA, Frederico; TRECHSEL, Alexander H. (2023), Patterns of affective polarization toward parties and leaders across the democratic world, Article
• REILJAN, Andres; CICCHI, Lorenzo; GARZIA, Diego; FERREIRA DA SILVA, Frederico; TRECHSEL, Alexander H. (2023), Party placement in the void : the European political space in 10 years of cross-national voting advice applications, Working Paper
• FERREIRA DA SILVA, Frederico; REILJAN, Andres; CICCHI, Lorenzo; TRECHSEL, Alexander H.; GARZIA, Diego (2023), Three sides of the same coin? : comparing party positions in VAAs, expert surveys and manifesto data, Article
• REILJAN, Andres (2021), Affective polarization in multiparty systems : conceptualization, measurement and foundations, Thesis