Biography

Zeth Isaksson is a PhD candidate at Stockholm University, specialising in Historical Political Economy, Political Sociology, and Comparative Politics. His research investigates how historical institutions shape contemporary political behaviour, with particular focus on electoral support for far-right parties in Sweden and Germany. His work combines quantitative methods with archival and historical analysis. He has been a visiting researcher at the WZB in Berlin and the EUI. Zeth holds a double Master’s degree in Political Science and Current Democracies from LMU Munich and UPF Barcelona, as well as a double Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and History from Uppsala University. His research has been published or is forthcoming in Party Politics, Electoral Studies, Acta Politica, and other peer-reviewed journals.
As a Max Weber Fellow at the EUI, Zeth aims to finalise and publish the remaining studies from his PhD dissertation while expanding his research agenda to examine how experiences of authoritarian rule leave lasting imprints on electoral behaviour across time and space. He is particularly interested in how exposure to autocratic regimes shapes political engagement in emerging democracies following democratisation. By integrating historical and archival evidence with causal inference techniques, his project seeks to uncover the long-term mechanisms through which authoritarian legacies influence political behaviour. Through this work, he contributes to ongoing debates on democratic resilience, voter formation, and the deep historical roots of contemporary political dynamics.

Mentor

• Filip, Kostelka

Fields of expertise