Research

Peer-Reviewed Journal Publications

Please contact me at zsomer@utexas.edu for replication files

(* Graduate Student, # Undergraduate Student)

(1) Somer-Topcu, Zeynep, Patrick Fournier, Ruth Dassonneville. 20XX. "Personal Issue Importance Effects on Voters' Perceptual Accuracy of Party Issue Positions." Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties. Accepted for publication.

(2) Adams, James, Luca Bernardi, Lawrence Ezrow, and Zeynep Somer-Topcu. 2023. “Why Parties Gain Votes When the Public Perceives Them Shifting to the Right.” Political Studies. https://doi.org/10.1177/00323217231178979

(3) Somer-Topcu, Zeynep and Margit Tavits. 2023. “Message Distortion as a Campaign Strategy: Does Rival Party Distortion of Focal Party Position Affect Voters?” Journal of Politics 85(3): 892-904. https://doi.org/10.1086/723817

(4) Dassoneville, Ruth, Patrick Fournier, and Zeynep Somer-Topcu. 2023. “Partisan Attachments in a Multi-Dimensional Space.” West European Politics. 46(4): 678-704. https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2022.2087387

(5) Liu, Amy H., Michael G. Findley, David Leal, Raúl L. Madrid, Eric L. McDaniel, God’swill Osa,* Tasha Philpot, Brooke Shannon,* Zeynep Somer-Topcu, and Chris Wlezien. 2023. “Normalizing Diversity in Merit Review Forms.” PS: Political Science and Politics 56(1): 123-127. https://www.doi.org/10.1017/S1049096522000920

(6) Somer-Topcu, Zeynep and Daniel Weitzel*. 2022. “Valence Rhetoric and Vote Choice: How do Valence Attacks Affect Vote Choice?” Comparative Political Studies. 55(13): 2283-2310. https://doi.org/10.1177/00104140221074283

(7) Cozza, Joseph* and Zeynep Somer-Topcu. 2021. “Membership Vote for Party Leadership Changes: Electoral Effects and the Causal Mechanisms Behind.” Electoral Studies 71.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electstud.2021.102326

(8) Jung, Jae-Hee and Zeynep Somer-Topcu. “United We Stand, Divided We Fall? The Effects of Parties’ Brexit Rhetoric on Voters’ Perceptions of Party Positions.” Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties. Online published on November 4, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1080/17457289.2020.1839470

(9) Somer-Topcu, Zeynep, Margit Tavits, and Markus Baumann. “Does Party Rhetoric Affect Voter Perceptions of Party Positions.” Electoral Studies. Online Published on April 9, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electstud.2020.102153

(10) Fernandez-Vazquez , Pablo and Zeynep Somer-Topcu. 2019. “The Informational Role of Party Leader Changes on Voter Perceptions of Party Positions.” British Journal of Political Science 49(3): 977-996.

Link to the presentation at CSDC (McGill) in April 2016.

(11) Somer-Topcu, Zeynep. 2017. “Agree or Disagree: How do Party Leader Changes Affect the Distribution of Voters’ Perceptions.” Party Politics 23(1): 66-75. [link]

(12) Somer-Topcu, Zeynep. 2015. “Everything to Everyone: The Electoral Consequences of the Broad-Appeal Strategy in Europe.” American Journal of Political Science 59(4): 841-854. [link] [Replication Data from Dataverse]

(13) Adams, James, Lawrence Ezrow and Zeynep Somer-Topcu. 2014. “Do Voters Respond to Party Manifestos or to a Wider Information Environment? An Analysis of Mass-elite Linkages on European Integration” American Journal of Political Science 58(4): 967-978..[link] [Replication Data from Dataverse]

(14) Somer-Topcu, Zeynep and Laron Williams. 2014. “Opposition Party Policy Shifts in Response to No-Confidence Motions.” European Journal of Political Research 53(3): 600-616.[link]

(15) Somer-Topcu, Zeynep and Michelle Zar#. 2014. “European Parliamentary Elections and National Party Policy Change.” Comparative Political Studies 47: 878-902.[link]

(16) Adams, James, Lawrence Ezrow, Samuel Merill III, and Zeynep Somer-Topcu. 2013. “Does Collective Responsibility for Performance Alter Party Strategies? Policy-Seeking Parties in Proportional Systems?” British Journal of Political Science 43(1): 1-23.[link]

(17) Bawn, Kathleen and Zeynep Somer-Topcu. 2012. “Government versus Opposition at the Polls: How Governing Status Affects the Impact of Policy Positions.” American Journal of Political Science 56(2): 433-446. [link]

Winner of the 2013 Jack Walker Outstanding Article Award

(18) Adams, James, Lawrence Ezrow, and Zeynep Somer-Topcu. 2011. “Is Anybody Listening? Evidence that Voters do not Respond to European Parties’ Policy Programmes.” American Journal of Political Science 55(2): 370-382.[link]

Winner of the 2012 American Journal of Political Science Best Article Award

(19) Maoz, Zeev and Zeynep Somer-Topcu. 2010. “Polarization and Political Stability in Multiparty Systems (1945-1998).” British Journal of Political Science 40(4): 805-833.[link]

(20) Adams, James and Zeynep Somer-Topcu. 2009. “Do Parties Adjust Their Policies in Response to Rival Parties’ Policy Shifts? Spatial Theory and the Dynamics of Party Competition in Twenty-Five Postwar Democracies.” British Journal of Political Science 39: 825-846.[link]

(21) Adams, James and Zeynep Somer-Topcu. 2009. “Moderate Now, Win Votes Later: The Electoral Consequences of Parties’ Policy Shifts in Twenty-Five Postwar Democracies.” Journal of Politics 71(2): 678-692. [link]

Winner of the 2008 Leon Weaver Best Paper Award

(22) Somer-Topcu, Zeynep. 2009. “Timely Decisions: The Effects of Past National Elections on Party Policy.” Journal of Politics 71(1): 238-248. [link]

(23) Somer-Topcu, Zeynep and Laron Williams. 2008. “Survival of the Fittest? Cabinet Duration in Post-Communist Europe.” Comparative Politics 40 (3): 313-329. [link]

Peer-Reviewed Book Chapters

(1) Somer-Topcu, Zeynep and Daniel Weitzel. (In Press) “Leadership Turnovers and Their Electoral Consequences: A Social Democratic Exceptionalism?” In S. Hausermann and H. Kitschelt and (Eds.) Beyond Social Democracy: The Transformation of the Left in Emerging Knowledge Societies, Cambridge University Press.

Working Projects

Aldrich, Andrea and Zeynep Somer-Topcu. Glass Ceilings, Glass Cliffs, and Quicksands: Gendered Party Leadership in Parliamentary Systems. Book Manuscript for Cambridge Elements Gender and Politics Series. Under advanced contract since May 2023, invited for a Revise and Resubmit in April 2024.

Cakir, Semih, Oguzhan Alkan, Ruth Dassonneville, Zeynep Somer-Topcu. “The Informational Environment and the Voters’ Perceptions of Parties’ Ideological Positions.” Under review at Comparative Political Studies.

Cozza, Joseph, Gonzalo di Landro, Andrea Aldrich, and Zeynep Somer-Topcu. “A Rainbow Ceiling? Sexual Orientation and Party Leader Legitimacy.” Under review at British Journal of Political Science.

Somer-Topcu, Zeynep and Margit Tavits. Party Message Distortion and Voter Perceptions of Party Positions in Multi-Party Systems.

Cozza, Joseph, Zeynep Somer-Topcu, Gonzalo di Landro. “Leadership Election Competition and Leader Legitimacy.”

Dassonneville, Ruth, Patrick Fournier, Zeynep Somer-Topcu. “Citizens’ Perceptions of Parties’ Positions in a Multidimensional Space.”

Aldrich, Andrea, Joseph Cozza, Gonzalo di Landro, and Zeynep Somer-Topcu. “Gender, and Legitimacy in Party Leader Selection.”

Nasr, Mohamed, Elizabeth N. Simas, Zeynep Somer-Topcu. “The Lady's not for Turning? Candidate Gender and Position Switching.”

Curtis, Kendall and Zeynep Somer-Topcu. “Various Types of Snap Elections and the Responsible Party Performance.”

Dassonneville, Ruth, Patrick Fournier, Zeynep Somer-Topcu. “Do citizens perceive an empty left-authoritarian quadrant? Citizen perceptions of parties’ positions in a multi-dimensional space?”

Book Reviews, Op-Eds and Non-Peer-Reviewed Publications

(1) Somer-Topcu, Zeynep. 2022. “The Cycle of Coalition: How Parties and Voters Interact Under Coalition Governance. By David Fortunato.” Perspectives on Politics 20(3): 1134-1136.

(2) Jung, Jae-Hee and Zeynep Somer-Topcu. “Brexit: how intra-party unity helps voters understand and feel certain about party policy positions.” London School of Economics British Politics and Policy blog post. December 7, 2020, https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/voter-perceptions-policy-positions/

(3) Somer-Topcu, Zeynep. 2019. “Close to Home: Local Ties and Voting Radical Right in Europe. By Jennifer Fitzgerald.” Perspectives on Politics 17(2): 616-617.

(4) Somer-Topcu, Zeynep. "Can a New Leader Change a Party's Fortunes? How Leadership Changes Affect Voter Perceptions about Party Policy." London School of Economics EUROPP blog post. September 19, 2016.

(5) Somer-Topcu, Zeynep and Laron Williams. "Motions of No-Confidence Can Negatively Impact upon the Public’s View of the Government." London School of Economics Democratic Audit UK blog post. June 5, 2014.