ABOUT
The crisis of representative democracy, on the one hand, and conceptual and methodological challenges on the other are shaping the field of political representation. This conference gathers senior and early-career scholars from Israel and around the world to discuss political representation and its study in a changing world. We build on two exciting features of the last two decades of academic scholarship on representation: first, work on representation as reciprocal and dynamic, and secondly, on the convergence and mutual interest of political theorists and empirical scholars in each other’s work. Participants will present their works on recent theoretical and empirical developments in the concept of representation; discuss how the patterns of representation affect support for and perceptions of democracy bearing on the ‘crisis of democracy’; and relate them to innovative approaches to the measurement of representation in different political contexts and channels. The conference is organized by the ISF Center of Excellence: Looking beyond the Crisis of Democracy- Patterns of Representation in Israeli Elections, and is sponsored by the Israel Science Foundation.
SPEAKERS

Jane Mansbridge
Charles F. Adams Professor of Political Leadership and Democratic Values Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University

Christopher Wlezien
Hogg Professor of Government, Department of Government,
University of Texas at Austin

Wouter van Atteveldt
Department of Communication Science
Vrije Universtiet Amsterdam

Stefaan Walgrave
Department of Political Science
University of Antwerp

Robert Rohrschneider
Sir Robert Worcester Distinguished Professor of Public Opinion and Survey Research at the University of Kansas

Fabio Wolkenstein
Department of Political Science
University of Vienna

Peter Loewen
Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, and the Department of Political Science
University of Toronto

Jack Lucas
Department of Political Science
University of Calgary

Shaul Shenhav (PI)
Department of Political Science
The Hebrew University

Michal Shamir (PI)
The School of Political Science, Government and International Affairs
Tel-Aviv University

Tamir Sheafer (PI)
Departments of Communication and
Political Science The Hebrew University


Shira Dvir Gvirsman (PI)
Department of Communication
Tel-Aviv University
Israel Waismel-Manor (PI)
School of Political Science
University of Haifa

Wael Abu-'Uksa
Department of Political Science
The Hebrew University

Nahum Barnea
Yediot Aharonot

Reut Itzkovitch-Malka
Dept. of Political Science, Sociology & Communication The Open University of Israel

Yael Rivka Kaplan
School of Political Science
University of Haifa
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Liron Lavi
Department of Political Science
Bar-Ilan University

Oker Kenig
Department of Political Science
Ashkelon Academic College

Gal Levy
Dept. of Political Science, Sociology & Communication The Open University of Israel

Muhammed Khalaily
School of Political Science
University of Haifa

Yotam Margalit
The School of Political Science, Government and International Affairs Tel-Aviv University

Dror Markus
Department of Political Science
The Hebrew University

Gideon Rahat
Gersten Family Chair in Political Science
The Hebrew University

Jennifer Oser
Department of Politics and Government at Ben-Gurion University

Yael Shomer
The School of Political Science, Government and International Affairs Tel-Aviv University

Keren Tsuriel
Department of Communication
Tel-Aviv University

Guy Mor
Department of Political Science
The Hebrew University

Naama Rivlin-Angert
Department of Political Science
Tel-Aviv University

Vered Porzycki
Department of Political Science
The Hebrew University

Gal Ron
Department of Political Science
The Hebrew University

Lior Sheffer
The School of Political Science, Government and International Affairs Tel-Aviv University

Clareta Treger
Munk School for Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto

Aliza Silvera
Director, Mediation and Dispute Resolution Center of the community of Ramla

Eran Amsalem
Department of Communication
The Hebrew University

Alon Yakter
The School of Political Science, Government and International Affairs Tel-Aviv University

Alon Zoizner
Department of Communication
University of Haifa
PROGRAM
20-12-22
9:30
Gathering
16:00
Coffee Break
10:00
12:00
13:30
Keynote Lectures (room 527)
Chair: Michal Shamir, Tel Aviv University.
Speakers:
Jane Mansbridge, Harvard University. The Future of Representation.
Christopher Wlezien, The University of Texas at Austin. Democratic Policy Representation is (Really) Hard.
16:30
Lunch
The ISF Research Center “Looking Beyond the Crisis of Democracy: Patterns of Representation in Israeli Elections” (room 527)
Speakers:
Michal Shamir, Tel Aviv University.
Shaul Shenhav, The Hebrew University.
Shira Dvir Gvirsman, Tel Aviv University.
Discussants:
Wael Abu-'Uksa, The Hebrew University.
Yotam Margalit, Tel Aviv University.
Jennifer Oser, Ben Gurion University.
18:30
Roundtable on Political Representation and Elections in Israel (room 003)
(In honor of Prof. Michal Shamir upon her retirement)
Greetings: Hanna Lerner, Head of the School of Political Science, Government and International Affairs, Tel Aviv University.
Chair: Gideon Rahat, The Hebrew University.
Panelists:
Ofer Kenig, Ashkelon Academic College and Israel Democracy Institute.
Gal Levy, The Open University.
Muhammed Khalaily, Israel Democracy Institute.
Yael Shomer, Tel Aviv University.
Alon Yakter, Tel Aviv University.
Gideon Rahat, The Hebrew University.
Dinner Buffet
21-12-22
09:00
11:00
11:15
Workshop 1: Recent Conceptual and Empirical Developments in Political Representation (room 527)
Chair: Michal Shamir, Tel Aviv University.
Presentations:
Ontologies of Political Representation. Fabio Wolkenstein, University of Vienna.
Discussant: Nahshon Perez, Bar Ilan University.
Surrogate Representation by Parties: A Cross-National Perspective. Liron Lavi, Bar Ilan University | Liran Harsgor, Haifa University.
Discussant: Fabio Wolkenstein, University of Vienna.
Talking Representation: How Legislators Compensate Incongruent Principals. Reut Itzkovitch-Malka, The Open University | Guy Mor-Lan, The Hebrew University | Odelia Oshri, The Hebrew University | Shaul Shenhav, The Hebrew University.
Discussant: Meital Balmas, The Hebrew University.
Who is the Enemy Here? Political Delegitimization: Definition, Sources, and Analysis. Naama Rivlin-Angert, Tel Aviv University (Short presentation).
13:15
14:30
Coffee break
Workshop 2: Reciprocal Representation: Politicians, Constituents, and the Media (room 527)
Chair: Israel Waismel-Manor, Haifa University.
From COVID-19 to Controversial Freedom Restrictions in the Media, From Incumbency Bonus to Political Fragmentation. Wouter van Atteveldt, Vrije Universtiet Amsterdam | Jan Kleinnijenhuis, Vrije Universtiet Amsterdam | Anita van Hoof, Vrije Universtiet Amsterdam.
Discussant: Ilana Shpaizman, Bar Ilan University.
The Representation of Gender-Related Issues in Politicians’ Discourse Over Social Media. Yael R. Kaplan, Haifa University | Vered Porzycki, The Hebrew University | Naama Rivlin-Angert, Tel Aviv University.
Discussant: Yossi David, Ben Gurion University.
ADHD and Political Participation: An Observational Study. Israel Waismel-Manor, Haifa University | Yael R. Kaplan, Haifa University | Yair Zlotnik, Ben Gurion University | Shira Dvir Gvirsman, Tel Aviv University | Shaul Shenhav, The Hebrew University | Gal Ifergane, Ben Gurion University (Short presentation).
The Causal Effect of Candidate Extremity on Citizens’ Preferences: Evidence from Conjoint Experiments. Eran Amsalem, The Hebrew University | Alon Zoizner, Haifa University (Short presentation).
Introducing: “Israspeech” a New Resource of Knesset Speeches. Guy Mor-Lan, The Hebrew University | Shaul Shenhav, The Hebrew University (Short presentation).
16:30
17:00
19:30
Lunch
Workshop 3: New Frontiers in Representation Research (room 527)
Chair: Shira Dvir Gvirsman, Tel Aviv University.
The Role of Politicians’ Perceptions in Bringing About Democratic Representation. Sketching a research program. Stefaan Walgrave, University of Antwerp.
Discussant: Israel Waismel-Manor, Haifa University.
Does Democracy Work Better in Smaller Populations? Peter John Loewen, University of Toronto | Md Mujahedul Islam, University of Toronto | Jonah Goldberg, University of Toronto | John R. McAndrews, University of Toronto.
Discussant: Liran Harsgor, Haifa University.
Leveraging Researcher Domain Expertise to Annotate Concepts within Imbalanced Data. Dror Markus, The Hebrew University | Guy Mor-Lan, The Hebrew University (Short presentation).
Typologies Are from Mars, Variables Are from Venus: Which Methodology Fits Best to Predict Nonvoters? Keren Tsuriel, Tel Aviv University (Short presentation).
Coffee Break
Representation in Israeli Politics - Insights from the Knesset (room 003)
Chair: Nahum Barnea, Yedioth Ahronoth
MK Na'ama Lazimi - Labor Party
MK Simcha Rotman - Religious Zionist Party
Tal Schneider - Political Correspondent Zman.co.il
Dinner
22-12-22
9:00
ISF researchers meeting
12:00
Drive to Ramla
10:00
Workshop 4: Political Representation and The Crisis of Democracy (room 527)
Chair: Tamir Sheafer, The Hebrew University.
When Do Illiberal Parties Emerge? A Test of Competing Models. Robert Rohrschneider, The University of Kansas | Mark Peffley, University of Kentucky | Stephen Whitefield, Oxford University.
Discussant: Noam Gidron, The Hebrew University.
Are Politicians Democratic Realists? Jack Lucas, University of Toronto | Lior Sheffer, Tel Aviv University | Peter John Loewen, University of Toronto.
Discussant: Gideon Rahat, The Hebrew University.
Democracy on the Ballot: Representation and Support for Democracy. Liron Lavi, Bar Ilan University | Clareta Treger, University of Toronto | Naama Rivlin-Angert, Tel Aviv University | Israel Waismel-Manor, Haifa University | Michal Shamir, Tel Aviv University (Short presentation).
Story-Cleavages: Toward a Competing-Narrative Model to Evaluate Social Diversion in Multi-Cleavage Societies - The Case of Israel. Shaul Shenhav, The Hebrew University | Yael R. Kaplan, University of Haifa | Guy Mor-Lan, The Hebrew University | Gal Ron, The Hebrew University | Tamir Sheafer, The Hebrew University (Short presentation).
13:00
14:00
16:00
17:00
20:00
Lunch
Tour in Ramla: Cleavages in a Mixed City
Challenges and Opportunities in a Mixed City. Guest Lecture: Aliza Silvera, Director, Mediation and Dispute Resolution Center of the community of Ramla.
Dinner and dialogue with local residents, Samir Restaurant
Drive to Tel Aviv
PARTICIPANTS
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Wael Abu-'Uksa - The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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Eran Amsalem - The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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Nahum Barnea - Yediot Aharonot
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Meital Balmas - The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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Yossi David - The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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Noam Gidron - The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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Shira Dvir Gvirsman - Tel Aviv University
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Liran Harsgor - University of Haifa
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Reut Itzkovitch-Malka - The Open University
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Yael R. Kaplan - University of Haifa
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Ofer Kenig - Ashkelon Academic College and the Israel Democracy Institute
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Muhammed Khalaily - University of Haifa and the Israel Democracy Institute
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Liron Lavi - Bar-Ilan University
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Na'ama Lazimi - Member of the Knesset - Labor Party
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Effi Levy - The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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Gal Levy - The Open University
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Peter Loewen - University of Toronto
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Jack Lucas - University of Calgary
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Jane Mansbridge - Harvard University
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Yotam Margalit - Tel Aviv University
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Dror K. Markus - The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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Guy Mor - The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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Jennifer Oser - Ben Gurion University
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Odelia Oshri - The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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Nahshon Perez - Bar Ilan University
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Vered Porzycki - The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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Gideon Rahat - The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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Naama Rivlin-Angert - Tel Aviv University
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Robert Rohrschneider - University of Kansas
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Gal Ron - The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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Tal Schneider - Political correspondent - Zman.co.il
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Michal Shamir - Tel Aviv University
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Tamir Sheafer - The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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Lior Sheffer - Tel Aviv University
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Shaul R. Shenhav - The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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Ilana Shpaizman - Bar Ilan University
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Aliza Silvera - Director, Mediation and Dispute Resolution Center, Ramla
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Yael Shomer - Tel Aviv University
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Clareta Treger - University of Toronto
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Yariv Tsfati - University of Haifa
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Keren Tsuriel - Tel Aviv University
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Israel Waismel-Manor - University of Haifa
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Wouter van Atteveldt - Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam
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Stefaan Walgrave -University of Antwerp
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Christopher Wlezien - The University of Texas at Austin
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Fabio Wolkenstein - University of Vienna
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Alon Zoizner - University of Haifa
Published Papers
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Dvir-Gvirsman, S. (2020). Understanding News Engagement on Social Media: A Media Repertoires Approach. New Media and Society.
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Tsfati, Y., Cohen, J., Dvir-Gvirsman, S., Tsuriel, K., Waismel-Manor, I., and Holbert, R. L. (2021). Political Para-Social Relationship as a Predictor of Voting Preferences in the Israeli 2019 Elections. Communication Research.
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Lavi, L., Rivlin-Angert, N., Treger, C., Sheafer, T., Waismel-Manor, I., and Shamir, M. (2022). King Bibi: The Personification of Democratic Values in the 2019-2021 Election Cycle. In Shamir M. & Rahat G. (Eds.), The Elections in Israel 2019-2021. Routledge.
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Dvir-Gvirsman, S., Tsuriel, K., Sheafer, T., Shenhav, S.R., Zoizner, A., Lavi, L., Shamir, M., Waismel-Manor, I. (2022). Mediated Representation in the Age of Social Media: How Connection with Politicians Contributes to Citizens’ Feelings of Representation. Evidence from a Longitudinal Study. Political Communication.
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Zoizner, A., Tsuriel, K., Markus, D., Porzycki, V., Mor, G., Green, A., Levi, E., Tsfati, Y., Waismel-Manor, I., Sheafer, T., and Shenhav, S.R. (2022). Three in a (Right-Wing) Boat: Media, Politicians, and the Public in the Age of Digital Communication. In Shamir M. & Rahat G. (Eds.), The Elections in Israel 2019-2021. Routledge.
Papers Under Review
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Kaplan, Y.R., Sheafer, T., Waismel-Manor, I., and Shenhav, S.R. (2022). Stories Speak Volumes: The Effect of National Story Similarity on People’s Sense of Representation.
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Lavi, L., Treger, C., Rivlin-Angert, N., Sheafer, T., Waismel-Manor, I., Shenhav, S., Harsgor, L., and Shamir, M. (2022). The Pitkinian Public: Representation in the Eyes of Citizens.
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Lavi, L., Treger, C., Rivlin-Angert, N., Waismel-Manor, I., and Shamir, M. (2022). Democracy on the Ballot: Representation and Support for Democracy.
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Markus, D.K., Mor, G., Sheafer, T., & Shenhav, S.R. (2022). Leveraging Researcher Domain Expertise to Annotate Concepts within Imbalanced Data.
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Rivlin-Angert, N., Yakter, A., and Sheffer, L. (2022). Do Personality Traits Predict Voter Attitudes When Politics Is Structured Around Conflict? Lessons From Israel.
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Waismel-Manor, I., Kaplan, Y.R., Zlotnik, Y., Dvir Gvirsman, S. Shenhav, S.R. and Ifergane, G. (2022). ADHD and Political Participation: An Observational Study. Plos One. R&R.
Papers Presented at Conferences
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Markus, D.K., Mor, G., Porzycki, V., Zoizner, A., Levi, E., Green, A., Sheafer, T., and Shenhav, S.R. Identifying Symbolic Political Representation in Media Discourse. Paper presented at the APSA Political Communication Section Annual Preconference, September 2020.
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Markus, D.K. and Mor, G. A Semi-supervised Method for Annotating Multidimensional Concepts in Political Science. Paper presented at the Young Scholars in Computational Social Science Workshop by the Computational Methods Working Group at the University of Zurich, November 2020.
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Kaplan, Y.R., Sheafer, T., Waismel-Manor, I., and Shenhav, S.R. The Effect of National Story Similarity on People’s Sense of Representation. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting and Exhibition of American Political Science Association, September 2021.
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Markus, D.K., Mor, G., Porzycki, V., Zoizner, A., Levi, E., Green, A., Sheafer, T., and Shenhav, S.R. Mitigating Bias in Text Classification – Utilizing Semi-supervised Machine Learning and a Shared Semantic Space to Extract Political Identities. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting and Exhibition of American Political Science Association, September 2021.
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Markus, D.K., Mor, G., Porzycki, V., Zoizner, A., Levi, E., Green, A., Sheafer, T., and Shenhav, S.R. Utilizing Semi-supervised Machine Learning and a Shared Semantic Space to Annotate Multidimensional Concepts in Political Science. Poster presented at 1st PolMeth Europe Conference by the Society for Political Methodology, March 2021.
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Tsuriel, K. Are Nonvoters an Abnormal Creature? New Insights About Voters’ and Nonvoters’ Typologies. Paper presented at the International society of political psychology (ISPP) conference, July 2021.
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Tsuriel, K. “I Don’t Vote and I’m Fine With It”: The New Proud (Activists) Nonvoters. Paper presented at the International Society of Political Psychology 2021 Annual Meeting, July 2021.
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Markus, D.K., Mor, G., Porzycki, V., Zoizner, A., Levi, E., Green, A., Sheafer, T., and Shenhav, S.R. Identifying Symbolic Political Representation in Media Discourse. Paper presented at the Israel Communication Association Annual Conference, April 2022.
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Rivlin-Angert, N. Deconstruction of Political Identity: The Case of the Repudiating Left in Israel. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Association for Israel Studies, June 2022.
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Rivlin-Angert, N. Who is the Enemy Here? Political Delegitimization: Definition, Sources, and Analysis. Paper to be presented at 2023 Midwest Political Science Association (MPSA) Annual Meeting. April 2023.
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Kaplan, Y.R., Porzycki, V. and Rivlin-Angert, N. The Representation of Gender-Related Issues in Politicians’ Discourse Over Social Media. Paper to be presented at 2023 Midwest Political Science Association (MPSA) Annual Meeting. April 2023.
List of Datasets
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Israel National Election Studies 2019-2022. Public opinion survey data on the five elections held in 2019-2022. The data concentrates on citizens' preferences and perceptions of representation, their disaffection with politics and democracy, their political opinions, electoral and political behavior, as well as socio-demographics. During the grant period we published for public use the datasets of the April 2019, September 2019, March 2020, March 2021 elections. We finished the data collection of the November 2022 pre and post-election study on November 27. These data will be available for public use soon after we finish its cleaning and check-ups.
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CSES Module 5. The current module of the CSES (2016-2021) focuses on the crisis of representation, citizen discontent, populism, and political behavior. We conducted this survey in the summer 2020, having postponed it to (what we thought was) the end of this cycle of elections, in consultation with the CSES secretariat. This module is run in dozens of countries, and the data are merged and made available internationally as part of a public cross-national multilevel dataset. The data has been released for public use.
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52 In-Depth Semi-structured Interviews. This database contains the transcripts of over 80 hours of in-depth interviews, conducted at the early stages of our research. In these in-depth interviews, the interviewees talk about their feelings of representation, how they understand political representation, the multiple dimensions of representation, and how they perceive the manner in which they are represented.
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Israeli Elections Online Panel Study 2019-2021. This longitudinal dataset contains 14 waves of data, collected pre and post each of the four elections held in Israel between 2019-2021. In addition to capturing the four dimensions of representation, it includes an extensive list of covariates, such as media consumption and social media usage, connection with politicians, political interest, expressiveness and attitudes, and various demographics.
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Israeli News Media During 2019-2022 (URLs). This dataset contains 1.5 million online news articles in Israel, collected from the beginning of 2019 until today. This collection includes mainstream news outlets (e.g., Ynet, Israel Hayom, Walla), as well as other sectorial outlets (e.g., Kikar Hashabat).
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Politicians’ Facebook Data. This dataset consists of 50,000 posts from 240 public pages of various political actors: politicians, candidates, and parties.
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Political and Media Twitter Data. This dataset contains 450,000 tweets by politicians, candidates, and parties, as well as 1.2 million tweets published by journalists and news outlets.
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Israeli Knesset Plenary Protocols (IsraSpeech). This in-progress dataset contains 20+ years of floor speeches given by Members of the Knesset during the Knesset’s plenary sessions. The dataset is heavily processed from raw files provided by the Knesset to produce high-quality, consistent data enriched with metadata and suitable for use with quantitative text analysis tools and methods.
Ph.D. Dissertations
Kaplan, Y.R. National Metanarratives as a Measurement Tool of Identities in the Political Arena.
Tsuriel, K. The Israeli Nonvoters: Who Are the People Who Don’t Vote to the Knesset and How Could They Be Encouraged to Vote Again. (Awaiting outside reviewer).