SCAS News - 24 March, 2014

SCAS Pro Futura Scientia Fellow Staffan Kumlin has been Appointed Professor

Staffan Kumlin has been appointed Professor of Political Science at the University of Gothenburg.
Kumlin is Hans Meijer Pro Futura Scientia Fellow at SCAS. He was admitted to the Pro Futura
programme in 2005. He is also Research Professor at the Institute for Social Research in Oslo.

Staffan Kumlin’s field of research is comparative political behaviour and public opinion in European
Welfare States. He is the author of The Personal and the Political: How Personal Welfare State
Experiences Affect Political Trust and Ideology (2004) and has also published articles in journals
such as British Journal of Political Science, Comparative Political Studies, Comparative Politics,
European Journal of Political Research, European Union Politics, Journal of Public Policy, and
Journal of European Social Policy. His most recent book is How Welfare States Shape the Democratic
Public: Policy Feedback, Participation, Voting, and Attitudes (co-editor with Isabelle Stadelmann-
Steffen, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2014).

Kumlin’s publications cover a diverse set of topics, such as social capital, class and political attitudes,
and political scandals. A current main research interest, however, concerns electoral accountability
and political cleavages in European welfare states. These countries are increasingly pressured by
internal and external factors, which produce rationalization efforts and at times outright retrenchment.
As policy changes often give rise to widespread popular dissatisfaction, several important problems
arise: First, how do political cleavages and interests related to the welfare state shape preferences
among the mass public in different contexts? Second, what are the conditions under which dissatisfied
citizens can hold political actors accountable in an informed and intelligible way? Third, how and with
what effects do political actors at the elite level shape public perceptions about reform pressures and
possible policy consequences in the “era of permanent austerity”?