Sara Hobolt

Sara B. Hobolt holds the Sutherland Chair in European Institutions and is a professor at the Department of Government, London School of Economics and Political Science. Moreover, she is affiliated with Nuffield College, University of Oxford, as associate member, and with the University of Southern Denmark as an adjunct professor in political science. Previously, she held posts at the University of Oxford and the University of Michigan. Sara received her PhD from the University of Cambridge in 2005. In 2017, she was elected Fellow of the British Academy as its youngest member.

Her research and teaching interests lie in political behaviour, public opinion and the EU, and comparative politics. She has published five books and over 60 journal articles, including in the American Political Science Review, Annual Review of Political Science, British Journal of Political Science, Comparative Political Studies, International Organization and Journal of Politics. Her most recent book is Political Entrepreneurs. The Rise of Challenge Parties in Europe (Princeton University Press, 2020, with Catherine De Vries). Sara is Associate Editor of Political Science Research and Methods (PSRM). She is also the Chair of the European Election Studies (EES), a Europe-wide project studying voters, parties, candidates and the media in European Parliamentary elections.

She has been awarded several prizes for her research, including the APSA Best Paper Prize (2019, EPOVB) and Best Article Prize (2018, European Politics and Society) and the European Union Studies Association (EUSA) Best Book Prize for Europe in Question: Referendums on European Integration (Oxford University Press, 2009). In 2011, she was given the APSA Emerging Scholar Award for her contribution to the field of elections, public opinion and voting behaviour and in 2012 she was awarded the Nils Klim Prize for her outstanding contribution in the academic fields of the arts and humanities or social sciences.

Sara regularly provides commentary in the media on elections, Brexit, public opinion and European and EU politics, and she was the election expert for the BBC and Sky News on the past three European Parliament election nights. She also advises governments, parliaments and non-governmental organizations on matters relating to democracy, elections, referendums and public opinion.

Key Expertise

• Brexit, Elections, EU, Political Parties, Public Opinion, Referendums

Languages

• Danish, English

Education

• PhD University of Cambridge (2001 — 2005)

Books

• Foundations of European Politics. A Comparative Approach
  Oxford University Press, 2021 (with Catherine E. De Vries, Jonathan B. Slapin and Sven-Oliver Proksch)
• Political Entrepreneurs: The Rise of Challenger Parties in Europe
  Princeton University Press, 2020 (with Catherine E. De Vries)
• Democratic Politics in a European Union Under Stress
  Oxford University Press, 2014 (edited with Olaf Cramme)
• Blaming Europe? Responsibility Without Accountability in the European Union
  Oxford University Press, 2014 (with James Tilley)
• Europe in Question: Referendums on European Integration
  Oxford University Press, 2009

Selected Articles

2021

• “Playing to the Gallery: How Politicians Use Emotive Rhetoric in Parliament,” American Political Science Review. (with Moritz Osnabruegge and Toni Rodon)

• “Democratic Support, Populism, and the Incumbency Effect,” Journal of Democracy 32(4), 131-145. (with Wouter van der Brug, Sebastian Popa and Hermann Schmitt).

• “The Brexit Deterrent? How Member State Exit Shapes Public Support for the European Union,” European Union Politics. (with Sebastian Popa, Wouter van der Brug and Hermann Schmitt)

• “Politicizing International Cooperation. The Mass Public, Political Entrepreneurs and Political Opportunity Structures,” International Organization. (with Catherine E. De Vries and Stefanie Walter)

• “Crisis Signaling: How Italy’s Coronavirus Lockdown Affected Incumbent Support in Other European Countries” Political Science Research and Methods. (with Catherine E. De Vries, Bert Bakker and Kevin Arceneaux)

2020

• “Having a Say or Getting Your Way? Political Choice and Satisfaction with Democracy” European Journal of Political Research. (with Julian M. Hoerner and Toni Rodon).

• “Policy preferences and policy legitimacy after referendums: Evidence from the Brexit negotiations” Political Behavior, (with Thomas Leeper and James Tilley)

• “A Tale of Two Peoples: Motivated Reasoning in the Aftermath of the Brexit Vote,” Political Science Research and Methods. (with Miriam Sorace)

• “Divided by the vote: affective polarization in the wake of the Brexit referendum,” British Journal of Political Science, published online July 2020. (with Thomas J. Leeper and James Tilley)
  Winner of the Best Paper Award, 2019, American Political Science Association (Elections, Public Opinion and Voting)

• “Contestation and responsiveness in EU Council deliberations,” Journal of European Public Policy, 27(3): pp. 362-381. (with Christopher Wratil)

• “Measuring subgroup preferences in conjoint experiments,” Political Analysis, 28(2): pp. 207-221. (with Thomas J. Leeper and James Tilley)

• “The mobilising effect of political choice,” European Journal of Political Research, 59(2): pp. 229-247. (with Julian M. Hoerner)

• “Domestic Contestation and European Integration,” Journal of European Public Policy, 27(2): pp. 161-167. (with Toni Rodon)

• “Cross-cutting issues and electoral choice. EU issue voting in the aftermath of the Brexit referendum,” Journal of European Public Policy, 27(2): pp. 227-245. (with Toni Rodon)