Contact Information
Email
Website
936-7983
354 Commons Center
Office Hours
Tuesdays 3 - 5 pm or by appointment
Education
Ph.D., Political Science, University of California, Davis
M.A., Political Science, Texas A&M University
Subfields
Comparative Politics
Political Methodology
Research Networks
Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP)
Specializations
Comparative Political Parties and Elections; Representation; European Politics
Curriculum Vitae
Zeynep Somer-Topcu
Assistant Professor
Joint appointment at the Max Kade Center for European and German Studies
Somer-Topcu is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science, with a joint appointment at the Max Kade Center of European and German Studies. Her research and teaching interests include a broad array of issues in comparative politics and institutions. She is currently working on several papers examining political parties' policy changes in response to public opinion shifts and the consequences of these policy shifts on public opinion, election outcomes, cabinet formation and duration, and party leadership survival in both Western and Eastern and Central European democracies. Her work has appeared in Journal of Politics, American Journal of Political Science, British Journal of Political Science, and Comparative Politics. Somer-Topcu is teaching a class on West European politics this fall, and on the European Union in the Spring semester. Her graduate level seminar offerings include Comparative Political Parties, Representation in Advanced Democracies, and Statistics for Political Science I.
Representative publications
- Somer-Topcu, Zeynep. “Government versus Opposition at the Polls: How Governing Status Changes the Impact of Policy Position on Vote Share.” Forthcoming at the American Journal of Political Science (with Kathleen Bawn).
- Somer-Topcu, Zeynep. “Is Anybody Listening? Evidence that Voters do not Respond to European Parties’ Policy Programmes” (with James Adams and Lawrence Ezrow) American Journal of Political Science 55(2): 370-382 (2011).
- Somer-Topcu, Zeynep. “Polarization and Political Stability in Multiparty Systems (1945-1998)” (with Zeev Maoz) British Journal of Political Science 40(4): 805-833 (2010).
- Somer-Topcu, Zeynep. “Timely Decisions: The Effects of Past National Elections on Party Policy” Journal of Politics 71(1): 238-248 (2009).
- Somer-Topcu, Zeynep. “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” (with James Adams) British Journal of Political Science 39: 825-846 (2009).
- Somer-Topcu, Zeynep. “Moderate Now, Win Votes Later: The Electoral Consequences of Parties’ Policy Shifts in Twenty-Five Postwar Democracies” (with James Adams) Journal of Politics 71: 678-692 (2009).
- View Curriculum Vitae