MIKAEL PERSSON Department of Political Science University of Gothenburg Box 711, 405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden Phone: +46 (0)31-786 1845 web: http://www.pol.gu.se/staff/mikaelpersson e-mail: mikael.persson@pol.gu.se Born October 5 1980, in Mölndal, Sweden. Two children together with Anna: Viktor (born 2011) and William (born 2013). ACADEMIC POSITIONS Researcher and lecturer at the Department of political science, University of Gothenburg (may 2014-, 60%) Research fellow at the Department of Government, Uppsala University (june 2014-, 40%) Visiting Associate in Political Science, Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology. Spring 2014. Employment as PhD Candidate, Deptartment of Political Science, University of Gothenburg. August 2007 December 2013. (with parental leave from August 2012 to March 2013). EDUCATION PhD, Political Science, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, December 2013. Dissertation: Does Education Cause Participation in Politics? Advisors: Peter Esaiasson and Henrik Oscarsson. Opponent: Cees van der Eijk. Committee: Bo Rothstein, Hanna Bäck and Sverker Lindblad. MA, Practical Philosophy, Lund University, Sweden, 2007. MA, Political Science, Lund University, Sweden, 2006. BA, Practical Philosophy, Lund University, Sweden, 2006. BA, Political Science, Lund University, Sweden, 2005. RESEARCH INTEREST Political behavior and public opinion. RESEARCH Journal publications (accepted): 1. Persson, Mikael. (Forthcoming). Does Survey Participation Increase Voter Turnout? Reexamining the Hawthorne Effect in the Swedish National Election Studies. Political Science Research and Methods. 2. Esaiasson, Peter & Mikael Persson. (Forthcoming). Does Studying Political Science Affect Civic Attitudes? A Panel Comparison of Students of Politics, Law, and Mass Communication. Journal of Political Science Education. 1
3. Persson, Mikael. (Forthcoming). Classroom Climate and Political Learning: Findings from a Swedish Panel Study and Comparative Data. Political Psychology. 4. Persson, Mikael. (Forthcoming). Review Article: Education and Political Participation. British Journal of Political Science. 5. Persson, Mikael. (Forthcoming). Testing the Relationship Between Education and Political Participation using the 1970 British Cohort Study. Political Behavior. 6. Persson, Mikael. (Forthcoming). Social Network Position Mediates the Effect of Education on Active Political Party Membership. Party Politics. 7. Persson, Mikael & Maria Solevid. (2014). Measuring Political Participation: Testing Social Desirability Bias in a Web-Survey Experiment. International Journal of Public Opinion Research. 26(1): 98-112. 8. Persson, Mikael, Anders Sundell & Richard Öhrvall. (2014). Does Election Day Weather Affect Voter Turnout? Evidence from Swedish Elections. Electoral Studies. 33(1): 335-342. 9. Dahlberg, Stefan & Mikael Persson. (2014). Different Surveys, Different Results? Comparison of Two Surveys on the 2009 European Parliamentary Election. West European Politics. 37(1): 204-221. 10. Persson, Mikael, Peter Esaiasson & Mikael Gilljam. (2013). The Effects of Direct Voting and Deliberation on Legitimacy Beliefs: An Experimental Study of Decision-Making in Small Groups. European Political Science Review 5(3): 381-399. 11. Persson, Mikael, Maria Solevid & Richard Öhrvall. (2013). Voter Turnout and Political Equality: Testing the Law of Dispersion in a Swedish Natural Experiment. Politics 33(3): 172-184. 12. Persson, Mikael. (2013). Is the Effect of Education on Voter Turnout Absolute or Relative? A Multi-level Analysis of 37 countries. Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties. 23(2): 111-133. 13. Mikael Persson, Hanna Wass & Henrik Ocsarsson. (2013). The Generational Effect in Turnout in the Swedish Parliamentary Elections 1960 2010. Scandinavian Political Studies. 26(3): 249-269. 14. Esaiasson, Peter, Mikael Gilljam & Mikael Persson. (2012). Which Decision-Making Arrangements Generate the Strongest Legitimacy Beliefs? Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment. European Journal of Political Research. 51(6): 785-808. 15. Persson, Mikael. (2012). Does Type of Education Affect Political Participation? Results From a Panel Survey of Swedish Adolescents. Scandinavian Political Studies. 35(3): 198-221. 16. Gilljam, Mikael, Mikael Persson & David Karlsson. (2012). Representatives Attitudes Toward Citizen Protests: The Impact of Ideology, Parliamentary Position and Experiences. Legislative Studies Quarterly. 37(2): 251-268. 2
17. Duus-Otterström, Göran & Mikael Persson. (2012). Saknar vänstern respekt för individens rättigheter? En experimentell studie. Tidskrift för politisk filosofi. 1: 6-20. 18. Erlingsson, Gissur, Mikael Persson & Richard Öhrvall. (2012). Den motvilligt engagerade altruisten: Om partimedlemskap och partiaktivism. Statsvetenskaplig Tidskrift. 114(2): 86-205. 19. Erlingsson, Gissur & Mikael Persson. (2011). The Swedish Pirate Party and the 2009 European Parliament Election: Protest or Issue Voting? Politics. 31(3): 121-128. 20. Persson, Mikael. (2011). An Empirical Test of the Relative Education Model in Sweden. Political Behavior. 33(3): 455-478. 21. Gilljam, Mikael, Donald Granberg, Bengt Holm, David Karlsson, Mikael Persson & Anders Sundell. (2011). Comparison of Web and Mail Responses in a Census of Swedish Local Political Representatives. Survey Practice. 4(3): 1-20. 22. Gilljam, Mikael & Mikael Persson. (2011). Skolforskning med problem: Funderingar kring en rapport om resultaten i svensk grundskola. Pedagogisk forskning i Sverige. 15(4): 279-287. 23. Persson, Mikael & Henrik Oscarsson. (2010). Did the egalitarian reforms of the Swedish educational system equalise levels of democratic citizenship? Scandinavian Political Studies. 33(2): 135-163. 24. Erlingsson, Gissur & Mikael Persson. (2010). Utmanarna: Uppkomst, idéer och opinion. Statsvetenskaplig tidskrift. 2: 229-248. 25. Persson, Mikael. (2008). Demokratins avgränsningsproblem och påverkansprincipen. Tidskrift för politisk filosofi. 1: 27-47. Chapters in edited volumes: 1. Erlingsson, Gissur & Mikael Persson (2014). Ingen partikris, trots allt? In Bergström, Annika & Henrik Oscarsson, (eds). Mittfåra och marginal. Göteborg: SOM-institutet, Göteborgs universitet. 2. Granberg, Donald & Mikael Persson. (2013). Religion and Political Participation in Sweden. in Stefan Dahlberg, Henrik Oscarsson and Lena Wängnerud. Stepping Stones: Research on Political Representation, Voting Behavior, and Quality of Government. Gothenburg: Department of political science, University of Gothenburg. 3. Esaiasson, Peter, Mikael Gilljam & Mikael Persson. (2013). Communicative Responsiveness and other Important Concepts in Between-Election Democracy. in Peter Esaiasson and Hanne Marthe Narud (eds). Between-Election Democracy: The Representative Relationship after Election Day. Colchester: ECPR Press. 4. Esaiasson, Peter, Mikael Gilljam & Persson, Mikael. (2012). På folkets sida? Synen på demokrati bland journalister, politiker och medborgare In Kent Asp (ed). Svenska journalister 1989-2011. JMG: Göteborgs universitet. 5. Persson, Mikael. (2012). Varför är högutbildade mer aktiva i politiska partier? Sociala 3
nätverk som en alternativ förklaring till utbildningseffekten. In Annika Bergström, Lennart Weibull & Henrik Oscarsson, (eds.) I framtidens skugga. SOM-institutet, Göteborgs universitet. 6. Persson, Mikael, Maria Solevid & Richard Öhrvall. (2012). Omvalet - en prövning för den politiska jämlikheten. In Berg, Linda & Henrik Oscarsson (eds.) Omstritt omval. SOMinstitutet, Göteborgs universitet. 7. Esaiasson, Peter, Mikael Gilljam & Mikael Persson. (2011). Medborgarnas demokratiuppfattningar. In Holmberg, Sören, Lennart Weibull & Henrik Oscarsson. (eds). Lycksalighetens ö. Göteborg: SOM-institutet, Göteborgs universitet. 8. Erlingsson, Gissur & Mikael Persson (2010). Varför röstade väljare på Piratpartiet. In Oscarsson, Henrik & Sören Holmberg, (eds). Väljarbeteende i Europaval. Göteborg: Statsvetenskapliga institutionen. 9. Oscarsson, Henrik & Mikael Persson. (2010). Unga väljare i Sverige 1956 2006. In Wohlgemuth, Daniel (ed) FOKUS10: En analys av ungas inflytande. Stockholm: Ungdomsstyrelsen. 10. Oscarsson, Henrik & Mikael Persson. (2009). Piratpartiets sympatisörer. In Holmberg, Sören and Lennart Weibull (eds) Svensk höst. Göteborg: SOM-institutet. Work in progress: 1. Gilljam, Mikael & Mikael Persson. Den allmänna opinionen: En introducerande handbook. (Forthcoming introductory textbook in public opinion research to be published at Liber). 2. Bakker, Bert, David Hopmann & Mikael Persson. Personality Traits and Party Identification Over Time. Revise and resubmit at European Journal of Political Research. 3. Giljam, Mikael, Donald Granberg & Mikael Persson. A Proposal for an Electoral System Combining the Advantages of Party Centered and Candidate Centered Elections. Other publications (book reviews, reports, comments): 1. Lindberg, Staffan I. & Mikael Persson. (2013). Ungdomars förhållande till demokratin: En forskningsöversikt, inventering av befintliga data och analys. Stockholm: Sveriges kommuner och landsting. 2. Gilljam, Mikael & Mikael Persson. (2011). Skolforskare med problem. Pedagogisk forskning i Sverige. 16(1): 74-76. 3. Persson, Mikael. (2008). Svar till Hultin-Rosenberg. Tidskrift för politisk filosofi. 3: 61-63. Articles in newspapers: 1. Erlingsson, Gissur and Mikael Persson. Värsta förtroendekrisen avvärjd. Dagens Nyheter, DN-debatt. 2014-05-23. 2. Erlingsson, Gissur and Mikael Persson. Partidemokratin mår alldeles utmärkt i Sverige Dagens Nyheter, DN-debatt. 2014-05-21. 4
3. Amnå, Erik, Andrej Kokkonen, Mikael Persson and Håkan Stattin. Unga svenskars stöd för demokrati är grundmurat. Dagens Nyheter, DN Debatt, 2011-06-28. AWARDS Winner of award for the best paper published in Statsvetenskaplig tidskrift (the Swedish journal of political science) during 2012 (together with Gissur Erlingsson and Richard Öhrvall). 10000 SEK. Winner of award for the best paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Swedish Political Science Association in Uppsala 2008. 5000 SEK. Winner of the Bertil Ohlin institute s award for best master thesis in social science 2007. 10000 SEK. EDUCATION - COURSES Undergraduate courses: Political Science (120 ects), Practical Philosophy (120 ects), Theoretical Philosophy (30 ects), Sociology (30 ects), History (60 ects), Economic History (30 ects), Economics (30 ects), History of the Swedish working class (15 ects), Teacher education (60 ects). Introduction to Multilevel Models with Applications, Essex Summer School in Social Science Data Analysis and Collection, 2009 Multilevel Analysis: Concepts and Applications, Essex Summer School in Social Science Data Analysis and Collection, 2009 Political Socialization, Youth and Society, Örebro, 2010 European Winter School. Methodological Issues in Comparative Electoral Analysis, Nottingham, February, 2010 European Winter School. Methodological Issues in Comparative Electoral Analysis, Warzaw, February, 2011 CONFERENCES, SEMINARS AND PRESENTATIONS (SELECTION) IPSA RC29 Political Socialization, Oslo, June, 2008. Youth and Politics, Bruges Belgium, June, 2008. Annual Meeting of the Swedish Political Science Association, Uppsala, September, 2008. Oxford Politics & IR Graduate Research Workshop, March, 2009. General conference of the European Consortium for Political Research, Potsdam, September, 2009. Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Toronto, September, 2009. Building Bridges Political Science and Psychology, Lund, December, 2009. Joint Session, European Consortium for Political Research, Munster, March, 2010. Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, April, 2010. Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington DC, September 2010. Think Thank for European Research in Electoral Studies The True European Voter, Mannheim, May, 2010. 5
Participatory and Deliberative Democracy in the UK, Glasgow, June 2010. Annual Meeting of the Swedish Political Science Association, Gothenburg, September, 2010. Presentation at Örebro University, Youth and Society, Örebro, November 2010. Think Thank for European Research in Electoral Studies The True European Voter, Milano, December, 2010. Presentation at the National Board for Youth Affairs, Stockholm, December 2010. Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, March, 2011. Annual Meeting of the Political Studies Association, London, April, 2011. Annual Meeting of the American Association for Public Opinion Research, Phoenix, May, 2011. Annual Meeting of the European Political Science Association, Dublin, June, 2011. Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Seattle, September 2011. Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, April, 2012. Presentation at Lund University, Department of political science, Lund, April 2012. Annual Meeting of the Election, Public Opinion and Parties (EPOP) group, Oxford, September, 2012. Presentation at Copenhagen University, Department of political science, Copenhagen, November 2012. Presentation at Uppsala University, Department of political science, Uppsala, March 2012. Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, April, 2013. Presentations at the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions, March, May and October 2013. Presentation at the Swedish Ministry of Justice, September, 2013. Presentation at the Department of Economics, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, March 2014. Presentation at Linköping University, may 2014. (cancelled due to late train arrival). PEER REVIEWER American Journal of Political Science British Journal of Political Science Electoral Studies European Journal of Political Research European Political Science Research European Societies Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties Journal of Politics Party Politics Political Behavior (3) Political Research Quarterly (3) Parliamentary Affairs Political Studies (3) 6
Scandinavian Political Studies (2) GRANTS As co-applicant 2013. Three year research project grant (4 030 000 SEK) from FORTE (Forskningsrådet för hälsa, arbetsliv och välfärd; Swedish Research Council for Health, Working life and Welfare) together with Mikael Gilljam. Project title: Folkviljans förverkligande? Analyser av kopplingen mellan svenska folkets åsikter och förd politik under 60 år ( Responsive Democracy: Longitudinal Analyses on the Relationship between Public Opinion and Public Policy ). The same project was given a project grant of 1 800 000 SEK from Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (The Swedish Foundation for Humanities and Social Science) which was declined due to the funding from FORTE. 2013. Three year research project grant (5 360 000 SEK) from Vetenskapsrådet (The Swedish Research Council) together with Joakim Ekman, Klas Andersson and Pär Zetterberg. Project title: Hur påverkar reformer av samhällskunskap ungas medborgarkompetens? ( How does reforms of social science education affect young people s civic competence? ). 2013. Two year research project grant (1 000 000 SEK) from IFAU (Institutet för arbetsmarknadsoch utbildningspolitisk utvärdering; Instute for Evaluation of Labor Market and Education Policy) together with Sven Oskarsson. Project title: Leder utbildningsreformer till ökat politiskt deltagande? ( Does education reforms cause higher political participation ). 2010. Three months research grant (210 375 SEK) from The Multidisciplinary Opinion and Democracy Research Group (MOD), University of Gothenburg together with Maria Solevid. Project title: Measurements of Off-Election Political Participation. Travel grants: Adlerbertska Stipendiestiftelsen, 2010, 17 000 SEK. Adlerbertska Stipendiestiftelsen, 2009, 22 000 SEK. Adlerbertska Stipendiestiftelsen, 2008, 17 800 SEK. Stiftelsen Paul och Marie Berghaus donationsfond, 2011, 6 000 SEK. Stiftelsen Paul och Marie Berghaus donationsfond, 2010, 10 000 SEK. Stiftelsen Paul och Marie Berghaus donationsfond, 2009, 7 000 SEK. Stiftelsen Paul och Marie Berghaus donationsfond, 2008, 7 000 SEK. Kungl och Hvitfeldtska stiftelsen, 2009, 20 000 SEK. Kungl och Hvitfeldtska stiftelsen, 2010, 18 000 SEK. Kungl och Hvitfeldtska stiftelsen, 2012, 20 000 SEK. Kungliga Vetenskaps- och Vitterhets-Samhället i Göteborg, 2010, 15 000 SEK. Travel and Accommodation Grant, Summer School in Methods and Techniques, 2009, 500. 7
FIELDWORK EXPERIENCE I have collected the experimental data for the articles in EJPR (2013) and EPSR (2013) (together with one assistant). I collected the panel data for my articles in SPS (2012) and Political Psychology (forthcoming). TEACHING Education: Teacher education at Malmö University (2006-2007). 60 ECTS. Teaching: about 2200 hours on basic and advanced level at University of Gothenburg. Lecturer on courses in political science, the journalist program, and the teacher education (2007-2013). Supervising 1 PhD student (Sebastian Lundmark) (assistant supervisor). Supervising 15 bachelor/master thesis. Teaching: Primary education teacher in Malmö, Rosengård, 2002-2003 (social science, Swedish and mathematics for children aged 13-16). Student literature: My various publications are used as undergraduate or graduate course literature in political science at, for example: Stockholm University, University of California (Santa Barbara), Berry College (Georgia). MASS MEDIA EXPERIENCE Cited in newspaper articles in, for example TIME Magazine, Dagens Nyheter, Aftonbladet, Svenska Dagbladet, Hufvudstadsbladet, Die Tageszeitung, Dalarnas tidning. PARENTAL LEAVES 2012-2013. 9 months parental leave with Viktor. STUDENT ORGANISATIONS AND COMMISSIONS OF TRUST Chairman of the association for PhD students at the Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg. 2008-2010. Vice chairman of the association for PhD students at the Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg. 2007-2008. Vice chairman of the association for PhD students at the Faculty of Social Science, University of Gothenburg. 2009-2010. Representative in the doctoral students committee (Forskarutbildningsnämnden) at the Faculty of Social Science, University of Gothenburg. 2009-2011. PROFESSIONAL SERVICE IN THE DISCIPLINE Section Head (panel on Off-Election Democracy), 2010 Swedish Political Science Association Annual Meeting. Panel discussant, Midwest Political Science Association Annual meeting, 2010. Panel discussant, Midwest Political Science Association Annual meeting, 2013. Panel discussant, ECPR general conference, 2013. External evaluator of the Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) -program at Lund University (spring 2013). External evaluator of project proposals for the Czech Science Foundation (2013). 8
BLOGGING I am a co-founder and regular contributor to the Swedish political science blog www.politologerna.se 9