Simon Bienstman
Research Fellow
 |
Goethe University Frankfurt am Main Campus Westend - PEG Gebäude Office: PEG 1.G 063 |
|
Researcher for the Project POLAR |
VITA | TEACHING | PUBLICATIONS
Vita
Simon Bienstman is a researcher at the Chair for Social Stratification and Social Policy. Since April 2020 he works on the ERC project "POLAR (Polarization and its discontents: does rising economic inequality undermine the foundations of liberal societies?)" headed by Prof. Markus Gangl. Simon studied Politics and Administration together with Sociology (B.A.) at the University of Potsdam, as well as Sociology (M.Sc.) und Statistics (M.Sc.) at KU Leuven. His master’s thesis in Sociology ("Welfare State Performance and Political Support for Democracy: Social Protection, Economic Vulnerability and Democratic Legitimacy") is a comparative study on the consequences of economic insecurity and the effectiveness of social protection systems for attitudes towards democracy. His master’s thesis in Statistics ("Does Economic Inequality Erode Political Trust?") examines to what extent and by which mechanisms varying degrees of income inequality between and within European countries influence public confidence in institutions of representative democracy.
Simon conducts research on the social and political consequences of economic inequality, with a particular focus on attitudes toward democracy and voting behavior, populism, the structuring of social relations, and perceptions of status.
Teaching
Winter 2022/23
Publications
2023 Does inequality erode political trust? Frontiers in Political Science 5. doi: 10.3389/fpos.2023.1197317.
2023 Explaining the ‘democratic malaise’ in unequal societies: Inequality, external efficacy and political trust. European Journal of Political Research. doi: 10.1111/1475-6765.12611 (with Svenja Hense and Markus Gangl).
2022 Populism and Layers of Social Belonging: Support of Populist Parties in Europe. Political Psychology. doi: 10.1111/pops.12827 (with Alexander Langenkamp).
