Natasha Wunsch
Prof. Dr.
natasha.wunsch@unifr.ch
+41 26 300 7762
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8715-1335
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Ordentliche_r Professor_in,
Departement für Europastudien und Slavistik
PER 21 bu. D429
Bd de Pérolles 90
1700 Fribourg
Europäische Integration; Erweiterungspolitik; Euroskeptizismus
Demokratisierung; Demokratieförderung; demokratische Regression
Biografie
Natasha Wunsch ist seit 2023 ordentliche Professorin für Europastudien an der Universität Fribourg sowie Ko-Leiterin des Zentrums für Europastudien und Leiterin des Masterstudiengangs Europastudien. Zuvor war sie Assistenzprofessorin für Politikwissenschaft/Europäische Integration an der Sciences Po Paris, Senior Researcher an der ETH Zürich sowie Gastforscherin an der Harvard University und der University of Oxford. Sie ist derzeit Vorsitzende der ECPR Standing Group on the European Union.
Natasha Wunsch promovierte 2016 am University College London und habilitierte sich 2023 an der ETH Zürich. Zuvor absolvierte sie einen gemeinsamen Masterstudiengang in Europastudien und Politikwissenschaft an der Sciences Po Paris und der Freien Universität Berlin. Neben ihren akademischen Tätigkeiten sitzt sie im Wissenschaftlichen Beirat der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Auswärtige Politik sowie im Wissenschaftlichen Direktoriums des Instituts für Europäische Politik. Ausserdem ist sie Mitglied der Balkans in Europe Policy Advisory Group.
Ihre Forschungsinteressen liegen an der Schnittstelle zwischen europäischer und vergleichender Politik. Sie untersucht Prozesse der Demokratieförderung sowie demokratische Rückschritte vornehmlich im postkommunistischen Raum und interessiert sich für die Auswirkungen gegenwärtiger Herausforderungen für die liberale Demokratie auf die europäische Zusammenarbeit und den Prozess der europäischen Integration. In einem vom Schweizerischen Nationalfonds finanzierten Forschungsprojekt untersucht sie derzeit die Rolle demokratischer Einstellungen von BürgerInnen in den Herausforderungen liberaler Demokratie.
Forschung und Publikationen
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Veröffentlichungen
17 Publikationen
A new regime divide? Democratic backsliding, attitudes towards democracy and affective polarization
THERESA GESSLER, NATASHA WUNSCH, European Journal of Political Research (2025) | ArtikelA geopolitical turning point? Enlargement discourse after the Russian invasion of Ukraine
Tom Hunter, Natasha Wunsch, Marie-Eve Bélanger, European Union Politics (2025) | ArtikelThe Demand Side of Democratic Backsliding: How Divergent Understandings of Democracy Shape Political Choice
Natasha Wunsch, Marc S. Jacob, Laurenz Derksen, British Journal of Political Science (2025) | ArtikelRadicalisation and discursive accommodation: responses to rising Euroscepticism in the European Parliament
Natasha Wunsch, Marie-Eve Bélanger, West European Politics (2024) | ArtikelWho tolerates democratic backsliding? A mosaic approach to voters’ responses to authoritarian leadership in Hungary
Natasha Wunsch, Theresa Gessler, Democratization (2023) | ArtikelPatterns of democratic backsliding in third-wave democracies: a sequence analysis perspective
Natasha Wunsch, Philippe Blanchard, Democratization (2023) | ArtikelDemocratic backsliding as a catalyst for polity-based contestation? Populist radical right cooperation in the European Parliament
Mihail Chiru, Natasha Wunsch, Journal of European Public Policy (2023) | ArtikelFrom projection to introspection: enlargement discourses since the ‘big bang’ accession
Natasha Wunsch, Nicole Olszewska, Journal of European Integration (2022) | ArtikelFrom Cohesion to Contagion? Populist Radical Right Contestation of EU Enlargement
Marie-Ève Bélanger and Natasha Wunsch, JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies (2022) | ArtikelMoney, power, glory: the linkages between EU conditionality and state capture in the Western Balkans
Solveig Richter and Natasha Wunsch, Journal of European Public Policy (2020) | Artikel -
Forschungsprojekte
10005358 - Liberal Democratic Commitment in Europe: Mass Attitudes, Political Identity, and Behavioural Consequences
Status: LaufendBeginn 01.10.2025 Ende 30.09.2029 Finanzierung SNF Projektblatt öffnen Liberal democracy is under pressure worldwide. Illiberal actors are gaining support for a platform that directly challenges some of the core principles of liberal democracy. Where such actors gain access to government, they frequently engage in the deliberate dismantling of constraints on executive power that leads to the erosion of democratic quality. That citizens are failing to counter the simultaneous rise of illiberalism and democratic backsliding by upholding liberal democratic principles at the ballot box challenges longstanding beliefs about widespread mass support for democracy. Existing studies focus on partisan polarisation as well as economic and cultural factors to explain citizens’ openness to illiberal or even outright undemocratic ideas and actors. However, their emphasis on democratic trade-offs tends to rest on the flawed assumption that citizens’ generic support for democracy is equivalent to a deeper commitment to liberal democratic principles which they weigh against alternative considerations. Building on insights from my previous research on democratic backsliding in the post-communist region, I propose to revisit the relevance and heterogeneity of mass attitudes towards democracy as a fundamental factor explaining citizens’ responses to emerging threats to liberal democracy. I plan to theorize and empirically explore variation in liberal democratic commitment as a way to resolve the apparent paradox between mass support for democracy and citizens’ differential willingness to tolerate or even openly endorse political actors who challenge core principles of liberal democracy. The project’s overarching research question asks: To what extent does variation in liberal democratic commitment interact with citizens’ political identities and shape their political behaviour? Its main objectives are organised into three work packages (WPs): - Measuring and mapping liberal democratic commitment (WP1): How can we measure the shape and heterogeneity of citizens’ liberal democratic commitment? Which types of democrats can be distinguished and what are their main characteristics? How are these types distributed across different European countries? - Democratic commitment as political identity (WP2): How does variation in citizens’ democratic commitment relate to their political identities? And to what extent do elections affect the salience of democratic attitudes for citizens’ group identification? - Behavioural consequences of democratic commitment (WP3): To what extent do varying levels of liberal democratic commitment shape citizens’ political behaviour? The project’s main contribution lies in conceptualizing and empirically probing liberal democratic commitment as a source of political identity and a driver of political behaviour in eight European democracies (France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, and Sweden). The project’s comparative, mixed-methods design combines focus groups and original survey data, including panel and experimental approaches, to develop a more nuanced measure of mass support for democracy and assess its political consequences. In the current context of democratic fragility, the project’s findings will speak to the literatures on political culture, democratic backsliding, and electoral behaviour. Finally, the project’s insights stands to inform real-world efforts to boost democratic resilience and can help refine responses to the rise of illiberalism and democratic backsliding by national-level political actors, civil society, and international organisations alike. Democratic Commitment: Why Citizens Tolerate Democratic Backsliding
Status: LaufendBeginn 01.05.2025 Ende 31.10.2025 Finanzierung SNF Projektblatt öffnen Why do citizens often fail to resist democratic backsliding? This book claims that political culture is key to explaining the electoral success and enduring public support for authoritarian-leaning leaders despite their open violations of democratic standards. It posits that heterogeneous understandings of democracy and a lack of liberal democratic commitment leaves important parts of the electorate vulnerable to buy-outs and illiberal appeals by political elites. Leveraging a mixed-methods design, the book presents extensive empirical analyses that combines focus groups, discourse analysis, and original survey data including two conjoint experiments in Hungary and Poland. Its findings show how, despite widespread generic support for democracy as a regime form, divergent understandings of democracy persist among citizens in both countries. Establishing the linkages between political culture and political behaviour, this monograph demonstrates the crucial role citizens’ democratic attitudes play in enabling the deepening and entrenchment of democratic backsliding. Its findings hold important implications for practical efforts to bolster democratic resilience and boost mass support for liberal democracy.