Elite Networks

This project explores how elite networks shape politics and affect political inequality. Joint work with researchers at the University of St.Gallen and the University of Frankfurt examines the networks between foreign-authoritarian shareholders of internet-providing companies and their role in tightening control over local internet provision using data from the TOSCO project.

More recent work together with researchers at WZB explores the role that networks between political and business elites play in shaping political inequality. We currently pilot a data collection and coding of news paper articles using LLMs to assess the possibility of analyzin elite connections at scale. We further analyse the effect of connections between Members of Parliament and business elites on housing markets in the German context.