Marc S. Jacob

Biography & Research

Marc Jacob is an assistant professor of democracy and global affairs in the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame and a core-affiliate faculty member of the Kellogg Institute.

Before arriving at Notre Dame, Jacob was a postdoctoral scholar with the Polarization Research Lab at Stanford University. Jacob holds a Ph.D. in political science from ETH Zurich, Switzerland, and completed undergraduate and graduate degrees at Leipzig University, Germany, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, and the University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom.

Jacob’s research focuses on the intersection of political behavior, public opinion, and institutional change. He examines how ordinary citizens perceive and respond to transforming institutional environments, including processes of democratization and democratic backsliding. While Jacob mainly focuses on European democracies, his research projects also cover Turkey and Brazil.

Recent Work

• "Entrepreneurs of conflict: A descriptive analysis of when and how political elites use divisive rhetoric" (PNAS Nexus)
• "Living in Different Worlds: Electoral Authoritarianism and Partisan Gaps in Perceptions of Electoral Integrity" (British Journal of Political Science)
• "The Demand Side of Democratic Backsliding: How Divergent Understandings of Democracy Shape Political Choice" (British Journal of Political Science)
• "Citizen support for democracy, anti-pluralist parties in power and democratic backsliding" (European Journal of Political Research)
• "Citizens as a democratic safeguard? The sequence of sanctioning elite attacks on democracy" (American Journal of Political Science)

Courses

• Political Campaigning (master of global affairs)
• Citizens and Democracy (undergraduate)
• Crafting Research in Europe (elective for minor in European studies)

News & Media

• "Incivility as Strategy: The Conflict Entrepreneurs of Congress" (The Northwest Politicast, begins at 5:40)
• "Do political insults pay off? New research shows what politicians actually gain from combative rhetoric"
• "Diverging views of democracy fuel support for authoritarian politicians, Notre Dame study shows"