My research appears in Political Science Research and Methods, Government and Opposition, Social Science Quarterly, and Journal of East Asian Studies, with several projects under review. I focus on political behavior, populism and democracy, and quantitative methods.
Publications * Corresponding Author
2025.* "The Non-Linearity Between Populist Attitudes and Ideological Extremism" in Political Science Research and Methods, 2025:1-20. (with Eduardo Ryô Tamaki)
The article reveals that populist attitudes do not rise in a straight ideological line but follow a distinct U-shaped curve across 43 democracies. Using data from 52 elections, the study shows that individuals on both the far left and far right express stronger populist sentiments than centrists, and that ideological extremism magnifies these attitudes exponentially. In short, populism thrives at the ideological edges. Whether on the left or the right, the more extreme one’s political stance, the stronger one’s populist outlook—though this effect is slightly sharper where right-wing populist parties dominate.
2025*. "Populism, Ideology, and the Endorsement of Martial Law: A Conditional Relationship" in Government and Opposition, forthcoming. (with Brandon Beomseob Park)
This article offers a powerful insight into the conditional nature of populism’s threat to democracy. Using original data from South Korea’s unprecedented 2024 martial law crisis, the study finds that populist attitudes alone do not predict support for authoritarianism. Instead, their impact depends on citizens’ ideological orientation: right-wing populists were far more likely to endorse martial law, while left-wing populists strongly resisted it. The findings reveal that populism is not inherently illiberal—it can either legitimize or challenge authoritarian rule depending on ideological context, making South Korea a striking case of how democratic backsliding can hinge on ideological polarization.
2025. "Navigating Populism in America: Unveiling the Socio-Economic and Ideological Roots of Populist Attitudes" in Social Science Quarterly 106 (2).
The article finds that American populist attitudes are overwhelmingly tied to conservative rather than progressive issue positions. Using national survey data, the study shows that populist citizens are most likely to oppose immigration, support gun rights, and favor abortion restrictions, while progressive stances such as environmental protection, healthcare expansion, and international engagement show no meaningful connection. Thus, populism in the United States aligns not with the economic left but with the cultural right, revealing that contemporary American populism reinforces ideological polarization rather than bridging it.
2025. "The Sectarian Divide: The Dynamics of Populism in South Korea" in Journal of East Asian Studies, 2025: 1-24.
Using over 52,000 party statements analyzed with large language models, the study reveals that both major Korean parties have increasingly relied on sectarian populism—a moralized, us-versus-them rhetoric that peaks during elections and opposition periods. This entrenched, bipartisan use of anti-pluralist populism exposes deep vulnerabilities in South Korea’s democratic consolidation and highlights how polarization can become institutionalized even within mainstream politics.
2024. "Cyber Shadows over Nuclear Peace: Understanding and Mitigating Digital Threats to Global Security." in Journal of Asian Security and International Affairs, 11(2), 233-533.
The article reveals that the growing fusion of cyber warfare and nuclear technology has created a dangerous security vacuum—there is still no international regime governing nuclear cybersecurity, leaving critical facilities vulnerable to digital sabotage and geopolitical escalation. It argues that building a global framework that integrates cyber and nuclear governance, led by middle powers and anchored in cooperative deterrence, is essential to prevent the collapse of the Non-Proliferation Treaty’s stability and preserve global peace.
2024. "Lighthouse in the Mist: State Governors’ Crisis Communication on Twitter during the Early Stage of the Covid-19 Pandemic." International Journal of Public Administration in the Digital Age, 11(1), 1-34. (with Hanjin Mao & Meril Antony)
Analyzing nearly 48,000 tweets from all 50 U.S. governors, the study reveals that governors with larger social media followings received significantly higher public engagement, yet more frequent tweeting did not necessarily enhance trust or information diffusion. The findings highlight that during crises, quality and credibility of communication outweigh sheer volume, underscoring Twitter’s role as both a tool for transparency and a test of digital leadership.
2025. “Candidates, Media Effects, and Gender,” The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Politics and Gender, Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
"Does Immigration Fuel Populism? The Effect of Immigration on the Rise of Populist Rhetoric"* (with Jeongho Choi)
The paper argues that populist parties do not always weaponize immigration. Across four European democracies, their rhetoric is often strategic and context-dependent—sometimes echoing mainstream parties rather than opposing them outright.
"Democracy for True Americans: Variations in Citizenship Norms and Democratic Norm Support”* (with Seongjoon Ahn) Accepted for inclusion in the Political Psychology (Special Issue).
Using a nationally representative survey and latent class analysis, the study uncovers that Americans hold two competing visions of citizenship, exclusive identity-based vs. inclusive civic-based, and that these competing norms strongly predict whether citizens uphold or erode core democratic principles.
"Reassessing the Cultural Foundation of Democracy after the Third-wave Democratization”* (with Youngho Cho & Hannah June Kim)
Analyzing World Values Survey data from 28 countries, the study shows that the share of citizens who both understand and genuinely support democracy has sharply declined since the 2000s, while ambivalence toward authoritarianism has surged, especially in non-Western democracies, revealing that the world’s democratic foundations are eroding from within the minds of ordinary citizens.
Work in Progress
Large Language Model and Populism with Eduardo Ryô Tamaki, Julia Chatterley, Semir Dzebo, Grant Mitchell, Cristóbal Sandoval, Levente Littvay, and Kirk A. Hawkins. (📢 invited to present at APSA 2025 & PaCSS 2025)
Preprint: https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.07458
The study demonstrates that LLMs can match expert human coders in detecting populist discourse, achieving near-perfect agreement scores, proving that AI can now grade the moral rhetoric of “people versus elites” as reliably as trained human coders.
Understanding Public Polarization in Response to Illiberal Decisions: A Large Language Model Approach with Sung Hoon Kang
This project examines the levels of polarization among Korean citizens before and after political events.
Exploring the Most Important Problem Through AI-Driven Analysis with Murat Yildirim & Brandon Beomseob Park & Dean Schafer
This project leverages large language models to enrich the exploration of citizens’ responses to Most Important Problem (MIP) survey questions.
Populism and Support for Democracy: Divergent Beliefs of Populist Supporters with Jeongho Choi
This study explores the influence of authoritarian attitudes on the support for populism, considering the relationship with satisfaction with democracy.
AI-Based Multidimensional Analysis of Inheritance and Gift Tax Policy Acceptance with Sung Hoon Kang
This study utilizes large language models to analyze policy acceptance by leveraging open-ended questions in the original dataset.
What Happens When Asian American Candidates Use Race Appeals? with Taewoo Kang
Using survey experiments, this research examines the political behaviors of Asian-American individuals.
Using Mixed Subjects Design to Replicate Underpowered Political Science Studies with Dowon Kim
This study employs the Mixed Subjects Design to strengthen inference in underpowered political science studies.
Measuring Extreme Right Wing with Brandon Beomseob Park
This study explores the dynamics of extreme right-wing ideology, focusing on South Korea.
Democratic Norm Violation in New Democracies: Political Punitivism with Youngho Cho
Focusing on South Korea, this research investigates the impact of norm violations on the quality of democracy.
