Christophe

Lesschaeve

Christophe Lesschaeve joined the University of Luxemburg in October 2017 as a postdoctoral research associate, working on the ERC-funded project titled "Electoral Legacies of War: Political Competition in Postwar Southeast Europe".

Dr. Lesschaeve earned his PhD in political science in 2017 at the University of Antwerp, where he worked on the PartiRep-Project, an Interuniversity Attraction Pole (IAP) funded by the Belgian Science Policy. His doctoral dissertation studied the inequality in opinion congruence between privileged and underprivileged voters in Belgium. During his PhD, he did a three-month research stay, funded by the Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (FWO), at the University of Leiden. Christophe has also engaged in projects outside academia that focus on the linkage between voters and political elites. He helped develop the highly successful online voting advice applications (VAA) Stemtest and Test Électoral for the 2014 elections in Belgium. These VAAs are currently being used in high schools to help pupils familiarize with Belgian political parties and their policy positions.

Dr. Lesschaeve’s research interests focus on representation, voter behavior, and public health policy. As postdoctoral researcher in the ELWar-project, he is investigating how voters’ experiences of war and conflict affect their contemporary electoral behavior and choices. In the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, dr. Lesschaeve recent work has looked at how the pandemic has impacted public opinion, elections, and public policy. His work has been published in journals such as Public Opinion Quarterly, West European Politics, Party Politics, and Electoral Studies.

Research interests

Elections

public opinion

post-conflict societies

public health

political representation

Latest content Christophe Lesschaeve took part in

Social Sciences

COVID-19: Saving lives or saving the economy ?

A new study conducted by dr. Christophe Lesschaeve, Prof. Josip Glaurdić, and dr. Michal Mochtak from the Department of Social science and recently accepted for publication in the journal Public Opinion Quarterly (ranked globally as the best journal for public opinion research) looks into the public attitudes towards the difficult trade-off imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The lockdowns decrease the spread of the virus, but amplify the damage to the economy. Are people willing to accept a higher death toll in an attempt to limit the damage of the economy, or is saving lives considered nonnegotiable?