Project description
Walls and wicked problems: the role of complexity in politics
Why and when do simple political ideas like 'building a wall' win out over more nuanced solutions? Many major challenges today, from climate change to migration, are inherently complex, involving uncertainty, trade-offs and multiple actors – yet politicians frequently offer too-simple fixes. The ERC-funded COMPLEXPOL project is investigating how citizens and politicians in the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany perceive and respond to political complexity. COMPLEXPOL will develop new ways to measure what makes an idea complex, examine who tolerates or even prefers complexity, and investigate whether political leaders strategically propose simpler policies to win support. By making political complexity visible, COMPLEXPOL will help us understand the rise of populism and the decline of public trust in democracy.
Objective
Politics is about solving our world's most complex problems. Solving “wicked problems” like climate change or migration involves myriad actors, contested priorities, uncertain outcomes, and interdependent processes. In the face of such complexity, policymakers sometimes propose simple solutions. US President Donald Trump proposed building a wall to “solve” immigration. British Conservatives proposed cutting all ties with the EU in a “hard Brexit”. Both won elections on these simple narratives. Conversely, the lack of a similarly simple idea to address climate change seems to hinder global progress.
Each of these events is a story of a contest between complex and simple ideas. Yet political science lacks clear theories about the nature and strategic uses of complexity, focusing mostly on text complexity measures like readability. Without a theory of idea complexity, scholars cannot explain why Trump proposed a wall, nor why the idea was popular with voters. If we understand political complexity better—if we make it explicit instead of implicit in our theories—we also understand our current moment better.
COMPLEXPOL will build new theories of and evidence for the role of complexity in politics. It does so through three work packages that rely on multiple methods, including quantitative modelling, survey, experimental, and computational methods, and novel data on voters and political leaders in three countries. In WP1, I will develop new, multidimensional measures of complexity, particularly of ideas. In WP2, I will explore the social and psychological determinants of individual attitudes toward complexity. And in WP3, I will investigate the strategic use of complexity by leaders and the public's reactions. In so doing, COMPLEXPOL will provide fresh insights into why some problems get solved with walls while others are left as wicked problems.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2025-STG
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OX1 2JD Oxford
United Kingdom
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