Taking center stage: Decoding status hierarchies from group photos of European leaders

Magnus Lundgren

European Union Politics, 2018, vol. 19, issue 4, 549-569

Abstract: I investigate whether group photos of international leaders can provide useful data on interstate status perceptions. I formulate a spatial model of social hierarchy and evaluate it against newly gathered data on the placement of leaders in 121 European Council group photos between 1975 and 2015. I find support for determinants of placement at the international, institutional, and individual levels. The results suggest that: (a) group photos provide a previously untapped source of data on international status; (b) data derived from group photos can supplement existing status proxies based on material capabilities or diplomatic connectivity; (c) group pictures can be particularly useful for discerning status hierarchies among sets of relatively homogenous countries, such as those of the European Union.

Keywords: European Union; G-20; hierarchy; international status; methodology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:eeupol:v:19:y:2018:i:4:p:549-569

DOI: 10.1177/1465116518785057

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