🎙️ Pumpled (pumped & humbled) about two podcast episodes out today, both recorded with my dear friend and former party co-founder Kristóf Szombati in the aftermath of Viktor #Orbán's defeat. 🎧 kettering.org/hungary-afte... 🎧 kettering.org/hungary-afte...

Last week, Hungarian voters delivered a decisive electoral upset to strongman Viktor Orbán, who spent 16 years consolidating power, capturing institutions, and portraying himself as the global template for illiberal democracy. Discover #TheStakes here: bit.ly/4toZ3mz

What a week. Since #Orbán's defeat I have been in and out of studios and phone calls with journalists trying to make sense of the elections in #Hungary, literally talking to each inhabited continent (Antarctica still pending), reflecting the gravity of this political change. Links below.

Most analyses of the elections in #Hungary focus on how Magyar won – @dfeher.bsky.social of #UBIE asks why it took sixteen years to bring down #Orbán. The answer reveals something fundamental about economic dependency and the case for #UBI as democratic infrastructure. 🔗 www.ubie.org/hu26 1/7

Hungary is Back. Orban is out. Constitutional majority in sight for opposition! 30% of votes counted; yet, it's almost 100% that the opposition Tisza party won, based on the current trajectory, new government might control at least 2/3 of seats. New era.

Yesterday, I spoke to il manifesto and @aljazeera.com (Inside Story, a 25-minute segment with @rdanielkelemen.bsky.social) about tomorrow's elections, focusing on the economic exhaustion of the regime. 🎦Al Jazeera: www.aljazeera.com/video/inside... 📰 Il Manifesto: ilmanifesto.it/la-piazza-gi...

I was back on @tvpworld.bsky.social to talk about the economic fallout of the Iran war. A 15-minute interview, plus link to the underlying analysis: where are we and why is June the month that might transform this crisis from painful to catastrophic. Interview: www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXu4... 1/7

Three major new studies on democracy and freedom all find the U.S. is slipping further away from democracy. Leaders of two of those studies say President Trump's goal is to rule as an autocrat.

💥Not how one wants to be featured in the @nytimes.com, but I’m glad a US audience sees what’s happening in this small country’s wild election campaign. As with other Orbán-related news, here's my warning to US colleagues: Orbán's actions still serve as a blueprint for Trump/MAGA.

My new study is out with @feps-europe.eu. "Laboratories of Counter-Hegemony: Orbán, Trump and the Transatlantic Far-Right Ecosystem" maps the infrastructure that has turned a small Central European country into a launchpad for reorganizing the Western right. 🧵 1/9 👉 feps-europe.eu/publication/...

Polarization is not just a political problem. It is a health problem. If you agree, check out this Social Science & Medicines pecial issue, edited by @josephharrisbu.bsky.social and Nora Kenworthy on "Polarization and Health Policy in a Global Context." www.sciencedirect.com/special-issu...

USA under #Trump 2.0 emerging as the most rapidly #autocratizing country, finds @vdeminstitute.bsky.social 2026 Democracy Report. Speed of #backsliding outpaces the most paradigmatic cases. Scholars of Hun 🇭🇺,🇮🇳,🇷🇺,🇷🇸,🇹🇷 - now is the time to analyze American politics: 👉 www.v-dem.net/documents/75...

I did two interviews recently on the fallout from the #IranWar and what it means for #Europe and the #WorldEconomy, and wrote a more detailed analytical note on the war's economic consequences. Happy to share them here. 🧵 1/4

This is the largest oil supply shock in history in mb/d The enemy gets a vote. Iran is now delivering pain to Trump via multiple paths (1) Gulf Kings (2) Financial meltdown (3) AI tech oligarchs (4) Fuel, fertilizer, food disruptions Read our Polycrisis Dispatch: buttondown.com/polycrisisdi...

My analysis on #Europe and the #Iran war is just out on @socialeurope.bsky.social. Europe's response to the US-Israeli strikes on Iran exposes a continent locked in dependency and struggling to find its voice. 🧵👇 1/6 www.socialeurope.eu/spain-and-no...

This Friday, I'll be speaking at the symposium "Make Illiberalism Great Again" in Regensburg, exploring how a small state punches far above its weight globally. Organized by @sonjapriebus.bsky.social & @sudosteuropa.bsky.social, I'm glad to join @veghzsuzsanna.bsky.social and Ivana Ranković. 1/6

Join us next week for a symposium on how the Hungarian government has been actively seeking to transnationalize its political project and position itself as a reference point for like-minded forces in Europe and beyond. Registration to participate in Regensburg or online: sogde.org/de/events/sy...

Welcome, new followers! And a particular groetjes to the Dutch wave; not entirely sure how I landed in your corner of Bluesky, but I'm glad to see the engagement. I write about political economy, illiberalism, the lived experiences of economic shocks, and how to save democracy from the polycrisis.

I have a new, open-access paper out in the European Journal of Sociology: “Commodification and Social Reproduction: Theory and Mixed-Method Evidence on the Effect of Privatization on Childbearing.” After a long journey, it’s finally published online. 1/10 👉 doi.org/10.1017/S000...

An interview with me about why liberal #democracies keep producing their own gravediggers is now out on @mediapart.fr, France's leading independent investigative outlet. #Illiberalism is a political reaction to the crisis of liberal #globalism. Details in French: blogs.mediapart.fr/edition/chro...

The US under Trump's second term is experiencing the steepest democratic backsliding in contemporary history, outpacing Russia, Turkey, and Hungary. But there's hope, too. Burn-Murdoch is probably the best data journalist today. His latest @financialtimes.com analysis is essential reading. 1/7

The rules-based international order was never truly universal, was upheld selectively, and attacked cynically even in its strongest days in the 1990s. But at least it functioned as a rhetorical anchor and a moral ambition. Not anymore. 1/7

It's Trump policy that U.S. tech must be globally dominant. It's also US policy that its tech corps must be free from: Regulation. Taxation. Fact checking and monitoring for hate lies, disinformation. All are now being treated as attacks on the U.S. itself. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

I was happy to talk the Boston-based MassLive for this article on what the U.S. can learn from Hungary’s crackdown on highered. The transatlantic convergence of the far right, even if important differences remain, should worry anyone who takes universities, pluralism, and democracy seriously. 1/7

When people feel unseen or powerless, authoritarianism grows. 2025 CFK Global Fellows @gscheiring.bsky.social, Koketso Moeti, and Chris Muriithi, explain why addressing fear, inequality, and exclusion is central to defending democracy.

I have a cellular-level disrespect of disciplinary silos, so it was a pleasure to contribute a reflection piece to Current Anthropology, one of the field’s most prestigious generalist journals. The kind of cross-disciplinary conversation we need to have to better understand antiliberal politics.

Grumpy opinion: Too many young development economists are working on behavioral econ questions that are unimportant for development. The topics are amenable to small experiments that can nail mechanisms and demonstrate smarts via a clever design. The profession over-rewards those attributes.

FDR showed us democracy could deliver—restoring trust and creating security for all. We need a bold vision like FDR's that encompasses modern challenges to similarly prioritize security and shared prosperity. rooseveltinstitute.org/blog/w...

We spent a year investigating billionaires for @washingtonpost.com. We found: the wealthiest 100 Americans gave $1.1 billion to influence the 2024 elections — 140x more than they did in 2000. And almost all of that giving boosted Republicans. washingtonpost.com/politics/int...

I have a new opinion article up at @aljazeera.com and I am looking forward to your reactions. It brings together several strands of my research and public engagement. I reflect on US Hungary Russia relations, dependence, and the increasingly bizarre geopolitical theatre we all end up watching. 1/5

I had the chance to join Your Call, the San Francisco based public affairs radio show on 91.7 FM KALW, for a conversation about what the U.S. can learn from Hungary’s slide into electoral autocracy. It was a real pleasure to do this together with one of Hungary’s finest journalists. 1/4

Check out my latest article: Viktor #Orbán met #Trump in DC this weekend and left with a one-year exemption from #sanctions on #Russian oil and gas imports: a short-term political win that exposes his long-term #dependence, revealing the costs of #illiberalism. www.linkedin.com/pulse/price-...

Zohran Mamdani will be the 111th mayor of New York City. He represents everyday people who struggle to pay rent and bills, let alone save or get ahead. Yes, you can build affordable cities. Vienna did it a hundred years ago, and there is no reason we cannot do it again today. 1/4

Our #DemocracyAroundTheGlobe team is in Athens this week sponsoring and attending the 2025 Athens Democracy Forum!

This is such a small world. I’ve just spent a day in Hungary discussing #illiberalism and woke up to this Jimmy #Kimmel story. Trump & co. don’t need direct lessons from Hungary—some of their moves are already beyond #Orbán in radicalism. 1/8

I look forward to joining this illustrious panel at the Budapest Forum on the causes of the #populist surge, kicked off by a keynote from Ivan Krastev, one of Europe’s foremost experts on #democracy. September 17, 13:45-15:00, Budapest, Nádor street 15. Program: budapestforum.org/understandin...

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A superb analysis @jacobinmag.bsky.social on why the Democrats are so weak against Trump: "Their weakness is the result of a decades-long hollowing out of the party, in which organized labor has been displaced by a panoply of interest groups and nonprofit organizations." jacobin.com/2025/08/demo...

Poverty obstructs economic recovery. 16m Britons live in poverty 800,000 suffer from nutritional deficiencies. 1-in-200 households experiencing homelessness 1-in-4 young people have mental health conditions. Scurvy/Rickets are back. £39bn GDP a year lost due to poverty. Must redistribute.

I had a great conversation with Kai Schnier on his Un-American podcast about the causes and consequences of illiberalism and what Orbán’s Hungary can teach us about Trump’s second term. You can listen to the episode here: lnkd.in/dipXeevK #populism #democracy #Trump #Orban #illiberalism #polisky

"These are the proverbial adults in the room. They had the power to create friction for fascism. They have instead created a glide-path."

In this TIME magazine piece about the potential consequences of famine in #Gaza, SHP's Ruth Gibson notes effects of starvation can persist long after people regain access to food. “What we can’t see is the generational and intergenerational impacts."

So here's what @gscheiring.bsky.social told me. "Most of Orban's tactical weapons to take over the media resemble the moves that led to Colbert's cancellation," he said:

The Paramount-Skydance saga "reeks of Orbanism." That's the assessment of @gscheiring.bsky.social, who experienced Viktor Orbán's autocratic power plays in Hungary firsthand as a member of the Hungarian parliament. 🧵

It was an honor and a pleasure to discuss #authoritarian threats to #democracy with Steve Levitsky at the @kettering.org Democracy Conference this Monday in D.C. I'm grateful to the Kettering Foundation for making this global conversation possible. International #solidarity is the only way to go.

Glad to share my latest piece on the autocratic threat and why a lasting solution requires rethinking what democracy is. Democracy thrives when it includes. Out now on the Kettering Foundation blog, Resilience & Resistance. #Democracy #populism #illiberalism #polisky kettering.org/why-democrac...

Glad to share a symposium on my book "How the Radical Right Has Changed Capitalism and Welfare" with SER: academic.oup.com/ser/advance-.... Featuring @alexandreafonso.bsky.social, @vapunkt.bsky.social, @ankehassel.bsky.social, @danielk24.bsky.social, @gscheiring.bsky.social, & rejoinder by myself 👇

When the #ultra-rich and #corporations have huge sway in government decisions and are able to operate without accountability, #democracy deteriorates. In this power punch essay, @kettering.org Democracy Fellow Koketso Moeti explores the implications for South Africa. 👉 kettering.org/the-age-of-t...

The democratic socialist @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social has beaten Cuomo and is now the Democrats’ nominee for Mayor of NYC, de facto Mayor-Elect. Democrats and liberals serious about defeating illiberalism better pay attention. There is a model for organizing the majority and saving democracy. 1/7

"Europe’s leaders have internalized their own subordination. They betray international law not for tangible gains, but out of reflexive obedience, a habit that weakens Europe’s global standing while emboldening Washington’s and Jerusalem’s worst impulses." responsiblestatecraft.org/us-strikes-i...