Josef Woldense
@woldense.bsky.social
📤 4350
📥 268
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josefwoldense.com
A 4 minute comedy skit worth your time
www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4Up...
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A Day in the Life of an Ensh*ttificator
YouTube video by Forbrukerrådet - Norwegian Consumer Council
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4Upf_B9RLQ
13 days ago
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Adam Scharpf
25 days ago
Russia, Venezuela, Iran, China, the Sahel region, the United States ... Want to know why state agents carry out brutal repression — or participate in illegal coups? Our new book "Making a Career in Dictatorship" provides answers — it just got published by
@academic.oup.com
:
tinyurl.com/ystwm3tf
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𝙅𝙖𝙘🍩𝙗 𝙉𝙮𝙧𝙪𝙥
about 2 months ago
We are happy to release the Paths to Power Dashboard. It is the perfect tool for politics nerds! You can find it here:
ptp.isv.sv.uio.no/ptp/
It allows you to explore governments from 1966-2021 using the PtP and WhoGov datasets. See examples below. The app has been programmed by Stuart Bramwell.
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Felix Haass
2 months ago
🚨Job alert! 🚨 I'm advertising a PhD position (66%) in Comparative Politics at HU Berlin. Ideal candidates combine a research interest in autocratic politics, conflict, and/or political violence with strong quantitative methods skills. ⏳ 4 (+2) years | 🗓 DL 16.01; Start March/April 26 More info:
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Research fellow (m/f/d) in the field of “contentious politics/political violence/autocratic politics” - Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
https://www.hu-berlin.de/universitaet/arbeiten-an-der-hu/stellenangebote/details/research-fellow-m-f-d-in-the-field-of-contentious-politics-political-violence-autocratic-politics-an-436-25
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Elizabeth (Bit) Meehan, PhD
3 months ago
the analogy I use with friends and family all the time is the jump from collegiate to professional sports. as soon as I explain it that way, it clicks in their brains what the academic job market is like.
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Sarah Brierley
3 months ago
I am hiring a post-doctoral fellow (2 years) to work on all things political finance in Africa. There are no teaching obligations, and lots of opportunities for fieldwork. A PhD in Political Science is a requirement. Please spread the word! Happy to answer questions - send them to my LSE email.
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Andrew Heiss
3 months ago
Some closing thoughts for my students this semester on LLMs and learning
#rstats
datavizf25.classes.andrewheiss.com/news/2025-12...
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Carl Müller-Crepon
3 months ago
🚨Jobs!🚨 3-year PostDoc positions (aka Research Officers) at
@lsegovernment.bsky.social
to work with me on the local consequences of border change. Please reach out for questions and apply by Jan 4th to join the team and department: I’d love to hear from you! Job ad:
jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...
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Research Officer
Research Officer, , <p style="background: white; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><em><span style="color: #333333;">LSE is committed to building a diverse, equitable and truly inclusive university</s...
https://jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/1767/0/461369/15539/research-officer
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Dan de Kadt
3 months ago
For anyone interested in the visualisation workshop materials I mention in this thread, you can find them here:
github.com/ddekadt/MY58...
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Parking Reform Network
3 months ago
Minimum parking requirements create financially insolvent land use patterns. The two apartment buildings on the right generate six times more in property taxes than the big box store on the left, while occupying almost half the space!
#BlackFridayParking
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Excellent presentation. Worth a watch even if you're not an academic
youtu.be/PygUK16aQgk?...
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Why is knowledge getting so expensive? | Jeffrey Edmunds | TEDxPSU
YouTube video by TEDx Talks
https://youtu.be/PygUK16aQgk?si=tomA7RXhSkzwDDx0
4 months ago
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Aditya Dasgupta
4 months ago
Do architecture and urban planning affect political behavior? Happy to share a paper that
@tesaliarizzo.bsky.social
and I have coming out at the APSR which uses computer vision to investigate how the built environment shapes inequalities in civic participation in Mexico:
osf.io/preprints/so...
. 🧵1/5
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Steve Rosenzweig
4 months ago
Great analysis of the situation in Tanzania by Dan Paget
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Has Tanzania Reached Its Breaking Point? | Journal of Democracy
President Hassan promised Tanzanians freedom, transparency, and reform. Instead, she has delivered repression, violence, and arrests as she bars anyone who dares challenge her.
https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/online-exclusive/has-tanzania-reached-its-breaking-point/
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Felix Haass
5 months ago
🚨 New article out! “Right-Wing Terror, Media Backlash, and Voting Preferences for the Far Right” in
@bjpols.bsky.social
👉
doi.org/10.1017/S000...
We (Alex De Juan,
@juvoss.bsky.social
& I) examine how right-wing attacks shape support for the far-right in Germany. Short summary thread below 👇
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M.Woldemariam
5 months ago
New essay in Foreign Policy with Abel Abate D. on Eritrea-Ethiopia tensions. It covers the sources of mutual restraint thus far; some of the factors that are eroding this delicate balance; and what can be done to avert another war the Horn of Africa cannot afford.
foreignpolicy.com/2025/10/21/e...
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The Risk of a New Ethiopian-Eritrean War Is Growing
Changing dynamics in Tigray could erode the current balance of uncertainty.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/10/21/ethiopia-eritrea-tigray-horn-east-africa/
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Excellent video on bias-variance tradeoff in stats/AI
youtu.be/z64a7USuGX0?...
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What the Books Get Wrong about AI [Double Descent]
YouTube video by Welch Labs
https://youtu.be/z64a7USuGX0?si=JEuqPUqRoHeQFivZ
5 months ago
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𝙅𝙖𝙘🍩𝙗 𝙉𝙮𝙧𝙪𝙥
5 months ago
Paths to Power (PtP) is out in
@bjpols.bsky.social
! It is a database with data on cabinet members' social profile globally from 1966-2021. This is a great team effort with
@chknutsen.bsky.social
,
@peterla.bsky.social
,
@inalkristiansen.bsky.social
. But many more helped us along the way 🙏 A short 🧵
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Paths to Power: A New Dataset on the Social Profile of Governments | British Journal of Political Science | Cambridge Core
Paths to Power: A New Dataset on the Social Profile of Governments - Volume 55
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/british-journal-of-political-science/article/paths-to-power-a-new-dataset-on-the-social-profile-of-governments/DB3B68A3BA54AFA49DFEBE6485E0BE04
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International Studies Association
6 months ago
Preparing for your upcoming
#ResearchTalk
? Sign up for two courses, taught by
@woldense.bsky.social
, to enhance your
#Communication
and apply
#Storytelling
principles to your
#Presenting
, and
#Teaching
skills! Open to both ISA Members and non-members. Register:
buff.ly/PUXowRN
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Vincent Arel-Bundock
6 months ago
Whoa—my book is up for pre-order! 𝐌𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥 𝐭𝐨 𝐌𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐭 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭 & 𝐌𝐋 𝐌𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐬 𝐢𝐧
#Rstats
𝐚𝐧𝐝
#PyData
The book presents an ultra-simple and powerful workflow to make sense of ± any model you fit The web version will stay free forever and my proceeds go to charity.
tinyurl.com/4fk56fc8
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This looks fascinating!
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6 months ago
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Paper alert 📣 Rapid advances in AI has some believe that LLM agents can replace real participants in human-subject research. If true, this would be huge! Following a growing body of research, we delve deeper into this topic and examine the merits of this claim. 🧵...
arxiv.org/abs/2509.03736
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Are LLM Agents Behaviorally Coherent? Latent Profiles for Social Simulation
The impressive capabilities of Large Language Models (LLMs) have fueled the notion that synthetic agents can serve as substitutes for real participants in human-subject research. In an effort to evalu...
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.03736
6 months ago
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Marianne Dahl
7 months ago
📊 New dataset and paper alert! We’re proud to launch the Opposition Movements and Groups (OMG) Dataset, 1789–2019: a global dataset covering 1,452 mass mobilization movements. It was just published in Comparative Political Studies.
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Below follows a 🧵
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Nick Sousanis
7 months ago
My drawn statement on Ai as standalone from my now finished minicomic as syllabus for new liberal studies class! As promised this is shareable, printable - all from my site, feel free to make use of it, cite me & let me know how it’s received. Share away all here!
spinweaveandcut.com/fall-2025-sy...
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Just a reminder: if you're on the job market or just interested in research presentations, join my upcoming workshop. (I promise, no money was exchanged for
@caileighglenn.bsky.social
endorsement)
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7 months ago
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African Politics Conference Group
7 months ago
Our member Josef Woldense is leading a two-day virtual workshop on August 26 and 27: The Research Presentation as Storytelling. Learn how to present your work through a compelling narrative. More details available on our website:
www.afpol.org/blog/the-res...
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The Research Presentation as Storytelling: A Two-Day Virtual Workshop with Josef Woldense
The goal is to help participants see research presentations not as a monologue of facts but as a compelling narrative. The exploration begins with the fundamentals: What is storytelling? What makes st...
https://www.afpol.org/blog/the-research-presentation-as-storytelling-a-two-day-virtual-workshop-with-josef-woldense
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📢🗣️...Are you a graduate students about to go on the market? Or perhaps you're just interested in research presentations. If so, check out my free two-day workshop: The Research Presentation as Storytelling
7 months ago
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Anton Kronborg
7 months ago
Zambian politics have been quite dramatic in the last 20 years (timeline below). With that kind of competition, you’d expect MPs to fight to gain an edge in every arena, especially MPs elected on a thin margin. However, I find the opposite in Zambia’s parliament:
doi.org/10.1080/1357...
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Authoritarian Political Systems Group
11 months ago
The Call for Papers for our Fall 2025 Workshop series is now OPEN! Polisky Dictatorsky To apply complete this form by May 31st:
forms.gle/SvZv98ke4QUT...
You can find more information here on the CfP:
apsg.work/cfp/
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Apply to Present Your Work!
Complete the form to be considered for the Authoritarian Political Systems Group Fall 2025 Season. Read the Seminar Rules before applying.
https://forms.gle/SvZv98ke4QUT7omu9
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Julia M. Rohrer
10 months ago
I'm currently tweaking some ggplots to make them pretty & readable and this is most definitely the most productive ChatGPT use case in my daily work. I know what I want, I can articulate it in natural language, I can check whether the output is right.
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There is currently a tornado 🌪️ watch in Minneapolis. And here are two emails I received during this time. Almost seems like someone is pranking me
10 months ago
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Dan de Kadt
10 months ago
🚨 “Good Description” with
@annagbusse.bsky.social
🚨 What sets 'good' description apart from 'mere' description? We develop a framework for evaluating descriptive research, whether we are doing it as scholars or assessing it as readers. Two main contributions... 🔗📄
tinyurl.com/gooddesc
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good_description/good_description_ddk_agb.pdf at main · ddekadt/good_description
Homepage of "Good Description" by Daniel de Kadt & Anna Grzymala-Busse - ddekadt/good_description
https://tinyurl.com/gooddesc
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Whoever thought that mold spreading across lemons could be so mesmerizing
youtube.com/watch?v=LYRA...
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Pet mold goes wild on lemons
YouTube video by Photo Owl Time Lapse
https://youtube.com/watch?v=LYRA2pNsGAQ&si=uvoWjt_kle1BmkMK
10 months ago
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Frank Elavsky (he/him) ⌁
10 months ago
I always tell this to my research assistants: if you use AI to summarize and write for you, you don't need to be my assistant. You don't need to do research at all. Research should be selfish: *you* (not a machine) learn how to read, write, innovate, and dream. Otherwise, what is the point?
add a skeleton here at some point
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Have you ever wondered what Equifinality is? Well, here is the basketball version it... fascinating video
youtu.be/mMNDgSkRDEw?...
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The importance of basketball IQ, in one play
YouTube video by Thinking Basketball
https://youtu.be/mMNDgSkRDEw?si=RZRfb8gfeXe8irM7
11 months ago
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Greg Jenner (Historian)
11 months ago
Someone on Threads noticed you can type any random sentence into Google, then add “meaning” afterwards, and you’ll get an AI explanation of a famous idiom or phrase you just made up. Here is mine
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Jonas W. Schmid
11 months ago
Ever felt uneasy about how concepts & measures of "grey zone" autocracies are used interchangeably across the literature? Then check out my 🚨new paper🚨 in
@democratization.bsky.social
and get some substance to back up your gut feeling:
tinyurl.com/ypdm2kna
Or at least read the main points below ⬇️
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Electoral autocracies, hybrid regimes, and multiparty autocracies: same, same but different?
There is a wide range of labels, such as electoral autocracy, hybrid regimes, or multiparty autocracy, and corresponding empirical measures to describe and measure political regimes that combine au...
https://tinyurl.com/ypdm2kna
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Kate Starbird
11 months ago
Timely new paper from UW Center for an Informed Public's PhD student
@sydneydemets.bsky.social
& current Director
@emmaspiro.bsky.social
looking at "trajectories" of guests acoss political podcasts, showing how many move from the periphery into the center.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
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Podcasts in the periphery: Tracing guest trajectories in political podcasts
Social networks structure the flow of political information that is critical for civic participation and individual decision making, simultaneously op…
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378873325000115
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Alex Coppock
11 months ago
New visualization tool alert! The vayr package version 1.0.0 is now on CRAN. It contains position adjustments for ggplot2 that help with overplotting in pleasing ways. My favorite is position_sunflower(). - install.packages("vayr") -
alexandercoppock.com/vayr
#rstats
#ggplot2
#dataviz
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Julia M. Rohrer
11 months ago
Proudly presenting the (for now) final version of "Why experiments work." To share the materials in a slightly more professional manner, I added a "Resources" page to my website:
juliarohrer.com/resources/
. That was long overdue anyway; now there's also a curated list of my papers and blog posts.
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Tariffs and Nintendo...a fascinating thread
add a skeleton here at some point
11 months ago
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Nicholas Rush Smith
11 months ago
Excited to see my new article with Erica Simmons out in APSR FirstView! We argue that when social scientists extend their arguments to new cases, they are often not generalizing their findings, but translating them to new contexts instead. Want to know more? Read it. It's open access. 👇
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How Cases Speak to One Another: Using Translation to Rethink Generalization in Political Science Research | American Political Science Review | Cambridge Core
How Cases Speak to One Another: Using Translation to Rethink Generalization in Political Science Research
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/how-cases-speak-to-one-another-using-translation-to-rethink-generalization-in-political-science-research/CC25A63B221A1644C892128BEDECBAFA
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I know humans are capable of a lot of things, but this kind of blew my mind. Given only a street level view of a place on Google maps, they are able to guess where in the world it is located, sometimes down to the exact spot. Incredible!
youtu.be/M7rKQcoEnOw?...
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GeoGuessr 2024 World Cup - Grand Finals (Highlights)
YouTube video by rainbolt clips
https://youtu.be/M7rKQcoEnOw?si=T0V_S41gT06m98aA
12 months ago
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Carl Müller-Crepon
12 months ago
Very happy that this is out now! We find that railroad construction led to more separatism in Europe, showing strong opposition to modernization and state building among minorities.
@robertovalli.bsky.social
with a summary thread below👇
add a skeleton here at some point
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The scamming industrial complex...wow The Scammer’s Manual: How to Launder Money and Get Away With It
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/23/w...
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How Scammers Launder Money and Get Away With It (Gift Article)
Documents and insiders reveal how one of the world’s major money laundering networks operates.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/23/world/asia/cambodia-money-laundering-huione.html?unlocked_article_code=1.6E4.PDQl.3Z8_6M3tghsD&smid=nytcore-android-share
12 months ago
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Woldegiorgis G. Teklay
12 months ago
A rift within the TPLF has renewed the risk of a large interstate conflict.
foreignpolicy.com/2025/03/19/t...
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Tigray Power Struggle Risks Ethiopia-Eritrea War
A rift within the TPLF has renewed the risk of a large interstate conflict.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/03/19/tigray-tplf-ethiopia-eritrea-abiy-isaias-tdf-getachew-debretsion1190035/
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Eric Klinenberg
12 months ago
Chilling report from Brown University. Administration advises all foreign students, staff, and faculty to postpone or reconsider (ie cancel) international travel, due to federal government's crackdown on universities. Brown also warns against *domestic travel* -since it's unclear what ICE will do.
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Brown University advises all international community members to postpone, reconsider travel
One week before spring break, Brown advised international community members, including green card holders and permanent residents, to postpone international travel in a campus-wide email sent on Sunda...
https://www.browndailyherald.com/article/2025/03/brown-advises-all-international-community-members-to-postpone-reconsider-travel
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M.Woldemariam
12 months ago
www.crisisgroup.org/africa/horn-...
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Ethiopia and Eritrea, On a Collision Course | Crisis Group
This week on The Horn, Alan speaks with Michael Woldemariam, associate professor at the University of Maryland, about the escalating tensions between Ethiopia and Eritrea, the political crisis in Tigr...
https://www.crisisgroup.org/africa/horn-africa/ethiopiaeritrea-eritrea-ethiopia/ethiopia-and-eritrea-collision-course
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Fabio Angiolillo
12 months ago
🚨New publication! We introduce the party-system democracy index (PSDI), a new global measure on regime preferences across party systems. Key findings 1. PSDI predicts both democratization & autocratization 2. Changes in PSDI can signal a looming regime change Open access🔓 🧵
tinyurl.com/tcms7muj
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Party Systems, Democratic Positions, and Regime Changes: Introducing the Party-System Democracy Index | British Journal of Political Science | Cambridge Core
Party Systems, Democratic Positions, and Regime Changes: Introducing the Party-System Democracy Index - Volume 55
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/british-journal-of-political-science/article/party-systems-democratic-positions-and-regime-changes-introducing-the-partysystem-democracy-index/1259751C10EBA5A423D0EFC2D41AAF9F
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An excellent video...on so many levels
youtu.be/nOVvEbH2GC0?...
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To Scale: TIME
YouTube video by To Scale:
https://youtu.be/nOVvEbH2GC0?si=mcEoHAqVMN6YMn_j
12 months ago
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