Today is a good day to remind you that none of the classic vote studies thought very highly of women's political competence.

Thrilled to share my new article in Political Psychology: “The psychology of political attitudinal volatility.” In it, I attempt to answer why do some people change their political views more than others? Open access at: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.... @ispp-pops.bsky.social

The Algorithmic Hand: Artificial Intelligence, Democracy, and Collective Action at Scale. Check out this new policy paper from our visiting fellow Tiago Peixoto. eprints.soton.ac.uk/506915/ #polisky

CfP: Democratic Innovations as Feminist Publics: Principles and Infrastructures. Get your papers in for this ECPR Joint Sessions workshop, led by our co-director Zohreh Khoban and Olive Mendoza, a collaboration that emerged from our symposium last summer. ecpr.eu/Events/Event... #polisky

This happened to me too, but since I already had 10,000 unread emails in the primary mailbox, I guess another few thousand doesn't matter too much.

Police and Crime Commissioners to be abolished. Called this more than 3 years ago when writing about the distinction between institutionalisation and embedding: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Useful undergrad resource: A brief overview of 200 important concepts in political science link.springer.com/referencewor...

New publication with Emilien Paulis and David Talukder! We examine how regional economic conditions shape public support for direct and deliberative democratic innovations (DIs). Our findings show that common explanations of support for DIs are context-dependent: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

This from @benansell.bsky.social is excellent.

The Public Opinion Analytics Lab (POAL) is a collaboration by Southampton, Reading, and the LSE to leverage our strengths in public opinion research for academia and beyond. Today we've published our first methods brief— a short primer on conjoint experiments by the fantastic Thomas Robinson (LSE).

The way that the BBC has reported on this story has been pretty disgusting. Consistently framing it as a melodrama for Andrew (the abuser) and his family, like we should maybe feel a bit sorry for him. We shouldn't; we should be on the side of the trafficked girls. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Looking for postdoc funding? Markus Häggrot has put together this very useful database of opportunities: pt-postdoc-funding.com It is aimed at political theorists, but lots of the schemes are open to other disciplines, so helpful for others too. #polisky

Looking for postdoc funding? Markus Häggrot has put together this very useful database of opportunities: pt-postdoc-funding.com It is aimed at political theorists, but lots of the schemes are open to other disciplines, so helpful for others too. #polisky

Comparative Constitutional Studies early view: O'Flynn on "Constitutional referendums and randomly selected constitutional conventions." www.elgaronline.com/view/journal...

Autumn has arrived on Highfield Campus 🍂🍁

The Monday after the clocks go back. The one day a year that, as a night owl, you can get up at a comfortable time for you and feel like a productive member of society and not some kind of degenerate.

🟡 The Incite-Dem Interactive Forums are novel events where institutional actors are recruited to reflect on how citizen-generated models might be integrated into governance structures, and what adaptations are needed to make them work in practice. ⬇️

The problem of telling the truth after nine years of denial is that most people will quite reasonably assume either 1) you are just making excuses for current failure, or 2) you spent the last nine years being stupid/lying.

Stumbled across what seemed to be an abandoned palace whilst wandering around Lisbon last week.

We are hiring PhDs and postdocs to work on the ERC project GETGOV, where I am the PI. We will investigate governing elites since 1789. I am sure that it will be a lot of fun and result in great research! Postdocs: www.jobbnorge.no/en/available... PhDs: www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...

AI in Politics: Repairing Democratic Connections? New chapter from @tamaraehs.bsky.social, @ortiztudela.bsky.social and I. We explore what the democratic challenges would be if we all had our own AI political adviser. The whole book is available open access: www.steiner-verlag.de/en/Connectiv...

Although not yet available to read (January 2026!), very happy to see our book on political trust online. Co-edited with @mfair.bsky.social and available open access, we think it'll be a useful addition to the field. www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/a-r...

AI in Politics: Repairing Democratic Connections? New chapter from @tamaraehs.bsky.social, @ortiztudela.bsky.social and I. We explore what the democratic challenges would be if we all had our own AI political adviser. The whole book is available open access: www.steiner-verlag.de/en/Connectiv...

🛎️New Issue is out❗️ Towards a 3⃣rd generation of #PolicyAdvisorySystems studies❓ Co-guest edited by @andreamigone.bsky.social & @howlettm.bsky.social, the new generation studies how different PAS are structured and operated—or managed—to deliver quality results👇 academic.oup.com/policyandsoc...

Just accidentally activated an AI assistant on my phone. It confidently told me that I was looking at the cover art for Compositions, the 2023 album of Norwegian drone artist Deathprod. I was actually checking a purchase on my banking app, but I guess it just knew I really wanted to hear some drone.

📚 new open access book: "Climate Assemblies - New Civic Institutions for a Climate-Changed World" 🌍 ✅ 25 co-authors examine the state of the field and the reasons behind the growing hope and hype about climate assemblies ✅Free PDF available here 👉🏼 www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...

🎓 Join us for our Autumn 2025 Webinar Series: “Using Social Media as a Research Tool”, co-organised with @aykutozturk.bsky.social! We explore how social media data can help study democracy, political communication & public engagement. 🧵👇

🧩Democracy is complex, but maybe that’s an asset 🌍🪴@alexalenz.bsky.social, Xavier Fernández-i-Marín, Markus Hinterleitner, @cknill.bsky.social & Yves Steinebach show that democracies handle climate-policy complexity more smoothly than less democratic regimes 👇 🖇️ www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Second, a more down-to-earth combination in which @tamaraehs.bsky.social, @rikkidean.bsky.social and I reflect on the potentials and pitfalls of AI for Democracy. Much has changed in the AI-sphere since we wrote it but many of our concerns remain! - AI in Politics: Repairing Democratic Connections?

Very happy to finally see this out! A while ago I had the wonderful opportunity to meet an awesome group of scientists from very diverse fields, interested in exchanging thoughts, experiences and ideas. In this book, we collect some of these exchanges as a celebration the richness of science.

Finally, three weeks later on Thursday 4th December at 12:00, @williamlallen.bsky.social rounds out the series by presenting important insights into the partisan attitudinal effects of data visualisation of refugee numbers. Register: events.teams.microsoft.com/event/c939c6...

Asymmetric reporting: Yesterday, David Lammy made a comment about Nigel Farage "flirting with the Hitler Youth" and it was 2nd story on BBC News at 10. Today, Zia Yusuf repeatedly calls Keir Starmer a "stochastic terrorist... trying to incite violence against Farage" and it's not even mentioned.

How strategic narratives function in geopolitical settings as bordering practices? I address this question in my latest article ‘Narrating Geopolitics: Strategic Narratives of Georgia’s EU Candidacy’ published in @geopoliticsjournal.bsky.social

From the research group @dec-gr.bsky.social, we are glad to share our new Scientific Data article presenting the release of the first 12 waves of the Spanish Political Attitudes Panel (POLAT). rdcu.be/eIkms

I'm old enough to remember people complaining that the Kosovans were eating all the ducks and swans. Lucky that the ducks and swans, just like the scare stories about refugees, are a replenishable resource.

Looking forward to JD Vance denouncing this as another example of the European crisis of freedom of speech.

The Canadians appear to love their geese so much that they build them swimming pools.

Happy to see this out in @jeppjournal.bsky.social ! ➜ doi.org/10.1080/1350... The paper asks why the European Commission @ec.europa.eu increasingly sponsors participatory innovations – such as the European Citizens' Panels – although their strategic and functional value remains elusive 🧵 1/6

Don't miss the APSA Presidential Task Force on Democratic Innovations, kicking off at 10am in the VCC. #apsa2025 @di-apsa.bsky.social

But how could they possibly be sure it was his signature, and that his friend's partner hadn't solicited a fake letter from a random weirdo in order to set him up 20 years later?

Charlie Kirk described Kyle Rittenhouse, who shot dead two protesters, as "a hero to millions".

Several of my great new colleagues at @sotonpolitics.bsky.social and their collaborators have to put together this blockbuster paper on what happened when the UK Labour Party adopted radical right rhetoric on immigration. A must read for centre left parties across Europe.

A nice thing about jetlag when you are an owl, is that is it is one of the few times you get to experience the sunrise.

Was talking about this story with my wife last night. First thing she said was, "Raynor's explanation doesn't add up as mortgage conveyancers won't normally offer tax advice". Why are these people such amateurs?

We have a paper on how Labour's strategy is disastrous. There's an exclusive coverage in @newstatesman.com www.newstatesman.com/politics/202...

First leg of my epic journey for a pre-APSA visit to Vancouver Island University. Going to take Tram > Train > Flight > Metro > Bus > Ferry. So, a full house of transport options.

So happy that mine and @stefaniereher.bsky.social ESRC grant application for a 4 year comparative project on disability and political parties was successful!! @sotonpolitics.bsky.social

I've been re-reading Machiavelli's The Prince and it has been reassuring that Trump is seemingly doing everything that Machiavelli advises the aspiring ruler not to do if he wants to effectively take and hold power.

German intellectuals also experienced the Nazis as kitsch. Maybe it says more about the intellectuals than the regime - a psychological coping mechanism for temporarily denying the seriousness of their predicament, i.e. if the regime is just a cheap imitation, how can it really be a threat?