There is one week left to apply for @uclspp.bsky.social's new Lecturer in British and Comparative Politics role! Importantly, the successful candidate will also join our senior team and contribute to our research and impact activities. Applicants must have, or be near to finishing, a PhD. Apply 👇

been away from the Northern line for 3 weeks and the first ride back is always a bit of a shock to the system

The image of the Director of the CIA, the Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Secretary of Defense clustered in front of an emoji on X during the Maduro raid was just one of many Trump released on Truth Social. It conveyed a government completely besotted by social media.

For my enemies, straight-talking realpolitik about the consolidation of power, control of the judiciary, and rampant corruption. For my friends, a complex host of extraordinary legal issues at the intersection of international law and the presidency.

can't wait to dig into the data with @tommasopavone.bsky.social. This is probably one of the largest survey experiments ever run in Slovakia, a country you will not find analysed in the big journals very often

reading open-text reflections on democracy and media by a representative sample of citizens

The Abundance movement often points to environmental groups as the obstacles to building. But who actually files the lawsuits blocking projects? It’s not environmental groups. It’s been lawyered-up HOAs protecting property values all along. Regulation by litigation is the problem.

the Netherlands was at one point the closest among continental European countries in creating a genuine international university environment. As that process reverses, I don't think we are going to see anything similar anywhere else in the current political and economic moment

well, well, well if it isn't the book I started working on in 2017: academic.oup.com/book/61769

I can honestly say that this is the best and most systematic treatment of competences of and decision-making in the #EuropeanUnion I have read (and I have tried a few ...). Check it out ... it's open access! 👇 #EUsky

well, well, well if it isn't the book I started working on in 2017: academic.oup.com/book/61769

perfectly timed for the proofs of my book

the parliament in Slovakia just abolished an office for the protection of whistleblowers. Among others it shielded policemen who previously investigated corruption charges against politicians and oligarchs close to the current government

same model specification with marginaleffects::plot_predictions(): condition="treated" on the left, by="treated" on the right I'll be mightily surprised if there aren't multiple replication notes highlighting this discrepancy in the coming years across various fields

why do we need gambling ads everywhere when scores of Londoners are weekend after weekend banking their plans on the normal functioning of the overground. The risk appetite in this city is already on a different level

Join and help to lead the Constitution Unit! @uclspp.bsky.social is looking for a Lecturer in British and Comparative Politics who will also join our senior team and contribute to our research and impact activities. Applicants must have, or be near to finishing, a PhD. Apply 👇

Not a drill - there's a Britain-focused lectureship (FT, permanent) available. www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPQ588/l...

in addition to this being essentially an export tariff on UK services (novel!), international students have never been cross-subsidizing domestic students more than at present. So why not ask them to chip in some more while also putting more stress on a sector that's already under pressure

in one of my experiments with Claude code it produced a plausibly looking but suspicious figure claiming to represent some requested data analysis. When asked to explain how it got there the reply was along the lines of "sorry this is actually all made up, I couldn't run the real analysis"

heartening to see that occasionally Good Things can still happen

turns out project fear was in fact too optimistic over the long run

🗼Jonathan Golub & @movadek.bsky.social: Informal procedures, institutional change, and EU decision-making: evaluating the effects of the 1974 Paris summit 🔗 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

A little bit of #ggplot2 and #rayshader for the "dimensions" prompt on day 6 of the #30DayMapChallenge! 🌧️ #RStats #DataViz

wouldn't be surprised if the celebrity traitors finale had lower than expected viewer numbers tonight

this paper is a great contribution to the judicial behaviour literature in a number of ways (and will go straight into my judicial politics course at UCL)

Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching

only a few days left to submit your paper/panel/abstract to the judicial politics section! don't miss out on the hottest property in next year's conference calendar

Dropping a beta version of this page while everyone is up and processing baseball! This tool lets you search the full text of papers from the American Economic Review, American Economic Journal series, and over 30,000 NBER working papers. paulgp.com/econlit-pipe...

A new postdoc position is now available at the Center for European Studies at Harvard for 2026 2027, The Guido Goldman postdoctoral fellowship, named after our center's founder A great opportunity to work at Harvard for the year. Here is more information: ces.fas.harvard.edu/opportunitie...

It's increasingly obvious that Labour's strategy - call it Starmerism, Blue Labour, whatever - has got it badly wrong. It has alienated the party's core vote while failing to win over those leaning to Reform. There was no shortage of people warning them they were getting it wrong either.

The ideal Chotiner interview subject is an expert who cares deeply about their expertise but feels it isn't understood properly to the general populace and Chotiner acts as an intermediary. The ideal Chotiner victim, coincidentally, believes that this describes them perfectly.

parts of the - anglophone, especially - world currently squeezed in the fastest elevator labelled "NORMS" down

1) judge rules against a government minister 2) the minister complains 3) the justice minister begins a disciplinary proceeding against said judge a tale as old as time in backsliding democracies, presently brought to you by Slovakia dennikn.sk/4912084/susk...

realized earlier how over it is after I absent-mindedly apologized to Claude Code for interrupting its terminal

▶️ Judicial Politics 👉🏽 Section chairs: Michal Ovádek (UCL) & Joan-Josep Vallbé (Barcelona) 📢 Our section welcomes work applying both qualitative and quantitative social science approaches to any aspect of judicial politics, incl. >>> 2/

yet more reason to think it's all downhill from here

still getting used to the weekly updates about how the elites and public feel about my immigration status

The European Union continues to ignore Bulgaria’s slide into autocracy. The crisis has been building for years. Now the state has been completely captured by unscrupulous oligarchic forces. Brussels’ answer is to do nothing. www.politico.eu/article/bulg...

the onslaught of conspiracism, incompetence and shit is such these days that seeing a governmental organisation put out a calm, reasoned statement almost brings tears to my eyes

I'm teaching my judicial politics module at UCL again this term which means that I'm keen on new resources for students. In particular, let me know if you published a dataset on courts/judicial politics/legal mobilization and it is not yet listed here: michalovadek.github.io/judicial-pol...

I wish I had time for a fuller description of how much of a racket the British immigration system is -- I and my employer paid thousands of pounds for the privilege of working and paying taxes here -- but this service option of a Home Office subcontractor will have to do for now

the norms version of "the market takes the stairs up and the elevator down"

don't forget anything in a hotel room has once again proved challenge impossible for me. A new mode of failure is not noticing that the adapter stayed in the wall after I pulled out the charger. Another battle lost but the war between my possessions and hotels is not over yet

📢 EPSS community updates!
 We’re excited to share some milestones and announcements with you 👇 epssnet.org/news/

finally a venue for APSA appropriate to the study of animal attacks on voting behaviour

another term when I will be going "this is a good time to be learning about judicial politics" in class every week

marking some intro to quant submissions and wanted to see what chatgpt has to say on one of the most basic questions. Not one for general AI bashing but did not expect a mistake in the most boilerplate Python code imaginable (the issue is the data is continuous, so the mode doesn't work)

WE ARE HIRING! 2 Lecturers in Quantitative Social Science. Want a friendly interdisciplinary department in one of the world's most vibrant cities? This just might be for you. Apply by: 10 Oct www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...