Presenting at @lse-ei.bsky.social today - all welcome (so I am told!) Thanks @benbraun.bsky.social and @donatodc.bsky.social for the invite! www.lse.ac.uk/european-ins...

I don't think I've ever seen a party so clearly declare that they're purposefully alienating their core voters.

I am extremely honored, and equally perplexed, that my book has received the Stein Rokkan Prize. Thank you so much to everyone who helped out with this project along the way. So much of the book is the result of feedback by kind people who took the time to listen and read. Thank you.

🤖NEW POST ON AI🤖 Perhaps you're thinking like Brenda from Bristol, 'not another one!' but... I felt that lots of writing about Claude Code doesn't really show you how it works. So I thought well, why not? And along the way some bad literary allusions. 1/n benansell.substack.com/p/the-appren...

Another great episode of this podcast on political behaviour research - this time with @miguelpereira.bsky.social and his important insights on political elites

My book about Britain ends with a memory. Of the first time I ever worked at Broadcasting House as a guest commentator, what that meant to me, and what the BBC means for 🇬🇧’s place in the world. The idea that the World Service could end is awful, and frankly embarrassing for the British Government.

Nick Vivyan, Chris Hanretty (@chanret.bsky.social) and I have a new book out: “Idiosyncratic Issue Opinion and Political Choice”. The core of the book is making the argument that citizens’ views about political issues neither reduce to an ideological orientation nor to a lack of substance. (1/10)

I think this paper is bound to become a classic reference. The time paradox is one of the most powerful ideas in explaining why it is so hard to defeat illiberal forces in a democracy. It’s one of those ideas I keep coming back to since I first heard of it (and that I keep telling everyone about).

New article and special issue! Just out in Comparative Political Studies: “Countering Illiberalism in Liberal Democracies: Information, Legacies, Temporalities", the intro to a special issue on countering illiberalism in liberal democracies. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... Thread 🧵1/7

There is an implicit disregard for liberal democracy in all these narratives around the super spin doctors (McSweeney, Cummings etc.) who are allegedly running the country. It turns politics into a sport instead of emphasizing what should count in a democracy: transparency, honesty, accountability

Minneapolis is a place that means a lot to me, so I wrote a short Substack about the city, its people, and what we all owe them. benansell.substack.com/p/my-minneap...

NEW PAPER ALERT! My paper, with @bjornhoyland.bsky.social , on how “policy loss” shapes support for the EU has just been published in @cpsjournal.bsky.social. Check it out! 1/

We’d long planned to publish this excellent @dahrendorfoxford.bsky.social paper by @jyshapiro.bsky.social (@ecfr.eu) today, to coincide with the first anniversary of Trump II — but little could anyone have known *just how* relevant it would be! Do give it a read: bit.ly/4qDhWRm

“How long Germany would be willing to remain an abnormal nation—­denying itself geopolitical ambitions & national­ist pride—­was a question even before the present liberal world order began to unravel. Now, thanks to the American strategic shift, GER has no choice but to become normal again quickly”

Apologies for being self-referential but

When they want to increase public spending, every politician is asked how they will pay for it, but the same is not true (yet) for cutting immigration (because it is incorrectly understood as not having a cost.) I wonder if that will change as the impact on the economy becomes more visible.

So we are already back to the levels of migration of the early 2010s and declining faster... let's hope all those new restrictions, based on previous higher numbers, don't make Britain massively unattractive to those migrants the government DOES wish to attract.

Quite different from my work today substantively + methodologically - but thrilled to share this article based on my undergrad thesis, now out at German Politics & Society 43(3) @berghahnbooks.bsky.social. I analyse how 🇬🇧🇩🇪 state visits portray historical memory + joint future action.

My latest commentary: how to populist-proof your democracy before it's too late… www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

🚨 New working paper 🚨 We often see populist parties like Reform UK blame higher energy bills on climate change policies. What are the political consequences of this strategy? Very early draft; comments and criticisms are welcomed! full draft: z-dickson.github.io/assets/dicks...

They polled Brits who their president is. They had no idea.

Wenn @valentimvicente.bsky.social im Deutschlandfunk ist, dann sollte man sich das natürlich auf jeden Fall anhören

that the upfront costs to come and do scientific research in the UK are too high is a well known terrible fact. perhaps more surprising is that scientific excellence has persisted despite all these hurdles, but this limping cannot go on forever. Soon this fun immigration experiment will break.

So delighted to be working with these fantastic people! Thanks for the warm welcome to the LSE.

Some people in the Brandenburg state government must have read Bolet (2021)

🗳️🇩🇪 How do voters react to new political actors? Some suggest that radical right party success can provoke electoral backlash. @antvalentim.bsky.social and his co-authors argue that such backlash can emerge whenever new political actors disrupt the status quo👇 www.lse.ac.uk/european-ins...

Excited to share my first single-authored dissertation paper! I study how voters react to party differentiation in coalitions. Voters like clear partisan signals, but the gains are short-lived and limited to aligned supporters. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Es mag ja nicht viele belastbare Erkenntnisse in der Sozialwissenschaft geben. Aber dass "Destruktion durch Kopieren und/oder Kooperation" nicht funktioniert -- das ist eine. Und doch hat noch jede europäische Mitte-Rechts-Partei gemeint, es besser zu wissen.

The Spanish centre-right is taking a tumble and the far-right is on the rise. I was lucky enough to present some new causal work on Friday at LSE showing that the PP does better when it signals distinctiveness from VOX. ~1.5K tests, same result. Rejecting far-right benefits centre-right

Private Eye offers up an excellently scornful commentary on the relentless polling. It’s become ridiculous and has oversimplified our politics to dangerous levels of stupid and irresponsible.

New data for legislative scholars! Committee Membership Dataset with @bcastanho.bsky.social, @dmpullan.bsky.social and Firuze Taner: Committee assignments for all MPs (Wikidata IDs!) in 14 countries Harmonized roles/policy areas Data: doi.org/10.7802/2940 Working paper: tinyurl.com/vf54r78p ⬇️

Hague in his 1st conference speech as leader: "I am proud to be British. I believe in the United Kingdom, and so do hundreds of thousands of British blacks and British Asians. I want to see men and women from our ethnic minorities playing their full part in the mainstream of our national life..."

Europe can’t secure itself without Turkey. Yet distrust and limited cooperation still block real partnership. How Brussels and Ankara can bridge the gap — read the new paper by Galip Dalay (Chatham House; Oxford Univ., Dahrendorf Programme) europeanmoments.com/changing-wor...

I loved this post (like all in this substack). Reminded me of the argument by Geddes (2003) that most good research ideas come from annoyance with established wisdom that clashes with one's inner sense of how the world works. Really recommend reading this one:

New Etched in Marble post: catherineeunicedevries.substack.com/p/etched-in-... Timothy Garton Ash has for decades chronicled Europe’s upheavals with a historian’s depth & a journalist’s eye. In my conversation with Garton Ash, one theme stood out: writing as a defense of democracy. 🧵

CALL FOR PAPERS! 📣 We are delighted to announce the 𝗟𝗦𝗘 𝗝𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘁 𝗦𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗖𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗘𝘂𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲, a two-day, in-person symposium open to early-career researchers, to be held on 𝟮𝟲-𝟮𝟳 𝗙𝗲𝗯𝗿𝘂𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲. 🗓️ Deadline: 31 October 2025 Find out more 👇 www.lse.ac.uk/european-ins...

Author copies for Dictating the Agenda: The Authoritarian Resurgence in World Politics by me & @cooleyoneurasia.bsky.social arrived today! If you re-post this by Sept 30 we'll put you in a drawing & send the winner a free signed copy anywhere they happen to be on the planet.

👏Applause offers a revealing lens on party competition! In a recent article @wepsocial.bsky.social (w/@[email protected]), we study how applause reflects party and coalition unity, ideological agreement, political exclusion, issue ownership, and the electoral cycle! (1/6)

400 days to save US democracy. My latest, based on a long summer in the US. How Trump is exploiting structural weaknesses of the American system & why all democrats must want Democrats to win November 2026 midterms. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Whatever the accuracy and value of “Democracy Indices”, this is truly remarkable and again shows the striking disconnect between the U.S. legacy media and U.S. political reality.

The murder of America's world-best higher education sector--a leading export good of the US economy--continues under this lawless autocratic regime, and gets worse

Thank goodness presidents can be held accountable for abusing their powers to corrupt justice and advance their own self-interest. <Touches earpiece> What's that? Congressional copartisans will never impeach/remove their own president, and SCOTUS declared the president immune for official acts? 🫠

Just watch the NYT ignore this or normalise it.

Labour one year in: Starmer once told his MPs to stop looking at Twitter and get some work done. Now he should tell his staff to stop looking at the front pages and get some governing done inews.co.uk/opinion/labo...

I reviewed @stephanieternullo.bsky.social's excellent 'How the Heartland Went Red' for @oxfordpolrev.bsky.social. Using rich ethnographic analysis, this fascinating book provides a novel take on how place creates and sustains partisan allegiance. oxfordpoliticalreview.com/2025/04/30/r...

I know y'all just want to watch the #ESC in peace, but 📢 :The Spring 2025 update to the Eclectic, Erratic Bibliography on the Extreme Right is out! 180 new titles added, making it the second-largest update ever. Radical right research is growing fast. Like the #RadicalRight ☹️ #PoliticalScience

Is it possible to agree more than 100%? If so, I agree 1,000% (at least) w @stephenkb.bsky.social’s piece.

First major @overleaf.com outage (I think) since the day I needed to submit my first PhD application. Glad that I got through my thesis submission without one at least... 'Don't leave it until the last minute' gets a whole new significance!

Holman Hunt's painting of May Morning on Magdalen Tower in 1890, and the scene today.