I'm delighted to announce that my article "Not So Innocent: Clerics, Monarchs, and the Ethnoreligious Cleansing of Western Europe” received the Outstanding Article Award in International History and Politics! @apsa.bsky.social @drjlhazelton.bsky.social Read it for free direct.mit.edu/isec/article...

We had a productive workshop on September 4th and a great event on September 5th at the Balkan Studies Foundation in Skopje. "5th International Balkan Studies Congress Keynote Speech by Prof. Dr. Şener Aktürk: Nationalism and Religion in Global Perspective" balkanfoundation.com/keynote-spee...

Starts now...

Today, I'll chair the #APSA2025 panel on "Borders of/for State Identity" and I'll present my paper on "After Empire: Post-Ukrainian Russia in Comparative Perspective," comparing Russia to post-Irish Britain and post-Algerian France in particular. Come, join us @apsa.bsky.social tinyurl.com/ykuuqe44

Today, I'll chair the #APSA2025 panel on "Borders of/for State Identity" and I'll present my paper on "After Empire: Post-Ukrainian Russia in Comparative Perspective," comparing Russia to post-Irish Britain and post-Algerian France in particular. Come, join us @apsa.bsky.social tinyurl.com/ykuuqe44

Today at #APSA2025, I will join Rogers Smith, Christina Davis, and Ashutosh Varshney to discuss Vinicius G. Rodrigues Vieira's @rodriguesvieira.bsky.social "Shaping Nations and Markets: Identity Capital, Trade, and the Populist Rage." Join us at 2 pm - 3:30 pm (Vancouver time).

It was an intellectually rewarding experience and a great honor to chair the Short Listing Committee for the Luebbert Book Prize in Comparative Politics in 2025: apsanet.org/membership/o... I won't be at APSA conference @apsa.bsky.social but here is a photo of all the short listed books that I took:

I'm not at APSA Conference in Vancouver in-person, but APSA attendees can still view my iPoster on "Religious Conflict, Exclusion, and the Origins of the International System" and they can even download it! tinyurl.com/2c9bbg6e

Are you attending @apsa.bsky.social 2025? Please join me and @rogerssmith.bsky.social , Christina Davis, Ashutosh Varshney, and @senerakturk.bsky.social (who cannot attend in person) to discuss Shaping Nations and Markets in theme panel this Saturday at 2 pm politicalsciencenow.com/theme-panel-...

It was an intellectually rewarding experience and a great honor to chair the Short Listing Committee for the Luebbert Book Prize in Comparative Politics in 2025: apsanet.org/membership/o... I won't be at APSA conference @apsa.bsky.social but here is a photo of all the short listed books that I took:

In many countries, mainstream politicians are adopting rhetoric and policies that typical of the far-right. Our new paper (w/ @dziblatt.bsky.social and E Dinas), out now in the @bjpols.bsky.social, finds that doing so erodes norms more than when far-right politicians make similar statements. 1/3

Israel committing genocide in Gaza, world’s top scholars on the crime say www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

My book “The Normalization of the Radical Right” has recently come out in the US. If you're interested, in this thread I’ll link different ways of learning about the book and its argument (I’ll keep adding if more come out). First, here is the link to the book: academic.oup.com/book/57946

"Western Europe toward the end of the Middle Ages became the most religiously homogeneous region in the world, and this extraordinary religious homogeneity was related to the origins and consolidation of early parliaments." Read FREE: muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/a...

"Right-wing populists...have shifted from racism toward fear of Muslims, seeking to exploit popular suspicion of different religious norms as well as the inability of leftist parties to craft an appeal that can accommodate religious minorities’ identities." muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/a...

Another morale hit: For the 1st time, Russia reportedly seized villages in Urkaine's Dnipropetrovsk region. The NYT calls it "a minor but symbolic gain that gives the Kremlin another bargaining chip" as Russia tries to exert pressure along that stretch of the front. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/w...

Wondering if mounting hatred of Muslims in the west is a way of channeling the rancour of today's polarised society in a bid to unify it? Is this what happened to the Jews in Germany? And is it now Europe's Muslims' turn? From an interesting paper here: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

"Why African Americans Do Not Rebel? How Hierarchic Integration Prevents Rebellion," Nationalities Papers, vol. 51, no. 4 (July 2023), pp. 959–963. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

I'm delighted to announce that my article "Not So Innocent: Clerics, Monarchs, and the Ethnoreligious Cleansing of Western Europe” received the Outstanding Article Award in International History and Politics! @apsa.bsky.social @drjlhazelton.bsky.social Read it for free direct.mit.edu/isec/article...

An Israeli airstrike killed five Al Jazeera journalists, including one of the most prominent reporting from Gaza, the network said.

8/7/81: Peter Weir's Gallipoli, w/Mel Gibson (alas), Mark Lee [Based on events that cost Churchill his job in 1915: see @spoke32.bsky.social: slate.com/news-and-pol... More: @janetmaslin.bsky.social: www.nytimes.com/1981/08/28/m... @lukebuckmaster.bsky.social: www.theguardian.com/film/austral...

Volha Charnysh Receives the 2025 Merze Tate – Elinor Ostrom Award for “Uprooted: How Post-WWII Population Transfers Remade Europe” The Merze Tate – Elinor Ostrom Outstanding Book Award is presented annually by the American Political Science Association (APSA) to honor the best book on government,…

Are you teaching a course on democracy? If you are designing your Syllabus for the next academic year, consider these "ten essays you should not miss" from the Journal of Democracy, including my article, "Religious Exclusion and the Origins of Democracy" :) www.journalofdemocracy.org/news-and-upd...

The Journal of Democracy grapples with today’s most critical issues and democracy’s age-old questions. From the early days of this journal to our most recent issue, the JoD editors have compiled ten essays we think you should not miss this summer. Read for free now! www.journalofdemocra...

“The origins of parliamentary democracy in Western Europe are directly related to the religious exclusion of non-Christians.” LAST DAY TO READ FREE! muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...

“The origins of parliamentary democracy in Western Europe are directly related to the religious exclusion of non-Christians.” LAST DAY TO READ FREE! muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...

“The origins of parliamentary democracy in Western Europe are directly related to the religious exclusion of non-Christians.” LAST DAY TO READ FREE! muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/a...

"The majoritarian nationalism that is on the rise around the world, whether in France, India, Israel or the United Kingdom, consistently exploits hostility toward religious minorities" Religious Exclusion & the Origins of Democracy @jodemocracy.bsky.social www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/rel...

English & French parliaments did not have non-Christian MPs in their first 563 years & 540 years, respectively. The Russian Duma had 14 Jewish & 15 Muslim MPs in 1906 & the Ottoman Parliament had 48 Christian & 4 Jewish MPs in 1908 @jodemocracy.bsky.social www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/rel...

"The majoritarian nationalism that is on the rise around the world, whether in France, India, Israel or the United Kingdom, consistently exploits hostility toward religious minorities" Religious Exclusion & the Origins of Democracy @jodemocracy.bsky.social www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/rel...

English & French parliaments did not have non-Christian MPs in their first 563 years & 540 years, respectively. The Russian Duma had 14 Jewish & 15 Muslim MPs in 1906 & the Ottoman Parliament had 48 Christian & 4 Jewish MPs in 1908 @jodemocracy.bsky.social www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/rel...

"King Philip IV convened the first French parliament, the Estates General, in 1302" a huge democratic milestone. King Philip expelled the Jews from France in 1306. Western democracy was built on religious sectarian homogeneity. Read @jodemocracy.bsky.social www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/rel...

The world is failing the Palestinian people https://on.ft.com/4faO5L5 | opinion

The first and longest-lasting parliaments were created under conditions of homogeneity. Read "Religious Exclusion and the Origins of Democracy" by Şener Aktürk: muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/a...

"King Philip IV convened the first French parliament, the Estates General, in 1302" a huge democratic milestone. King Philip expelled the Jews from France in 1306. Western democracy was built on religious sectarian homogeneity. Read @jodemocracy.bsky.social www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/rel...

"My argument contributes to the sequencing debate by suggesting a “population-first” perspective... the creation of a religiously homogeneous population, the “demos” of democracy, went hand in hand with the formation of parliaments" @jodemocracy.bsky.social www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/rel...

The most challenging type of diversity for democracy is religious diversity, posits Şener Aktürk — hence modern democracy’s roots in religiously homogeneous Western Europe. "Religious Exclusion and the Origins of Democracy" muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/a...

"The origins of parliamentary democracy in Western Europe are directly related to the religious exclusion of non-Christians." "Religious Exclusion and the Origins of Democracy" by Şener Aktürk muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/a...

"representative institutions first emerged on the Iberian Peninsula and in the British Isles in the late-twelfth and early-thirteenth centuries” and "the Jews & Muslims were eradicated in England and the north of the Iberian Peninsula around that same era" www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/rel...

"My argument contributes to the sequencing debate by suggesting a “population-first” perspective... the creation of a religiously homogeneous population, the “demos” of democracy, went hand in hand with the formation of parliaments" @jodemocracy.bsky.social www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/rel...

"The actors, the chronology, the geography, and the institutions driving ethnoreligious exclusion and parliamentary growth were often the same" in medieval Western Europe. Read the rest of my article on the origins of democracy @jodemocracy.bsky.social www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/rel...

"The actors, the chronology, the geography, and the institutions driving ethnoreligious exclusion and parliamentary growth were often the same" in medieval Western Europe. Read the rest of my article on the origins of democracy @jodemocracy.bsky.social www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/rel...

Theme Panel: Author Meets Critics: “Shaping Nations and Markets: Identity Capital, Trade, and the Populist Rage” #APSA2025

"The origins of parliamentary democracy in Western Europe are directly related to the religious exclusion of non-Christians." muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/a...

"Right-wing populists... shifted from racism toward fear of Muslims, seeking to exploit popular suspicion of different religious norms and the inability of leftist parties to... accommodate religious minorities’ identities..." Read @jodemocracy.bsky.social www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/rel...

The most challenging type of diversity for democracy is religious diversity, posits Şener Aktürk — hence modern democracy’s roots in religiously homogeneous Western Europe. muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/a...

Many of us know Edward Longshanks as the villain in Braveheart, one of my favorite movies! Edward expelled all Jews from England in 1290 and established the Model Parliament in 1295; I argue that these two developments were related @jodemocracy.bsky.social www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/rel...

"Right-wing populists... shifted from racism toward fear of Muslims, seeking to exploit popular suspicion of different religious norms and the inability of leftist parties to... accommodate religious minorities’ identities..." Read @jodemocracy.bsky.social www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/rel...

"Paradigmatic cases of democracy in Western Europe—England and France—continued to have Christian-only electorates and Christian-only parliaments for centuries, which provided them a remarkable advantage in consolidating democracy" @jodemocracy.bsky.social www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/rel...

"Paradigmatic cases of democracy in Western Europe—England and France—continued to have Christian-only electorates and Christian-only parliaments for centuries, which provided them a remarkable advantage in consolidating democracy" @jodemocracy.bsky.social www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/rel...