The WSJ has finally reported on widespread concerns that Trump's circle is making money by front-running his market-moving pronouncements www.wsj.com/finance/inve...

I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Stay free

Europe* really needs to wake up Europe = the European continent, including UK, Switzerland and other non EU countries.

Good news and an excellent study!

#Science is not doing well, true or false?🔬Between 15 years of decline in #AcademicFreedom and strong but dented #confidence: introspection from within the world of research with @eribertsou.bsky.social @colognaviktoria.bsky.social @angelovpanaro.bsky.social.👇

Four journalists were killed by an Israeli strike on a Gaza hospital today, including Mariam Dagga, a freelancer with the @apnews.com. She has a 12-year-old son, who was evacuated from Gaza earlier in the war. She was a true hero, like all of our Palestinian colleagues in Gaza. tinyurl.com/3cn5c9vb

🔥 Call for papers for EPSS 2026 in Belfast: migration, forced displacement, mobility, borders, asylum, diaspora, and other migration-related topics. Excited to co-chair the Migration Politics section with @kristinabsimonsen.bsky.social. Submit proposals by Nov 7! #EPSS2026

Synthetic sampling is gaining momentum in a lot of the social sciences and, while I have been ambiguous about it myself, this white paper provides more information to ground the debate

In polling world, “synthetic sampling” (using LLMs to replace human respondents) has been getting a lot of attention recently. Last wk, Ipsos announced a synthetic panel! But does it actually work? Here’s a white paper I wrote: “Your Polls on ChatGPT” report.verasight.io/synthetic-sa...

📢 EPSS 2026 Call for Papers! @hannaeback.bsky.social and I are excited to invite submissions for the Political Representation section at EPSS 2026 in Belfast. EPSS has some exciting new panel formats this year - read on! 🧵

Science for democracy. Much needed. Powerful @science.org editorial by @gretchentg.bsky.social & @chenoweth.bsky.social “The ability to tell the truth, especially when it does not suit any particularly partisan aims, is an essential prerequisite for a free society” www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

What--and I say this with my chest--the hell are we doing here people

This week we had to say goodbye to our dearest Lana, very suddenly and way too soon. A dedicated polisci dog, she conducted elections fieldwork for LSE's EPOB, became an honorary member of IPZ Zurich and visited the EUI. My loudest cheerleader, patient proofreader & the bestest girl that ever was ❤️‍🩹

🚨 Big News for European Political Science 🚨 We’re thrilled to announce the launch of the European Political Science Society (EPSS): a new, member-led, not-for-profit association built to support our scholarly community. 🔗 epssnet.org Here’s a thread with everything you need to know. 🧵

Excited to kick off #EPSA2025 on Day 1, Panel 1! 🎉 I’ll present my co-authored research with @michaelimre.bsky.social on 50 years of gender representation in political science publications. We analyze nearly 100,000 articles across 72 journals to uncover long-term trends. 🔍 @epsanet.bsky.social

Five things to remember about war:

Great thread and breadth of resources to learn more on this topic 👇🏼. Thank you @profsaunders.bsky.social

This is a view from the surface of Comet 67P. The busy particles in the foreground are cosmic rays or bits of dust and ice. The dots moving in the background are stars.

Shout out to Lea Heyne and Luca Manucci @populismblog.bsky.social whose work on populist radical right electorate in Portugal was mentioned on my fav politics podcast @therestpolitics.bsky.social this morning!

Canceling research on misinformation is not only an attack on science and academic freedom. It is also a democracy, safety, and security threat. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/15/b...

In short, Starmer has taken a massive hit among Labour voters, for no gain elsewhere, while boosting Farage's popularity, including doubling his ceiling among Labour voters. I.e., the political scientists were right, Morgan McSweeney was horrendously wrong.

if you teach, you are engaged in an inherently political--but not necessarily partisan--act the political vs partisan distinction stays kicking people's ass this old @asociologist.bsky.social is very helpful on this scatter.wordpress.com/2020/11/10/p...

Politicians share similar climate policy views with citizens, but are slightly less supportive. Crucially, they underestimate public support for climate policies, potentially limiting climate action www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

🧵 THREAD: Can a short online intervention help defend democracy against partisan polarization? In our new study - just published in the @bjpols.bsky.social - my colleagues and I tested this question across 33 countries 🌍 with over 41,000 participants 🧑‍🤝‍🧑. Here’s what we found 👇

She’s got guts. Chilling to watch, but necessary

This final publication from the project on #technocratic attitudes among citizens, serves to boost confidence in the survey measure, to trace the stability of the construct following the #COVID19 pandemic and to provide evidence on technocratic attitudes in the #US (plus some bonus thoughts!) 🧵below

Levitsky & @ryanenos.bsky.social in The Crimson hit the challenge that must be overcome: "Weaponized states create a difficult collective action problem for civil society. Individual leaders seek to protect their organizations against costly government reprisal." www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

Many of the scientists that the Trump administration is defunding and persecuting will be working on strategically important technologies and research areas. The UK and other European countries should urgently establish programmes to bring those researchers here.

We are thrilled to anounce the release of the 2024 CHES-Europe at chesdata.eu/2024-chapel-.... As always, the data are freely available on the website. Thank you to the hundreds of experts who share their expertise to make these data possible!

The average American voter thinks that the government is too big but that it should spend more money on everything it does. This explains a decent share of the political chaos of this country.

European leaders met with 🇺🇦, 🇪🇺 & NATO officials to discuss 🇺🇦 support & defence cooperation. This is all very welcome & needed. But for peace & defence efforts to be future-proof & credible, public support is essential. Building it won’t be easy. 🧵with @eupinions.bsky.social data

After the AfD's surge on Sunday, far right parties are the most voted-for of any grouping in Europe, for the first time in history: www.economist.com/graphic-deta...

Almost 20 European leaders, incl Emmanuel Marcon & Friedrich Merz, plus VDL, have posted in support of @ZelenskyyUa after White House showdown. Notably, Keir Starmer has not. No 10 is referring reporters to PM’s comments this week on a just & lasting peace, with Ukraine at heart of talks.

The parallels to the Swiss social democrats in 2023 are evident: 1) Appeals to young (female) voters with a credible progressive agenda and heavy emphasis on housing 2) Strong results in urban centers 3) Rather young co-leadership 4) Targeted campaigning with clear appeals

The election proved the narrative wrong. For the Linke the election was a huge success while BSW failed to make it above the 5%-threshold. The Linke managed to win young progressives especially in cities. Ironically, this would probably not have been possbile had Wagenkencht stayed in the party

One winner last night were the pollsters (both pre-election polls and exit polls). They got the story right, picked up on the Linke surge and got the smaller parties approximately right as well. Not easy to do.

What happened in East Germany? A great thread on #germanelection results and the #AfD showing in #EastGermany by @anjaneundorf.bsky.social (a brilliant political scientist and extremely knowledgeable about the area!)

Even more distinct among young women:

Check out @florianfoos.bsky.social thread on what to look for in today’s #germanelection 👇🏼

Our latest voting intention poll (9-10 Feb) has Reform UK on their highest figure to date Reform: 26% (+1 from 2-3 Feb) Lab: 25% (+1) Con: 21% (=) Lib Dem: 14% (=) Green: 9% (=) SNP: 3% (=) yougov.co.uk/politics/art...

The anti-climate backlash seems to be in full swing. The EU (and its member states) are poorly prepared because the EU ETS2, the linchpin of the Green Deal (in terms of emissions reduction potential), covers sectors (transport and buildings) with visible and www.politico.eu/article/lets...

“Symbols matter, especially when it comes to institutions. Once it becomes accepted that institutions are not functioning and cannot be trusted, their slide intensifies and people are further discouraged from defending them.” Excellent FT piece by @dacemoglumit.bsky.social www.ft.com/content/4e3f...

Hats off to @spiegel.de for this piece. A very rigorous analysis of the response of center-right parties to far-right challengers, based on expert interviews (@saengler.bsky.social) and scholarly work. In times like these, this is what journalism should be doing. www.spiegel.de/geschichte/m...

*head desk* *endless screaming* *Gen X face*

Are you interested in age or cohort or period effects? I have just updated my primer on the topic! Now with a new framing, a handy flow chart to determine which approach may be suitable, and a new empirical example. What do people in Germany think about mothers who work? osf.io/preprints/ps...

A fantastic project and useful resource for anyone interested in public perceptions of science, trust in scientists & how citizens want scientists involved in politics & policy. ❗Spoiler alert: Pluralities, and in many cases majorities, support a more active role for scientists in public matters!

Essential corrective/myth busting from @profjanegreen.bsky.social

An excellent essay in the FT Weekend by @davidallengreen.bsky.social. One thing I'd add: yes, content moderation is expensive. But Meta's profit margin was nearly 40% last year; net profits were $14bn. Why shouldn't governments ask it to pay to reduce the harm it causes? www.ft.com/content/917c...

Absolutely a BFD, esp after you read her statement.