🎙️ The second episode of the Reasonably Political Podcast is now out! Authentic or Scripted? Why Do Some Politicians Seem More “Real” Than Others and Why Does It Matter? I discuss political authenticity with John Kenny (@johnkenny.bsky.social). 🎧 Listen here: www.buzzsprout.com/2608748/epis...

WORKSHOP ALERT 🚨 Interested in the political economy of Spain? The 1st SPEIN Workshop will bring to London economists and political scientists working on the foundations of modern Spain: conflict, authoritarianism, democratic transition, and their legacies. June 15-16, @kcl-spe.bsky.social

🚨 WORKSHOP ALERT ¿Te interesa la economía política de España? El I Workshop de SPEIN reunirá en Londres a economistas y politólogos que trabajan sobre los fundamentos de la España moderna: conflicto, autoritarismo, transición democrática y su legado. 15-16 de junio, @kcl-spe.bsky.social

𝗖𝗮𝗻 𝗿𝗲𝗳𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗻 𝗱𝗲𝗺𝗼𝗰𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸𝘀𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗽𝗮𝘀𝘁 “𝗶𝗻𝗼𝗰𝘂𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲” 𝗰𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘇𝗲𝗻𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗹𝗶𝗯𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗱𝗲𝗺𝗼𝗰𝗿𝗮𝘁𝘀 𝘃𝗶𝗴𝗶𝗹𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗴𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀? A few months back @movadek.bsky.social & I promised we would try to find out. 𝗪𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗹𝘆 𝘀𝗼𝗯𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗻𝗲𝘄𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗦𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗮: tinyurl.com/2add6c2a (1/7)

Are top public officials rewarded for good performance? In our new paper "Governing for growth?" (doi.org/10.1177/1065...). @jacobnyrup.bsky.social and I study how economic performance affects the political survival of finance ministers to show that this depends on the regime they work in. Thread ⬇️

📢 Postdoc opportunity at @UB-IPERG (University of Barcelona) 1-year position in Historical Political Economy. 💶 €35–40k | Start: Fall 2026 🗓️ Deadline for Expressions of Interest: June 5, 2026 All the info: 🔗 www.ub.edu/iperg/postdo...

Thrilled that this is out at the APSR! 😀 I document how male elites creatively adapt to electoral reform in Indian village councils. Relevant for how we think about: 1) limits of reforms meant to equalize power, 2) (male) elite capture, 3) the "proxy" representative debate. A (late) 🧵

Super excited to see this paper - with the all-time great Alex Baturo - published in World Politics. We conceptualized dictators as human resource managers to provide a unified theoretical explanation on how vertical (i.e. dismissals) and horizontal (i.e. reshuffles)... dx.doi.org/10.1353/wp.2...

Sneak peek of a project we have been working on for a while 👀 ⏲️More soon! @politiquesupf.bsky.social @pauvallprat.bsky.social @diegomartin-916.bsky.social

𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐞𝐱𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝! Postdoc Position at V-Dem Institute and GLD ❗ Applications still open for a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Cross-National Survey Methodology in Political Science. 𝐀𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐲 𝐛𝐲 𝐀𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐥 15 here: tiny.cc/au61101 #PoliSky #PolDataSky #PoliSciSky #PoliticalScienceJobs #AcademicSky

Three days left to apply for our mini-conference on political elites - deadline is April 1st! It will be held August 20-21st, 2026 in Oslo. We promise good food (maybe brown cheese), beautiful scenery, & great work on political elites Call for papers w. submission link here: bit.ly/whogovminico...

I'm very excited that you all can now read about Itinerant Rule in the Holy Roman Empire from 919-1519 in the @ajpseditor.bsky.social! Thank you @claranw.bsky.social, @andrejkokkonen.bsky.social and Jørgen Møller for a great collaboration! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Two weeks left to apply!

My book—No Option But Sabotage: The Radical Environmental Movement and the Climate Crisis—comes out today! It's the result of 3+ years of research and 150+ interviews with 100+ activists and experts.

So excited to see this published! More than a decade ago I got to share an office with @ascharpf.bsky.social (at Lehrstuhl @sabinecarey.bsky.social 😎) & over the past years Christian's office has been down the hall @hertiesecurity.bsky.social - now their joint work is published in book form 🥳👏🏻✨

🚨New publication! Thrilled to finally see this paper out in @psrm.bsky.social 🎉 📊I study how gender shapes coalition preferences among politicians. Turns out mayors prefer forming governments with women-led parties, perceiving them as better communicators and more competent governors.

📣 Big news! We are about to launch our first newsletter 🎉 Want to stay up to date with Political Science seminars, events and opportunities across the BANPS network? 👉 Subscribe here: tuit.cat/mVnFa @politiquesupf.bsky.social @cpoliticaub.bsky.social @politiquesuab.bsky.social @ibei.org

We are happy to release the Paths to Power Dashboard. It is the perfect tool for politics nerds! You can find it here: ptp.isv.sv.uio.no/ptp/ It allows you to explore governments from 1966-2021 using the PtP and WhoGov datasets. See examples below. The app has been programmed by Stuart Bramwell.

Un clima político crispado, tensión en redes, miedo a opinar, discusiones con amigos. Todos sentimos la polarización. Pero ¿están las costuras de la sociedad española por romperse o aún aguantan? Hoy publicamos el Atlas de la Polarización para dar respuesta a esta pregunta. 🧵👇

I wanted dinner recommendations so I scraped 13,000+ London restaurants and accidentally discovered Google Maps is running a shadow economy. Anyway here's a dashboard and a political economy thesis: open.substack.com/pub/laurenle...

If you are looking for high-quality discussions at an affordable conference, the next @apsgworkshop.bsky.social might just be the place for you! Abstract submissions open until 1 February!

Postdoc call‼️ I am opening a call for a postdoctoral position within my ERC project CONSENT. Come to Madrid to be part of my research team and more broadly of the @ipp-csic.bsky.social community. Application deadline: December 10th. Call details: tinyurl.com/yfu83p9m

🔔Job Alert 🔔 Thrilled to share that @stefaniebailer.bsky.social and I have been awarded 1.5 million CHF in SNSF funding for our new project: “Electoral choice: Which role does legislators’ quality play?” We’re recruiting 1 postdoc and 2 PhD candidates to join us in Basel and Geneva!

(1/3) Hoy @sigloxxiesp.bsky.social publica «El saqueo de las élites. Cómo los poderosos se apropiaron de la política de la identidad (y de todo lo demás)», el maravilloso ensayo de @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social que he tenido el placer de traducir e introducir.

It's Monday morning, so time to share my new Substack: open.substack.com/pub/laurenle... (caution: I'm very far from being a sociologist so pls do provide feedback)

Paths to Power (PtP) is out in @bjpols.bsky.social! It is a database with data on cabinet members' social profile globally from 1966-2021. This is a great team effort with @chknutsen.bsky.social, @peterla.bsky.social, @inalkristiansen.bsky.social. But many more helped us along the way 🙏 A short 🧵

New Working Paper 🚨 I am introducing the new dataset on Parliamentary Elites in Authoritarian Regimes (PEAR). It includes information on the composition of parliaments in 819 legislative terms in 130 autocracies from 1945 - based on over 200k individual-level observations. tinyurl.com/48h68hmh

🚨 Why do people protest against authoritarian regimes even when facing extreme danger? 🚨 In our new paper on Romania's 1989 Revolution, we find that communities exposed to the communist Gulag showed 5x higher dissent levels. doi.org/10.1177/0010... 1/🧵

And if you want to learn more about how people make a career in dictatorship, pre-order the authors' (Christian Gläßel and @ascharpf.bsky.social) new book "Making a Career in Dictatorship": global.oup.com/academic/pro...

1/ How does migration affect political attitudes? Using 380k obs from 104 sending & 28 receiving countries, @filipkostelka.bsky.social, Nicolas Sauger & I find some migrants’ attitudes align with locals, while others exceed origin-host context, reshaping ideological space. 👉 doi.org/10.1111/ajps...

Join us next week! @javierpadilla.bsky.social (@thegraduatecenter.bsky.social) will be presenting his work on how oligarchic cleavages shape liberalization and democratization and @alucardi1.bsky.social (@itam-mx.bsky.social) and @emisimison.bsky.social (@qmpoliticsir.bsky.social) will discuss.

In two weeks, I will be presenting at the @apsgworkshop.bsky.social my paper on how Brazilian oligarchies shaped democratization.

Radical-right parties are often linked to the “left-behind”. But supporting them when stigma is strong is costly. So who is willing to pay that cost early on, before it’s normalized? In my new WP, I argue that breaking political norms is socially stratified. 🧵👇

Another week, another blog:) this one is for my academic friends entering the European postdoc job market. laurenleek.substack.com/p/the-postdo...

Looking for the explanation of who votes for Spain’s new (really new) far-right party, SALF, which made it into the EP for the 1st last year? @javierpadilla.bsky.social @canalejoalvaro.bsky.social & @bertous.bsky.social have you covered with this great data-rich paper! doi.org/10.1177/2053...

📝Why has a Bukele-style far-right party emerged in Spain—even though VOX already exists? In our new paper, @javierpadilla.bsky.social, @canalejoalvaro.bsky.social and I explain the unexpected rise of SALF ("Let the Party Be Over") in the 2024 EP elections: journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10.... 1/3