This kind of self-censorship is a key way our media is failing us. Kudos to Greenblatt for his integrity, and to Politico for publishing this.

Other authoritarians at least tried to hide their corruption. Trump plasters it on the front page of The NYTimes. We only learned about Imelda Marcos's shoe collection after anti-corruption protesters stormed the palace. Trump is out there showing us his loot and handing us the bill.

Per @politico.com , the lobbyists are basically treating Article I as dead.

We often say Congress has the power of the purse, a framing coming from the Federalist Papers. But to be technical, it is federal law that has the power of the purse. Appropriations bills are laws! Rather than a fight between branches, it's better to think of this as a question of the rule of law.

If you think that professors exist as repositories of knowledge that students ask for answers, you’re missing the entire point of a college education. We’re here to teach students how to do research, how to analyze and argue, how to think for themselves — how to find the answers on their own.

Does lobbying access actually mean lobbying influence? In our new @jeppjournal.bsky.social paper we try to answer this key question in interest group politics and lobbying by exploring models of access = influence translation. Check it out here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.... is #OA

Do think tanks coordinate with interest groups or protect their turf? J A H Whittlestone, C K Florczak & @mbklitgaard.bsky.social examine alliances and autonomy in corporatist systems. Read more: buff.ly/uvX3e6O @polstudiesassoc.bsky.social @uoypolitics.bsky.social @sagepub.com #polsky #polsci

Lost science series is documenting the research that is being cut in the US www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/c... 🧪

Proud to announce the new @igajournal.bsky.social Special Collection, “New Persoectives on Lobbying Regulation and Reform: Two Generations of Research.” This great set of articles was guest edited by Ray Chari of Trinity College Dublin. link.springer.com/collections/...

EDDIE NKETIAH'S GREATEST ARSENAL GOAL EVER 🔴

Depolarization is not "a scalable solution for reducing societal-level conflict.... achieving lasting depolarization will likely require....moving beyond individual-level treatments to address the elite behaviors and structural incentives that fuel partisan conflict" www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

The "Lobbying and Advocacy" panel is at 4pm today. Don't miss the exciting five presentations on lobbying and policy advocacy. @davidryanmiller.com @timlapira.bsky.social @apsa.bsky.social #APSA25

Harvard's Steve Levitsky said in April that "We are no longer living in a democratic regime" www.npr.org/2025/04/22/n... But what this <gestures wildly> is can be hard to describe. We tend to think in binaries, but there's a continuum from democracy to authoritarianism & we're headed the wrong way.

This is what you do when you’ve given up on competing for elections

Check out our new little paper with a simple but surprising (to many) fact: most “special interests” that lie by the govt don’t have a PAC for campaign donations. All too often lobbying and campaign contributions are conflated. With @clarebrock.bsky.social and @alexanderfurnas.com

The Snitch State This is the nightmare of many faculty at public institutions in GOP-controlled states… being ratted out by students to hostile administrators.

Former student emails to ask “essential readings on democratic backsliding.” I have thoughts but looking for accessible, evidence-informed political science/adjacent work for a curious, intrinsically motivated person who’s not in interested in debating with you. Suggestions?

It's difficult to convey the extent to which the modal administrator's dream university has no faculty. Just admins with fake jobs flying around on expense accounts and students putting cash in a vending machine that prints out a degree after 4 yrs. Ideally the two groups never see each other.

If all goes to plan over the next few days, Arsenal will have made six first-team signings before the start of their pre-season tour. That has never happened before at #AFC in the 23 years since the current transfer window system was introduced.

Paramount has joined Disney in paying bribes to Donald Trump, the Washington Post killed its Harris endorsement, Fox News functions as Republican state media, and the X algorithm amplifies fascist content. Here's why the media has a liberal bias problem.

Protection racket, pure and simple.

Let's be really clear here. Authoritarian politics just won again. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/27/u...

SCOOP: The "Appeal To Heaven" flag, a popular symbol for Christian nationalists that was waved by January 6 rioters, was raised over the Small Business Administration headquarters last week.

This isn't conventional political capture. It’s structural privatization of government. Where the civil service isn't politicized directly; kneecap it so that it's outcompeted, then replaced by ideologically aligned private contractors. They’re co-opting the state via rentier privatization.

Simple reforms often backfire. Specifically revolving door “restrictions.” Rather than cooling off periods or lobbying bans, we need to dramatically increase congressional capacity and lobbying transparency. See our book. www.google.com/books/editio...

APSA Sign-on Statement Defending Academic Freedom, Democratic Institutions, and International Scholars:

Researchers in gender and politics: submit your proposal for the 2025 Catt Prize. 👇

Social scientists have professional incentives to focus their work on what is _novel_ to people in their field, who they view as their core audience. The mental switch to be made is that what is _obvious_ to people in your field is often not obvious to ordinary citizens, and hence is valuable.

this obsession with a handful of high status universities is also low key an indication of elite disdain for the institutions that educate most americans who attend colleges and universities

I would rather Arsenal be a player short in midfield and have that cost the club a trophy than sign Thomas Partey to a new contract.

Read Anthony Nownes new review of Joanna Wuest's book "Born this Way" cc @timlapira.bsky.social @annerasmussen.bsky.social link.springer.com/article/10.1...

New book review in @igajournal.bsky.social cc @annerasmussen.bsky.social @timlapira.bsky.social

As we point out in Science, the Trump proposal to convert NIH program officer jobs into political appointments (Schedule F) will mean, that instead of actual scientific experts, people like "Big Balls" will choose how to direct NIH funds. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Great editorial in Science by @pamherd.bsky.social & @donmoyn.bsky.social! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Always read @stevelevitsky.bsky.social @dziblatt.bsky.social & @lucanway.bsky.social: "No One Has Ever Defeated Autocracy From the Sidelines." Gift link here:

I got the best teaching evals of my career for a large course last semester— along with three teaching awards— after rebuilding my intro class around in-class handwritten essays. I simply do not believe that this is unsolvable or that students don't care about actually learning to do their work.

Working with "the enemy" is a wide-spread lobbying strategy! In our new article, we study the logic of brokerage & how brokers between opposing policy positions can secure advantages in lobbying. doi.org/10.1177/0032... with @marcelhanegraaff.bsky.social Andrea Pritoni & @michelecrepaz.bsky.social

Just early published in ARPS (open access) @garlicksauce.bsky.social @wmjunk.bsky.social & I survey remarkable recent lobbying research that shows how lobbying matters & whats ahead for studies of influence www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

Certainly worth repeating in the times we are in..

The executive targets his opponents w/bogus investigations. His government disappears people w/out due process and vanishes them beyond reach. He usurps legislative power, controls public funds at will, & consolidates power. Loyalty is expected — or else. Authoritarianism isn’t coming. It’s here.

Grievances 16-19 in Declaration of Independence 16. "For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world" 17. "For imposing taxes on us without our consent" 18. "For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Jury trial" 19. "For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences"

Let’s be clear: If the government can arrest, detain, and disappear peaceful protestors, none of us are free. That’s not law and order. It’s fascism. And we should all be outraged that this is being done in our name.

As a democrat, I fear authoritarianism. As a practical person, I fear incompetence. As a rational being, I fear unpredictability. As a practical and rational democrat, I am terrified of incompetent and unpredictable authoritarianism.