Number 5 in the most-read PQ journal articles of 2025 was: 'The Populist Playbook: Why Identity Trumps Policy and How Democrats Can Adapt' which discusses plausible alternatives to populists’ divisive appeals. By @dbrieba.bsky.social and Andrés Velasco onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Today's 70% fall in net migration to 205,000 was not one of the six stories in BBC ten o'clock news. Ta massive assymetry in whether rises in immigration and falls in immigration are considered newsworthy by broadcasters Down by 140k isn't thought to be. Up by 140k undoubtedly would be.

✍️ Chile’s presidential runoff pits a Communist former labor minister against a hard-right former congressman, signaling both a sharp rightward turn and the eclipse of the old political elites, @dbrieba.bsky.social writes in his op-ed. 🇨🇱🇨🇱🗳️ 🧑‍💻 Read it now: 👉 tinyurl.com/mtntusct

"Essentially what you have here is the two main conspirators in this Jeffrey Epstein case basically saying to one another, sure is weird that Donald Trump hasn't been pulled into this whole thing yet." @sarahlongwell25.bsky.social and @eggerdc.bsky.social talk the new Epstein smoking-gun emails:

Always fun to share the election ballot for international audiences

This explains a lot (Source: www.ft.com/content/20d6... )

A WILD ONE: A man broke his leg during an arrest by ICE at a car wash south of L.A. ICE has held him under 24/7 guard at a hospital, registering him under a pseudonym, for *37 days* without telling him why. A judge has ordered his immediate release. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

I missed the “for” in the first sentence and thought the article might be worth reading for a second

Comparto mi columna de ayer en La Segunda

Hola, les comparto mi columna de hoy en La Segunda

✍️ As Chile’s left prepares to choose its presidential candidate in a low-profile primary, the stakes are higher than they seem. @dbrieba.bsky.social explores whether the left can reinvent itself before the elections. 🇨🇱🇨🇱🗳️ 🧑‍💻 Read it now: 👉 tinyurl.com/4zxaam4a

Latest issue out now! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/1467923x... With John Connolly David Judge Matt Flinders; @sekip.bsky.social; @jimtomlinson45.bsky.social; Andrés Velasco @dbrieba.bsky.social; Coree Brown Swan @paulanderson88.bsky.social Judith Sijstermans; Stewart Lansley; Tom Wraight Kai Green

Modern xkcd.com/3089

Andrés Velasco and I had a great conversation with Alan Renwick on UCL’s Uncovering Politics podcast—talking about populism, identity, and liberalism, based on our article in The Political Quarterly (onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/14…). You can check it out here: https://shorturl.at/zGiXP

New: We analyzed Trump's meme coin - At least 27 crypto wallets have picked up $100 million worth of $TRUMP coins since his team said the top holders would join him for an "intimate private dinner." Huge profit for Trump; "the most brazenly corrupt thing a President has ever done" wapo.st/4iAatO1

The Trump Effect: Australia Edition

Federal spending is *up* under Trump according to the Wall Street Journal. Chaos is not actually the same as cost savings. Actual budgeting is a kind of actual policy-making and takes real work spread over real time. Running around breaking stuff isn't that. www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

Those jokes a while ago about Trump appointing a horse as his advisor. Shame he didn’t as it turns out.

If you accept that non-citizens have no right to due process, you are accepting that citizens have no right to due process. All the government has to do is claim that you are not a citizen; without due process you have no chance to prove the contrary.

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...

Well, as America implodes from within, it’d be a *great* time for the EU to finally do official Eurobonds. It’d likely be very attractive as a safe haven given the destruction of US hegemony & spillover to US T-bills. Bonus: Eurobonds can finance a desperately needed European security build up! 🇪🇺💶 ‼️

Russia is perfectly clear what side Trump is on

Phony friendliness and behind-the-scenes treachery from Trump and Vance would have been much more dangerous to the cause of freedom in Ukraine than the self-exposure by both men.

This was just 233 days ago:

One of the things we learnt during Trump term one is that corruption committed openly and without shame gets less coverage because there's no opportunity for EXPOSES, SCOOPS, and EXCLUSIVES. It's just there, gets reported, and on we go.

Excited to share new work with Andrés Velasco (open access)! Populism isn’t just bad policy—it’s powerful identity politics. To beat it, we need better identity politics: liberal, inclusive, & rooted in a sense of shared fate. Check it out here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Recently, Mauricio Herrera and I published a short article in Political Studies Review where we explore Chile’s central government hiring practices from a fresh perspective: contrasting government ideology with the professional profile of senior hires. (1/10)

Only a few days left to apply to the workshop on Polarisation and Democratic backsliding. Sign up here! www.qmul.ac.uk/politics/res...

BREAKING: A Louisiana patient who had been hospitalized with severe bird flu has died, the first such fatality in the United States, state health officials report. www.nytimes.com/2025/01/06/h...

Fascinating paper by Claudia Goldin on drivers of low fertility in advanced economies. Countries where economic progress outstrips social progress (in particular, gender equality in household division of labour) see the most rapid falls in fertility.. www.nber.org/papers/w33311

Tomorrow's Independent front page revealing Brexit's catastrophic cost - five years after the UK left the EU. - New bureaucracy - Weaker UK exports - Labour shortages in key sectors - Less cash for public services - Huge divorce bill - 15% long term hit to UK trade This is the price of populism.

Yo no quedan hospitales funcionando en el norte de Gaza.

Musk should mind his own business and accept that British politics has got to be left to the control of Rupert Murdoch.

Clearly, this was a global issue.

Christopher Hood has died today. Public administration has lost one of its absolute best. RIP

A true dumpster fire. Happy new year!

Closing 2024 with two papers unexpectedly published today with a few hours’ difference - and moreover both with the same great coauthor. Not something that happens everyday!

For the first time in history, each governing party in developed countries with elections saw a decline in vote share. Inflation is a big factor, but I wonder if the rise of negativity as the go-to attention-grabber in today's social media ecosystem might also play a role.

the internet is the best place to learn the fact that even your most innocuous and inoffensive thoughts engender a deep personal hatred in someone humanity contains multitudes and at least one of them despises you

It’s a mistake we keep on making. But we should never use the crest of a wave as a benchmark.

UK: National Trust records ‘alarming’ drop in insects and seabirds at its sites www.theguardian.com/environment/...

God I feel old.

France should say the Louisiana Purchase is invalid.

American gerontocracy...

Bien impresionante el nivel de aceptación del asesinato del CEO de UnitedHealthcare en el rango etario 18-29 años

Ya que estamos, digamos que el de Valdivia fue un portal al infierno.

Americans are now one-third less likely to die from cancer at the same ages as Americans in 1990

I remember when you could just buy a computer program like Microsoft Word or Photoshop and just have it on your computer forever without having to pay monthly or yearly. What a time that was

The School of Government at UAI is announcing an open international search for an Assistant Professor in Sociology or related disciplines applied to topics of public interest. The position is for a regular faculty member starting on March 1, 2025. More information: www.uai.cl/.../academic...