IN NEW ISSUE: How do different forms of state capacity protect democracy? D Andersen, @chknutsen.bsky.social & @skaaning.bsky.social argue coercive & administrative capacity affect stability in distinct ways depending on threat: buff.ly/XP4pinB @polstudiesassoc.bsky.social #polsci #polsky

Thrilled to see Making a Career in Dictatorship featured in The New York Times @nytimes.com My favorite line: “[The book] reads like what you might get if you crossed Hannah Arendt’s ideas about the ‘banality of evil’ with a business school guide on how to get the most out of low performers.”

📢 New article 🌟 👥 Hannah Jacob Barret @hannahjakobbarrett.bsky.social & Eric Gabo Ekberg Nilsen @egen97.bsky.social (ISV) 👉 How Threats of American Withdrawal from NATO Affect European Public Attitudes Toward Defense 📗 Open Access in International Organization 🔗 doi.org/10.1017/S002...

It was a heavy attack. I'm still shaking, even though we spent the entire time in the shelter. russians erased a block of a residential building in Kyiv, w people still trapped under the rubble. I can't comprehend how anyone living safely in the free world could support this.

I’m excited to share a new paper in Nature that shows how large language models launder the strategic rhetoric of authoritarian states. Paper here: www.nature.com/articles/s41.... A thread.

"Russia and the prestige of multipolarity" by ‪@palroren.bsky.social is out now in EJIR and available online. You can read it here: t1p.de/e000s

📢 New article 🌟 👤Carl Henrik Knutsen @chknutsen.bsky.social (ISV) 👉 Successful liberal democracy as a self-reinforcing condition 📗 Open Access in Journal of European Public Policy 🔗 doi.org/10.1080/1350...

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 ⬇️

PRIO is hiring a new Executive Assistant, This is a role that sits at the heart of our leadership, and is involved with most aspects of management. You will work closely with me - not sure if that is a boon or a curse - but there is room to shape how the role evolves www.prio.org/about/career...

Are you an early career scholar? Do you want to be part of the next season of our workshop series and get feedback from experts in the field? Apply by May 31 here: forms.gle/5SSuuybK3739... For more information visit: apsg.work/seminar-rules/

Delighted to share a short blog post on the dark logic of visual "strongman" propaganda — drawing on survey experiments in Venezuela, Türkiye and the US!

By this same logic, Donald Trump bears direct personal responsibility for the murder of Melissa Hortman, the assault on Paul Pelosi, the guy who showed up armed at the Obamas, the attempted pipe bombing of several prominent Democrats, the January 6th rioters who assaulted cops, and many many more.

Det ble vedtatt å utrede lobbyregister i går. I den anledning har @ma1ken.bsky.social og jeg skrevet om utsiktene for å faktisk få det på plass. Politikerne har ikke vist at de er villig til å innføre sterkere regulering av seg selv, så vi er ikke kjempeoptimisiske. www.altinget.no/artikkel/det...

Very happy that my article "Electoral autocracies, hybrid regimes, and multiparty autocracies: same, same but different?" won the Frank Cass Prize for the best young scholar article in @democratization.bsky.social in 2025! Read it here or check the thread below: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Millions of people in Sudan are surviving on just one meal a day, as the country's food crisis deepens and threatens to spread, per report published on Monday by a group of non-governmental organizations.

Valget i Ungarn er en skikkelig seier for demokratiet! La oss glede oss like mye over det som vi graver oss ned etter alle tilbakeslagene. Det blir spennende å se om institusjonene blir tilbakeført/demokratisert igjen framover. Eller om makten blir for fristende også denne gangen.

@au.dk is hiring 3 postdocs (2 yrs) on personality cults & strategic communication in autocracies, led by Jakob Tolstrup & Alexander Baturo. They're looking for profiles with text-as-data, survey experiments and/or Chinese politics experience. Start fall 2026. Looks like a great opportunity!

Viktor Orbán created the global blueprint for authoritarian populism and became a MAGA hero. Today, Hungarian voters sent him packing after 16 years in power. There is nothing inevitable about these guys. Organize. Vote. Fight back. It works.

I really like this article, which shows that educated citizens tend deliberately disengage from elections in autocracies. Unless they have reason to believe that it is competitive & they have a real chance of voting out the regime. Hopefully, something like this explains the high turnout in Hungary.

Three 2-year full-time postdoctoral positions in autocratic politics at the Department of Political Science at Aarhus University (in connection to projects headed by Jakob Tolstrup and Alexander Baturo). Flexible start date. Application deadline: June 1, 2026. international.au.dk/about/profil...

Even if nothing happens tonight, the President of the United States of America has already threatened to use the Armed Forces to end a civilization in order to secure policy and regime change. That ketchup doesn't go back in the bottle.

I have never met as warm, friendly, and welcoming people as the people I met when travelling in Iran. This is genocidal language and I cannot fathom that an elected American representative would speak like this.

basically this

Deadline is today!

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...

New book chapter out! 🧵1/12 With Bjørn Erik Rasch & Cristina Bucur: "Parliamentary institutions and portfolio allocation in coalition governments" in Democracy at the Crossroads – Challenges for Governance and Representation: Essays in Honour of Thomas Saalfeld 📖 doi.org/10.4324/9781003660248

📣 New job at Oxford's Centre for Advanced Social Science Methods (CASSM)! 📣 The Departments of Politics & IR (DPIR) and Social Policy and Intervention (DSPI) are hiring an Associate Professor of Causal and Experimental Methods. Come work with me and amazing Oxford peeps! Deadline NOON April 27th.

So, the easiest way to achieve the main goal of the war would have been not to start the war

Trump is turning a war against the Iranian regime into a war on the Iranian people. However, the regime doesn't give a damn about its own people. This would be a terrible war crime and achieve nothing.

#DR26 What were the aspects of Democracy that declined in the most countries over the last decade? The figure displays the top 20 indicators that register decline in the largest number of countries between 2015 and 2025. 🧵 1(6) #Polisky #PoliSciSky #DemocracyAutocracy #SocialScience #PolDataSky

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/...

New data from V-Dem suggests that US democracy is now similar to what it was in 1965, which might sound strange. That's because the overall score is the same, but for different reasons: Elections are more democratic now, and civil liberties stronger — but checks on government are far weaker.

Two weeks left to apply!

www.vg.no/nyheter/i/43... Du må gjerne si du skal kutte i staten, feks konsulenter. Men da må du også være ærlig om at du fjerner folk som løser konkrete oppgaver. Hvilke oppgaver skal ikke løses lenger? Hvordan går det utover tjenester? Slakk journalistikk og uærlig budskap av Rødt.

📢 Out Now! V-Dem Dataset v16 & the V-Dem Institute Democracy Report 2026 💾 The V-Dem Dataset: v-dem.net/data/the-v-d... 📰 The Report "Unraveling The Democratic Era?”: v-dem.net/publications... 📈 Explore the new data with the V-Dem Graphing tools: v-dem.net/graphing/gra... #PoliSky #PoliSciSky 1/3

V-Dem v.16 is now released, w. updated scores for 2025. Most countries remain stable from 2024, but some clear improvements (on diff’t democracy indices), incl. S. Korea, Sri Lanka & Mauritius. Largest declines came, by far, in the US. This figure shows 10-yr changes on the Liberal Dem. index.

It you watch one thing from the Oscars, let it be this…

“Old people have to choose between heating their homes or taking out prescription meds, while Orbán takes private jets to see his favourite footballers across Europe, and comes home to a palace like this... That is not a leader. It’s a ruler. And we no longer want to be ruled." @financialtimes.com

📣Two days left to apply for this Postdoctoral Fellow Position (3-4 years) in international politics, comparative politics, or political data science. The successful applicant will be part of the ERC project, “Waging of War” (WOW) - PI Scott Gates.👇 www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...

I can’t get over how Cultural Revolution the DOGE story is, these young people doing crimes they didn’t understand on behalf of a political leader

The Trump WH is starting to reap what it has sown in terms of screwing over counterparties: -Iran can't trust a negotiated settlement so why reach one? -Ds in Congress can't trust Trump to follow the law so why bargain w/him? -Universities see past deals leading to future shakedowns so why make one?

📢 V-Dem dataset version 16, updated with data for 2025, and the V-Dem Institute Democracy Report 2026 will be released on March 17! Make sure to follow us so you don't miss the announcement. @vdemamlat.bsky.social #Polisky #PoliSciSky #PoliticalScience #PoliticalScienceData #AcademicSky #VDemData

Lige nu ser det ud til, at det forfærdelige iranske regime kommer til at overleve i en eller anden form. Måske kommer det endda mere robust ud af krigen, da det har vist, at det kan overleve et storstilet angreb fra USA og Israel. Og de (og andre rogue regimer) vil gøre alt for... 1/4

I was in a 2 hour briefing today on the Iran War. All the briefings are closed, because Trump can't defend this war in public. I obviously can't disclose classified info, but you deserve to know how incoherent and incomplete these war plans are. 1/ Here's what I can share:

Hegseth: We didn't anticipate that Iran would respond this way. US Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1984: We anticipated that Iran would respond in this way. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/10/u... www.cia.gov/readingroom/...

I’m hiring for a full-time one-year Research Assistant (“pre-doc”) position Come work at LSE doing research on energy markets and environmental economics. Great opportunity to build research skills ahead of applying to PhD programmes Deadline March 27th, apply here: jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...

We are hiring! ARENA is looking for a Postdoctoral Fellow political science, political economy or European studies. The fellowship is connected to the Norwegian Centre for International Economics (NORCIE). Read more and apply by 6 April 🔗 www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...

Happy to share that my new paper is out in @conflictmanagement.bsky.social I compare several NLP approaches for conflict prediction: • conflict dictionaries • sentiment dictionaries • word scaling • dynamic topic models • specialized transformer models

I'm very excited to see our paper on group appeals finally formatted and published online with the JoP! www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/epdf/10....