Pick you fighter, courtesy of Claude

That is a lot of political scientists

I wish Stephen Miller was more like Kash Patel

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...

True, they should!

Good to see that Trump's arch will be larger than North Korea's. Very on-brand.

From: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Opus 4.7 is great. It could turn the WhoGov dataset into a computer game

Iran used Chinese spy satellite to target US bases Leaked documents show IRGC secretly acquired system and used it to guide strikes during war in March

Russia and China are helping Iran but Trump is angry at... Europe

Iran used Chinese spy satellite to target US bases - giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... via @FT

Trump’s Latest Meltdown Attacking the pope was only part of the president’s disturbing night on Truth Social.

"If an elderly parent did such things, most people would be concerned. The president doing such things is far more alarming. The American people must not look away, as they have done so often in the past."

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....

For centuries, Roman Emperors used horses for transportation. Roman Emperor Caligula is taking a different approach.

Pinochet, Yahya Jammeh, Hastings Banda, UMNO in Malaysia, and the PRI in Mexico all lost power through elections. Just because you lose power in an election, it doesn't mean that your rule was democratic.

This is pure, unadulterated preference falsification under authoritarian rule — @timurkuran.bsky.social getting it right yet again… www.nytimes.com/2026/04/13/o...

Trump is doing everything in his power to push his approval rating below 40%, and yet, he is barely succeeding

Three 2-year Postdoctoral positions at Aarhus University: Projects on personality cults and strategic communication in autocracies - Vacancy at Aarhus University Vacancy at Department of Political Science, Aarhus University

@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!

Also, Orban was quite honest about his disrespect for democracy and intentions, openly saying he wanted “illiberal democracy”

This is starting to look like a landslide; will be tough for Orban to get out of this one. As an electoral autocrat, you can maybe successfully claim fraud or cheat your way to overturn a close election. This is next to impossible to get around.

From: vtr.valasztas.hu/ogy2026?filt...

Gábor Tóka & team have just published revised results 😱
2026.kozvelemeny.org/reszletes

a NINE-IN-TEN chance for an opposition majority

🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵🟠

Link to article: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

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.

"You can't break up with me, because I'm breaking up with you!"-vibes

Of all the electoral systems available, the UK has opted for a pretty stupid one

Jean-Claude Juncker: Viktor Orbán ‘has always been a hero’ Commission president defends Brussels’ policies on Central Europe amid rule-of-law proceedings against Hungary and Poland.

Jean-Claude Juncker, though he failed pretty bad at constraining Orban despite the weird greeting

Watching this clip on repeat today

Guess that is a strong sign that people are mobilizing against the regime

A primer on Hungary’s electoral system.

Hungary has a mixed-member pseudo proportional electoral system.

106 elected in first past the post constituencies

93 by proportional representation in closed lists

1/

With this poll, Orbán is laying the ground to refuse to recognise anything but a win by him as legitimate, eg. www.hungarianconservative.com/articles/cur.... Such an outcome would drive a further wedge between Europe and the US government.

"Fundamentet under det amerikanske demokrati og samfund slår revner, og de få, der har værktøjerne til at reparere det, er de samme, der råber "the greatest president ever", mens det hele falder fra hinanden."

Jeg skriver i dag i @altingetdk.bsky.social om krisen i USA med afsæt i diktaturforskning