The special issue of @cpsjournal.bsky.social “Back from the Brink: Countering Illiberalism in Liberal Democracies”, co-edited by myself and Isabela Mares, was just published. The issue includes 8 articles, many of which set new research agendas. A🧵w/overview 1/10
journals.sagepub.com/toc/CPS/curr...
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The European Institute is looking to support a Postdoctoral Fellow for the 2026/27 academic year.
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Why I don't expect liberal democracy to go away any time soon: My article on the resilience of liberal democracy, published in @jeppjournal.bsky.social.
Perfectly timed to the day after Orbáns defeat and a small spike in "democracy-optimism".
There are, I argue, good reasons for such optimism.
The entire point of a democracy is that no party ever has to do what Tisza did to win an election.
@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!
Not forcing parallels - what Hungary did yday was historical - but like with the 2025 German elections (where ppl mobilized against the surge of the AfD) and the Italian referendum last month, it is critical to recall that it‘s easier to form opposition; the harder task is to support a new project.
i will vote for any candidate who offers up this slogan
People will be closely studying how Hungary's opposition pulled off their win in such a pro-incumbent system. Important to note that the theme was corruption. Democrats need to get much better at calling out Trump's corruption.
Now Tisza projected at 138 seats against 54 of Orban’s Fidesz. If these numbers are confirmed, this is a larger victory than Orbàn’s 2010 landslide, which allowed him to change the 🇭🇺Constitution and start backsliding towards an illiberal democracy. A historic day.
Orban concedes in Hungary. Good reminder that incumbents can lose even in competitive authoritarian regimes if there is enough a wave of popular support for the opposition.
www.nytimes.com/2026/04/12/w...
Wow.
Join us tomorrow for our first APSG-APSA Democracy & Autocracy roundtable!
Anya Schiffrin, Bardia Rahmani, Erin Baggott Carter, @linettelim.bsky.social and @scottrw630.bsky.social
will discuss attacks on media freedom during democratic decline
To register: t.co/yeyXAuX0G5
Impossible to disagree with a single word that Ben Rhodes (Obama era NSC official) is saying here:
Yep. Dems need to be speaking loudly and in unison about the urgent national need to remove this madman from office immediately.
How American officials, be they Republican, Democrat or neither, respond to this moment -- one in which the man who controls our nuclear arsenal has promised what could amount to genocide -- will define so much.
May enough rise to the moment with the gravity it demands.
I've seen people on here blaming Biden for what Trump is doing but at the end of the day its the Republicans in the Senate that refused to convict Trump, the Republicans on SCOTUS that gave him immunity, and the Republicans today who refuse to constrain him that are entirely responsible.
This is completely insane and he should be impeached.
It is also extremely confusing. He writes "God Bless the Great People of Iran!" in the same post as he threatens them with annihilation (although I guess it makes sense in a sick way) and brags about having ushered in regime change (he has not).
Do younger voters turn against older people when politics feels unfair? @alonsoroman.bsky.social & @scottrw630.bsky.social show that perceived age-based political exclusion is strongly linked to explicit ageism across Italy, South Korea, and the US.
Read more: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
Iran is threatening to target American universities operating in the Middle East.
Georgetown, Cornell, Northwestern and other university campuses closed their premises in Qatar until further notice. New York University’s Abu Dhabi operation has done the same.
OK this is much better. Credit where due, given all the criticism. More please.
The President of the U.S. The man with the nuclear codes. And people are just going to pretend this is ok.
In a functioning society, he would be removed from office within hours by his own party.
Constitutional lawyer here. I don't think it would violate the Constitution for the VP/Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment, but the intended constitutional remedy for this behavior is impeachment & removal. The fact that that remedy is politically impossible is a scandal and a crisis.
Two weeks ago, the Hungarian opposition was bracing for a false flag operation, an "emergency" that would allow Viktor Orban to turn the tide or even cancel an election he is losing. Now it appears to have arrived
As someone who studies politicization of democratic militaries this statement on X is a five- alarm fire. It creates an undeniable permission structure for overt partisan behavior by mil. It's part of a concerted effort by civilian leaders to turn the U.S. military into a partisan aligned force.
The APSA Democracy and Autocracy Section is partnering with @apsgworkshop.bsky.social to launch a new series of public-facing panels. Our first event on April 9 (12:30 to 1:30 PM EST) will focus on attacks on media freedoms. You can register here: tinyurl.com/3ds284p6. Please join us!
the most corrupt administration in history, every day a Teapot Dome level scandal
I’ve been a journalist for 27 years. I’ve reported major stories about mass surveillance, torture, war, the military-industrial complex, police black sites, etc.
But this is the most important story I’ve ever had the horror/honor to work on. For it is a story about the current phase of a genocide.
📢 TWO WEEK REMINDER!: DPIR seeks a Departmental Lecturer in Comparative Politics to provide teaching and supervision at the undergraduate and graduate level and contribute to the Departmental examining and graduate admissions processes.
🗓️ CLOSES: Noon (BST) 10 April: www.politics.ox.ac.u...
