They need active supporters and resources to compete seriously. Why do people dedicate time and serious money to getting particular office holders elected? Almost without exception, to pursue their private self-interest.
thecurioustask.podbean.com/e/aris-trant...
Who should we fear more, tyrannical majorities or rent-seeking insiders? Aris tells Alex Aragona neither - more fundamental than these players are patrons and their clients. Without clientelism, political mobilisation is impossible. Politicians are not merely competing for votes.
Agnes, the old woman from the simpsons, telling a kid bagging her groceries "I want everything in one bag, but I don't want the bag to be heavy"
The median voter
good essay from @adamgurri.liberalcurrents.com that i think gets at what i mean when i say that the competition with china is a) real and b) not a military competition, not fundamentally
it is a competition of systems, as during cold war 1
www.liberalcurrents.com/the-next-dem...
🚨NEW BLOGPOST 🚨
The Hormuz crisis has a real chance of causing energy shortages in the UK. The government is insisting it's business as usual, and opposition parties are arguing for fiscal measures that will stoke shortages.
Neither is serious.
open.substack.com/pub/joxleywr...
Line chart of the income share of the richest 1% of the population (before taxes and benefits) showing trends from 1974 to 2024 for Chile, India, the USA, France, and Finland. It shows Chile with the highest and most volatile share, peaking above 30 percent, India and the USA rising steadily to about 20 to 25 percent by 2024, and France and Finland remaining lower and comparatively stable around about 5 to 12 percent. The data source is the World Inequality Database (2026). The chart is licensed CC BY to Our World in Data.
What share of income goes to the richest 1% in your country?
How about the richest 10% or 0.1%? How has that changed over time?
The World Inequality Database (WID) is the leading source for answering questions about incomes and wealth at the very top of the distribution.
Have you stopped torturing yourself yet?
“In the meantime, the coming months will likely see expanded American hybrid economic warfare, with little sense of where it might be headed”.
V good piece on US economic warfare.
www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...
Video appears to show the moment ambulances belonging to a Jewish Ambulance Service in Golders Green were set alight in a suspected arson attack.
It is being treated as an antisemitic hate crime.
Police are appealing for information - nobody has yet been arrested.
Maternal mortality rates in Romania climbed following tight restrictions on abortion Line chart of estimated maternal mortality (deaths per 100,000 live births) from 1965 to 2010, with two labeled series: "Total maternal mortality" and "Maternal mortality from abortions." A vertical marker near the late 1960s indicates "Abortion restricted" and another at 1990 marks "Abortion relegalized." Both series rise after restrictions, with abortion-related deaths forming the bulk of total by the 1980s (annotation: more than 80 percent of maternal deaths were caused by unsafe abortions). Both series peak in the late 1980s — total roughly 160 to 170 per 100,000 and abortion-related roughly 140 to 150 — then drop sharply immediately after relegalization and continue declining through the 1990s and 2000s to low levels around 20 to 30 per 100,000 by 2010. Note: maternal deaths include deaths during pregnancy (including abortion), childbirth, and in the 42 days afterward.
In 1966, abortion was suddenly restricted for most women in Romania.
In the decades that followed, maternal mortality increased, and by the 1980s, more than 80% of maternal deaths happened as a result of abortion complications.
My book (and many others!) are available at a stunning 50% discount from now until March 27th! A truly 'just' price.
Use code ISAC26 at the checkout.
www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/neo...
Dr Mike Harris giving a talk
Dr Mike Harris giving a talk at the University of Lincoln with the title of his talk 'Mental health and compulsory detention' visible on screen
This week, it was a great honour to host Dr Mike Harris, former director of Rampton Hospital, to discuss the ethics, practice and governance of compulsory detention on mental health grounds for our applied criminology module: law enforcement and human rights.
Just wants to grill
A Study on Customer Support Team Configuration and Service Quality in Financial Services Enterprises A Study on Dispatcher Scheduling and Service On-Time Rate in Urban Public Transportation Systems A Study on the Impact of Member Mobility on Research Output in University Research Teams Authors Matthew R. Collins1, Daniel T. Harris2, James A. Wilson3* Affiliations Melbourne School of Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia Corresponding author: james.wilson@unimelb-placeholder.edu Abstract Customer support teams play a crucial role in ensuring service quality in financial services enterprises, and the rationality of their staffing directly affects customer experience. This study analyzes the relationship between staff size and service quality indicators, focusing on the configuration characteristics of customer support teams. Based on 18 consecutive months of operational data from the customer support center of a financial services enterprise, the sample includes 96 service teams, 2,430 customer service personnel, and over 3.2 million customer service records. Service quality is measured by average response time, first-time resolution rate, and customer satisfaction score. A generalized 1 configuration variables on service quality customer service team is controlled withi A Study on the Relationship between Labor Structure and Production Efficiency in Overseas Factories of Multinational Manufacturing Enterprises Authors Sebastian Weber1, Lukas Schneider2, Johannes Müller3* Affiliations Department of Civil, Geo and Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Munich (TUM), 80333 Munich, Germany *Corresponding author: johannes.mueller@tum-placeholder.edu Abstract Public transportation systems have high requirements for service on-time rate, and the rationality of dispatcher scheduling directly affects operational stability. This study analyzes the relationship between dispatcher scheduling and service on-time rate. The stud…
Someone went to the trouble of creating 5 fake OSF accounts today, linking to 5 fake ORCID accounts, and generating 5 fake papers to submit to SocArXiv, with fake author and emails. Dude, if you are reading this, I hope you get the help you need (or a better job).
One of the things that surprised me when I was involved In university administration is that while faculty were almost exclusively focused on teaching students were often concerned about things outside the classroom: places to study, meet friends, eat, play sports. Having a university experience.
I talk a lot about how Article I of the Constitution (Congress) is not in effect, but Articles III and VI as well as their explicit powers from Marbury v Madison (Judiciary) are also not in effect.
The number of legal abortions in Poland doubled in 2024, while complaints to Polish authorities over conscience clause refusals in the country have apparently ceased. The government had told hospitals they are obliged to provide abortion on the legal grounds of a woman's mental health.
Liberals take concentration of power seriously, and liberalism offers solutions to the dangers of concentrated power. @mattzwolinski.bsky.social talks about how in a new essay at @liberalism.org. www.liberalism.org/p/the-enemy-is…
Image of John Bowers in suit and tie, alongside the front cover of his book Downward Spiral
Lincolnshire-born John Bowers KC, principal at Brasenose College, Oxford, will give the 2026 Brian Winston Memorial lecture at the University of Lincoln 6PM Friday 8th May - all welcome with registration!👇
Under a regime that banned them from school, work & public life — a small but fearless group of Afghan women walked into the streets of Kabul today. No protection. No guarantees. Just courage. 🤍
This is what IWD looks like under the world’s only gender apartheid regime. Share this. 🌍
Hi there and hello! Welcome to the US Politics Thread for w/e 6th March 2026, or, The Of Course We Can’t Explain Why We’ve Gone to War Or How Long It Might Last Edition… (1/64)
a thing historians will marvel about when they study this era is the extent to which the "war is a thing that happens to poorer, browner people" class went about systematically dismantling every aspect of the global political order that confined the costs of war to poorer and browner people
crookedtimber.org/2026/03/02/i...
With shout outs to @ryanmuldoon.bsky.social @kathleencreel.bsky.social @drnickcowen.bsky.social @neillevy.bsky.social
Roko’s basilica
The Nazis stopped Jewish doctors from practising, so thousands of them left the country (my great grandfather was one of them). So many left that this was a good natural experiment for estimating the causal effect of losing doctors on infant mortality (& thousands died)
