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!
Flag of University of Gothenburg, hanging from the wall of the Department of Political Science building. With and arrow saying: "Deadline extended. Apply by April 15." and the added text: "We're Hiring! Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Cross-National Survey Methodology in Political Science. Combined position at V-Dem Institute and Governance and Local Development Institute."
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.
A graph showing 20 V-Dem indicators and the number of countries they are declining in. Top of the list is the indicator "government censoship efforts of media" which is declining in 44 countries. More examples of indicators and how many countries they are declining in are mentioned in the post text.
#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.
Two map graphs show the state of liberal democracy according to the V-Dem Liberal Democracy index for 2025 and 2024. The higher the score (or darker blue), the more democratic the country. Lower scores (or dark red) mean less democratic. While North and South America, Western Europe and Oceania are mostly in the blue, most parts of Asia and Africa are in the red in 2025. In comparison to the map for 2024, the map graph for 2025 shows democratic backsliding in some traditionally stable democracies in Western Europe and North America, in particular the USA, United Kingdom and Italy.
📢 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
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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?
Front pages of V-Dem Institute Democracy Reports stacked on top of each other, with the top one showing the text "Democracy Report 2026: Out March 17" on the front page.
📢 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
