I’m so thrilled and honored to be starting a Postdoc at @stanfordcddrl.bsky.social in the next few weeks! I’ll be mostly working on a book project on international pressure and opposition to backsliding. If you’re in or around Stanford and the Bay Area for the next year, I’d love to meet.

Question to folks who have done/do archival research. What advice (if any) might you have? I'm doing some archival work for the first time for my book project at the Hoover Institution in a few weeks, and am primarily interested in digitizing documents. All comments/thoughts appreciated!

My first ever European conference ✔️! It was a delight to present my dissertation work on foreign pressure in an age of democratic backsliding, to discuss some awesome work on the international dimensions of autocratization, and meet scholars with shared interests from Europe and around the world.

Great to be at EPSS. Today at 5:10pm I’ll be presenting my work on foreign cues and public support for pro-democracy movements in backsliding contexts and discussing three excellent papers on the international consequences of autocratization across the Global North and South.

Nice to be back in Europe. I‘m in Dublin and Belfast this week, and I’ll be presenting extensions of my dissertation work on foreign cues and support for pro-democracy movements at EPSS on Friday afternoon. If you’re in town, I’d love to meet!

I‘m thrilled to share that my manuscript, “Who Counts? Ethnicity and Support for Democratic Backsliding,” coauthored with Hannah Ridge, is now under advanced contract as a Cambridge Elements in Experimental Political Science and will hopefully be out in April 2027. Immensely grateful.

We are happy to release Version 4 of WhoGov, which expands WhoGov to 2025. It now contains data on cabinet members from 1966-2025. The update is supported by UiO:Democracy and can be downloaded through GETGOV's page or through Nuffield College: politicscentre.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/whogov-datas.... 1/2

Governing elites since the dawn of modern democracy (GETGOV) - Department of Political Science

Ever since humans settled into communities, there have been political classes. A small elite governs, while the majority are governed. Yet, who are the people in the governing elite? GETGOV will answe...

sv.uio.no

I'm pleased to see our paper introducing the Democratic Erosion Event Dataset (DEED), an events-based dataset on democratic erosion, finally out in Nature Scientific Data. In our data, we distinguish between resistance, precursors, symptoms, and destabilizing events www.nature.com/articles/s41...

EPSS paper submitted! I will be presenting the early stage theory & results from my book project on foreign cues and public support for pro-democracy movements in backsliding contexts on Friday the 19th at 5:10pm and discussing several terrific papers. If you will be at EPSS, I would love to meet.

Final paper from my dissertation sent out for peer review finally!

Tomorrow at 12pm ET/6pm CET. We will be speaking with activists from Israel's Protest Headquarters about Israel's autocratization as well as lessons learned and what the democracy protests in Israel mean for the country's upcoming critical election (scheduled to be held in October at the latest).

Ben Yoel@benyoel.bsky.social · 3mo ago

I'm pleased to share that I'm co-organizing a webinar in partnership with @stanfordcddrl.bsky.social on Israel's judicial reform & the country's upcoming critical election. Webinar is May 26 12pm ET. This is part of a project with @carnegieendowment.org. Link: cddrl.fsi.stanford.edu/events/cross...

Tomorrow at 12pm ET/6pm CET. We will be speaking with activists from Israel's Protest Headquarters about Israel's autocratization as well as lessons learned and what the democracy protests in Israel mean for the country's upcoming critical election (scheduled to be held in October at the latest).

Ben Yoel@benyoel.bsky.social · 3mo ago

I'm pleased to share that I'm co-organizing a webinar in partnership with @stanfordcddrl.bsky.social on Israel's judicial reform & the country's upcoming critical election. Webinar is May 26 12pm ET. This is part of a project with @carnegieendowment.org. Link: cddrl.fsi.stanford.edu/events/cross...

I'm pleased to share that I'm co-organizing a webinar in partnership with @stanfordcddrl.bsky.social on Israel's judicial reform & the country's upcoming critical election. Webinar is May 26 12pm ET. This is part of a project with @carnegieendowment.org. Link: cddrl.fsi.stanford.edu/events/cross...

Cross-Sectoral Mobilization in Defense of Democracy: Insights from Israel’s

cddrl.fsi.stanford.edu

Remember when JD Vance's visit to Hungary was all over the news a few weeks ago? In a post-election survey I fielded between April 13 and yesterday, I asked Hungarian respondents (n = 1,060) to assess how the visit influenced their vote. It seemed to do little, but if it did anything it *backfired.*

I’m very pleased to share that I defended my dissertation, “Standing for Democracy.” I‘m very gratefuk to my amazing committee, Erica Frantz, Michael Wahman, Ana Bracic, and Andy Halterman! I’m also pleased to share that I’ll be starting a postdoc at @stanfordcddrl.bsky.social in September.

I’m very pleased to share that I defended my dissertation, “Standing for Democracy.” I‘m very gratefuk to my amazing committee, Erica Frantz, Michael Wahman, Ana Bracic, and Andy Halterman! I’m also pleased to share that I’ll be starting a postdoc at @stanfordcddrl.bsky.social in September.

Great to be back at MPSA! I’ll be presenting work with @hmridge.bsky.social and Daniel Markovits. Come say hi!

Great to be back at MPSA! I’ll be presenting work with @hmridge.bsky.social and Daniel Markovits. Come say hi!

This is very consistent with what @alelov.bsky.social and I argue in our paper (now under review). As leaders consolidate power in backsliding settings, they no longer "need" to keep women in positions of power and are often very willing to forego women, particularly in high-prestige positions.

Don Moynihan@donmoyn.bsky.social · 4mo ago

She is awful and should be fired but man that is three women out of the Cabinet and not a single guy

I will also be presenting work in progress with Daniel Markovits, Abhu Tyagi, and Jeremy Price on public support for opposition coalitions. While elites play a critical role in coalition formation, public support for them is often critical. We highlight the role of prospective threats to democracy.

Ben Yoel@benyoel.bsky.social · 4mo ago

MPSA papers submitted! I will be presenting work with @hmridge.bsky.social on the conditional effect of ascriptive identities on tolerance for democratic transgressions next Saturday. We are very grateful to the @prl.bsky.social for including our experiments in their survey in Germany and Israel!

I will also be presenting work in progress with Daniel Markovits, Abhu Tyagi, and Jeremy Price on public support for opposition coalitions. While elites play a critical role in coalition formation, public support for them is often critical. We highlight the role of prospective threats to democracy.

Ben Yoel@benyoel.bsky.social · 4mo ago

MPSA papers submitted! I will be presenting work with @hmridge.bsky.social on the conditional effect of ascriptive identities on tolerance for democratic transgressions next Saturday. We are very grateful to the @prl.bsky.social for including our experiments in their survey in Germany and Israel!

MPSA papers submitted! I will be presenting work with @hmridge.bsky.social on the conditional effect of ascriptive identities on tolerance for democratic transgressions next Saturday. We are very grateful to the @prl.bsky.social for including our experiments in their survey in Germany and Israel!

MPSA papers submitted! I will be presenting work with @hmridge.bsky.social on the conditional effect of ascriptive identities on tolerance for democratic transgressions next Saturday. We are very grateful to the @prl.bsky.social for including our experiments in their survey in Germany and Israel!

Drivers of Congressional Behavior: Analyzing Members, Constituents, and Committees With CongressData doi.org/10.1177/1532... Our new article is now available online.

Thrilled to share that my paper with @mattgrossmann.bsky.social and Caleb Lucas is now out at American Politics Research. In it, we introduce CongressData, a novel repository of 1,300+ variables on the US Congress. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/....

Drivers of Congressional Behavior: Analyzing Members, Constituents, and Committees With CongressData - Benjamin Yoel, Caleb Lucas, Matt Grossmann, 2026

The US Congress is the world’s most studied legislature, but data on its many facets often remains isolated. This note introduces an updated version of Congress...

journals.sagepub.com

Just sent one of my dissertation papers out for reviews only to get a rejection two minutes later for another one of my dissertation papers that was under review! Happy Wednesday!

Peter Magyar confirmed that Szijjarto, Orbán's FM, has barricaded himself with some of his closest colleagues and is shredding documents related to the sanctions on Russia any other evidence of treason.

Polling stations have now closed in Hungary. I fielded a pre-election survey among Hungarians up until yesterday (1065 respondents). When asked if they had to choose between Tisza and Fidesz to form the next government, 57% selected Tisza, and the rest Fidesz (current government).

1/ The starting point: Orbán did not build an illiberal democracy. He built an authoritarian regime: an illiberal kleptocracy with institutional cover.