The US now follows Hungary, Serbia, Brazil (and who knows, maybe Israel?) in rejecting autocratic leaders, creating a "democratic cascade." For the cascade recipe that you can learn from this set of elections, see my latest here (using demographic info from the NYT) substack.com/@kimlanelaw/...

Kim Lane Scheppele (@kimlanelaw)

First, everyone who cares about democracy, constitutionalism and rule of law should take at least a day to be grateful that so much of the American public believes in these things too.    This was a r...

substack.com

The fact they have not done the latter (yet) is not a sign of their lack of authoritarianism but a lack of belief that it would work. The fact that the GDR did not use mass violent repression in 1989 was not a sign that people overestimated the authoritarianism of this regime.

AJPS has introduced a new submission cap policy, effective today. Under the new policy, individuals may submit up to three manuscripts as an author or co-author in a 12-month period, with an option to request a waiver for a fourth submission. Read more: ajps.org/2026/11/04/n...

New AJPS Submission Cap Policy

Artificial intelligence (AI) has made many tasks associated with writing a paper –  including assembling a literature review, scraping and cleaning online data, designing an empirical model, analyz…

ajps.org

💯

Florian Foos@florianfoos.bsky.social · 9h ago

While we celebrate, this might be a moment to reflect on what political scientists didn’t see coming: I don’t think most comparativists (myself included) saw the scale of rejection of authoritarianism in Hungary, Serbia and the US Midterms coming, only a few months ago. I’ll start with some points:

39% of voters mention the economy, 32% the state of democracy, and all night NBC News only talks about the economy, not democracy 🤷‍♂️...

Shout out to Elon Musk for heroically disproving the thesis that billionaires deserve disproportionate political power because of their unparalleled capital allocation skills. Musk moved his businesses to Texas to escape the Democrats and dropped half a billion to make sure it stayed red. LMAO

by winning Democrats are actually losing

Sorry, friends of PR, but I just need 5 minutes of US tv stations midterms coverage with all these maps, key race alerts, magic walls and FPTP has won me all over again. You cannot tell me any electoral system is more exciting than that! #midterms2026

🚨 You may want to read this before Trump starts posting about the election results 🚨 We know that citizens heavily base their views on what their favored politicians say. In a new paper in @psrm.bsky.social, @turnbulldugarte.com, @danjdevine.bsky.social, @owenwntr.bsky.social, 🧵1/8

Has anyone recently done social desirability bias corrected vote choice polling among US electorate? Do we know there are not more shy MAGA people than in 2024? Genuinely interested, since I am wondering how much we can trust the polls.

Poland in 2026. A house divided. In 2023, PIS government lost power after 8 years. Eight years of changes which if called controversial would be an understatement, encompassing all areas of life. One of them is the chief of Constitutional Order - the Constitutional Tribunal. 🧵

Vollkommen richtig! Es wäre das Gebot der Stunde, die Säulen unseres demokratischen Rechtsstaats resilienter aufzustellen.

Die Normalisierung des Klimawandels: Wenn die Temperaturen mal wie früher jahreszeitlich typisch sind, wird das als krisenhaftes Ereignis dargestellt 🤦‍♂️ und leider auch oft wahrgenommen 😩

Jörg@realkachelmann.bsky.social · 6d ago

#bild lügt. Kein Computermodell zeigt einen signifikanten Kälteeinbruch oder "Polarhammer" in 12 Tagen. kachelmannwetter.com/de/vorhersag...

Political science forecasting models expect clear Democratic House control but are mixed on Senate outcomes: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Vučić accepted defeat ✊ Now it's Brazil's turn here we go

Serbia is dealing Putin the next defeat in a series of defeats in Eastern Europe recently. Western Europe should not start undoing this in 2027. Don’t hand the Kremlin a lifeline.

Mujtaba Rahman@mijrahman.bsky.social · last wk.

Vučić’s defeat could mark a geopolitical turning point for Serbia. It could also inject fresh momentum into EU enlargement across the W. Balkans, where progress has stalled for years. A Serbia firmly anchored in Europe would transform the region’s outlook and significantly weaken Russia’s influence

It’s official: Serbia joins Poland and Hungary in voting out an authoritarian leader. Vučić has conceded defeat. According to preliminary results, the student list wins an absolute majority with 52.3% of the vote, while SNS trails at 39% (source: CeSID). STUDENTI POBEĐUJU!

Very happy to see our paper with @clandwehr.bsky.social in Political Behavior! doi.org/10.1007/s111... We ask: Do beliefs about what the public wants shape whether citizens see political decisions as legitimate? Such beliefs are often wrong and biased—which could distort legitimacy perceptions.

Generic ballot polls currently imply a gain in the Democrats' 2-party vote share (from the prior election) slightly above the post-Watergate election & not seen since 1948 (& comparable to 1966 & 1994 for Republicans, but not 2010)

Vor den US-Midterms gibt es so viele Umfragen wie noch nie. Nicht alle sind echt. Ein angebliches „Umfrageinstitut“ wurde jetzt als Fake enttarnt. Angeblich ein „Sozialexperiment“, um zu testen, wie leicht sich Medien - auch die NYT - täuschen lassen. Dafür wurde allerdings ziemlich viel gelogen.

FiftyPlusOne just caught a pollster faking data — and they copped to it

In response to a request for comment on a FiftyPlusOne investigation, Wedgewood Polls admitted their data was bogus

blog.fiftyplusone.news

Ein Pass, der passt! Staatsbürgerschaft für hier geborene Kinder orf.at/stories/3445...

Initiative will Staatsbürgerschaft für in Österreich Geborene

orf.at

🇦🇹 Government cuts university budget by 10% in real terms — way above average cuts across portfolios. This will hit us hard. It will make teaching at 🇦🇹 universities even harder. It will likely stop our climb in research 🔬 performance & rankings during last years. www.derstandard.at/story/300000...

Uni-Budget sinkt real um rund zehn Prozent, steuerfreies Depot für Kinder startet Mitte 2027

Das Budget der Unis sinkt auch nominell leicht auf knapp 16 Milliarden. Kinder, die ab Jänner 2027 geboren werden, bekommen vom Staat ein Startguthaben von 500 Euro

derstandard.at

-10% Budget für 🇦🇹 Unis. Bitte dann nicht wundern wenn: - Stellen für den Nachwuchs ausbleiben - Lehre unter Zeit- & Personalmangel leidet - Abschlusszahlen sinken - Forschungsleistung einbricht - EU-Projekte nicht gewonnen werden - 🇦🇹 Unis in Rankings absteigen www.derstandard.at/story/300000...

Einigungen der Regierung: Zukunftsdepot, knapp 16 Milliarden Euro für Unis, 50 Millionen Euro für Medien

Die Regierungsspitze von ÖVP, SPÖ und Neos hat seit dem Vormittag im Bundeskanzleramt verhandelt und präsentierte am Abend ihre Ergebnisse

derstandard.at

Seit fast einem Monat sind wir auf Bluesky. Die mindestens 250 den Gerichten fehlenden Planstellen werden bis zum Ende der Woche nicht kommen. Aber vielleicht schaffen wir in der #aktionswoche 250 zusätzliche Follower? Wir starten bei 293. #followerpower

Der EU-Mythos über die vielen Bürokrat*innen in Brüssel geht in Runde #3452.

Ruprecht Polenz@polenz.bsky.social · 3w ago

Zum Vergleich: Allein die bayerische Landesverwaltung hat einen Umfang von 90.780 Stellen - ohne Lehrer, Polizei, Finanzverwaltung. (Stellenstatistik des Bayerischen Obersten Rechnungshofs für 2023)

Zum Vergleich: Allein die bayerische Landesverwaltung hat einen Umfang von 90.780 Stellen - ohne Lehrer, Polizei, Finanzverwaltung. (Stellenstatistik des Bayerischen Obersten Rechnungshofs für 2023)

Wiedervorlage.

Vassili Golod@golod.bsky.social · 2y ago

Ich habe noch nie einen US-Präsidenten gesehen, der den Staatspräsidenten eines anderen Landes so respektlos behandelt. Donald Trump ist seines Amtes unwürdig – und unsere Welt in großer Gefahr. Wir erleben eine Zeitenwende in dunkle Zeiten.

🚨New Paper in @polbehavior.bsky.social! Julia Leschke and I ask: What works against populist rhetoric? We find: Advocating for pluralist ideals can mitigate the negative effects of populist rhetoric. link.springer.com/article/10.1... More details below ⏬

20% mass reduction in 5 (!!!) years! Frightening things happening on our planet.

The Washington Post@washingtonpost.com · last mo.

Switzerland’s iconic glaciers lost an enormous amount of ice in 2026, a new report shows, signaling an ongoing rapid meltdown driven by climate change that has astonished scientists. About 20 percent of glacial ice in Switzerland has vanished since 2021. https://wapo.st/4z8ztEI

Our School of Politics and International Relations at @ucddublin.bsky.social is hiring two permanent (!) Assistant Professors in any field of political science, international relations, political theory, or development. Deadline: 9 November Start date: 30 August 2027 my.corehr.com/pls/coreport...