“Candidates on closed lists don’t matter.” That piece of CW would struggle with a case of billboards being put up to call on a specific locally based candidate to withdraw his candidacy because the list he’s on might be a spoiler. www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_ent...

Candidate leaves Ofer Winter’s slate following pressure, fear of wasting votes

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timesofisrael.com

Polanski's excuse for not having voted on the "Zionism is Racism" motion appears to have been that he had to leave conference to go campaign in Holborn & St Pancras. But the Green Party explicitly offered an option allowing members to register to vote online. He could have voted from London.

After the Green Party's "Zionism is Racism" vote, the Leader of Haringey Council, controlled by the Greens, wrote to some Synagogues in the borough to "reassure" them. I want to show you Highgate Synagogue's reply. I believe it is worth reading in its entirety. www.jewishnews.co.uk/synagogue-re...

This article, published in November 2023, is still the best item I’ve read on its topic. Its paywall is temporarily down, and it should be absolutely mandatory reading for anyone even trying to grasp the conflict in a rational manner. ideas.tikvah.org/mosaic/essay...

Ecstasy and Amnesia in the Gaza Strip

Three catastrophes, all marked by euphoria at the start and denial at the end, have shaped the Palestinian predicament. Has the fourth arrived, and is the same dynamic playing out?

ideas.tikvah.org

Some observations on the Brazilian results. (Image is a cool map at Wikipedia of the senate result) fruitsandvotes.wordpress.com/2026/10/07/b...

Brazil 2026, first round

On 4 October, Brazil held the first round of its presidential election, along with the election of its Chamber of Deputies and two thirds of the federal Senators (and also governors and assemblies …

fruitsandvotes.wordpress.com

Who could have predicted? Report: Palestinian parliamentary election expected to be postponed www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_ent...

Report: Palestinian parliamentary election expected to be postponed

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timesofisrael.com

In all my years in the profession I never received emails out of the blue from people asking me to engage in a phone or video chat about their PhD proposals. I’ve received two in recent weeks. Is this a thing? (These don’t even claim to be potential applicants to UCD.)

My current thinking on where the Israeli polls and possible government formation outcomes stand. A lot of you won’t like this, but I’m just the messenger! And there is still time for (likely small but potentially significant) shifts before voting. fruitsandvotes.wordpress.com/2026/09/28/i...

Israel campaign with a month to go

There continues to be little evidence that either bloc can form a majority coalition, and the parliamentary math needed to allow the opposition to form a minority government with the support of Ra&…

fruitsandvotes.wordpress.com

How common is access to data on who has voted throughout an election day? The recent ruling against such access in Israel prompts this question. fruitsandvotes.wordpress.com/2026/09/17/a...

Availability of voter data on election day

The High Court of Israel today ruled that parties could not use real-time voter data on election day. I wonder how common bans on this practice are in other democracies. Here in California, it is p…

fruitsandvotes.wordpress.com

Colonial habits die hard. This is blatant interference in the election. If it has any effect, it will likely be to strengthen the right. www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_ent...

UK official: Actions of next Israeli government may affect scope of settlement sanctions; Jerusalem’s countersteps ‘not constructive’

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timesofisrael.com

‘A dark day for British Jews’: Chief Rabbi condemns UK sanctions on West Bank settlements www.thejc.com/news/politic...

‘A dark day for British Jews’: Chief Rabbi condemns UK sanctions on West Bank settlements - The Jewish Chronicle

The JLC claimed the measures ‘does nothing to advance peace, risks harming Jewish life in Britain, and damages the UK's relationship with a vital ally’

thejc.com

Perhaps the Chief Rabbi understands the threats Jews face better than Miliband does. “Asked about Jews who will feel less safe in synagogue over Rosh Hashanah this weekend, Miliband, who is Jewish, responds: “I don’t go to synagogue.”” He doesn’t care. www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_ent...

UK’s Miliband calls Israeli response to sanctions ‘damaging,’ rejects chief rabbi’s claim that British Jews have been put in danger

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timesofisrael.com

I wrote up a guide to the Israeli process of allocating seats among electoral lists. I have found that most descriptions out there—especially the one on the Knesset page!—gloss over important details, or get things wrong. So here it is, step-by-step. fruitsandvotes.wordpress.com/2026/09/08/i...

Israel’s ‘Bader-Ofer’ method of allocating seats: Step by step

The Israeli method of seat allocation is essentially D’Hondt divisors for all lists that clear the threshold (currently 3.25% of votes). However, it is referred to in Israel as the Bader–Ofer…

fruitsandvotes.wordpress.com

Today I start teaching this excellent book once again in my Reforming U.S. Democracy class. @sltaylor.bsky.social, @laderafrutal.bsky.social, Lijphart, and Grofman, where's the second edition? @yalepress.bsky.social A Different Democracy share.google/lpYL95lSLUKy...

A Different Democracy

American democracy differs greatly from other democracies around the world. But is the American way more or less efficacious than comparable democracies in A...

share.google

Very pleased that this is out and that I got to make a small contribution to it. #AgClimAdapt

Legislative term limits are a terrible institutional reform that no jurisdiction should ever enact. We have mountains of data published in dozens if not hundreds of studies about what term limits have done where they've been enacted and there's not a single desirable outcome reported in any of them.

Riley Bruce@rileybruce.bsky.social · 2mo ago

What’s a thing from your area of expertise (or special interest) that you think it would behoove everyone else to know?

Overview of recent research on RCV in Maine. Not much here to support the claims of the pro-RCV advocates. electionlab.mit.edu/articles/eff...

I think this paper in part reproduces a measure of "intra-party unequal representation" found in "A unified approach to measuring unequal representation" doi.org/10.1007/s111... which very unfortunately is not cited

A unified approach to measuring unequal representation - Public Choice

The concept of unequal representation is commonly understood through the lenses of disproportionality and malapportionment, pertaining to inter-party and inter-district aspects, respectively. Popular indices used to measure such features are analyzed separately despite being mathematically identical. District-level wasted votes are not measured in terms of unequal representation, even though they can be conceptualized as intra-district unequal representation. A new component, intra-party unequal representation, which measures unequal representation across districts for voters who support each party, has not been considered to contribute to unequal representation. We propose a unified approach for measuring these components—disproportionality, malapportionment, wasted votes, and intra-party unequal representation—by using $${\alpha }$$ α -divergence. We show mathematically that the total of disproportionality and intra-party unequal representation equals that of malapportionment and wasted votes. We apply this approach to the Japanese political system and demonstrate the role of intra-party unequal representation in sustaining disproportionality in favor of the Liberal Democratic Party.

doi.org

British Journal of Political Science@bjpols.bsky.social · 3mo ago

NEW - Disproportionality in Geographic Representation - https://cup.org/4fLxlL5 - Orit Kedar, Yair Amitai & Gilad Hurvitz #OpenAccess

#AgClimAdapt How farmers in Germany are adapting to climate change. www.dw.com/en/germany-h...

Germany: How weather extremes impact local agriculture

Heat, drought, heavy rain and late frosts are taking a toll on German farmers. They increasingly respond with adapted varieties, new crops, modern breeding techniques and modified farming methods.

dw.com

Overnight, a masked bandit broke into our kitchen. Armed with opposable thumbs, he proceeded to sample everything on offer. I’d just visited the farmers market, so the menu was extensive. I can now share a highly specific peer-reviewed list of what this particular raider did & did not enjoy. 🧵

Raccoon's Evil Smile: 'Good, Good'

Alt: Raccoon's Evil Smile: 'Good, Good'

static.klipy.com

Italy is changing its electoral system (again): the fifth reform since 1993. I wrote for @laderafrutal.bsky.social's Fruits & Votes blog on how the new bonus-adjusted system works, why the government wants it, and its political implications. fruitsandvotes.wordpress.com/2026/07/27/i...

Italy is changing its electoral system (again)

Nicknamed the “Stabilicum” by the right-wing coalition government that introduced it, this would be the fifth major electoral reform in Italy since 1993.

fruitsandvotes.wordpress.com

There are good proposals for electoral system reform involving MMP and then there is Fiji’s proposal. fruitsandvotes.wordpress.com/2026/07/27/o...

OLPR vs. MMP in Fiji

When political scientists or election reform activists (at least in Anglo countries) think about electoral systems that they argue have good normative outcomes, the debate often comes down to eithe…

fruitsandvotes.wordpress.com

Tortie. You can see that she has three paws with the typical tortoiseshell coloration and then seems to wear a black stocking on the other. That’s something I never noticed in the six years during which I was feeding her outside. She’s also in her very typical splayed front legs posture.

What is a vote of no confidence, really? A deductive approach and global perspective www.researchgate.net/publication/...

(PDF) What is a vote of no confidence, really? A deductive approach and global perspective

PDF | This research note explores the conditions under which political procedures for removing the prime minister and cabinet (1) cease to qualify as... | Find, read and cite all the research you need...

researchgate.net

It’s Tisha B’Av. I wrote the linked post two years ago but the themes persist. We get the absurd scenes of the police of the Jewish state arresting Jews for praying on the site of the Jewish temples, the destruction of which Jews mourn today. fruitsandvotes.wordpress.com/2025/08/03/t...

Tisha b’Av 5784 and the Temple Mount

In the question of whether Jews can visit the Temple Mount, we have a controversy that is significant within the orthodox Jewish world and within Israeli politics, let alone the controversy with re…

fruitsandvotes.wordpress.com

Good explainer, with comparative examples, of how the Knesset election recess is not the same as dissolution in the Westminster sense. en.idi.org.il/articles/651...

The Knesset’s Work During the Election Recess

Everything you need to know about what happens to the Knesset between the end of its summer session and the 2026 elections, scheduled for October 27, 2026.

en.idi.org.il

How far can we stretch this concept of “primary,” anyway? “Voting in the primary is limited to those in the party’s central committee rather than its full member rolls, and will not include a race for party leader” www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_ent...

Religious Zionism announces candidates for party’s primary

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timesofisrael.com

Good morning from Plainfield where TS Elida has sent us some nice clouds.

An important read, even if I suspect the main claim (globalization reduces the chances of parties fulfilling promises) is an artefact of increases in the effective number of parties

Cambridge University Press Political Science & IR@cambup-polsci.cambridge.org · 3mo ago

Promises Made, Promises Kept? by Christina J. Schneider and Robert Thomson. Reveals why campaign promises are broken in a globalized world, how parties adapt, and what this means for democracy’s future. 📚 https://cup.org/4gHuMvL

🗳️ Electoral Reform Alert 🗳️ Yesterday, the Italian Lower House approved a new electoral reform, now headed to the Senate. This would be the fifth major reform of the electoral system in Italy since 1993, and it could bring an even more radical right-wing party into the next government coalition. (1)