New public pre-print with @aarslew.bsky.social and Martin Bisgaard 🧵 We introduce a perspective on democratic erosion that focuses on quiet anticipation among political elites: what do they think happens to those who cross a strongman that challenges democracy? www.researchgate.net/publication/...

(PDF) The Imagined Strongman: How Elites Anticipate the Cost of Opposing Trump

PDF | What happens to politicians who speak up against a strongman that challenges democracy? Political scientists typically answer this question using... | Find, read and cite all the research you ne...

researchgate.net

Come join us in Aarhus at one of Europe’s largest and highest ranking departments of political science. Positions as assistant and associate professors are vacant. Assistant Professor: international.au.dk/about/profil... Associate Professor: international.au.dk/about/profil...

The Myth of Authoritarian Efficiency. Article published with Jørgen Møller in Persuasion. www.persuasion.community/p/the-myth-o...

The Myth of Authoritarian Efficiency

When it comes to getting stuff done, democracies win every time.

persuasion.community

Meget læseværdig 👇 Historien kan være et anker for at spejle os i. Og bruges tit "historiy doesn't but rhymes" etc. Her om hvordan vi i dag alligevel står anderledes end i mellemkrigstiden, hvor den generelle frygt i den sammenligning er et demokratisk kollaps og potentielt verdenskrig.

Svend-Erik Skaaning@skaaning.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Article published in Persuasion: No, We’re Not Reliving the 1930s. History shows us that there’s reason for hope. www.persuasion.community/p/no-were-no...

Article published in Persuasion: No, We’re Not Reliving the 1930s. History shows us that there’s reason for hope. www.persuasion.community/p/no-were-no...

No, We’re Not Reliving the 1930s

History shows us that there’s reason for hope.

persuasion.community

IN NEW ISSUE: How do different forms of state capacity protect democracy? D Andersen, @chknutsen.bsky.social & @skaaning.bsky.social argue coercive & administrative capacity affect stability in distinct ways depending on threat: buff.ly/XP4pinB @polstudiesassoc.bsky.social #polsci #polsky

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

buff.ly

New book on democracy. #OpenAccess Seven Myths about Democracy by Jørgen Møller & Svend-Erik Skaaning, Routledge taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-mon.... Challenges (full or partial) misunderstandings about the meaning, trajectory, causes, and consequences of democracy.

Seven Myths about Democracy | Jørgen Møller, Svend-Erik Skaaning | Tay

This timely book challenges seven widespread misconceptions about democracy that continue to shape public and academic debates about its past, present, and

taylorfrancis.com

New version of my R package {democracyData} available: github.com/xmarquez/dem...

GitHub - xmarquez/democracyData: Access and manipulate most standard scholarly measures of democracy

Access and manipulate most standard scholarly measures of democracy - xmarquez/democracyData

github.com

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...

Three 2-year Postdoctoral positions at Aarhus University: Projects on personality cults and strategic communication in autocracies - Vacancy at Aarhus University

Vacancy at Department of Political Science, Aarhus University

international.au.dk

At #STOA’s High-Level Conference on #EP4AcademicFreedom on 4/3, policymakers, researchers et al. discussed measures to safeguard scientific independence & #democracy With @president.europarl.europa.eu, Commissioner Zaharieva, MEP Ehler & Prof @skaaning.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Zr2...

Academic Freedom in Europe: safeguarding democracy, science and innovation

YouTube video by MySTOA

youtube.com

A 🧵on how the @vdeminstitute.bsky.social accountability indices help us understand how democratic backsliding is occurring in the United States. tl;dr: in principle, vertical constraints on the president remain strong; in practice, horizontal and diagonal constraints have been greatly weakened.

This post raises a several important questions about the @vdeminstitute.bsky.social indices that I'll try to discuss broadly, then specifically in the case of Mongolia. Important caveat: I am not a Mongolia expert, so can't speak substantively about the case; I can discuss the V-Dem methodology.

Mongolia Focus@mongoliafocus.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Notable uptick across all democracy indices with @vdeminstitute.bsky.social for #Mongolia. Had been puzzled by steady declines (see mongoliafocus.com/2025/12/self... for implications), now I fail to be able to point to any factor in past 18 months that should lead to improvement. #vdem

📢 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 1/3

The V-Dem Steering Committee's release statement for v.16 of the dataset (link in the post below):

V-Dem Institute@vdeminstitute.bsky.social · 5mo ago

V-Dem Dataset v16 is out! The dataset includes several hundred indicators along with five indices that measure a country’s overall degree of democracy, according to different definitions of democracy. V-Dem Steering Committee comments on the new data and U.S. ratings: v-dem.net/release-stat... 1(2)

In the run-up to Wednesday's high-level #EP4AcademicFreedom conference: 👉Interview with academic keynote speaker Prof @skaaning.bsky.social of @aarhusuniint.bsky.social on #Democracy & #AcademicFreedom: wp.me/panTdn-4vZ #ESMH @ep-eprs.bsky.social @linagalvez.eu @eua.eu @guildeu.bsky.social

How do different forms of state capacity protect democracy? D Andersen, @chknutsen.bsky.social & @skaaning.bsky.social argue coercive & administrative capacity affect stability in distinct ways depending on threat: buff.ly/6lpO8S3 @polstudiesassoc.bsky.social @uoypolitics.bsky.social @sagepub.com

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

buff.ly

Joint work with the brilliant @kristianvsf.bsky.social @sirianned.bsky.social @aykutozturk.bsky.social Open access article here 👇 www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Our 32-country conjoint study on which societal characteristics citizens prioritize is now published at @bjpols.bsky.social w. excellent @anjaneundorf.bsky.social @sirianned.bsky.social @aykutozturk.bsky.social

British Journal of Political Science@bjpols.bsky.social · 8mo ago

NEW - Elections Without Constraints? The Appeal of Electoral Autocracy Across the World - https://cup.org/49auQPf - @anjaneundorf.bsky.social, @sirianned.bsky.social, Kristian Vrede Skaaning Frederiksen & @aykutozturk.bsky.social #OpenAccess

🚨 3-Year Postdoc in Political Science at Aarhus University 🚨 I’m seeking to recruit a postdoc for my @erc.europa.eu research project 𝑬𝑸𝑼𝑰𝑳𝑰𝑩𝑹𝑰𝑼𝑴 on state-citizen interactions. Link and more information in second post. Position Start: Fall 2026 Application Deadline: ‼️ February 5, 2026, 23:59 CET ‼️

Does ethnopolitical exclusion cause civil war onset via grievances? In a new article, @lleipziger.bsky.social, Lasse Lykke Rørbæk, and I reassess this relationship based on 15 case studies. Six of the cases followed the grievance/mobilization/rejection pathway proposed by the general theory.

Cambridge University Press Political Science & IR@cambup-polsci.cambridge.org · 9mo ago

#OpenAccess from @poppublicsphere.bsky.social - Does Ethnopolitical Exclusion Cause Civil War Onset via Grievances? Evidence from 15 Case Studies - https://cup.org/4ozgHkU - @lleipziger.bsky.social, Lasse Lykke Rørbæk & @skaaning.bsky.social #FirstView

so well put

Fascinating paper by @grattonecon.bsky.social, @bartonelee2.bsky.social, and Hasin Yousaf! The paper addresses a fundamental question: Why do some democracies chronically avoid ambitious, long-term reforms even when they have decent institutions? They argue that what matters is not only

Happy to announce that I, together with @kristianvsf.bsky.social, have received DKK 3,167,689 from Independent Research Fund Denmark to pursue the project Democratic Tradeoff Perceptions (DEMTRAP). We will explore citizen perceptions of possible tradeoffs between democracy and effective governance.

New article out on the relationship between different dimensions of state capacity and modes of democratic breakdown.

Political Studies@polstudies.bsky.social · 10mo ago

How do different forms of state capacity protect democracy? D Andersen, @chknutsen.bsky.social & @skaaning.bsky.social argue coercive & administrative capacity affect stability in distinct ways depending on threat: buff.ly/2yUrCqu @polstudiesassoc.bsky.social @uoypolitics.bsky.social @sagepub.com

New version (0.6.0) of my #rstats package {democracyData} xmarquez.github.io/democracyData/ with @freedomhouse.bsky.social data to 2024, as well as several other sources, plus minor improvements all around

And another great potential read for graduate students on the measurement of "waves" of democratization and autocratization by @skaaning.bsky.social especially helpful for students thinking about periodization (including thinking about the contemporary "moment"). doi.org/10.1080/1351...

Waves of autocratization and democratization: a critical note on conceptualization and measurement

Huntington famously distinguished between waves of democratization and de-democratization. Based on an alternative conceptualization of waves of regime change and novel data on episodes of democrat...

doi.org

Lotem Halevy@lotemhalevy.bsky.social · 11mo ago

I just re-read Rueschemeyer et al. (1992, 13-26). Although old, this section is good at outlining the different approaches to the study of development and democracy. Useful for scholars who integrate historically accurate quantitative analysis with CHA. (Would put on a grad syllabus on democracy.)

🚨 Are you interested in Historical Political Economy? 🚨 At the Virtual Workshop in HPE (VWHPE)—organized jointly with @dkofanov.bsky.social & @tinepaulsen.bsky.social—we discuss state-of-the-art research on a regular basis. ‼️ We have just issued a new call for papers. ‼️ Link & info in post #2.

How do different forms of state capacity protect democracy? Andersen, @chknutsen.bsky.social & @skaaning.bsky.social argue coercive & administrative capacity affect stability in distinct ways depending on the threat: buff.ly/Q4HDylB @polstudiesassoc.bsky.social @uoypolitics.bsky.social @sagepub.com

How do different forms of state capacity protect democracy? D Andersen, @chknutsen.bsky.social & @skaaning.bsky.social argue coercive & administrative capacity affect stability in distinct ways depending on threat: buff.ly/Q4HDylB @polstudiesassoc.bsky.social @uoypolitics.bsky.social @sagepub.com

Happy to have been part this new publication on the relationship between different dimensions of state capacity and modes of democratic breakdown!

Carl Henrik Knutsen@chknutsen.bsky.social · last yr.

Does higher state capacity go together with lower risk of democratic breakdown? Many political scientists certainly believe so! Yet, in an article just published in @polstudies.bsky.social , David Andersen, @skaaning.bsky.social and I highlight important nuances to this general relationship.