My 2021 Oxford Academic book Making the World Safe for Dictatorship is now published as a paperback.

To celebrate I will put everyone who reposts this before March 20 into a random drawing & send the winner a free copy anywhere they happen to be in the world.

Highly reccomend applying next year!

The Polish election is the first instance of a backsliding government defeated having had completed two terms. Moreover, average income increased 31% during past 8 years. I did not expect it.

Yes, Hamas committed horrible, atrocious crimes, killing almost 1000 Israeli civilians. And yes, Hamas uses civilians as human shields. But some, perhaps most, Gazan civilians become human shields against their will. Nothing justifies this.

We are hiring research assistants! Please spread to interested students:)

sv.uio.no/isv/english/re…

Excited (and slightly nervous...) for my very first conference #ecprgc23 next week! I'll be presenting work on protests in defence of democracy in the panel 'Democratic backsliding and its opponents'. Please reach out for coffee and/or beer if you're around! @ecpr

Highly recommend!

Det norske demokratiet er velfungerende og robust. Men, det er ikke et idealdemokrati, og 100% trygge på at det står seg fremover kan vi ikke være:

Idag lanserer vi Tilstandsanalysen av det norske demokratiet på Arendalsuka

Sirianne Dahlum Tore Wig Elin Haugsgjerd Allern - @allernelin.bsky.social Martin Søyland Bjørn Erik Rasch

Thanks to Palina Kolvani and Ankita Barthwal for organizing an excellent workshop with PoliSci PhDs from both Universitetet i Oslo and Göteborgs universitet / University of Gothenburg! Great discussions in the seminar rooms and at the bars

Yet another extension of autocratic legalism in Israel. Institutional actors can be key for resisting democratic backsliding, and it seems this government fully recognizes that.

Several seats at Universitetet i Oslo International Summer School were left empty after Norwegian immigration authorities rejected visa applications.

The move 'undermines an independent and meaningful Norwegian development policy,' argues PRIO's Marte Nilsen.
blogs.prio.org/2023/07/who-sh…

Had the absolute best time at the summer school on electoral democracy in danger organized by Romain Lachat (@rlachat.bsky.social) Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme & ruth dassonneville @CERIUde at Sciences Po!

Third day of the CÉRIUM Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme summer school. Today with Natasha Wunsch presenting about democratic backsliding

Remember kids: it’s only a coup if it comes from the coup region of France. Otherwise it’s just sparkling insurrection

It took ten months for Wagner to take Bakhmut, but only a couple of hours to take Rostov.

In some sense, Putin really is the best ally China could hope for: at enormous personal cost, he’s demonstrated by example, time and again, exactly how not to manage geopolitical and military policy in a non-democratic regime. How many of your friends would do that for you?

Whatever happens next, I know one thing for sure:

Lots of people are going to use Rational Actor models to explain it.

Turkey’s election carries a global lesson: even the best opposition campaign cannot oust a dictator through the ballot box if he controls most media. The world’s democrats must find ways to counter dictators’ advantage with respect to people’s sources of news and entertainment.