Anne Meng
@annemeng_
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Associate Prof of Politics @UVA . 👑 Authoritarian Politics & Democratic Erosion 📕 Author of Constraining Dictatorship
Richmond, VA
Joined March 2020
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Pinned Tweet
When I got home on Friday night my book had arrived! 😍 It was indescribably cool to hold it for the first time! 👑👑👑
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Hot Take: We have been experiencing the pains of DEMOCRATIZATION, not democratic BACKSLIDING. The US through most of its history was way closer to institutionalized autocracy rather than a real democracy.
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Whee!!🤸🏻♀️🤸🏻♀️🤸🏻♀️Just found out that I have been officially awarded TENURE!! 🤸🏻♀️🤸🏻♀️🤸🏻♀️ 1/
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🚨NEW PAPER ALERT!!
@anthlittle
and I are excited to share our new working paper “Subjective and Objective Measurement of Democratic Backsliding.” 🔥Our hot take🔥: Contrary to the current narrative, we DON’T find evidence that we are in a period of global democratic decline 🧵1/
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I found out yesterday that my book won the 2021 APSA Riker Prize for best book on political economy published in the past 3 years! Thank you so much to the award committee Frances Rosenbluth, Avi Acharya &
@laurenyoung231
whose work I admire so much!
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Early birthday present from my boyfriend, who listens very carefully when I talk about where I got my PhD
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I would argue that since 1965 we have come closer to *actually* becoming a democracy. As a result, now we’re getting violent pushback from elites and groups that were used to benefitting from the former authoritarian power structures. Democratization is hard.
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Holy shit I found out last night that my book made the 2021 Foreign Affairs Best Book list! 🤯🤯🤯
So much love to
@baggottcarter
&
@brett_l_carter
for emailing me otherwise I wouldn’t have known 😂 Check out the rest of the list here!
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🚨
@jackpaine_prof
& I are happy to share our draft Annual Review article on “Authoritarian Power Sharing” that we wrote with Bob Powell before he passed. Some big ideas are highlighted below, and comments are very welcome! 1/
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🚨My article with
@ArriolaLR
and Jed DeVaro “Democratic Subversion: Elite Cooptation and Opposition Fragmentation” has been accepted at the APSR! ⚡️Key findings and my thoughts on the connections between democratic erosion & autocratic stability below👇🏼/1
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Prior to 1965 we didn’t even meet the minimal requirement of universal suffrage. Elites used a system that they designed themselves to strike intra-elite bargains (sound familiar? 👑) and entrench their political and economic power. Sounds pretty authoritarian to me.
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I’m so psyched to announce that my book,
👑Constraining Dictatorship👑 is available for pre-order! It’s super cool and surreal to see it listed on Amazon! 😀👇🏼
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Yay it’s out! 🙂 My article with
@ArriolaLR
and Jed DeVaro, “Democratic Subversion: Elite Cooptation and Opposition Fragmentation” is now out on First View at the
@apsrjournal
👇🏼
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YAY!! IT’S OUT IT’S OUT!!!🤠🤠🤠 Available from CUP now, ships from Amazon on 8/31! 👑
Out Now: In CONSTRAINING DICTATORSHIP, Anne Meng
@PoliticsUVA
examines the emergence of constitutional rules & power-sharing in Africa to explain how some dictatorships become institutionalized systems.
Learn more:
#AuthoritarianPolitics
#AfricanPolitics
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Oh man I am so happy to share that my article 👑“Winning the Game of Thrones: Leadership Succession in Modern Autocracies” 👑 has won the Best Article Award from the African Politics Conference Group APSA section!! Thanks so much to the committee; this is a huge honor 🙂
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Bob put all of his game theory lecture notes online: Thanks
@anthlittle
for the heads up. He had been planning on writing a textbook. These notes are *excellent* and he was so good at explaining things simply and intuitively. He was also working on
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🤠 I’m so excited to share that next year I’ll be on leave and visiting in the Govt Dept at UT Austin as a Harrington Faculty Fellow! I love Austin, and I’m really grateful for the opportunity 🙂 I’m gonna eat so much BBQ that it’ll be bad for my health BBQ WILL BE CONSUMED🍗🍖
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Happy publication day,
@jackpaine_prof
!! Our article on power sharing and rebel regimes is finally out in the APSR! 🤠🤠🤠
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My article, “Winning the Game of Thrones: Leadership Succession in Modern Autocracies” is now out with JCR! 👑
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@jackpaine_prof
and I are happy to share that our article, "Authoritarian Power Sharing: Concepts, Mechanisms, and Strategies" (coauthored with Bob Powell) is now officially up at Annual Reviews!! 🤠 🧵1/
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I’m numb and so sad about the passing of my friend and mentor Bob Powell. It feels like the rug got pulled out from under us. Jack and I just Zoomed with him a few weeks ago. He had planned his favorite vacation to Maui next year. I wish we had more time. Bob first inspired me
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Oh hell yeah!! Congrats
@janetilewis
on winning the APSA African Politics Best Book prize!! 🔥 I love this book and definitely check it out if you haven’t already!! 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼
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This past year has been so lonely, there were days where I didn’t think I could make it. I joined Twitter last March and was really happy to discover that the PoliSciTwitter community is awesome and amazing. Thanks for being here! 💛 A silver lining I’m happy to take...
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@jackpaine_prof
and I are really excited to share that our paper “Power Sharing and Authoritarian Stability: How Rebel Regimes Solve the Guardianship Dilemma” is forthcoming in the
@apsrjournal
! 👑💥Here's a summary 🧵1/
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Got up at 5 AM this morning to drive from Arkansas to Austin. Now I’m eating BBQ on the floor of my new apartment. AUSTIN I HAVE ARRIVED! 🍗🤠
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Not to brag, but I ate 3 large sandwiches at today’s faculty meeting 😌 and also scored 3 bags of chips, a brownie, and a Rice Krispies treat
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⚡️GOOD NEWS!!⚡️We just found out that APSA Council approved Formal Theory to become an APSA Organized Section!
@anthlittle
@ryan_hubert
@AliCirone
@jwpatty
and I have been working on this for the past year and we’re so excited that it’s becoming a reality! 🤠 More to follow soon!
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I honestly have no idea whether I’m going to be able to attend APSA in person later this year, and I doubt I’ll have a good answer for them by *NEXT THURSDAY* lol. Anyone else feel this way?
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Hey my BJPS article on autocratic ruling parties is free right now! 👀
Enjoy free access for a limited period -
Ruling Parties in Authoritarian Regimes: Rethinking Institutional Strength -
-
@annemeng_
#FirstView
#BJPolS50
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This is a great thread! I personally don't think it makes sense to say that "China has a low level of democracy." We know from lots of work in the authoritarianism lit that when autocracies adopt semi-democratic institutions, it promotes autocratic durability. /1
Does it make sense to say that China has a low level of democracy?👇If Russia’s autocracy hardens, does that make the world less democratic? Or should we bring back the classic democracy vs dictatorship distinction, and only distinguish the level of democracy of democracies?🧵
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Yay! The new APSR is out! Including some really good shit from a bunch of awesome folks!🔥 Also our paper on opposition cooptation is officially out in this issue!! 🎁
The new issue of the APSR is now available online!
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Shoutout to my book! 😅
Finally,
@annemeng_
argued that the literature on trends in democracy should pay more attention to a key insight from the competitive authoritarianism literature: that seemingly democratic institutions may be used as tools of control and increase the durability of autocracies.
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Today I beat a Union Square chess man!!! I’m honestly terrible at the endgame, but I promoted the hell out of a pawn! Life achievement 🥲🏆
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🙋🏻♀️⚡️YO I’m doing an awesome book panel with
@ernugent
and
@brynrosenfeld
next Monday 2-3 pm EST!!⚡️ Come hang! 🙂 We’ll discuss the state of the field re: dictatorship & democratization, and think about where new research should go next! 👑📚
Zoom link:
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Tonight is my last night in Austin! We’re waking up early tomorrow morning to drive back to Virginia. I had a great time here, and it was awesome being a part of the dept at UT for the year. Thanks to everyone for your friendship! 🤠
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Yay! My BJPS article on autocratic ruling parties finally has a volume number! 🤠
The latest issue of
@BJPolS
is just stacked with great research on authoritarian politics; all of which I read ages ago 😁
Congratulations to
@annemeng_
@mbechseeberg
and
@mkmdem
on your articles.
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🚨🚨🚨
@jackpaine_prof
and I are excited to share our new working paper 💥”Rebel Regimes and Military Powersharing: Consequences of Conflict for Authoritarian Durability”💥 This was a fun one! Some *cool details* below:
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Hey everyone, the APSA Zoom links are buried DEEP in the conference portal. It takes a minute to find them - just wanted to give a heads up. 🚨The online program (that you can access w/o signing in) does NOT include Zoom links! 🧵 1/
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Aw hell yeah! 👑 “Winning the Game of Thrones: Leadership Succession in Modern Autocracies” is officially out, and it’s right next to
@baggottcarter
and
@brett_l_carter
‘s awesome article on Propaganda and Protest in Autocracies! 🔥 Check them both out!! 😎😎
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I’m so tired and sad. Thanks so much to everyone who’s reached out.
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OMG CHECK OUT MY GUINEA PIG, CHLOE! 🐹 I hope to turn her into a social media star✨
@annemeng_
's CONSTRAINING DICTATORSHIP 'refocuses the literature on authoritarian politics, moving beyond parties and legislatures to the nitty gritty of executive constraints.' Watch the video below for an introduction, featuring a special guest!
#APSA2020
#CUPPSAvids2020
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Our backsliding roundtable was recorded! You can check out the video below. Thanks again to our PS editors Justin and
@SiavelisPeter
for putting together such a great panel!
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I am so excited that "Measuring Democratic Backsliding" with
@anthlittle
is forthcoming as the lead article in a special issue of PS with an incredible group of scholars responding to our piece!
You can find our final draft here:
To register for the virtual component of the PS Roundtable on
#Democratic
#Backsliding
on September 2nd, please use this link:
@annemeng_
@anthlittle
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There are surprisingly few empirical studies that document systematically whether the global backsliding narrative is true. Also most studies rely on SUBJECTIVE indicators that use expert coder judgement. Since backsliding has become a hot topic, coder bias is a big concern! 2/
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Not only am I very excited to be visiting the dept at Vanderbilt tomorrow, I am EXTREMELY excited to be sleeping in this Dolly Parton throne bed tonight
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We survey other more OBJECTIVE indicators of democracy (e.g. electoral competitiveness, executive constraints, media freedom). TLDR: We find LITTLE EVIDENCE of global democratic decline over the last decade. The real story is global democratic STABILITY 🌎 Some fun graphs: 3/
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In a much needed moment of levity, CUP sent a copy of my own book to me for consideration of the book award committee I'm on 🙂 Submit your political economy books for the Riker prize by March 31! Me,
@monika_nalepa
, and Alex Debs would love to read your work!
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🚨 BOOK HAUL ALERT!! I got
@monika_nalepa
and
@feiyonah
’s new books in the mail, and they are EVEN MORE AMAZING IN PERSON! I had the privilege to see both projects develop, and they’re so incredibly good. Everyone go get these books! Like and subscribe!! Congrats y’all! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼🤌🏼
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My very talented boyfriend designed my book cover, and it was super fun to brainstorm different ways to convey something being “constrained”! Here are some alternate covers that he designed.
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It’s been a long and hard pandemic but I’m gonna be okay now because I finally did my hair
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I see my book! 🙋🏻♀️ I’m proud of you little book! Sorry I can’t be there in person! 📕👑
The
@CUP_PoliSci
booth is open for business! Stop by between 9-5 today, tomorrow, and Saturday during
#APSA2021
for 30% off all of our titles (and free shipping)!
We’re especially excited to be featuring our 2021 APSA Prize winners! Congrats to all 🎉
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My APSA Author Meets Critic panel is next Sat, Oct 2, 12 pm PST! W/ a rockstar panel of discussants Eddy Malesky,
@monika_nalepa
, &
@DanielNPosner
! We’ll find all the holes in my argument, talk about the state of the field, & where future research should go. Come join us!! ⚔️ 1/
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Hair is DONE and portrait mode is ON 😬 Feels great to bring the half and half back!! 💛🖤🤘🏼
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Man what a great APSA!! I got to hug so many old and new friends, and be inspired by so much new research. My heart is so full 😊See y’all at the next one!! ✌🏼
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Whenever anyone says “why don’t leaders coup-proof by appointing their family members to key positions?” my response is always “Have you seen autocratic families??” 😛
Bongo's daughter decided she didn't want to be arrested too. Congratulates Brice Nguema on overthrowing her father
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Taking a break from rage-liking Tweets to express my gratitude for
@dshyde
, Ernesto Dal Bo, and everyone who helped to organize Bob Powell’s memorial gathering in Berkeley this weekend.
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Veeeery reluctantly leaving Montreal! It was amazing to hug old friends and meet new friends at APSA this year! My heart is full and I’m feeling really inspired. Can’t wait for the next one!!! 🙋🏻♀️
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Thanks so much for coming, everyone!! It was a great discussion, and we appreciate it so much!
Great turnout and stimulating debate at the
@ps_polisci
round table on democratic backsliding
@APSAtweets
. This is an important debate following research by
@annemeng_
and
@anthlittle
.
#conferencehighlight
#apsa2023
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Our new piece (w/
@AndrejKokkonen
@sundellviz
& Jorgen Moller) on succession crises and House of the Dragon is out now!! 🐉👑 If you like succession problems, boy is this piece for you!! 😬
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Do incumbents continue to lose elections? Yes! We look at all legislative and executive elections worldwide 1980-2021 (left panel), and also separated by cases where the office of the incumbent leader was at stake (middle panel), and not at stake (right panel) 4/
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Thanks to everyone for a continued great discussion!
@anthlittle
& I really appreciate it. A few quick reactions: First, it struck me in, especially in reading this WP, that we all seem to AGREE that there is no clear evidence for global backsliding. 1/
A few months ago,
@anthlittle
&
@annemeng
's paper on democracy measurement and democratic backsliding caught a lot of attention:
Together with 9 colleagues from the V-Dem project, we engage with L&M’s argument and analysis in a new working paper. A🧵:
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I played chess with random people in the park today for the first time. I got smoked by this old guy named Steve. It was awesome.
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We haven’t slept in 5 days bc flying cockroaches keep attacking us at night 😭 The good news is that I’m a princess now!! 👸🏻🥰
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I think that this is a really important point. Consider how weak the existing evidence is, especially relative to what a strong argument is being made \1
Political science has become much more careful about when we can make strong claims from data, particularly causal claims. This scrutiny is one of the best things academics can contribute to public debates. In the case of backsliding, we have collectively failed on this front.
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❗️Our core contention is that if the world really is experiencing major backsliding in the AGGREGATE, we should see some evidence to this effect on objective measures (like incumbent leaders and their parties winning elections). But we do not. 16/
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In my recent article on autocratic leadership succession, I argue that the CONTENT of constitutional succession rules really matters- Pres of Nat Assembly rarely succeed in coming to power. We’re seeing this play out in the current succession crisis in Chad. THREAD 👉🏼
In the wake of President Deby's death, National Assembly President Haroum Kabadi should take over for 45-90 days before a new election. I doubt that will happen.
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I just want to point out that
@jackpaine_prof
managed to get TWO articles in the SAME issue of the APSR 😀😀 Happy double issue day, Jack! Congrats to everyone else as well!! 🥳
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The simpler explanation is that coders are being more HARSH now, potentially because they have much more information about recent democratic violations. Consistent with this explanation, backsliding has gotten SO MUCH MORE media & scholarly attention lately!📰📢 13/
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✨AWARD ANNOUNCEMENT!!✨ We have TWO winners for the inaugural Best Article Award of the new APSA
@FormalTheory
section!
🏆"Political scandal: a theory" (AJPS) by Wioletta Dziuda &
@ProfWillHowell
🏆 "A Little Bit of Cheap Talk Is a Dangerous Thing" (JOP) by
@m0joseph
1/
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👉Turnover is super useful to look at bc 1) Most agree it's an integral part of democracy 2) Winning power is the ENDGAME 3) Undemocratic actions (banning parties, controlling the media, etc) influence the prob of winning elections - EVEN the sneaky stuff that’s HARD TO CODE! 5/
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OKAY EVERYONE IT HAPPENED: After 30 back and forth emails, 40 days later, my $4 hotel Coke from APSA was SUCCESSFULLY EXPENSED! 🤸♂️
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⚔️Something
@jackpaine_prof
& I are particularly excited about is that this paper rethinks some big ideas about *revolutionary regimes.* 🧵 1/
@jackpaine_prof
and I are really excited to share that our paper “Power Sharing and Authoritarian Stability: How Rebel Regimes Solve the Guardianship Dilemma” is forthcoming in the
@apsrjournal
! 👑💥Here's a summary 🧵1/
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It’s been a long and hard pandemic being apart from friends, but this morning I finally got to hug
@jackpaine_prof
in the flesh. I am so soothed by his presence my eyes are closed and I have fallen asleep 🥲❤️
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I reviewed
@mkmdem
's new book, Shock to the System: Coups, Elections, and War on the Road to Democratization. Read it here
I love this book! It reframes democratization as a CONTINUATION of existing elite arrangements rather than a total system upheaval 1/
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I’m at the Dulles airport Hyatt eating Hot Cheetos in bed and watching the Food Network and I honestly might just stay here
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Only focusing on a handful of prominent backsliding cases can create misleading views about the resilience of democratic institutions. We hope that our focus on MEASUREMENT can help researchers and policymakers better target solutions 17/
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☝️BTW, for those only interested in DEMOCRACIES backsliding, the results look very similar when we separate by democracies and autocracies. In general, democracies have not been performing worse in recent years 10/
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Our Riker Book Prize winners!! 🏆 Congrats
@abwiedemann
and
@brynrosenfeld
!! It was super fun being on the committee with
@monika_nalepa
and Alex Debs!
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🐉 OKAY PEOPLE WE’RE EXCITED! 👑 A Monkey Cage piece on succession in House of the Dragon is in the works! 🤩 Thanks
@dadakim
for making the magic happen!!
Watching House of the Dragon tonight
HoD: uses election for succession
Me: 😱
HoD: uses agnatic seniority for succession
Me: 😱
HoD: designates successor
Me: 🥲
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TO BE CLEAR: We are NOT saying that backsliding is not happening anywhere. There are around 200 countries in the world, and there is usually backsliding going on SOMEWHERE. In fact, we probably should have been paying more attention to backsliding this WHOLE TIME 15/
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The top two graphs plot media reports on backsliding. Bottom LH graph plots NYT articles that include the terms “democratic backsliding or democratic erosion.” Bottom RH graph plots Google Scholar hits. After Trump got elected EVERYONE STARTED TALKING ABOUT BACKSLIDING 14/
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Open access right now! 🙂
From our new issue -
Ruling Parties in Authoritarian Regimes: Rethinking Institutional Strength -
-
@annemeng_
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We slice the data a bunch of different ways and also look at a ton of different election outcomes and process variables from NELDA and DPI (check out the paper linked below!). The picture does NOT change: incumbents continue to lose! 🗳️ 6/
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Democratic backsliding is an important problem and we SHOULD keep studying it! Thanks so much for reading! 🙋♀️🙋♂️Any feedback is appreciated, particularly from those who disagree or think we are missing something 18/
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Are incumbents constrained? Yes! LH graph plots the % of countries with constitutional constraints (term limits, succession, dismissal rules). And rates of term limit evasion have NOT increased recently (RH graph plots successful and unsuccessful TL evasion) 7/
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