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Xavier Marquez

@marquezxavier.bsky.social
1.3K followers 460 following 48 posts

Associate Professor in Political Science at Victoria University of Wellington | Author of "Non-Democratic Politics: Authoritarianism, Dictatorship, and Democratization"

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Xavier Marquez @marquezxavier.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
My "Mechanisms of Personalization" is now fully published with an issue and volume number! www.tandfonline.com/eprint/V8C8T...
tandfonline.com
The mechanisms of personalization
This article draws on Max Weber’s account of legitimate authority to argue that there are three key mechanisms that drive the personalization of power in political regimes: the mobilization of char...
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Xavier Marquez @marquezxavier.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
Hey Geoff! Hope you're doing well.
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Xavier Marquez @marquezxavier.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
I sent an email but they never replied. Possibly they don't want me to make it part of this package.
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Xavier Marquez @marquezxavier.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
ICYMI - new version of democracyData #Rstats.
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Xavier Marquez @marquezxavier.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
New version of my R package {democracyData} available: github.com/xmarquez/dem...
github.com
GitHub - xmarquez/democracyData: Access and manipulate most standard scholarly measures of democracy
Access and manipulate most standard scholarly measures of democracy - xmarquez/democracyData
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Xavier Marquez @marquezxavier.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
Oh, and @svmiller.com !
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Xavier Marquez @marquezxavier.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
Also @professormusgrave.bsky.social
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Xavier Marquez @marquezxavier.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
Of possible interest to @joenoonan.se @seraphinemaerz.bsky.social @danpemstein.com @tompepinsky.com @adamprz.bsky.social @skaaning.bsky.social @chknutsen.bsky.social @raulpachecovega.bsky.social
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Xavier Marquez @marquezxavier.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
Possibly also worth noting that @freedomhouse.bsky.social no longer makes available a public-facing download of their latest Freedom in the World data so this version of democracyData only archives the 2025 release.
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Xavier Marquez @marquezxavier.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
For all your democracy data needs! Check it out: xmarquez.github.io/democracyData/
xmarquez.github.io
Access and Manipulate Most Available Democracy Datasets
Archives a large number of democracy datasets, many of historical interest. It also provides a number of functions to download these datasets (where available) and determine membership of a country in...
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Xavier Marquez @marquezxavier.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
It also includes various bug fixes, new tests, and documentation updates, many substantially made possible by Codex and Claude Code. Full changelog xmarquez.github.io/democracyDat...
xmarquez.github.io
Changelog
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Xavier Marquez @marquezxavier.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
Includes extracts from the latest version of VDem (v. 16), the new Bertelsmann Transformation index 2026, EIU 2026, Bjørnskov-Rode v6.2, LIED v. 6.9, the latest update from the World Bank's World Governance Indicators Voice and Accountability index, Anckar v. 3.0
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Xavier Marquez @marquezxavier.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
New version of my R package {democracyData} available: github.com/xmarquez/dem...
github.com
GitHub - xmarquez/democracyData: Access and manipulate most standard scholarly measures of democracy
Access and manipulate most standard scholarly measures of democracy - xmarquez/democracyData
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Liberal Currents @liberalcurrents.com · 30/01/2026
Neon Liberalism #62: Samantha and guest Professor Xavier Márquez talk the nature of non-democratic politics, and why the concept of "personalism" is the key to understanding the dynamics and dysfunctions of the second Trump administration. www.liberalcurrents.com/neon-liberal...
liberalcurrents.com
Neon Liberalism #61: What is Personalism?
Samantha and guest Professor Xavier Márquez talk the nature of non-democratic politics, and why the concept of "personalism" is the key to understanding the dynamics and dysfunctions of the second Tru...
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Liberal Currents @liberalcurrents.com · 03/01/2026
Read @adamgurri.liberalcurrents.com applying @marquezxavier.bsky.social’s insights to Trump, published in December 2024 www.liberalcurrents.com/americas-pat...
liberalcurrents.com
America's Paths to Personalism
The three primary risk vectors of the second Trump administration.
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Adam Gurri @adamgurri.liberalcurrents.com · 30/01/2026
You are required to listen to this @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com interview of @marquezxavier.bsky.social, the Liberal Currents High Council has issued the order, you cannot understand our Party Line without doing so.
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Xavier Marquez @marquezxavier.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
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
xmarquez.github.io
Access and Manipulate Most Available Democracy Datasets
Archives a large number of democracy datasets, many of historical interest. It also provides a number of functions to download these datasets (where available) and determine membership of a country in...
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Xavier Marquez @marquezxavier.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
Also tagging @seraphinemaerz.bsky.social @adamprz.bsky.social in case it's of interest
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Xavier Marquez @marquezxavier.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
Had procrastinated updating this for like 2 years. But it is now up to date and it fixes several bugs and adds new data, including the Varieties of Political Regimes dataset by Steffen Kailitz
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Xavier Marquez @marquezxavier.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
Of potential interest to @skaaning.bsky.social (LIED v. 6.8 is there), @svmiller.com @joenoonan.se @chknutsen.bsky.social
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Xavier Marquez @marquezxavier.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
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
xmarquez.github.io
Access and Manipulate Most Available Democracy Datasets
Archives a large number of democracy datasets, many of historical interest. It also provides a number of functions to download these datasets (where available) and determine membership of a country in...
31512
Reposted by Xavier Marquez
Henry Farrell @himself.bsky.social · 27/08/2025
"how do you show your loyalty? By paying the costs of humiliation. The more grotesquely over the top your praise, the more credible it is as a signal of support for Dear Leader." www.programmablemutter.com/p/short-post...
Repulsive AI art of Donald Trump and Jesus
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Xavier Marquez @marquezxavier.bsky.social · 26/07/2025
I've written a couple of papers: www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1... and openaccess.wgtn.ac.nz/articles/cha...
tandfonline.com
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Digressionsimpressions @nescio13.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
On the Political Roots of Academic Freedom open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
open.substack.com
On the Political Roots of Academic Freedom
It is a fine convention to treat the University of Bologna as the first, degree-granting university in the modern sense that has stayed in continuous operation (see, for example, Wikipedia).
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Xavier Marquez @marquezxavier.bsky.social · 08/04/2025
Thanks! Glad it's useful
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Adam Gurri @adamgurri.liberalcurrents.com · 06/03/2025
To @jonrauch.bsky.social, @jeffkopstein.bsky.social, and @frankfukuyama.bsky.social, I say: not *just* patrimonialism, but all the facets of personalism (drawing on @marquezxavier.bsky.social) www.liberalcurrents.com/americas-pat...
liberalcurrents.com
America's Paths to Personalism
The three primary risk vectors of the second Trump administration.
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Reposted by Xavier Marquez
Adam Przeworski @adamprz.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
I am keeping a diary of daily events, as they unfold open.substack.com/pub/adamprze... It is available to everyone. I am new to Substack, so please let me know if something is wrong with the link or the file.
open.substack.com
Diary
Week 1
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Henry Farrell @himself.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
Everyone needs to know @marquezxavier.bsky.social theory of 'flattery inflation' (short version here - abandonedfootnotes.blogspot.com/2011/12/flat..., academic version papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.... )
abandonedfootnotes.blogspot.com
Flattery Inflation
Reading Aloys Winterling’s entertaining revisionist biography of Caligula (which combines my interests in crazy dictatorships and the class...
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Xavier Marquez @marquezxavier.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
Sounds like a bug - either with your keyboard/touchpad (sending unintended scrolling signals) or perhaps something with Chrome (update and restart to see if it helps?) Sorry!
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Xavier Marquez @marquezxavier.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
downarrow on the top left should show you all your tabs, with the latest thing you opened listed at the top. It should not autoscroll - maybe some other issue is causing the scrolling behaviour?
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Adam Gurri @adamgurri.liberalcurrents.com · 05/02/2025
Two books I recommend right now: -Non-Democratic Politics by @marquezxavier.bsky.social -Waging a Good War by Thomas E. Ricks I am following the daily coverage though. I try to focus on coverage that talks in detail about what specific things they are doing vs simply repeating what they're saying
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Adam Gurri @adamgurri.liberalcurrents.com · 02/02/2025
“These regimes are characterized by high levels of de-institutionalization, where formal authority is no longer a good guide to the location of power.” - @marquezxavier.bsky.social on patrimonial regimes, in “The Mechanisms of Personalization” www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
tandfonline.com
The mechanisms of personalization
This article draws on Max Weber’s account of legitimate authority to argue that there are three key mechanisms that drive the personalization of power in political regimes: the mobilization of char...
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Xavier Marquez @marquezxavier.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
This is now officially published open access!
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Cambridge University Press Political Science & IR @cambup-polsci.cambridge.org · 27/01/2025
#OpenAccess from The Review of Politics - Ancient Tyranny and Modern Dictatorship - cup.org/4hxkLyk - @marquezxavier.bsky.social
Logo of "The Review of Politics" featuring the journal's name in white text on a blue and yellow background, with the hashtag #OpenAccess displayed at the bottom.
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Xavier Marquez @marquezxavier.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
And now this is actually officially out, over a year later, open access here: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
cambridge.org
Ancient Tyranny and Modern Dictatorship | The Review of Politics | Cambridge Core
Ancient Tyranny and Modern Dictatorship
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Adam Gurri @adamgurri.liberalcurrents.com · 05/12/2024
Trump’s threats and actions are not subtle but per @marquezxavier.bsky.social we can treat the authoritarian threat component distinctly from the risk of expanding his personal power in office, the most proximate risk right now www.liberalcurrents.com/americas-pat...
As the political scientist Xavier Márquez explains in his recent paper on the topic:
“The personalization of power is the process through which the relative authority of the ruler and the political elite, and hence the relationships of “horizontal” accountability between them, shifts in favour of the ruler. This process is conceptually distinct from autocratization, the loss of “vertical” accountability that results in ruling elites becoming less accountable to the populations over which they rule.”
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Adam Gurri @adamgurri.liberalcurrents.com · 05/12/2024
Today I draw on @marquezxavier.bsky.social’s recent work on how individuals can turn political systems into systems of personal rule. It provides valuable lens for understanding how Trump operates.
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Xavier Marquez @marquezxavier.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
You may be looking for something more specific....
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Xavier Marquez @marquezxavier.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
Not sure! Levitsky and Way have a long and informative chapter on Cuba in their book "Revolution and Dictatorship" (press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...) and Andreas Schedler has some cool papers about leadership transitions in Cuba (www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....), but...
press.princeton.edu
Revolution and Dictatorship
Why the world’s most resilient dictatorships are products of violent revolution
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Xavier Marquez @marquezxavier.bsky.social · 14/11/2024
And now the paper is officially published, free eprint here: www.tandfonline.com/eprint/V8C8T...
tandfonline.com
The mechanisms of personalization
This article draws on Max Weber’s account of legitimate authority to argue that there are three key mechanisms that drive the personalization of power in political regimes: the mobilization of char...
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Reposted by Xavier Marquez
Henry Farrell @himself.bsky.social · 17/11/2024
Pairs with www.programmablemutter.com/p/how-chaoti...
programmablemutter.com
How chaotic is Trump II going to be?
It matters whether you think his approach is transactional or personalist
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Xavier Marquez @marquezxavier.bsky.social · 17/11/2024
I agree, great stuff! I've been thinking further about personalism here: www.tandfonline.com/eprint/V8C8T...
tandfonline.com
The mechanisms of personalization
This article draws on Max Weber’s account of legitimate authority to argue that there are three key mechanisms that drive the personalization of power in political regimes: the mobilization of char...
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Xavier Marquez @marquezxavier.bsky.social · 14/11/2024
And now the paper is officially published, free eprint here: www.tandfonline.com/eprint/V8C8T...
tandfonline.com
The mechanisms of personalization
This article draws on Max Weber’s account of legitimate authority to argue that there are three key mechanisms that drive the personalization of power in political regimes: the mobilization of char...
377
Reposted by Xavier Marquez
Xavier Marquez @marquezxavier.bsky.social · 03/11/2024
New paper! "The Mechanisms of Personalization", forthcoming in Democratization. #polisky #dictatorsky papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
papers.ssrn.com
The Mechanisms of Personalization
This paper draws on Max Weber's account of legitimate authority to argue that there are three key mechanisms that drive the personalization of power in politica
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Xavier Marquez @marquezxavier.bsky.social · 03/11/2024
I'm happy about how this one came out. It attempts to track how different forms of authority can be leveraged to undermine or amplify other forms of authority and personalize power.
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Xavier Marquez @marquezxavier.bsky.social · 03/11/2024
New paper! "The Mechanisms of Personalization", forthcoming in Democratization. #polisky #dictatorsky papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
papers.ssrn.com
The Mechanisms of Personalization
This paper draws on Max Weber's account of legitimate authority to argue that there are three key mechanisms that drive the personalization of power in politica
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Xavier Marquez @marquezxavier.bsky.social · 14/02/2024
polisky
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Xavier Marquez @marquezxavier.bsky.social · 14/02/2024
This paper is now officially out, open access here journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
journals.sagepub.com
Max Weber, demagogy and charismatic representation - Xavier Márquez, 2024
Political thought has long identified demagogic leadership as one of the key pathologies of democracy. Unusually among political thinkers, Max Weber not only ac...
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Xavier Marquez @marquezxavier.bsky.social · 13/01/2024
New paper! "Max Weber, Demagogy, and Political Representation" , now accepted at the European Journal of Political Theory (on my birthday!) ssrn.com/abstract=469... Polisky
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Xavier Marquez @marquezxavier.bsky.social · 13/01/2024
Much more in the paper!
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