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Sam Call @samcall.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

I have a student interested in populism in Spain, any data recommendations?

Reposted by Sam Call

V-Dem Institute @vdeminstitute.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

📢 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

Two map graphs show the state of liberal democracy according to the V-Dem Liberal Democracy index for 2025 and 2024. The higher the score (or darker blue), the more democratic the country. Lower scores (or dark red) mean less democratic. While North and South America, Western Europe and Oceania are mostly in the blue, most parts of Asia and Africa are in the red in 2025.
In comparison to the map for 2024, the map graph for 2025 shows democratic backsliding in some traditionally stable democracies in Western Europe and North America, in particular the USA, United Kingdom and Italy.

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Reposted by Sam Call

Kim Lane Scheppele @kimlanelaw.bsky.social · 18/05/2025

Women PIs held 34% of total active grants but 58% of the grants cancelled. The percentage of Hispanic or disabled PIs who lost grants was roughly twice their presence in the active grant pool. Black PIs held 17% of the canceled grants though only 4% of total grants. www.science.org/content/arti...

science.org

NSF’s grant cuts fall heaviest on scientists from underrepresented groups

Projects to broaden participation were cut disproportionately—and were often led by Black scientists, women, and those with disabilities

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Reposted by Sam Call

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 14/04/2025

Since the Trump admin continues to claim Mr. Abrego Garcia is a gang member, I thought I'd take the time to put together a timeline, based on all the documents filed in court, which lays out all the "evidence" the government has ever offered. As you'll find out, there's very little "there" there!

TIMELINE
ABREGO GARCIA GANG ALLEGATIONS - SEPARATING FACT FROM FICTION.

2011-2019: Entry and Early Life: Kilmar Abrego Garcia flees El Salvador to the US at age 16, after M-18 gang members extort his family and threaten to kill him and rape his sisters if they didn’t keep paying. He moves in with his US citizen brother in Maryland and lives there without trouble for years.

March 28, 2019: PGPD Arrest. Kilmar is arrested for loitering outside Home Depot while looking for day labor. A Prince Georges County PD detective grills him about whether he’s a gang member. He denies any involvement. Four hours later, he is transferred to ICE custody, without PGPD charging him for any offense.

April 2019: ICE Allegations: At a bond hearing, ICE claims Kilmar is part of MS-13. They submit one piece of evidence: a “Gang Field Interview Sheet” (GFIS) filled out by the PGPD detective that claims Kilmar is part of MS-13. The GFIS says (1) he was wearing Chicago Bulls gear, and (2) a “confidential informant” allegedly claimed that Kilmar was a ranking member of the “Westerns” clique, which is in Long Island, a place he has never lived in.

Summer 2019: Investigation: Kilmar’s lawyers reach out to PGPD to investigate these claims. They find out that (1) the police did not even file an incident report about his arrest, and (2) the detective that filled out the GFIS has been suspended for an unknown reason.

August 2019: IJ Decision: At his final bond hearing, ICE declines to offer any evidence of gang membership other than what’s in the GFIS. The IJ denies bond, finding that the GFIS is sufficient proof of membership at this time, despite noting its obvious flaws. Kilmar appeals this decision to the Board of Immigration Appeals.

October 2019: Withholding Win: The immigration judge rules that Kilmar is ineligible for asylum because he filed the application too late. But the judge does grant “withholding of removal,” finding that it was “more likely than not” that he would be subject to persecution if deported to El Salvador. A removal order is issued, but with a restriction that the one country he cannot be deported to is El Salvador.

December 2019: BIA Decision: Kilmar appeals the bond decision to the Board of Immigration Appeals. The appeals board declines to find “clear error” in the immigration judge’s decision to rely on the GFIS document. However, he is released anyway because he had won withholding of removal.

2019-2025: Normal Life: Kilmar lives a normal life in Maryland with his U.S. citizen wife, their biological son, and his two stepchildren. With his work permit, he gets a job as a sheet metal worker, joins a union, and raises his family in a DC suburb. He doesn’t get into any trouble with the law.

March 2025: Sent to CECOT: On March 12, 2025, ICE comes to Kilmar’s home and arrests him in front of his children. Three days later he’s transferred to Texas, where, thanks to an “administrative error,” he is put on a plane to El Salvador and sent to CECOT

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Reposted by Sam Call

Chapel Hill Expert Survey @chesdata.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

We are thrilled to anounce the release of the 2024 CHES-Europe at chesdata.eu/2024-chapel-.... As always, the data are freely available on the website. Thank you to the hundreds of experts who share their expertise to make these data possible!

chesdata.eu

2024 Chapel Hill Expert Survey (CHES) — Chapel Hill Expert Survey

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Sam Call @samcall.bsky.social · 15/10/2023

Hi polisky, I'm on the job market! I study Comparative and American Politics, and my dissertation is about the sequencing of events during episodes of democratic backsliding. I also have experience teaching across subfields! For more info, my website is samanthacall.com

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Reposted by Sam Call

Seth Jolly @sethkjolly.bsky.social · 14/09/2023

For anyone teaching European politics or parties, check out chesdata.shinyapps.io/Shiny-CHES/, which allows you to create quick bar graphs & scatterplots showing party positions. I have already used it a few times to talk about Euroskepticism, social left-right & green politics. Here's an example.

Scatterplot showing the curvilinear relationship between EU position (y-axis) and left-right ideology (x-axis) for European parties in 2019 using the CHES data.

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