iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Biff Parker-Magyar @biffpm.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Excited to see this! Comparing Egypt’s Muslim Brothers and Iraq’s Communist Party, Nasir Al Masri brings a focus on colonialism, time, and factional dynamics to look at why some groups choose radicalism or moderation

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Aditya Dasgupta @adasgupta.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

New (well, finally published) paper out at AJPS on "Bureaucrat Assignments as Instruments of Political Control": doi.org/10.1111/ajps... . We estimate Indian land officials' preferences over geographical posts and test a "matching market" model of how politicians use assignments to extract rents 1/3

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Conor Sen @conorsen.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Earnestly I think hosting the World Cup is our month-long America 250 celebration.

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Jessica Leight @leightjessica.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Today's cool young researcher #econtwitter #econsky is @rduartegonzalez, a brand-new PhD (congrats!) currently a postdoc at Yale and soon joining FIU who works on topics related to political economy + governance in LMICs

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Ariel R. White @arielrwhite.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

It took a while to get the ad up, but we are hiring a pre-doc to start this summer: careers.peopleclick.com/careerscp/cl...

careers.peopleclick.com

Research Support Associate 2

MIT - Research Support Associate 2 - Cambridge MA 02139

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Avi Ahuja @avi-ahuja.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

New #OpenAccess Paper Alert! 🚨 In @apsrjournal.bsky.social, @gmcclendon.bsky.social and I present results from a collaborative field experiment with the Institute for Governance Reform around a switch from plurality rules to closed-list PR rules in Sierra Leone’s 2023 parliamentary elections. A🧵:

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Center for Global Development @cgdev.org · 12/02/2026

Aid cuts in the UK signals a move from "grants to expertise"—meaning a shift to low-cost technical assistance. Through his work with African governments, @leecrawfurd.bsky.social shares examples of both good and bad models of technical assistance: go.cgdev.org/45atSBo

go.cgdev.org

How to Do Technical Assistance (Well)

Declining aid budgets are changing how major donors operate. The UK’s Minister for International Development Jenny Chapman has said that UK aid will shift “from grants to expertise” and “from service ...

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Sarah Brierley @sarahbrierley.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

I am hiring a post-doctoral fellow (2 years) to work on all things political finance in Africa. There are no teaching obligations, and lots of opportunities for fieldwork. A PhD in Political Science is a requirement. Please spread the word! Happy to answer questions - send them to my LSE email.

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Joan Ricart-Huguet @ricarthuguet.bsky.social · 04/12/2025

This was fun to write & we hope useful to scholars, policymakers & journalists. Alioune Ngom & I dig into #Senegal’s political history to correct two recurring media claims.👇Open access @africanaffairs.bsky.social! doi.org/10.1093/afra... @economist.com @liberation.fr @france24.com @en.france24.com

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Stuart Russell @stuarterussell.bsky.social · 02/11/2025

Jad Abumrad's new series on Fela Kuti is an absolute triumph of podcasting. Beautifully done. open.spotify.com/episode/416u...

open.spotify.com

Introducing Fela Kuti: Fear No Man

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MIT Center for International Studies @mit-cis.bsky.social · 22/09/2025

Mai Hassan, associate professor of @mitpolisci.bsky.social and faculty director of the MIT-Africa Program, co-authored a guest essay in @nytimes.com discussing the consequences of the international community recognizing Sudan’s juntas. Read here: nytimes.com/2025/09/21/o...

nytimes.com

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Joshua Tucker @jatucker.bsky.social · 23/07/2025

1/ 🚨 What if intro political science textbooks were better and cheaper? We built one: ✅ $1/chapter ✅ Modular & flexible ✅ Written by top scholars ✅ Full (free!) instructor resources 🌐 www.politicsexperiment.com Help us spread the word! @rudalev.bsky.social & I are the editors!

politicsexperiment.com

Home Page - A Political Science Experiment

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David Evans @daveevansphd.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

You have to bring the teachers along when you implement educational reform! waynesandholtz.com/pdfs/PSL_PE_... by @wsandholtz.bsky.social

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Evan Lieberman @evlieb.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

JOB ALERT: Come work as lab manager / research associate at the Global Diversity Lab at MIT -- a great opportunity for recent undergraduates considering a PhD in political science #development #climate #diversity Recent LM's went to Stanford, Yale, Berkeley careers.peopleclick.com/careerscp/cl...

careers.peopleclick.com

Research Support Associate 2

MIT - Research Support Associate 2 - Cambridge MA 02139

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Daniel Laurison @daniellaurison.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

JOB! Please RT. Swarthmore is hiring for our Social Science Quantitative Lab Associate to support & do teaching quant methods to undergrads. Especially looking for people familiar with sociology and/or political science, and R. Apply by 4/18. apply.interfolio.com/165892 Happy to answer questions.

Responsibilities (continiued)
Providing statistical support to students during regular office hours and by appointment, including assisting students with the identification, manipulation, and analysis of data sets for their empirical research projects

Planning and hosting stand-alone workshops to train students to work with statistical software commonly used in the social sciences, such as R, Stata, Python, Matlab, and/or Geographic Information System (GIS)

Collaborating with social science faculty teaching quantitative courses on how best to support their courses and their students

Creating additional opportunities for students with less experience in quantitative and computational methods to develop skills and confidence

Offering supplementary workshops in quantitative social sciences to help students develop skills for success as research assistants and to prepare them for quantitative careers and job markets

Qualifications
A Master of Arts or Science (MA or MS), or equivalent, in Political Science, Sociology, Economics, Public Policy, Statistics, Data Science, or a related field is required; a PhD in one of these fields is preferred.

Familiarity with statistics/econometrics, causal inference methods, and preparing data for quantitative social science research is required. Familiarity with computational and simulation methods is a plus.

Programming expertise in R and Excel and ability to learn new technical skills are required. Expertise in Python, Matlab, GIS, and/or other related software is a plus.

Demonstrated excellence in inclusive and equitable teaching practices that support the success of students from diverse backgrounds and with varying levels of preparation in quantitative skills. We seek applicants who cultivate welcoming classroom environments and use pedagogical strategies that promote belonging, engagement, and academic growth for all students.

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Kevin Collins @kwcollins.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

Any senator is free to use the rules of the chamber to take up Booker’s filibuster after he collapses in exhaustion. Who will step up?

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Matt Collin @mattcollin.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

If you're young and are interested in international development, it is hard to beat doing an ODI Fellowship careers.odi.org/postings/71e... It is a rare opportunity for foreigners to work as a civil servant in a low or lower-middle income country Why is this a good idea? 👇

careers.odi.org

ODI Fellowship Scheme 2025-27

Job Opening: ODI Fellowship Scheme 2025-27 at ODI Global in Global.

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Stuart Russell @stuarterussell.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

Welcome, @tanukumar.com! Really excited to have you onboard!

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Justin Wolfers @justinwolfers.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

This tariff strategy makes sense if your only goal is to have everyone talking about you all the time.

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Ray Fisman @rfisman.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

I just can't get it out of my head why this isn't a much bigger story. I guess it's because people are generally so totally cynical about US politics already.

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Tom Pepinsky @tompepinsky.com · 04/03/2025

There are two views of US politics right now: 1. The fight is electoral. It implies, wait for thermostatic public opinion to kick in in 18 months 2. The fight is bureaucratic. It implies, stop the pillaging of the economy and the evisceration of the state right now I’m Team 2 all the way

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Dave Itzkoff @ditzkoff.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

you're free to cover whatever topic you wish, as long as it's the topic I want. that topic? freedom

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Adam Bonica @adambonica.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

The DOGE firings have nothing to do with “efficiency” or “cutting waste.” They’re a direct push to weaken federal agencies perceived as liberal. This was evident from the start, and now the data confirms it: targeted agencies overwhelmingly those seen as more left-leaning. 🧵⬇️

Scatterplot titled “Empirical Evidence of Ideological Targeting in Federal Layoffs: Agencies seen as liberal are significantly more likely to face DOGE layoffs.”
• The x-axis represents Perceived Ideological Leaning of federal agencies, ranging from -2 (Most Liberal) to +2 (Most Conservative), based on survey responses from over 1,500 federal executives.
• The y-axis shows Agency Size (Number of Staff) on a logarithmic scale from 1,000 to 1,000,000.

Each point represents a federal agency:
• Red dots indicate agencies that experienced DOGE layoffs.
• Gray dots indicate agencies with no layoffs.

Key Observations:
• Liberal-leaning agencies (left side of the plot) are disproportionately represented among red dots, indicating higher layoff rates.
• Notable targeted agencies include:
• HHS (Health & Human Services)
• EPA (Environmental Protection Agency)
• NIH (National Institutes of Health)
• CFPB (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau)
• Dept. of Education
• USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development)
• The National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE), despite its conservative leaning (+1 on the scale), is an exception among targeted agencies.
• A notable outlier: the Department of Veterans Affairs (moderately conservative) also faced layoffs despite its size.

Takeaway:

The figure visually demonstrates that DOGE layoffs disproportionately targeted liberal-leaning agencies, supporting claims of ideological bias. The pattern reveals that layoffs were not driven by agency size or budget alone but were strongly associated with perceived ideology.

Source: Richardson, Clinton, & Lewis (2018). Elite Perceptions of Agency Ideology and Workforce Skill. The Journal of Politics, 80(1).

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

New, from me: I talked with producers from Last Week Tonight about politicization of government, so was looking forward to seeing this episode. Its a good one, worth sharing. (Plus, what does the research say about politicization and government performance). donmoynihan.substack.com/p/what-resea...

donmoynihan.substack.com

What research tells us about politicization and state capacity

Also, Last Week Tonight on Trump's government takeover

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Ken Opalo @kopalo.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

Institutions are not self-executing. Enough people must be willing to do the right thing by the rules.

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Charles Kenny @charlesjkenny.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

Just to repeat, the White House has provided *no evidence* to back up the President’s claim of widespread fraud in USAID. The evidence it has presented points in precisely the other direction. www.cgdev.org/blog/white-h...

cgdev.org

The White House Demonstrates USAID’s Efficiency

The White House issued a press release three days ago apparently designed to justify the ongoing stop-work orders at USAID, alongside pulling agency staff out of the field and locking them out of thei...

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Scott Shapiro @scottjshapiro.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

Re: a debate during Trump I, can we all agree that this is a “constitutional crisis”?

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Tim Hirschel-Burns @timhirschelburns.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

USAID was never pure altruism, not even close. But to have an agency that exists to help people no matter where they live, because we think it's the right thing to do - that's the kind of country we should try to be, and the country many around the world think we are. No longer

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Justin Sandefur @justsand.bsky.social · 25/01/2025

Trump has not just paused new foreign aid. Today Marco Rubio sent a cable to all US diplomatic missions calling for immediate “stop work” orders on *existing* projects. This is sweeping and reckless. People are going to die.

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Stuart Russell @stuarterussell.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

As part of an ongoing World Bank project, I am hiring a RA to help clean + analyze administrative data from Ghana's public financial management systems. Please see details and apply via DIME's spring recruitment drive here: datanalytics.worldbank.org/dime-applica.... Deadline is January 31. (1/3)

datanalytics.worldbank.org

DIME Recruitment Dashboard

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Tom Pepinsky @tompepinsky.com · 12/01/2025

Straight up looting: let the wealthiest corporations carve up the state’s functions and delegate them to themselves, for profit. The word for this in comparative politics it “predatory state.” A low autonomy, low capacity, captured state.

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Daniel Ziblatt @dziblatt.bsky.social · 02/01/2025

In a democracy, when and where should majorities rule? And when should their powers be limited? Steve Levitsky and I propose a framework to think through these questions in a new piece in the January 2025 issue of 'Journal of Democracy' muse.jhu.edu/article/947880

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Ariel R. White @arielrwhite.bsky.social · 16/12/2024

Applications are open for the third year of the Pathways summer research program at MIT! Please share with interested undergrads. (TL;DR is: paid opportunity to check out PhD life for students who might not think it's open to them) @nlnathan.bsky.social

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Donghyun Danny Choi @dhdannychoi.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

Sharing a starter pack for African politics for those who would find it useful. I tried my best to find everybody on Bluesky but may have missed some folks. Happy to add more people to the list. #polisky go.bsky.app/5CAmg4o

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Horacio Larreguy @hlarreguy.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

Finally in print at the APSR! With Mai Hassan and @stuarterussell.bsky.social doi.org/10.1017/S000...

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