Pavithra Suryanarayan

Ah, the simple tactic of holding up a mirror, this time to find a conscience.

After Gorton and Denton Notes on the Gorton and Denton by-election and what it could mean for the Labour Party.

"is your talent pipeline is such that you are compelled to turn back to old hands and the old guard? Jonathan Powell, Pat McFadden..... It reads like a roll call of TB-GB retreads... masters of an old world. Did Tony Blair turn so heavily to members of the 1974-79 govt?" Absolutely damning read:

FT comments section this morning - saying what everyone else is thinking, right?

I also think the right-wing media takeover is likely to cannibalize each other's market share to some extent. And listeners/readers/viewers will start to treat these as state media and look elsewhere. This has certainly been the case in India as youtube channels have grown dramatically.

Everyday I see the parallels between the US and India. The Modi govt has many allies in the press, but a large country with a robust local media ecosystem (in numerous languages) that goes back over a century, and which survived the british colonial rule, will also survive the now.

At all three places where I taught, veterans and military students are admired for their service, their ability to get their academic work done quickly and extremely well, and for often balancing family and school.

Not *once* have I ever heard a faculty member disparage a military student.

Annual Review of Political Science Participatory Democracy and Its Limits Kevin J. Elliott Program on Ethics, Politics and Economics and Department of Political Science, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA; email: k.elliott@yale.edu

Annu. Rev. Political Sci. 2026. 29:17.1–17.19 The Annual Review of Political Science is online at polisci.annualreviews.org https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-polisci-032724- 125408 Copyright © 2026 by the author(s). All rights reserved Keywords participation, participatory democracy, deliberative democracy, lottocracy, political attention, representation Abstract This review surveys the limits of participatory democracy and reconsiders its merits, with particular emphasis on the limited attention of citizens. I trace the development of participatory democracy within political science and democratic theory and suggest that participation has fallen out of its previously central role as a criterion of democratic quality. What remains is a set of functions and pitfalls, which I explore in a series of inquiries into participation: (a) in lottocracy and electoral democracy, (b) in its relationship to representation, and (c) in local land use planning. I conclude with thoughts for future research informed by the discussion.

Forthcoming from me in the Annual Review of Political Science: "Participatory Democracy and Its Limits."

Download a complete preprint here: kevinjelliott.wordpress.com/wp-content/u...

Top of the page too...

Honestly did not think that those readings by Benjamin Constant in a CP survey course at Berkeley would come in handy.

The old version of redemption roasters near the LSE offered little pots of marmite with toasted sourdough and a poached egg in the mornings. Nothing good lasts.

This is an excellent article by my colleague @jonasnahm.com. American innovation has been captured by a Silicon Valley mindset, and this has important disadvantages... www.nytimes.com/2026/02/24/o...

All of them?

I have no idea why the aggressive behaviour has gone up here. I am over here minding my nerdy business, and in the past few days I have had troll accounts willfully misunderstand posts. Block block block.

What is your favorite book/article on inequality?

Read more about the winner and prize The Normalization of the Radical Right: A Norms Theory of Political Supply and Demand

⭐ Powerful, Rigorous, Timely ⭐

🎉Congratulations to @valentimvicente.bsky.social on winning the 2025 Stein Rokkan Prize for his book on 'The Normalization of the Radical Right' (Oxford University Press, 2024)

🏆Presented with @sciencecouncil.bsky.social @sampol.bsky.social

#ECPRPrizes

Building on this thought... I conjecture that the *only* way that a single overarching social category can create social order is if that category is fused to a strict internal caste/status hierarchy.

Do you want integralism? This is how you get integralism.

Excellent thread: once again requesting that we see abundance folks not as making the case for cheaper electricity for voters alone but as case for oil & gas companies to continue to be competitive because the political backlash from these resource owners is a major funder of far right politics.

The LSE finding itself on this list of woke American schools like

Someone told me lately "Bluesky is just like Twitter." I argued that was untrue on the basis that last time I had a Twitter account most times I got a new follower their bio said "single & looking for fun" & here when I get a new follower it tends to say something like "professor of rare moths".

Let me say something positive about the Winter Olympics for a change: there's an extreme overrepresentation of Minnesotans, and they're using the platform for good.

Man do they hate data

All due respect to Norwegians: a competition whose medal leaderboard looks like this does not deserve the "Olympics" moniker. It's a small party, and the world is not invited... #WhiterOlympics

Interesting interactions in thread showing how hard it is to code what is left wing policy. Original thread argues current UK govt. is boringly centrist, another suggests govt. has done most left wing redistributive/regulatory policy in 40 years. what we can say is it's not right wing.

This is the true cost of AI.

Also, Ricky Martin is STILL Ricky Martining to a level unimaginable.

I'm going to win.

Distillation of why the current democratic party’s organizational form and skill set are simply the wrong attributes for the moment. Unless new people enter, the party is going to keep misreading the signs.

striking illustration of the methods/words of a politician selected into politics in a different era, who is unable to understand the urgency of the situation. She keeps resorting to sensible policy bargains to address what is a fascist tool. Her constituents understand the moment, she just can’t.

This is good! Shame as a device is still working in the UK. I am reminded of Boris Johnson and those COVID parties. Accountability is a good thing and signifies a healthier political system however much the the US/UK comparisons abound.