Ben Crum
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bencrum.nl
Ben Crum
@bencrum.nl

Political Scientist @vuamsterdam.bsky.social
Democracy, European Union politics, Social justice, Digital governance, Political theory

Political science 82%
Law 9%
Pinned
Ben Crum @bencrum.nl · Aug 27
New paper on a new topic in @policyr.bsky.social

I analyse the EU’s AI Act and its place in the global governance of the AI.
Examining the economy of AI + the contents of the Act, I conclude that expecting a ‘Brussels effect’ is neither apt nor useful.
….

policyreview.info/articles/ana...
Brussels effect or experimentalism? The EU AI Act and global standard-setting
Looking at the nature of AI technology and the contents of the EU AI Act, the external impact of the Act is better understood in terms of experimentalist governance than in terms of the much-cited ‘Br...
policyreview.info

Reposted by Ben Crum

Geert Wilders wordt ondervoorzitter en dus lid van het presidium. Dat wil hij 'klein maken'. Met koffie en wc-papier. Maar wie het presidium kleiner maakt, maakt ook de Kamer kleiner. Dat komt de partijen ten goede, niet de democratie. Column: watisdemocratie.substack.com/p/ook-de-kam...
Ook de Kamer moet boven de partijen staan
Ondervoorzitter klinkt als een plechtig ambt — maar Wilders' verkiezing ertoe legt vooral bloot hoe rommelig de macht in de Kamer georganiseerd is. En hoe makkelijk Wilders daarvan gebruikmaakt.
watisdemocratie.substack.com
An absolute scandal compounded in this case by failure of French government and EU institutions to forcefully react and sanction in turn those who have sanctioned ICC judges and prosecutors. Makes a total mockery of FR/EU's repeated commitment to the rule of law/ICC

www.lemonde.fr/en/internati...
🤩 Party positions in the 2024 European Parliament 🇪🇺!
I merged the CHES expert survey with EP composition data to visualize the political space of the current EP. The graphs make the center of gravity in the EP quite clear, on multiple dimensions and policy issues.
dimiter.shinyapps.io/ches/

Reposted by Ben Crum

NEW: at the Summit, 3 investigations into the two main cloud monopolies - Microsoft and Amazon, AND the whole market structure.

A good start; ask any tech founder in Europe. But CMA has studied cloud in detail. Lock-in is clear. Will EC summon the will to enforce?

ec.europa.eu/commission/p...
Commission launches market investigations on cloud computing services under the Digital Markets Act
The European Commission opened three market investigations on cloud computing services under the Digital Markets Act (DMA).
ec.europa.eu

Reposted by Ben Crum

EU leaders "are not being honest with us, and we are all paying the price. If Democracy Shield cannot accurately describe the threat we are facing, then there is no way it can defend us from the forces in America that are spreading disinformation on this continent with the goal of regime change"
A Commission official has admitted to Euractiv that President von der Leyen's office "softened" the #DemocracyShield text published today "so as not to upset the US".

Our leaders only want to talk about Russia. When it comes to disinformation, the EU's biggest threat is the one who cannot be named.
Can the EU's new Democracy Shield protect Europe from America?
It appears MAGA has successfully intimidated the Commission into defanging its new anti-disinformation tool proposed today.
davekeating.substack.com

Really good thread 👇 sifting out the good, the bad, the symbolic and the perverse in the European Democracy Shield
The European Democracy Shield🛡️ is finally out today. Here is what it says (and what I think):🧵⬇️

commission.europa.eu/document/dow...
commission.europa.eu
The European Democracy Shield🛡️ is finally out today. Here is what it says (and what I think):🧵⬇️

commission.europa.eu/document/dow...
commission.europa.eu

Very interesting!
Notably, the only bigger member state (>15M) not qualifying for solidarity is Romania! And after it come Portugal, Sweden and Hungary.
I very much doubt these are the countries that can shoulder the expected solidarity

This 👇 is why public service media are critical, and require increasing (rather than decreasing) public investment
Quick thread on the BBC and the political and societal significance of recent developments:

One of the main reasons the UK has historically been so much less polarised than the US, is that Britain has a shared source of information, consumed and trusted by most people regardless of their politics.
Are you conducting research combining qualitative cross-case methods (comparative case studies or QCA) with process tracing? ➡️ ** We are looking to show-case your work** ⬅️

🧵 1/
Quick thread on the BBC and the political and societal significance of recent developments:

One of the main reasons the UK has historically been so much less polarised than the US, is that Britain has a shared source of information, consumed and trusted by most people regardless of their politics.
🚨 Job Alert! Postdoc in POLITICAL TEXT ANALYSIS in the MULTIREP project

You do quant text analysis? You are interested in political representation? Enjoy working in teams? Would like to live in a great city? Consider joining us in Vienna!

⏱️ Apply by 15/12/2025

wratil.eu/files/MULTIR...

1/4 🧵

Read @robin.berjon.com on cloud infrastructure

Europe must embrace a “break-and-build” strategy:
“break” entrenched monopolies and
“build” its own digital infrastructure and addressing on a sector-by-sector basis

@projectsyndicate.bsky.social prosyn.org/5baiDt6?refe...
How Many More Cloud Scares Does Europe Need?
Robin Berjon urges the EU to dismantle the entrenched US monopolies that are undermining the goal of tech sovereignty.
prosyn.org

Reposted by Ben Crum

Reposted by Ben Crum

On the day of General Elections in the Netherlands, my article on last year's EP elections has found a home

"Party Dynamics in the 2024 European Parliament Elections" can be found in the Annual Review Issue (S1) of @jcms-eu.bsky.social, page 80-90

Also other great articles
doi.org/10.1111/jcms...
You think your elections are nail biters? In the last poll of the polls, the @peilingwijzer.bsky.social produced by @tomlouwerse.nl, before election day in the Netherlands tomorrow, three parties are tied for first place

peilingwijzer.tomlouwerse.nl
Laatste Peilingwijzer – Peilingwijzer
De Peilingwijzer combineert de Tweede Kamerpeilingen van Ipsos I&O & Verian/EenVandaag
peilingwijzer.tomlouwerse.nl

Assuming Wilders' PVV is excluded, the most obvious coalition is a centre coalition of GL/PvdA-D66-CDA-VVD

But VVD says it excludes a coalition with GL/PvdA (and PVV)

This may give centre-parties CU and Volt a pivotal role in pulling the D66-CDA tandem to the right (VVD) or the left (GL/PvdA)

Also, all parties that formed the government last year (PVV, VVD, NSC & BBB) are likely to loose seats; from a combined majority of 88/150 seats to less than 50

So what may new majority coalitions look like?

2/3

Tomorrow general elections in The Netherlands!
I'm preparing a short talk 'what to watch'

A couple of 'records' (since 1956) may be challenged:
- Smallest biggest party: 31/150 seats for VVD in 2010
- Most parties under 5 seats in parliament: 8 parties in 1982

1/3
In short, the problem here is not that Signal ‘chose’ to run on AWS. The problem is the concentration of power in the infrastructure space that means there isn’t really another choice: the entire stack, practically speaking, is owned by 3-4 players. 11/
OpenAI, xAI & Mistral may have just received their first EU AI Act warning shot. Dutch regulator AP found ChatGPT, Grok & le Chat gave biased voting advice ahead of elections — a potential breach of new GPAI rules.
www.mlex.com/mlex/article...
OpenAI, xAI, Mistral get a shot across the bows to beware EU AI Act enforcement | MLex | Specialist news and analysis on legal risk and regulation
OpenAI, xAI and Mistral could be open to legal risk after the findings of a Dutch privacy probe into election advice this week appeared to expose early violations of the EU AI Act’s rules for general-...
www.mlex.com

Reposted by Simon Otjes, Ben Crum

Wilders, reus op lemen voeten.

Door het effect van imiteren & isoleren verliest hij.

VVD, JA21, FvD & BBB bieden de kiezer grosso modo dezelfde migratierestricties.

Tegelijk wijst iedereen erop dat Wilders buitenspel staat.

In de laatste peiling staat hij op 34, lijkt me sterk dat hij dat haalt.

Reposted by Ben Crum

Dit is hét onderwerp van de 21e eeuw: digitale zaken. Verslavende algoritmes, de macht van techreuzen, de veiligheid van informatie bij de overheid 👇
Applications for our flagship Visiting Scholars Program are now open and close Dec 14, 2025. Scholars who are European citizens can also apply for our 4 fellowships. Please share widely! @dziblatt.bsky.social

🔗https://ces.fas.harvard.edu/opportunities/visiting-scholars-overview/visiting-scholars
Hier haben wir unsere Stellenausschreibung vielleicht noch nicht gepostet: Das @hiigberlin.bsky.social sucht eine*n interessierte*n und motivierte*n postdoc, die/der mit uns zusammen einen neuen Forschungsbereich zum Thema Demokratischer Wandel und Wissen aufbaut. www.hiig.de/stellenaussc...
Forschungsleiter*in (m/w/d): Demokratischer Wandel und Wissen
Das HIIG sucht eine*n Postdoktorand*in für den Aufbau des Forschungsschwerpunktes Demokratischer Wandel und Wissen.
www.hiig.de
@ckreudersonnen.bsky.social and I are happy to announce two open research positions in our joint DFG-funded project VARICRIS (👉 bit.ly/varicris).
We are recruiting a #PostDoc and a #PhD candidate 🧵:

#PoliSky #PoliSkyJobs #polsci 🌐
Welcome! – VARICRIS
VARICRIS research project
bit.ly

Ben Crum @bencrum.nl · Oct 20
Just to be clear, this is not about the current government.
It is about a rather steady trend of party system fragmentation, i.e. big parties getting smaller and the number of small parties increasing

Ben Crum @bencrum.nl · Oct 19
I was struck by the defensive responses to Hix’s initial skeet

To have a more open conversation I asked: How much party fragmentation can we afford in NL?

Everyone seems to assume I advocated a threshold (I did not)

No one has really addressed my question

Ben Crum @bencrum.nl · Oct 18
Sure, but that concerns primarily the Senate (which merits a separate discussion)