banner
LightNews
benansell.bsky.social
Ben Ansell
@benansell.bsky.social
29K followers 980 following 5.2K posts

Professor of Comparative Democratic Institutions, Nuffield & University of Oxford, FBA. http://benansell.substack.com. BBC Reith Lecturer 2023. Host BBC Radio 4 Rethink. Columnist for Prospect. Director, Centre for Advanced Social Science Methods (CASSM). .. more

Videos

Ben W. Ansell is Professor of Comparative Democratic Institutions at Nuffield College, University of Oxford and, with David Samuels, editor of Comparative Political Studies.

Source: Wikipedia
Political science 47%
Economics 40%
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Reposted by Ben H. Ansell

yasharali.bsky.social
Yashar Ali 🐘 @yasharali.bsky.social · 1h
On the left is how the White House reacted to the Nobel Peace Prize announcement.

On the right is what President Trump posted about Maria Corina Machado back in January, just two weeks before nominations closed for the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize.
Steven Cheung * B @StevenCheung47 X.com President Trump will continue making peace deals, ending wars, and saving lives. He has the heart of a humanitarian, and there will never be anyone like him who can move mountains with the sheer force of his will. The Nobel Committee proved they place politics over peace. Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump + Venezuelan democracy activist Maria Corina Machado and President-elect Gonzalez are peacefully expressing the voices and the WILL of the Venezuelan people with hundreds of thousands of people demonstrating against the regime. The great Venezuelan American community in the United States overwhelmingly support a free Venezuela, and strongly supported me. These freedom fighters should not be harmed, and MUST stay SAFE and ALIVE! MODA 6.14k ReTruths 23.9k Likes 1/9/25, 2:14 PM
23 72 260

benansell.bsky.social
Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 4h
Jack has one of the must read Substacks and if anyone can keep up a daily memo that’s always interesting and varied it’s him. Look forward to seeing how this progresses.
jackkessler.bsky.social
Jack Kessler @jackkessler.bsky.social · 5h
My newsletter, Lines To Take, is changing.

Here’s what’s next — and why I hope you’ll join me.

✍️ www.linestotake.com/p/this-newsl...
Music was blaring, lights strobing, bodies gyrating. There was glitter everywhere. Welcome to Daybreaker, an early morning dance movement based in 33 cities around the world, where people come to “sweat, dance and connect with ourselves and each other”. It is also how I ended up in a nightclub at seven in the morning, sober and alone, approaching strangers to ask if they were having a good time. I suppose I should consider myself lucky. My editor at the time had initially (and a little too cheerily, I felt) suggested I go walking with wolves somewhere in the Lake District. Back in 2019, Daybreaker was a noisy example of what seemed like a striking shift in our consumption habits. The so-called “experience economy” was booming then and — following the Covid-19 interruption — has come back with a vengeance “The history of economic progress,” Joseph Pine II, who helped coin the term “experience economy” told me (and many others, I suspect, given the rhyme), “is paying a fee for what used to be free.” Can you see where I’m going with this?
3 6

Reposted by Ben H. Ansell, Anand Menon

jackkessler.bsky.social
Jack Kessler @jackkessler.bsky.social · 5h
My newsletter, Lines To Take, is changing.

Here’s what’s next — and why I hope you’ll join me.

✍️ www.linestotake.com/p/this-newsl...
Music was blaring, lights strobing, bodies gyrating. There was glitter everywhere. Welcome to Daybreaker, an early morning dance movement based in 33 cities around the world, where people come to “sweat, dance and connect with ourselves and each other”. It is also how I ended up in a nightclub at seven in the morning, sober and alone, approaching strangers to ask if they were having a good time. I suppose I should consider myself lucky. My editor at the time had initially (and a little too cheerily, I felt) suggested I go walking with wolves somewhere in the Lake District. Back in 2019, Daybreaker was a noisy example of what seemed like a striking shift in our consumption habits. The so-called “experience economy” was booming then and — following the Covid-19 interruption — has come back with a vengeance “The history of economic progress,” Joseph Pine II, who helped coin the term “experience economy” told me (and many others, I suspect, given the rhyme), “is paying a fee for what used to be free.” Can you see where I’m going with this?
1 2 9

benansell.bsky.social
Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 5h
Blair had education education education. The current Labour government needs charisma charisma charisma.
lewisgoodall.com
Lewis Goodall @lewisgoodall.com · 14h
I do wonder if Labour might look at the sorts of people dominating the discourse and dominating the content wars and maybe, just maybe, rethink the sorts of grey figures they routinely put up for interviews, instructed at that to be as cautious as possible. Things have changed. Their comms hasn’t.
8 1 38

Reposted by Ben H. Ansell, Colin Murray, Stuart White

lewisgoodall.com
Lewis Goodall @lewisgoodall.com · 14h
I do wonder if Labour might look at the sorts of people dominating the discourse and dominating the content wars and maybe, just maybe, rethink the sorts of grey figures they routinely put up for interviews, instructed at that to be as cautious as possible. Things have changed. Their comms hasn’t.
97 83 670

benansell.bsky.social
Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 22h
Man sounds like I’m due for execution on this basis.
radiobeartime.com
Mark O’Neill 🐻 @radiobeartime.com · 2d
If the government really wants to scrap degrees which deliver no value to the UK and indeed have led to £ billions in damage to the economy and culture of the UK then it just needs to scrap the Oxford PPE degree and arrest everyone who has taken it.
5 20

Reposted by Ben H. Ansell, Will Jennings, Pauline Stafford , and 3 more

rmcunliffe.bsky.social
Rachel Cunliffe @rmcunliffe.bsky.social · 1d
Hollow laughter
62 110 720

Reposted by Ben H. Ansell, Nicolai von Ondarza

sturdyalex.bsky.social
Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 1d
“It’s far too soon to predict how the next election will shape up. We are roughly the same distance from Labour having to call a General Election, as we are from the last pandemic lockdown. Try to conceive of that amount of stuff still to happen.”
quietriotpod.bsky.social
Quiet Riot @quietriotpod.bsky.social · 1d
🆕 Anti-Woke Wake: It the Tory Party dead or just resting? ☠️

💥 Tory Conference debrief
💥 France latest political soap
💥 A deal on Gaza - but antisemitism on the rise

An amazing episode with special guest @samfr.bsky.social.

🍊 open.spotify.com/episode/5JQF...

🍏 podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/q...
Anti-Woke Wake: Is the Tory Party dead or just resting?
Podcast Episode · Quiet Riot · 09/10/2025 · 1h 13m
podcasts.apple.com
5 27 140

Reposted by Ben H. Ansell, Suresh Venkatasubramanian, Will Jennings , and 17 more

junoryleejournalism.com
Juno Rylee Schultz @junoryleejournalism.com · 1d
David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)
SHAPIRO: OK, so you've spent your career creating television without Al, and I could imagine today you thinking, boy, I wish I had had that tool to solve those thorny problems... SIMON: What? SHAPIRO: ...Or saying... SIMON: You imagine that? SHAPIRO: ...Boy, if that had existed, it would have screwed me over. SIMON: I don't think Al can remotely challenge what writers do at a fundamentally creative level. SHAPIRO: But if you're trying to transition from scene five to scene six, and you're stuck with that transition, you could imagine plugging that portion of the script into an Al and say, give me 10 ideas for how to transition this. SIMON: I'd rather put a gun in my mouth.
300 7.7K 24K

Reposted by Ben H. Ansell

josephpolitano.bsky.social
Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 1d
My ideology is that we should give a super-competent guy lifetime dictatorial power so we can build a high-public-sector-capacity developmental state. Now to take a big sip of my coffee and see the competence level of the guy we've elevated to lead the country I live in.
3 23 440

benansell.bsky.social
Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 1d
Well indeed…
1

benansell.bsky.social
Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 1d
I was on a barging holiday with apolitical friends who were entirely radicalised by the end of the weekend.
1 4

benansell.bsky.social
Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 1d
Imagine waiting til the end of the budget for the obvious counterbalance in spending cuts or other tax increases that never comes and realising that you now don’t have enough drink left
1 4

benansell.bsky.social
Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 1d
Yeh as an occasional neoliberal I think some of the tax reforms in it were individually fine. But collectively it was insane.
1 4

Reposted by Ben H. Ansell, Scott L. Greer, Jonathan Hopkin , and 4 more

carlquintanilla.bsky.social
Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 1d
Good lord.

@apnews.com
1.1K 3.9K 12K

benansell.bsky.social
Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 1d
You'd think there would be more interest from the UK media too tbh
3 3 43

benansell.bsky.social
Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 1d
It was after all 'at last a true Tory budget' according to the papers the day after...
1 3

benansell.bsky.social
Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 1d
I think there were some parts of the Truss budget that might have made sense in a better fiscal environment or *not all at once* that could be traced to right-wing think tank thought. But rot had already set in and the whole debacle has now got cargo cult status.
3 8

Reposted by Ben H. Ansell, Will Jennings, Tom Shakespeare , and 8 more

govpritzker.illinois.gov
Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 1d
If you come for my people, you come through me.
900 6.1K 26K

Reposted by Ben H. Ansell, James Q. Wilson, Patrick A. Jansen , and 25 more

govpritzker.illinois.gov
Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 1d
I will not back down.

Trump is now calling for the arrest of elected representatives checking his power.

What else is left on the path to full-blown authoritarianism?
Donald Trump Truth Social Post: Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers! Governor Pritzker also.
1K 7.6K 26K

benansell.bsky.social
Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 1d
I guess 26 out of 83 unfulfilled pledges ;)
1 1

Reposted by Ben H. Ansell, Rosemary A. Joyce, Mirya R. Holman , and 3 more

taniel.bsky.social
Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · 1d
JUST IN: The Republican Mayor of Fairbanks, Alaska’s second biggest city, lost re-election last night to a Democrat.

Mayor David Pruhs is a conservative who fought protections for LGBTQ+ residents; he made comments this year drew condemnation this year from Alaska Natives. He lost to Mindy O'Neall.
120 1.9K 8.4K

benansell.bsky.social
Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 2d
If I were the leader of the opposition a year after an election, facing an unpopular government, I would simply focus my energy on criticising the current government's policy record rather than constantly bemoaning the last fifteen years of policymaking, in which I was intimately involved.
6 54 300

Reposted by Ben H. Ansell, Will Jennings, Tim Bale , and 5 more

stephenkb.bsky.social
Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 2d
Something grimly predictable about the way that the conversation about 'ripoff degrees' in the UK is always about degrees that aren't rip-offs, but are instead fairly obvious 'this student has chosen something unlikely to pay off economically' rather than the short tail of crap business degrees:
Everyone needs educating in the fight over university degrees
Political confusion over the purpose of these institutions means the obvious fixes are being neglected
www.ft.com
34 79 410

benansell.bsky.social
Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 2d
Sure agreed. Though the irony is ‘majority sports’ are… well… sports, which are mostly very multiracial in the UK.
1

Reposted by Dani Rodrik, Marc Lynch, Ben H. Ansell , and 11 more

himself.bsky.social
Henry Farrell @himself.bsky.social · 2d
"It wanted to signal strength. Instead, it’s revealing its weakness. The administration’s need to break the academy is forcing it to make a desperately risky gamble." www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/o...
Opinion | You Beat Trumpism by Banding Together. It’s as Hard and as Simple as That.
www.nytimes.com
12 180 620

benansell.bsky.social
Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 2d
Have achieved a life goal of mentioning Salako in an article.

benansell.bsky.social
Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 2d
Just as an example, imagine talking about English literature since 2000 without mentioning Kazuo Ishiguro, Zadie Smith, Monica Ali, Salman Rushdie, Neel Mukherjee, Kaliane Bradley etc etc.
3 2 28

benansell.bsky.social
Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 2d
Something I touched on in my @prospectmagazine.co.uk piece the other day.
benansell.bsky.social
Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 3d
Me in @prospectmagazine.co.uk following up on a Substack I wrote earlier this summer. Come for the unnecessary discussion of Crystal Palace in the 1990s, stay for the reference to Jesse Plemons.
Who’s ‘white British’? Who cares?
Politicians seem to be fuelling racist debate about what it means to be British, rather than calling it out
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk
2 3 12

Reposted by Jonathan Portes, Steve Peers

benansell.bsky.social
Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 2d
Spot on from @stephenkb.bsky.social. And the other aspect of this nasty turn is the eliding of British ‘culture’ with ‘white British’, which will shock anyone who has watched TV or football, or listened to music, or read a book, or indeed breathed since 1980.
4 98 290