Ian O'Flynn
@delibnet.bsky.social
Promoting work on deliberative democracy
An interesting approach to stimulating public deliberation: have each author write two essays, one setting out the pros, the other, the cons. undpress.nd.edu/978026821118...
For and Against a United Ireland
In For and Against a United Ireland, renowned journalists Fintan O’Toole and Sam McBride provide an accessible and measured approach to the polarized debat...
undpress.nd.edu
February 13, 2026 at 10:47 PM
An interesting approach to stimulating public deliberation: have each author write two essays, one setting out the pros, the other, the cons. undpress.nd.edu/978026821118...
"What the Bangor affair underlines ... is that the right to free speech isn’t the same as the right to a free audience whenever you happen to be campaigning in the neighbourhood; and that whatever you have to say, you can’t actively make people want to listen." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
If you want to know what Reform would be like in power, look at how it threatened Bangor University | Gaby Hinsliff
A debating society didn’t want to invite two figures connected to the party to speak. Cue an authoritarian response, says Guardian columnist Gaby Hinsliff
www.theguardian.com
February 13, 2026 at 10:25 AM
"What the Bangor affair underlines ... is that the right to free speech isn’t the same as the right to a free audience whenever you happen to be campaigning in the neighbourhood; and that whatever you have to say, you can’t actively make people want to listen." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
This is very good. Follow the money, and the cynicism, the self-serving opportunism, and you may learn why people speak as they do. www.theguardian.com/football/202...
Football must reject Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s cynical, self-serving electioneering | Barney Ronay
Tax exile has already proven himself a terrible club owner; now his ill-informed diatribe about immigration has poured fuel on wider flames
www.theguardian.com
February 13, 2026 at 9:08 AM
This is very good. Follow the money, and the cynicism, the self-serving opportunism, and you may learn why people speak as they do. www.theguardian.com/football/202...
This is one of the worst pieces of writing I've seen in a long time. Its "he said, she said" approach is both puerile and misplaced. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Trump revokes landmark ruling that greenhouse gases endanger public health
The White House calls it the largest deregulation in US history, but environmentalists say it will prove costly for Americans.
www.bbc.co.uk
February 13, 2026 at 7:41 AM
This is one of the worst pieces of writing I've seen in a long time. Its "he said, she said" approach is both puerile and misplaced. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by Ian O'Flynn
Day after Alex Pretti killing I complained to BBC about presentation of White House statements and evidence as equivalent. Duty of balance doesn’t extend to complicity with clear lies, I said. BBC could and should report WH making false statements as a *fact of the story*. Today I got response …
February 12, 2026 at 3:34 PM
Day after Alex Pretti killing I complained to BBC about presentation of White House statements and evidence as equivalent. Duty of balance doesn’t extend to complicity with clear lies, I said. BBC could and should report WH making false statements as a *fact of the story*. Today I got response …
Following in from my last post about the poisoning of public discourse ... www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... Demented.
PM tells Sir Jim Ratcliffe to apologise for saying UK 'colonised by immigrants'
Sir Keir Starmer says comments by the businessman and Manchester United co-owner are
www.bbc.co.uk
February 11, 2026 at 11:10 PM
Following in from my last post about the poisoning of public discourse ... www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... Demented.
Can't say I follow all of this (especially Elliott's comments) but, for what it's worth, I've always thought of deliberative democracy as (to adapt a phrase from Brian Barry) a fighting creed.
Good thread on the legacy of Sandel’s call for both a remoralized and yet deliberative politics.
I have been - and probably remain in my heart (which is to say: in my dispositions, desires, and hopes) basically Sandelian in that respect: I have been impressed by the pluralistic and democratic…
1/
I have been - and probably remain in my heart (which is to say: in my dispositions, desires, and hopes) basically Sandelian in that respect: I have been impressed by the pluralistic and democratic…
1/
This depicts Sandel as a sort of prophet of our times because his critique of liberalism was centrally about how it neglected & tried to depoliticize moral conflict, whereas a healthy civic republican politics would process it into a shared "public philosophy" via deliberation. This is very wrong.
February 8, 2026 at 10:19 PM
Can't say I follow all of this (especially Elliott's comments) but, for what it's worth, I've always thought of deliberative democracy as (to adapt a phrase from Brian Barry) a fighting creed.
"Commentators note that by casting Thunberg and other critics of Big Tech as quasi‑religious enemies, he turns policy debates over emissions, data, and algorithms into a cosmic showdown between salvation through innovation and a deceptive, authoritarian environmentalism."
fortune.com/2026/02/04/p...
fortune.com/2026/02/04/p...
Peter Thiel warns the Antichrist and apocalypse are linked to the ‘end of modernity’ currently happening—and cites Greta Thunberg as a driving example | Fortune
The Gen Z Swedish climate activist is a legionnaire of the Antichrist, Thiel claims, a “Luddite” who wants to halt technological progress in its tracks.
fortune.com
February 8, 2026 at 9:37 AM
"Commentators note that by casting Thunberg and other critics of Big Tech as quasi‑religious enemies, he turns policy debates over emissions, data, and algorithms into a cosmic showdown between salvation through innovation and a deceptive, authoritarian environmentalism."
fortune.com/2026/02/04/p...
fortune.com/2026/02/04/p...
The mild voice of reason this is not. Closer to demented. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Pentagon ends academic ties with
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Pentagon will end all graduate-level military training, fellowships and certificate programs at the school.
www.bbc.co.uk
February 8, 2026 at 9:23 AM
The mild voice of reason this is not. Closer to demented. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
New edited collection (well, a new collection of some classics): Models of Deliberative Democracy, edited by Antonino Palumbo: www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/1....
Models of Deliberative Democracy | Antonino Palumbo | Taylor & Francis
This collection of landmark essays explains how deliberation is contributing to the democratization of policy making and policy implementation, fields which in
www.taylorfrancis.com
February 4, 2026 at 4:17 PM
New edited collection (well, a new collection of some classics): Models of Deliberative Democracy, edited by Antonino Palumbo: www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/1....
Reposted by Ian O'Flynn
‘It’s an absolute bloodbath’: Washington Post lays off hundreds of workers
‘It’s an absolute bloodbath’: Washington Post lays off hundreds of workers
Former Post executive editor blasts owner Jeff Bezos’s ‘sickening efforts to curry favor’ with Trump
The Washington Post laid off hundreds of employees on Wednesday, which its former executive editor said “ranks among the darkest days” in the newspaper’s history. Approximately one-third of employees were affected.
Staffers at the Post have been on edge for weeks about the rumored cuts, which the publication would not confirm or deny. “It’s an absolute bloodbath,” said one employee, not authorized to speak publicly. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
February 4, 2026 at 3:54 PM
‘It’s an absolute bloodbath’: Washington Post lays off hundreds of workers
Reposted by Ian O'Flynn
“Without debate, without criticism, no administration and no country can succeed — and no republic can survive...And that is why our press was protected by the First Amendment, the only business in America specifically protected by the Constitution." #JFK #FirstAmendment #PrayForAmerica
January 31, 2026 at 3:28 PM
“Without debate, without criticism, no administration and no country can succeed — and no republic can survive...And that is why our press was protected by the First Amendment, the only business in America specifically protected by the Constitution." #JFK #FirstAmendment #PrayForAmerica
Maija and I had the usual struggles with our paper, so it's great to be shortlisted.
🎆Congratulations to the PSR's Best Original Research Article and Best Short-Form Article Prize Nominees!!🎆
You can see a full list of the nominees, and read their articles, here:
journals.sagepub.com/page/psw/col...
@polstudiesassoc.bsky.social
You can see a full list of the nominees, and read their articles, here:
journals.sagepub.com/page/psw/col...
@polstudiesassoc.bsky.social
January 31, 2026 at 3:54 PM
Maija and I had the usual struggles with our paper, so it's great to be shortlisted.
Implications for public deliberation?
Some years ago, Shapiro argued against deliberative democracy on the grounds that actual politics is about power and private interests. He wasn't wrong. But what have we done about it since? Mainly, conducted a bunch of mini-publics. Groan.
Some years ago, Shapiro argued against deliberative democracy on the grounds that actual politics is about power and private interests. He wasn't wrong. But what have we done about it since? Mainly, conducted a bunch of mini-publics. Groan.
8. You cannot have both a free market in media ownership and a free market in information and ideas. The oligarchs who dominate the sector stifle inconvenient thoughts and promote the policies that protect their fortunes.
January 23, 2026 at 4:00 PM
Implications for public deliberation?
Some years ago, Shapiro argued against deliberative democracy on the grounds that actual politics is about power and private interests. He wasn't wrong. But what have we done about it since? Mainly, conducted a bunch of mini-publics. Groan.
Some years ago, Shapiro argued against deliberative democracy on the grounds that actual politics is about power and private interests. He wasn't wrong. But what have we done about it since? Mainly, conducted a bunch of mini-publics. Groan.
New from Politics and Governance: Towards an Innovative Democracy: Institutionalizing Participation in Challenging Times (2026, Volume 14).
Edited by Irena Fiket, Gazela Drasko and Giovanni Allegretti
Complete issue: www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/issue/view/479
Edited by Irena Fiket, Gazela Drasko and Giovanni Allegretti
Complete issue: www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/issue/view/479
Towards an Innovative Democracy: Institutionalizing Participation in Challenging Times
Thematic Issue, Vol 14 (2026)
www.cogitatiopress.com
January 22, 2026 at 11:11 AM
New from Politics and Governance: Towards an Innovative Democracy: Institutionalizing Participation in Challenging Times (2026, Volume 14).
Edited by Irena Fiket, Gazela Drasko and Giovanni Allegretti
Complete issue: www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/issue/view/479
Edited by Irena Fiket, Gazela Drasko and Giovanni Allegretti
Complete issue: www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/issue/view/479
A clear statement of the essential relationship between representative democracy, political trust and pursuit of the public interest. Though it tends to be forgotten nowadays, this relationship was a key driver of the emergence of deliberative democracy in the 1980s. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Opinion | How Trump Has Used the Presidency to Make at Least $1.4 Billion
The president took an oath to serve the American people. Instead, he’s focused his second term on enriching himself and his family.
www.nytimes.com
January 21, 2026 at 8:59 AM
A clear statement of the essential relationship between representative democracy, political trust and pursuit of the public interest. Though it tends to be forgotten nowadays, this relationship was a key driver of the emergence of deliberative democracy in the 1980s. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
"[T]he board of peace would invest considerable power in one man--Donald Trump." Sure, the current Security Council is a mess. But "'it's a space where...countries talk and discuss their policies, cooperation and, very importantly, their red lines on particular issues'."
www.rte.ie/news/analysi...
www.rte.ie/news/analysi...
Does Donald Trump's 'Board of Peace' undermine the UN?
The UN has had its fair share of knocks over its 80 years, but the latest move by US President Donald Trump to set up a rival organisation under his personal stewardship could prove its biggest challe...
www.rte.ie
January 20, 2026 at 9:35 AM
"[T]he board of peace would invest considerable power in one man--Donald Trump." Sure, the current Security Council is a mess. But "'it's a space where...countries talk and discuss their policies, cooperation and, very importantly, their red lines on particular issues'."
www.rte.ie/news/analysi...
www.rte.ie/news/analysi...
How about this for an essay title?: "Donald Trump and the Limits of Deliberative Democracy."
Might be a good time to flag this one again: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
Might be a good time to flag this one again: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
journals.sagepub.com
January 19, 2026 at 9:31 PM
How about this for an essay title?: "Donald Trump and the Limits of Deliberative Democracy."
Might be a good time to flag this one again: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
Might be a good time to flag this one again: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
It's worth tracking all the things that accompany a slide into authoritarianism in order to better understand their implications for the deliberative public sphere -- or, indeed, for our understanding of what the deliberative public sphere actually is. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
White House press secretary tells CBS ‘we’ll sue your ass off’ if it edits Trump interview
Karoline Leavitt was recorded warning network to broadcast new interview with president in full and without edits
www.theguardian.com
January 18, 2026 at 5:30 PM
It's worth tracking all the things that accompany a slide into authoritarianism in order to better understand their implications for the deliberative public sphere -- or, indeed, for our understanding of what the deliberative public sphere actually is. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
"His usurpation of law enforcement power threatens us all. His meddling with the independence of the Fed undermines the economy. His attacks on members of Congress and the news media threaten people’s right to speak freely and hold the government accountable."
“One year into his second term, America risks losing a central feature of our democracy: that we are a country ruled by laws, not by one man.” That endangers every one of us.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/17/o...
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/17/o...
Opinion | For Trump, Justice Means Vengeance
www.nytimes.com
January 18, 2026 at 1:32 PM
"His usurpation of law enforcement power threatens us all. His meddling with the independence of the Fed undermines the economy. His attacks on members of Congress and the news media threaten people’s right to speak freely and hold the government accountable."
Reposted by Ian O'Flynn
I have an article forthcoming in the Annual Review of Political Science called, "Participatory Democracy & Its Limits." It focuses on limited citizen attention & how participation can backfire, w/ land use as an example.
Abstract below; here's a preprint: kevinjelliott.wordpress.com/wp-content/u...
Abstract below; here's a preprint: kevinjelliott.wordpress.com/wp-content/u...
January 15, 2026 at 9:52 PM
I have an article forthcoming in the Annual Review of Political Science called, "Participatory Democracy & Its Limits." It focuses on limited citizen attention & how participation can backfire, w/ land use as an example.
Abstract below; here's a preprint: kevinjelliott.wordpress.com/wp-content/u...
Abstract below; here's a preprint: kevinjelliott.wordpress.com/wp-content/u...
The answer is hardly surprising, I suppose, but the broader point is an important one.
🔴 Last week the Free Speech Union got a High Court writ to prevent the publication of a list of its donors
So we decided to investigate who *does* fund Toby Young's outfit
Wanna see? 🫣
New on Democracy for Sale:
democracyforsale.substack.com/p/who-funds-...
So we decided to investigate who *does* fund Toby Young's outfit
Wanna see? 🫣
New on Democracy for Sale:
democracyforsale.substack.com/p/who-funds-...
Who funds the Free Speech Union?
Toby Young’s outfit went to court to hide its donors. Today we reveal that funders include US anti-abortion groups, Brexit politicians and Tufton Street insiders.
democracyforsale.substack.com
January 15, 2026 at 10:20 AM
The answer is hardly surprising, I suppose, but the broader point is an important one.