Joel Sievert
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jsievert.bsky.social
Joel Sievert
@jsievert.bsky.social
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Political Scientist at Texas Tech. Dogs & coffee make me happy
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Joel Sievert @jsievert.bsky.social · Sep 19
Happy (official) publication day to one of my favorite projects ever!

tldr: Congressional votes on early federal infrastructure policy was influenced by partisan, distributive, and racial considerations
The National Road was an early, but failed, attempt by the United States Congress to build an interstate highway. The Road, which extended through the newly formed western states, led to fierce debate over two interconnected issues. First, should Congress authorize additional routes that would expand the Road beyond its original western route? Second, should the Road remain under federal control or should it be given to the states through which it ran? I find that partisanship was the most consistent predictor of a legislator’s position on these questions. In addition to partisanship, legislators from districts with a larger slave population were also more likely to oppose the Road. Distributive politics also informed representative’s behavior ad those whose districts were more proximate to the Road were more of these projects. In sum, an examination of the politics of the National Road helps to shed light on the interconnection of partisanship, slavery, and distributive politics in early America and its implications for early American political development.
Reposted by Joel Sievert
chriscooperwcu.bsky.social
The Roads to Congress 2024 is out!

I've got a chapter about the only toss-up district in the South--the 1st district in #ncpol, (I also discuss redistricting in NC more generally), but there is lots of good stuff in the book even if you couldn't care less about the 1st

Check it out!

#polisky
flyer for an edited book entitled "The Roads to Congress 2024" screenshot of the title of a chapter in the Roads to Congress 2024.
January 7, 2026 at 1:19 PM
Reposted by Joel Sievert
smotus.bsky.social
I'm pleased to report that my forthcoming book is now available for pre-sale. What's more, if you become a paid subscriber to Tusk, I'll send you a complimentary copy of the book!
More about the book below (1/4):
smotus.substack.com/p/my-new-boo...
January 5, 2026 at 8:18 PM
Reposted by Joel Sievert
joshchafetz.bsky.social
There's significant evidence from state legislative term limits that they do, in fact, empower both lobbyists and state executive branches.

"Disagreeing" without offering any counter-evidence is just vibes.
datadrivenmd.social Jorge A. Caballero, MD @datadrivenmd.social · 24d
I disagree with the suggestion that term limits would further empower lobbyists and therefore we shouldn't consider them as a viable path forward. The current system of federal elected officials who are financially incentivized to become insider traders until they choose to retire isn't working.
January 4, 2026 at 1:56 PM
Reposted by Joel Sievert
profsaunders.bsky.social
Some thoughts on what Trump has done in Venezuela and what it might mean for US national security. Caveat: not a Latin America scholar so this is focused on US policy. Clearly huge consequences for Venezuela that others can address.

First, despite the buildup, I didn't think Trump would do it.

1/
January 3, 2026 at 2:37 PM
Reposted by Joel Sievert
profsaunders.bsky.social
Things I can't stop thinking about (not most impt but still), a running list: this is the pet project of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the nation's top diplomat, also the NSA, Acting National Archivist, and Acting head of now-dead USAID, which would be useful in a post-Maduro scenario. 1/
January 3, 2026 at 3:27 PM
Reposted by Joel Sievert
joshsternberg.com
A functioning Congress will have articles of impeachment drafted by the end of the day.

Our Congress will just go to social media to basically say “We don’t like this, but what are you gonna do?”
January 3, 2026 at 1:30 PM
Reposted by Joel Sievert
sarahobolt.bsky.social
🚨 We’re hiring an Assistant Professor in Political Science

⏰ Deadline 4th January 2026

🙋‍♀️ Any questions, please reach out

👇
sarahobolt.bsky.social Sara Hobolt @sarahobolt.bsky.social · Nov 25
🚨 LSE Assistant Professor in Political Science 🚨

We’re hiring a tenure-track assistant professor - any area of empirical political science - to join our wonderful Government Dept @lsegovernment.bsky.social

Any questions, please reach out to me

📣 Please share! 📣

jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...
December 30, 2025 at 8:16 AM
jsievert.bsky.social
As a resident of West Texas, I endorse this view.
aedwardslevy.bsky.social Ariel Edwards-Levy @aedwardslevy.bsky.social · Dec 19
my most toxic trait is that I believe wind gusts are an attack by the weather against me personally
December 29, 2025 at 7:11 PM
Reposted by Joel Sievert
philiprocco.bsky.social
It has been a bracing moment for American federalism, with both unprecedented efforts to extend executive control over state and local govts, novel forms of subnational resistance. Where is federalism going? Paul Nolette and I have edited a new issue of Publius on that question. Short thread:
Table of Contents for Publius: The Journal of Federalism 56 (1, 2026): The Future of Federalism in the United States Articles Introduction: The Future of Federalism in the United States Paul Nolette and Philip Rocco Can Federalism Protect Subnational Liberal Democracy from Central Authoritarianism? James A. Gardner Tools of Subnational Democratic Subversion: A Taxonomy and Research Agenda Andrea Louise Campbell and Andrew Karch Money Is Not Enough: The Temporary Impact of Pandemic-Era Aid on American Fiscal Federalism Amanda Kass Federalism and the Future of US Minimum Wage Policy Shanna Rose Climate Federalism at a Crossroads: From Compensatory to Coercive and Mitigation to Adaptation Scott Moore Who Benefits From Federalism Claims in Federal Court? Lisa L. Miller US Federalism and the Political Economy of Territorial Status: Evidence from Puerto Rico Mariely Lopez-Santana Federalism and Polarization: How Can Research Be More Relevant? Carol S. Weissert Is the Picket Fence Still Standing? Tracing Administrative Federalism in the States Matthew J. Uttermark From Variables to Mechanisms in Federalism Research Scott L. Greer
December 26, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Reposted by Joel Sievert
pbump.com
Where prices have increased the most this year, per CPI data. www.ms.now/opinion/trum...
December 26, 2025 at 4:32 PM
jsievert.bsky.social
Santa has a weird sense of humor…

Also, check out this wonderful edited volume. Now available for your Spring courses!

www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...
December 24, 2025 at 9:04 PM
jsievert.bsky.social
We lost my Dad to pancreatic cancer in May. I would not wish this disease upon anyone.
yasharali.bsky.social Yashar Ali 🐘 @yasharali.bsky.social · Dec 23
Former Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse says he doesn’t have much time left.

Sasse is just 53 years old.
Ben Sasse • @BenSasse G... Friends- This is a tough note to write, but since a bunch of you have started to suspect something, I'll cut to the chase: Last week I was diagnosed with metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die. Advanced pancreatic is nasty stuff; it's a death sentence. But I already had a death sentence before last week too - we all do. I'm blessed with amazing siblings and half-a-dozen buddies that are genuinely brothers. As one of them put it, "Sure, you're on the clock, but we're all on the clock." Death is a wicked thief, and the bastard pursues us all. Still, I've got less time than I'd prefer. This is hard for someone wired to work and build, but harder still as a husband and a dad. I can't begin to describe how great my people are. During the past year, as we'd temporarily stepped back from public life and built new family rhythms, Melissa and I have grown even closer - and that on top of three decades of the best friend a man could ever have. Seven months ago, Corrie was commissioned into the Air Force and she's off at instrument and multi-engine rounds of flight school. Last week, Alex kicked butt graduating from college a semester early even while teaching gen chem, organic, and physics (she's a freak). This summer, 14-year-old Breck started learning to drive. (Okay, we've been driving off-book for six years — but now we've got paper to make it street-legal.) I couldn't be more grateful to constantly get to bear-hug this motley crew of sinners and saints. There's not a good time to tell your peeps you're now marching to the beat of a faster drummer - but the season of advent isn't the worst. As a Christian, the weeks running up to Christmas are a time to orient our hearts toward the hope of what's to come. There's not a good time to tell your peeps you're now marching to the beat of a faster drummer — but the season of advent isn't the worst. As a Christian, the weeks running up to Christmas are a time to orient our hearts toward the hope of what's to come. Not an abstract hope in fanciful human goodness; not hope in vague hallmark-sappy spirituality; not a bootstrapped hope in our own strength (what foolishness is the evaporating-muscle | once prided myself in). Nope — often we lazily say "hope" when what we mean is "optimism." To be clear, optimism is great, and it's absolutely necessary, but it's insufficient. It's not the kinda thing that holds up when you tell your daughters you're not going to walk them down the aisle. Nor telling your mom and pops they're gonna bury their son. A well-lived life demands more reality — stiffer stuff. That's why, during advent, even while still walking in darkness, we shout our hope — often properly with a gravelly voice soldiering through tears. Such is the calling of the pilgrim. Those who know ourselves to need a Physician should dang well look forward to enduring beauty and eventual fulfillment. That is, we hope in a real Deliverer — a rescuing God, born at a real time, in a real place. But the eternal city - with foundations and without cancer - is not yet. Remembering Isaiah's prophecies of what's to come doesn't dull the pain of current sufferings. But it does put it in eternity's perspective: "When we've been there 10,000 years...We've no less days to sing God's praise." I'll have more to say. I'm not going down without a fight. One sub-part of God's grace is found in the jawdropping advances science has made the past few years in immunotherapy and more. Death and dying aren't the same — the process of dying is still something to be lived. We're zealously embracing a lot of gallows humor in our house, and I've pledged to do my part to run through the irreverent tape. But for now, as our family faces the reality of treatmen…
December 23, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Reposted by Joel Sievert
kathleenweldon.bsky.social
One advantage of being a data archive is that virtually everything we have of value can in fact be digitized. But so much of it is not. So we need researchers to let us know what they need.
erinbartram.bsky.social Erin Grievances @erinbartram.bsky.social · Dec 22
Archivists/librarians please share the coolest thing in your collections that will never be digitized.
bungdan.bsky.social Dan Murphy @bungdan.bsky.social · Dec 22
I live in the heart of California gold country. One of the richest mines ever in CA is nearby. Opened circa 1860 closed 1942. A local foundation has preserved the records on site. I know not a stitch has been digitized and am confident no more than 2 pro historians have ever been in there.
December 22, 2025 at 2:04 PM
Reposted by Joel Sievert
upshot.nytimes.com
Both parties are now preparing for “affordability” to play a major role in the midterm elections next year. How did it emerge so quickly?

www.nytimes.com/2025/12/20/u...
How Democrats Used One Word to Turn the Tide Against Trump
www.nytimes.com
December 20, 2025 at 2:36 PM
Reposted by Joel Sievert
victorgayeco.bsky.social
There is growing interest in HPE about social conflict in the run-up to the French Revolution.

In a new article at Data & Corpus, I describe the Jean Nicolas Database, a database of 8,516 rebellions in France (1661-1789)

👉Article: doi.org/10.46298/dc....
👉Database: doi.org/10.7910/DVN/...

🧵1/6
December 19, 2025 at 1:47 PM
Reposted by Joel Sievert
elizabethbitmeehan.com
the analogy I use with friends and family all the time is the jump from collegiate to professional sports. as soon as I explain it that way, it clicks in their brains what the academic job market is like.
lollardfish.bsky.social David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social · Dec 19
THERE ARE NO JOBS IN ACADEMIA! NO JOBS! DOZENS OF HYPER QUALIFIED APPLICANTS PER JOB!
December 19, 2025 at 3:52 PM
jsievert.bsky.social
London at Christmas time was a delight. Until next time!
December 18, 2025 at 10:50 AM
jsievert.bsky.social
Am I the only one bothered by the chart not adding up to 100 when there’s no space for don’t know?
opiniontoday.bsky.social Opinion Today @opiniontoday.bsky.social · Dec 18
Fox News Poll: As prices pinch, voters see President Trump focused elsewhere.
www.foxnews.com/politics/fox...
December 18, 2025 at 10:40 AM
Reposted by Joel Sievert
sarahbinder.bsky.social
Discharge rule continues campaign for 2025 MVP award🏆! Coalition to extend ACA support hits 218 signatures, matching record 4 "entered" discharge petitions set 90 years ago (1937-8). Speakers today may have peak agenda power, but that's no match for angry 218 (and an organized minority).
December 17, 2025 at 7:43 PM
Reposted by Joel Sievert
garritzmannj.bsky.social
we have 5 positions open at @goetheuni.bsky.social in Frankfurt
- a 4,5 year postdoc in my @erc.europa.eu project on the educational cleavage
- 2 postdoc & 2 PhD positions, 4 years, in a research group on Reconfiguration & Internalization of Social Structure

www.uni-frankfurt.de/48794784/FB0...
Goethe-Universität — FB03 - Gesellschaftswissenschaften
Die Goethe-Universität ist eine forschungsstarke Hochschule in der europäischen Finanzmetropole Frankfurt. Lebendig, urban und weltoffen besitzt sie als Stiftungsuniversität ein einzigartiges Maß an E...
www.uni-frankfurt.de
December 17, 2025 at 10:43 AM
Reposted by Joel Sievert
corinnakroeber.bsky.social
🚨 Postdoc in Comparative Politics/Public Opinion (2 years)

We’re hiring a 100% Postdoc at the University of Greifswald.

✨ What makes this job special: Two full years to focus on research (no teaching, no admin overload) embedded into an International Research Training Group
Postdoctoral Research Associate - International Research Training Group 2560 “Baltic Peripeties" 25/E19
Stellenausschreibung Institut für Politik- und Kommunikationswissenschaft
www.uni-greifswald.de
December 17, 2025 at 9:45 AM
Reposted by Joel Sievert
lilymasonphd.bsky.social
New post-doc position working with me in a new lab at @snfagora.bsky.social ! It's one year appointment, renewable for up to 5 years. The position includes data analysis and independent research, mentorship of lab members, and participation in SNF Agora Institute life.

apply.interfolio.com/178796
Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
apply.interfolio.com
December 16, 2025 at 8:08 PM
Reposted by Joel Sievert
ropercenter.bsky.social
Now available in Roper iPoll!
December 16, 2025 at 2:08 PM
jsievert.bsky.social
The Old Vic last night. Royal Opera House today.
December 16, 2025 at 1:26 PM
jsievert.bsky.social
How many flat whites can I drink in five days🤔
December 14, 2025 at 11:00 AM