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Scott Gehlbach

@sgehlbach.bsky.social

3.6K followers 490 following 340 posts

University of Chicago, Political Science and Harris School. Director, PhD Program in Political Economy. Autocracy/Eurasia/HPE. Broadstreet blogger. Cards fan but o/w Chicago patriot. 🇺🇦

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Political science 43%

Economics 15%

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Scott Gehlbach @sgehlbach.bsky.social · 20h

Paper here.

Scott Gehlbach @sgehlbach.bsky.social · 1d

Personalist autocracy is bad for growth. My WP with @chrisblattman.bsky.social and Arthur Yu featured in the @economist.com.

The new age of the African Big Man

Ageing autocrats are not a relic of a bygone age. They are a template for the future

economist.com

Reposted by Scott Gehlbach

Kyiv Post @kyivpost.com · 4d

To keep the lights on under fire, Ukraine has built secret battery parks across the country.

Their locations remain classified — hidden from Russian missiles, but crucial in surviving blackouts during massive attacks.

www.kyivpost.com/post/61515

Ukraine Builds Secret Battery Network to Keep Power On During Russian Attacks

The batteries serve as backup power, automatically kicking in if a power plant goes offline, helping prevent blackouts and giving engineers time to restore the main grid.

www.kyivpost.com

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Scott Gehlbach @sgehlbach.bsky.social · 5d

Oct 18, people.

Indivisible Lincoln Square @indivisiblels.bsky.social · 5d

Governor Pritzker says the President is sending 300 National Guard troops to Chicago.

🤝Chicago will find the strength to fight back and defeat the Trump regime.

Please read the statement from the Hands Off Chicago Coalition.
And make sure to join us October 18 to say "Hands Off Chicago!"

Reposted by Scott Gehlbach, Dan Immergluck

Indivisible Lincoln Square @indivisiblels.bsky.social · 5d

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Scott Gehlbach @sgehlbach.bsky.social · 5d

Paul, why? Asking for a non-linked-in friend.

Scott Gehlbach @sgehlbach.bsky.social · 6d

My father-in-law Evgeny Belodubrovsky died Thursday. Once described in the NYT as an “ebullient lover of Russian history and literature,” he was a survivor of the siege of Leningrad and a patriot of St. Petersburg, his true hometown. He was a collector of stories, an organizer, a writer, a father…💙

Reposted by Scott Gehlbach

Volha Charnysh @vcharnysh.bsky.social · 11d

Why did Southern whites who didn’t own slaves defend slavery, an institution that hurt their own economic prospects?
In a new Broadstreet post, Michele Rosenberg explains how planter elites relied on clientelistic relationships to capture political support: www.broadstreet.blog/publish/post...

www.broadstreet.blog

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Reposted by Scott Gehlbach

Scott Ashworth @soashworth.bsky.social · 11d

If you want to read a good book with Klein and Coates as characters:

Political Competition: Theory and Applications | Department of Political Science

In this book, John Roemer presents a unified and rigorous theory of political competition between parties. He models the theory under many specifications, including whether parties are policy oriented...

politicalscience.yale.edu

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Scott Gehlbach @sgehlbach.bsky.social · 12d

I believe this is the moment that President-Elect Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and @ksonin.bsky.social compared the length of their prison sentences imposed in absentia.

Reposted by Joanna Bryson, Kim L. Scheppele, Erich Fromm , and 10 more Joanna Bryson, Kim L. Scheppele, Erich Fromm, Menzie Chinn, Rosemary A. Joyce, Scott Gehlbach, Andrew Curry, Efrén O. Pérez, Robert C. Richards, Dominik Vogel, David Murakami Wood, Brooke Harrington, Gary Hollibaugh

tim frye @timfrye.bsky.social · 13d

So many echoes from this article for US politics....

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Scott Gehlbach @sgehlbach.bsky.social · 14d

Southwest flight attendant: If you have a connection here in Chicago, just skip it. Go downtown instead. There is so much to do, so many places to eat. You will be less happy anywhere else.

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Scott Gehlbach @sgehlbach.bsky.social · 17d

Searching in HPE or related fields? Check out these great students/postdocs on the market!

HPE candidates on the job market

Job market season is here.

www.broadstreet.blog

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Scott Gehlbach @sgehlbach.bsky.social · 21d

Not a coincidence that the organizational core of Navalny’s movement was an anti-corruption organization.

Scott Gehlbach @sgehlbach.bsky.social · 24d

👇

‘The enemy is at the gate’:1 Russia after Beslan

Abstract. This article examines the changes that have taken place in Russian domestic and foreign policy after the Beslan hostage crisis of early September

academic.oup.com

Reposted by Scott Gehlbach

Yuriy Gorodnichenko @ygorodnichenko.bsky.social · Sep 8

The chilling effects of RUS aggression are very much clear in the €zone.

Large spillover effects have implications for:
* Macro stabilization in Europe
* The cost of war in general & RUS agg specifically
* The calculus of costs&benefits of aid to #Ukraine
* mil buildup in Europe

#UkrainianView

NBER @nber.org · Sep 8

Using surveys on expected duration of the Russian-Ukraine and Middle East conflicts to examine impacts of geopolitics on consumers' beliefs about economic conditions and their own financial outlooks, from @ygorodnichenko.bsky.social, Georgarakos, Kenny, and Coibion https://www.nber.org/papers/w34195

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Reposted by Scott Gehlbach

Eugene Finkel @efinkel.bsky.social · Sep 5

To be followed by an executive order renaming every Slavic Studies department the Department of War and Peace

Trump signs executive order renaming Defense Department the Department of War

Pending legislation from Congress, President Donald Trump’s order authorizes the Pentagon to use secondary titles such as “secretary of war.”

www.stripes.com

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Reposted by Scott Gehlbach

Tymofiy Mylovanov @mylovanov.bsky.social · Sep 4

I knew Daria. Students like her are the reason I came back to Ukraine, the reason I am building a university.

She embodied the Ukraine I imagine — because Ukraine is its people. People like Daria. 1/

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Reposted by Anna O. Law, Scott Gehlbach

Anna Grzymala-Busse @annagbusse.bsky.social · Sep 3

Every day, my mother carefully boiled milk, bc otherwise we'd be exposed to tuberculosis, massive GI issues, and other pathogen-borne disease.

When we came to the US, you could just drink milk cold! straight from the bottle! with no gross coat to skim!

Welcome to communist-era Poland, y'all.

Sarah Taber @sarahtaber.bsky.social · Sep 3

Boiling milk before use was just what you did. They had dedicated cookware for it. (Specially shaped to contain boil-overs, which milk is really prone to.)

Household hygiene had SERIOUSLY high stakes back before hot running water & pasteurization.

That's… like… why they taught home economics.

Photo of a vintage milk boiler. Kinda looks like a blocky metal teapot with a weird lid.

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Scott Gehlbach @sgehlbach.bsky.social · Sep 3

An underappreciated aspect of Trump’s authoritarian personality is his tendency to make policy decisions based on personal aesthetic preferences. Wind power, federal architecture,… This is a man who knows what the world should look like.

White House Orders Agencies to Escalate Fight Against Offshore Wind

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by Sascha O. Becker

Scott Gehlbach @sgehlbach.bsky.social · Aug 29

This was a lot of fun! I presented joint work w/ @luozhaotian.bsky.social & @spantoja.bsky.social asking “How Is a Dictatorship (Not) Like a Firm?” Both dictatorships and firms are hierarchical organizations, but there are some illuminating differences. Slides here 👇

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Scott Gehlbach @sgehlbach.bsky.social · Aug 29

Yeah, just try passing through Schengen security with a jar of caviar.

Scott Gehlbach @sgehlbach.bsky.social · Aug 26

There are smart autocrats and dumb autocrats.

Putin is a smart autocrat. Even as he otherwise consolidated power, Putin protected the independence of the Russian Central Bank.

Trump is a dumb autocrat. Having regained power based on swing voters’ inflation concerns, he pours gasoline on the fire.

Trump Administration Live Updates: President Says He Is Removing Lisa Cook From Federal Reserve Board

www.nytimes.com

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Scott Gehlbach @sgehlbach.bsky.social · Aug 20

Kristina is fantastic. She will be a great hire for somebody. Website here: stonecenter.uchicago.edu/people/krist...

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Scott Gehlbach @sgehlbach.bsky.social · Aug 16

of which, 24*(365*4 + 1)…

Scott Gehlbach @sgehlbach.bsky.social · Aug 15

Hyde Park rooting for the good guys.

Reposted by Claudia Sahm, Scott Gehlbach, Michael Kevane

Yuriy Gorodnichenko @ygorodnichenko.bsky.social · Aug 15

Trump welcomes a war criminal on US soil

#UkrainianView

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Reposted by Scott Gehlbach

tim frye @timfrye.bsky.social · Aug 15

academic.oup.com/psq/article-...

What Moves Public Support for Aid to Ukraine? Issue Attention, Partisanship, and Normative Appeals

Abstract. Since 2022, the United States has provided more aid to Ukraine than to any other country, but this policy has become increasingly contentious. Id

academic.oup.com

Scott Gehlbach @sgehlbach.bsky.social · Aug 14

The mystery of the strange and the critical rationality of men are both removed from the city. 3/3

Scott Gehlbach @sgehlbach.bsky.social · Aug 14

There is no better proof of this fact than the attempts of all totalitarian authorities to keep the strange from their subjects…The big city is sliced into pieces, each of which is observed, purged and equalized. 2/3

D.C. to see more federal troops as Trump pushes to extend emergency

The on-the-ground impact of Trump’s federal actions came into view Tuesday night, with National Guard Humvees staged near the Washington Monument.

www.washingtonpost.com

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