Steven Klein
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stevenklein.bsky.social
Steven Klein
@stevenklein.bsky.social
5.3K followers 710 following 320 posts
Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor in Political Theory, King's College London. Writing a global history and philosophy of unions (Allen Lane/Oxford) and PI for DERISK https://www.derisk.org.uk/
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Reposted by Steven Klein
hannah-farkas.bsky.social
Excited to see my JMP cited in the Economist—it highlights the tradeoffs workers could face with a higher minimum wage and suggests more worker protections like Fair Workweek laws could be important alongside minimum wage increases

www.economist.com/finance-and-...
November 25, 2025 at 4:00 PM
stevenklein.bsky.social
excited to have a research note for DERISK, co-authored with my two amazing post-docs Virginia De Biasio and Robert Reamer. In the note, we outline some of the threats posed by systemic risks to democracy and discuss a potential pathway forward. Check it out here: www.derisk.org.uk/working-papers
Working Papers | DeRisk
DERISK explores how systemic risks are transforming governance in western democratic societies…
www.derisk.org.uk
November 25, 2025 at 10:04 AM
Reposted by Steven Klein
rutgerbregman.com
I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.

They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
November 25, 2025 at 9:26 AM
Reposted by Steven Klein
giannisarra.bsky.social
If you're a PhD student in political theory, definitely submit an abstract.

This was a terrific conference last year, and the organising committee is an amazing group.

philevents.org/event/show/1...
2026 KCL Political Theory Conference
We invite submissions from graduate students in political theory and adjacent disciplines, including but not limited to political philosophy, social and critical theory, history of political thought, ...
philevents.org
November 21, 2025 at 3:41 PM
Reposted by Steven Klein
bjpols.bsky.social
From September 2025 -

Rethinking Citizen Competence: A New Theoretical and Empirical Framework - cup.org/3I85Zlp

- @stevenklein.bsky.social & @ethanvporter.bsky.social

#OpenAccess
BJPolS abstract discussing the challenges and proposal of a new typology for assessing citizen competence in sustaining democracy. The text addresses empirical data and suggests a solutions-oriented, systemic approach rather than individual-level interventions.
November 19, 2025 at 6:50 PM
Reposted by Steven Klein
yairwallach.bsky.social
The LMU announces the cancellation of a seminar on the topic "the targeting of Palestinian academia". The cancellation announcement is titled "LMU as a place of pluralistic discourse". Couldn't make this up.
www.lmu.de/en/about-lmu...
LMU as a place of pluralistic discourse
Statement on the Planned Event “The Targeting of the Palestinian Academia” at LMU Munich
www.lmu.de
November 17, 2025 at 8:35 PM
stevenklein.bsky.social
Rewatching the Simpsons with kids and the episode with this joke about republicans and democrats just came on... evergreen
November 18, 2025 at 7:21 AM
stevenklein.bsky.social
Labour had a window for big tax raises or fiscal change - right after the election, when they could have used the "Tory's left us with a bigger mess than we realized, we need to save the NHS." Their innate caution has led them to a dead end.
luketryl.bsky.social Luke Tryl @luketryl.bsky.social · 11d
Too much analysis was still treating breaking the tax pledge as “just another unpopular decision” rather than recognising consequence of breaking a promise which defined an election for the public. If is correct the govt won’t now break it they may have avoided a deeply scarring loss of public trust
November 14, 2025 at 9:35 AM
Reposted by Steven Klein
samuel-bagg.bsky.social
Misinformation *is* central to democratic problems today, but the solution is *not* to correct such epistemic failures directly. Instead, we must address them at their roots, in social identity.

Or so I argue in a new post for @apaphilosophy.bsky.social.

blog.apaonline.org/2025/11/12/t...
The Problem is Epistemic. The Solution is Not. | Blog of the APA
Doubts about the wisdom of the masses are as old as philosophy itself. Yet interest in democracy’s “epistemic” merits has surged in the last decade—and it is no mystery why. Democracy is collapsing ar...
blog.apaonline.org
November 13, 2025 at 1:16 AM
Reposted by Steven Klein
yoandhey.bsky.social
KCL PPE for Public Policy Graduate
Conference

📅Date: 26 Nov 2025
🏟️Place: KCL Waterloo Campus
🎤Keynote: Prof. Jonathan Wolff
📊Sessions: Interdisciplinary & Policy-oriented (see ⤵︎for details)
📝Register here:
kclppe4pp.github.io

Please come join us!!

#PPE #Econsky #Philsky
#Polisky #Policysky
November 12, 2025 at 10:33 AM
Reposted by Steven Klein
benbraun.bsky.social
The central argument in this excellent paper & thread is that the open-access turn has neglected profit; indeed, it turbo-charged publishers’ margins. As political economists who know a thing or two about profit and power we should speak up a lot more. As it says below: What we’re doing is crazy.
hansonmark.bsky.social Mark A. Hanson @hansonmark.bsky.social · 14d
We wrote the Strain on scientific publishing to highlight the problems of time & trust. With a fantastic group of co-authors, we present The Drain of Scientific Publishing:

a 🧵 1/n

Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820
Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
Oligopoly: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
A table showing profit margins of major publishers. A snippet of text related to this table is below. 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year. A figure detailing the drain on researcher time. 1. The four-fold drain 1.2 Time The number of papers published each year is growing faster than the scientific workforce, with the number of papers per researcher almost doubling between 1996 and 2022 (Figure 1A). This reflects the fact that publishers’ commercial desire to publish (sell) more material has aligned well with the competitive prestige culture in which publications help secure jobs, grants, promotions, and awards. To the extent that this growth is driven by a pressure for profit, rather than scholarly imperatives, it distorts the way researchers spend their time. The publishing system depends on unpaid reviewer labour, estimated to be over 130 million unpaid hours annually in 2020 alone (9). Researchers have complained about the demands of peer-review for decades, but the scale of the problem is now worse, with editors reporting widespread difficulties recruiting reviewers. The growth in publications involves not only the authors’ time, but that of academic editors and reviewers who are dealing with so many review demands. Even more seriously, the imperative to produce ever more articles reshapes the nature of scientific inquiry. Evidence across multiple fields shows that more papers result in ‘ossification’, not new ideas (10). It may seem paradoxical that more papers can slow progress until one considers how it affects researchers’ time. While rewards remain tied to volume, prestige, and impact of publications, researchers will be nudged away from riskier, local, interdisciplinary, and long-term work. The result is a treadmill of constant activity with limited progress whereas core scholarly practices – such as reading, reflecting and engaging with others’ contributions – is de-prioritized. What looks like productivity often masks intellectual exhaustion built on a demoralizing, narrowing scientific vision. A table of profit margins across industries. The section of text related to this table is below: 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year. The costs of inaction are plain: wasted public funds, lost researcher time, compromised scientific integrity and eroded public trust. Today, the system rewards commercial publishers first, and science second. Without bold action from the funders we risk continuing to pour resources into a system that prioritizes profit over the advancement of scientific knowledge.
November 12, 2025 at 8:30 AM
stevenklein.bsky.social
Even starmers own loyalists have seemed to settle on "getting rid of him will roil the markets and make us look chaotic" rather than "he's a good leader"
November 12, 2025 at 9:02 AM
Reposted by Steven Klein
robin-c.bsky.social
Orwellian levels of political interference in academic affairs: Under pressure from right-wing press and the Minister of Education the prestigious Collège de France cancels the conference ‘Palestine and Europe’ - in the name of academic freedom and neutrality … read this statement by the organizers:
nicolashenin.net Nicolas Henin 🇪🇺💙💛 @nicolashenin.net · 16d
"En cédant à la pression du ministre, Philippe Baptiste, l’administrateur du Collège de France compromet l’indépendance d’une institution fondée il y a plus de quatre siècles, qui a accueilli les plus grands noms de la pensée française, de Foucault à Bourdieu.
Communiqué de presse : le Collège de France cède aux pressions et annule le colloque « La Palestine et l’Europe »
Le Collège de France annule le colloque « La Palestine et l’Europe » sous pression politique. Des universitaires dénoncent l’ingérence ministérielle et un article diffamatoire de Le Point, alertant su...
carep-paris.org
November 10, 2025 at 9:11 AM
Reposted by Steven Klein
colmpm.bsky.social
Breaking the tax pledge is the right call...and politically sulphurous. Reeves must argue, far more forcefully, that taxes are *the* essential downpayment we all pay for a fairer society.

Patrick Diamond and I wrote for @renewaljournal.bsky.social. Key points in 🧵 👇

renewal.org.uk/blog/if-labo...
If Labour want a fairer society, they must argue for it
Labour must make the political argument: taxes are the critical downpayment we all pay to live in a fairer society.  It now seems all but certain that direct taxes will rise in the forthcoming Budget...
renewal.org.uk
November 10, 2025 at 7:34 AM
stevenklein.bsky.social
Wolf wrote a massive book arguing that the relationship between democracy and capitalism has broken down and needs a rebalancing, but when faced with the concrete policies that would enable that he balks
danielagabor.bsky.social Daniela Gabor @danielagabor.bsky.social · 15d
the Greens surge on an affordability crisis platform, Labour government bleeding support for embracing New Labour, and Martin Wolf's advice: stay New Labour

www.ft.com/content/b88e...
The disturbing victory of Old Labour over New Labour
In education, labour and housing we risk going back towards what we know will not work
www.ft.com
November 10, 2025 at 10:56 AM
Reposted by Steven Klein
pkandelic.bsky.social
Simpsons screncap. In Springfield shopping mall. Marge, holding Maggie, points towards a green bird, with red plumage, standing on a perch, while Homer looks on. Caption: "Look, Homer, there's that bird you like to argue with."
November 8, 2025 at 7:47 AM
stevenklein.bsky.social
we honestly have no idea what we are creating and doing here do we.
November 7, 2025 at 2:42 PM
Reposted by Steven Klein
moreperfectunion.bsky.social
BREAKING: Starbucks workers have just authorized a massive strike.

Union Starbucks baristas voted to authorize the strike by 92%.

Now baristas in over 25 cities could launch an unfair labor practice strike on Thursday, November 13th.
November 5, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Reposted by Steven Klein
lyndab08.bsky.social
A family friend was telling us about what her husband shared about his experience in Broadview before he was deported back to Mexico. She's been sharing to friends and family because she's just in disbelief & horror what her husband told her. She wasn't able to talk to him until he was in Mexico.
November 7, 2025 at 3:08 AM
Reposted by Steven Klein
heathercherone.bsky.social
FULL STORY: Finding that federal agents repeatedly used force that “shocks the conscience” and lied about their actions, a federal judge issued a sweeping injunction designed to permanently rein in agents’ use of tear gas and pepper balls. @wttw.bsky.social
news.wttw.com/2025/11/06/f...
Protesters gather outside an ICE processing facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview, Ill., Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025. (AP Photo / Alex Brandon)
November 6, 2025 at 7:38 PM
stevenklein.bsky.social
great news for Udit and Bruno, really excited we will be co-hosting this project!
November 6, 2025 at 11:21 AM
stevenklein.bsky.social
My short piece on democracy and elections was just republished in the magazine Kronika published by the Institute for Philosophy in Zagreb, Croatia

kronika.ifzg.hr/2025/11/04/a...
Are Elections Enough? Democracy and Collective Power - Kronika
Stephen Klein on the limits of elections
kronika.ifzg.hr
November 5, 2025 at 6:36 PM
stevenklein.bsky.social
I'm excited that we will be hosting a discussion of John McCormick's new book, The People’s Princes: Machiavelli, Leadership, and Liberty, here at KCL, with comments from Lawrence Hamilton, Camila Vergara, and David Wootton. Do sign up here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-people...
The People’s Princes: Machiavelli, Leadership, and Liberty
A book discussion with author and academic, John McCormick.
www.eventbrite.co.uk
November 4, 2025 at 10:36 AM
stevenklein.bsky.social
Wanting a European welfare state with less-than-American taxation system.
jonathanhopkin.bsky.social Jonathan Hopkin @jonathanhopkin.bsky.social · 22d
How on earth can Rachel Reeves balance the books? Well, maybe there is a bit of room for taxes to go up, given the vast majority of OECD countries have higher - and in some cases much much higher - taxes on average incomes www.oecd.org/content/dam/...
November 4, 2025 at 10:34 AM
Reposted by Steven Klein
danielagabor.bsky.social
Labour government preparing to hike income taxes - blaming bond markets.

not one adult in the room will say the obvious:

1. Britain's fiscal rules are shambles
2. Bank of England has too much power over fiscal decisions
3. ignore bond vigilantes

www.ft.com/content/5c8f...
Keir Starmer puts Labour MPs on notice for Budget tax rises
Prime minister declines to rule out higher income taxes as Treasury lays foundations for bigger fiscal buffer
www.ft.com
October 31, 2025 at 7:44 AM