Abandoned Footnotes

(Reflections on the nature of charisma and charismatic authority. Applications to current events and people are left as an exercise for the ...

(Of interest mostly to political scientists or other users of country-year democracy data) Quick announcement: I’ve just updated my democr...

(Of historical interest mostly, though I think it’s a good story). Most people reading this blog probably know about Trofim Lysenko , who,...

I have piece at the Monkey Cage on what flattery in authoritarian regimes might say about flattery in the Trump administration . There is pr...

There was a bit more activity on this blog than last year , though still very little (only 5 posts); my New Year’s resolution is to write mo...

The Manchus had their own aristocracy of a kind, formed from the descendants of Nurhaci and other famous warriors, and from the powerful C...

(Mostly a disorganized discussion of Richard Stites’ superb Revolutionary Dreams: Utopian Vision and Experimental Life in the Russian Revolu...