Ben Worthy
benworthy.bsky.social
Ben Worthy
@benworthy.bsky.social
Political science 65%
Sociology 11%
Pinned
My piece on Trump's Fascism for Political Insight 'Authoritarianism, mass arrests, political violence – Donald Trump’s regime fits the historical pattern of fascism' journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
The Fascism of Donald Trump - Ben Worthy, 2025
journals.sagepub.com

Reposted by Ben Worthy

*PSA PUBLICATIONS* 📚Political Insight December issue is out now!📚
Featuring #OpenAccess article 'Freedom of Information at 20' by @benworthy.bsky.social
➡️ Read for FREE buff.ly/LMYdW3U
@sagepub.com
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
buff.ly
📚New 'Political Insight' issue📚
Featuring #OpenAccess article 'The #British #GeneralElection of 2024: A #Labour Landslide Built on Fragile Foundations' by @robfordmancs.bsky.social, @timbale.bsky.social, @drjennings.bsky.social & @psurridge.bsky.social
➡️ buff.ly/LMYdW3U
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
buff.ly

Stop getting Maginot wrong. Great article by @alanallport.bsky.social

Reposted by Ben Worthy

On 15 Jan, we'll be launching our latest report.

'Leaky Pipes: Better Election Donation Data' uncovers the gaps, inconsistencies, and missed opportunities in how the UK records and discloses election donations.

Sign up to come along and discuss the findings:
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/mysociety-...
mySociety report launch: 'Leaky Pipes: Better Election Donation Data'
Join mySociety’s democracy team for a one-hour discussion diving into the findings of our new report on election donations reporting.
www.eventbrite.co.uk
There is much to applaud in Labour's new inquiry into foreign interference in British politics

But it needs to go much further if it's to tackle how foreign influence really works - and properly protect British democracy

New by me on Democracy for Sale democracyforsale.substack.com/p/labours-fo...
Labour’s foreign interference inquiry needs to go *much* further
Plus: Mark Galeotti on Russia’s foreign political influence, the war in Ukraine and how crime organises the world
democracyforsale.substack.com

Reposted by Tim Bale, Ben Worthy

The Covid Inquiry revealed that there were ‘substantive discussions’ of important policy decisions via texts.

Frequent use of WhatsApp undermines transparency, and decreases the quality of decisions.

By @benworthy.bsky.social & @mrosenbaum.bsky.social
Government by WhatsApp? Covid, Transparency and Government by Text
The Covid Inquiry revealed that there were ‘substantive discussions’ of important policy decisions through texts and messages. Is this ever acceptable?
politicalquarterly.org.uk

Reposted by Ben Worthy

There's been a massive jump in FOI requests to the Home Office in particular, but increases across other departments too
Good. This was such a great opportunity for students to take part in. Great to see we will be part of it again!
UK to rejoin EU’s Erasmus student exchange programme
Exclusive: British students will be able to participate in EU-wide scheme from January 2027, sources say
www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Ben Worthy

*PSA PUBLICATIONS* 📚Political Insight December issue is out now!📚
Featuring #OpenAccess article 'Freedom of Information at 20' by @benworthy.bsky.social
➡️ Read for FREE buff.ly/LMYdW3U
@sagepub.com
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
buff.ly

Reposted by Tim Bale, Ben Worthy

10 nuggets from the new "British General Election of 2024" book, courtesy of @timbale.bsky.social

theconversation.com/the-ten-most...
The ten most surprising facts from the 2024 election revealed
Voters cared a lot less about tax than you might think.
theconversation.com

Reposted by Ben Worthy

The work of @mysociety.org is tremendous.
In 2025:

- 1 million+ reports were made on FixMyStreet
- 2.5 million+ people visited debate and MP pages on TheyWorkForYou
- 150,000+ FOI requests were submitted on WhatDoTheyKnow
- 158,000+ messages were sent via WriteToThem

Find out more: mysociety.org
mySociety
mySociety provides technology, research and data to help people be active citizens, in more than 40 countries around the world.
mysociety.org

Reposted by Ben Worthy

The Covid Inquiry revealed that there were ‘substantive discussions’ of important policy decisions via texts.

Frequent use of WhatsApp undermines transparency, and decreases the quality of decisions.

By @benworthy.bsky.social & @mrosenbaum.bsky.social
Government by WhatsApp? Covid, Transparency and Government by Text
The Covid Inquiry revealed that there were ‘substantive discussions’ of important policy decisions through texts and messages. Is this ever acceptable?
politicalquarterly.org.uk

Reposted by Ben Worthy

The Covid Inquiry revealed how the use of chat apps in gov't created an unprecedented document trail, along with a temptation to avoid record keeping or to lose/delete records. By @benworthy.bsky.social & me, for @politicalquarterly.bsky.social - thepoliticalquarterly.substack.com/p/government...
Government by WhatsApp?
The Covid Inquiry revealed that there were ‘substantive discussions’ of important policy decisions through texts and messages. Is this ever acceptable? By Ben Worthy and Martin Rosenbaum.
thepoliticalquarterly.substack.com

Reposted by Ben Worthy

We've just published a new Substack.

The Covid Inquiry revealed there were ‘substantive discussions’ of important policy decisions through texts and messages. Is this ever acceptable?

By @benworthy.bsky.social & @mrosenbaum.bsky.social

Read: thepoliticalquarterly.substack.com/p/government...

Reposted by Tim Bale, Ben Worthy

Time to look behind another "British General Election of 2024" advent calander window. As is tradition in every post 2016 Christmas, Brexit is in the air, with speculation about whether Labour might push to move closer to the EU. But what role did Brexit play in last July's election? Read on!
Time to open another window on the "British General Election of 2024" advent calender. Today we ask - which party leader won the 2024 campaign? Read on to open the window and find out!
Time to open the 5th window of the BGE 2024 advent calendar. Yesterday we looked at how last year's election made Parliament more ethnically diverse and more (but not fully) gender balanced. Today we ask - why was the Tory collapse so massive?

Reposted by Ben Worthy

Released on this day in 1975: Marcus Garvey (album) #BurningSpear
youtu.be/oV8QWVph4f0?si…
Congrats to Specialist Journalism winners @petergeoghegan.bsky.social Jenna Corderoy and Lucas Amin of Democracy for Sale #BJA2025

Reposted by Ben Worthy

absolute bargain if any of yous have a use for 7,949,020,598 wasps
Ongoing decimation of British universities part 252:

Apx. 1000 academic staff at University of Essex just received formal ‘risk of redundancy’ letters via email.

Please share @ucuessex.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk

Reposted by Ben Worthy

Morning! Here's something exciting we've been working on: WriteToThem Insights www.mysociety.org/2025/12/11/n...
New report: WriteToThem Insights
What people are writhing to their representatives about? Insights from a new survey.
www.mysociety.org
If anyone remembers that list which said historians were second in line to be replaced by AI, I've had some thoughts about it... and how it relates to some aspects of public history and the current climate facing historians.

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
The Historian in the Age of AI | Transactions of the Royal Historical Society | Cambridge Core
The Historian in the Age of AI
www.cambridge.org

Reposted by Ben Worthy

My favourite of my own papers is on this exact topic (should be free to read) www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Effective members of Congress propose more moderate legislation and are willing to compromise with the other side finds @jmcrosson.bsky.social of Purdue University

blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/20...
Effective members of Congress propose more moderate legislation and are willing to compromise with the other side | USAPP
he most effective lawmakers systematically propose more moderate legislation that is often more moderate than their own political positions.
blogs.lse.ac.uk
Christian von Sikorski and Michael Hameleers have curated a timely and excellent special issue on 𝗔𝗜 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻. 👏
Check it out here: journals.sagepub.com/toc/JMQ/curr....
@profdimitrova.bsky.social @cvsikorski.bsky.social #commsky
Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly - Volume 102, Number 4
Table of contents for Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 102, 4
journals.sagepub.com
🚨Excited to share our new paper published in PNAS (joint with @yamilrvelez.bsky.social and Don Green)! AI can enhance political knowledge and provide balanced information about politics with proper guardrails and vetted sources (e.g., party platforms).

www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....

Reposted by Ben Worthy

Miroslav Holub
1923 - 1998

A Boy's Head (1963)

In it there is a space-ship
and a project
for doing away with piano lessons
Which lines of poetry live rent-free in your head?

Reposted by Ben Worthy

This is amazing, and explains a lot about US politics. Thanks for writing this up @adambonica.bsky.social
Study after study shows campaign ads barely move the needle. So where does money’s real power come from? I ranked the five ways money corrupts politics—from least to most corrosive. What I’ve learned from 15 years of tracking political money:
Money Doesn't Buy Elections. It Does Something Worse.
Campaign ads barely move the needle. The real influence is hiding in plain sight.
open.substack.com
Study after study shows campaign ads barely move the needle. So where does money’s real power come from? I ranked the five ways money corrupts politics—from least to most corrosive. What I’ve learned from 15 years of tracking political money:
Money Doesn't Buy Elections. It Does Something Worse.
Campaign ads barely move the needle. The real influence is hiding in plain sight.
open.substack.com