Ben Ansell
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benansell.bsky.social
Ben Ansell
@benansell.bsky.social
30K followers 1K following 6.7K posts

Professor of Comparative Democratic Institutions, Nuffield & University of Oxford, FBA. http://benansell.substack.com. BBC Reith Lecturer 2023. Host BBC Radio 4 Rethink. Columnist for Prospect. Director, Centre for Advanced Social Science Methods (CASSM). .. more

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Ben W. Ansell is Professor of Comparative Democratic Institutions at Nuffield College, University of Oxford and, with David Samuels, editor of Comparative Political Studies.

Source: Wikipedia
Political science 47%
Economics 40%
Posts Replies Media Videos

Reposted by Ben H. Ansell

jamesrball.com
James Ball @jamesrball.com · 3h
When the obits for Bluesky are written – and that day probably got closer lately – a trans writer getting hounded off the site amid a row over modding video games to give characters bigger boobs (but wokely, apparently?) is definitely gonna be in there.

benansell.bsky.social
Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 4h
Yep this is the area where I do think visas had been over-extended.

benansell.bsky.social
Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 4h
Fair point

Reposted by Ben H. Ansell

davidsquires.bsky.social
David Squires @davidsquires.bsky.social · 4h
Here’s this week’s cartoon for @sport.theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com/football/pic...
David Squires on … Amorim and Maresca being thrown overboard in power struggles
Our cartoonist on a typically sedate start to 2026 at two of the Premier League’s biggest ‘projects’
www.theguardian.com

benansell.bsky.social
Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 4h
Appropriately scathing from @stephenkb.bsky.social

www.ft.com/content/0e12...

benansell.bsky.social
Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 4h
Very good you didn't call me out for putting 0.42 when it was 0.44 ;)

benansell.bsky.social
Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 5h
Well, what if I'm just pretending to have read Hegel?

benansell.bsky.social
Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 5h
Interesting that your figures then are pretty close to Ofcom's: .36*.42 = 0.151

benansell.bsky.social
Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 5h
Seva, if I remember my Hegel correctly, you do need an antithesis

benansell.bsky.social
Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 5h
There goes the Big Society

benansell.bsky.social
Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 5h
The 'magic segment' is a very pernicious myth.

Reposted by Ben H. Ansell

theangelofhistory.bsky.social
theangelofhistory.bsky.social @theangelofhistory.bsky.social · 5h
We’ve had year and years of pundits claiming “kill the paedos, support the NHS” is the economic sweet spot - but it has almost no market

There’s a real reluctance amongst most of the pundit class to accept social liberalism is here to stay with half the country deeply committed to to most of it

benansell.bsky.social
Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 5h
I think I probably get too much time on Radio 4 already ;)

benansell.bsky.social
Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 5h
Fair points from both of you on this

benansell.bsky.social
Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 5h
Almost no-one in that corner in my analysis (although still more than in social liberal / economic conservative world). People are desperate for this corner to be the silver bullet but it ain't

Reposted by Ben H. Ansell

lastpositivist.bsky.social
lastpositivist.bsky.social @lastpositivist.bsky.social · 5h
And I just think you have to understand that about these people, they're barely capable of formulating the question "why should I do this?" - the fact that other people don't want them to but they can and therefore they're demonstrating their power over them by so doing, that's it, that's enough.

benansell.bsky.social
Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 6h
I write too much. This is the lesson.

Reposted by Ben H. Ansell

tobyn.bsky.social
Toby Nangle @tobyn.bsky.social · 6h
Reform UK voters stand out for their firm belief that white men are victimised & that minorities are subject to positive discrimination.

Had missed this blog by @benansell.bsky.social last year.
benansell.substack.com/p/odd-ones-out

benansell.bsky.social
Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 6h
Just hold it in until you can afford the new cost

benansell.bsky.social
Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 6h
A carehome in every pot

benansell.bsky.social
Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 6h
He could just lend them the anti-growth lever he's been deploying for the last 18 months

benansell.bsky.social
Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 6h
That's right - although the various analyses in my Substack are for current Reform voters, who remain distinct from everyone else

benansell.bsky.social
Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 6h
Good thing that social care is known to be a highly elastic good then!

benansell.bsky.social
Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 6h
Many thanks

benansell.bsky.social
Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 6h
Cheap at twice the price

benansell.bsky.social
Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 6h
There is indeed such an answer that a previous PM and CHX negotiated and yet... from my immigration post. benansell.substack.com/p/select-and...

benansell.bsky.social
Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 6h
These same people probably unaware that the economic attractiveness of the UK, at least as compared to the former two countries, is not exactly compelling.

benansell.bsky.social
Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 6h
Pretty much - in these various posts I've done, but especially the one I link to, the parties are almost perfectly exclusive along the liberal/authoritarian dimension, except Labour and LDs who basically overlap/

Reposted by Will Jennings, Jens Rydgren

benansell.bsky.social
Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 6h
Further evidence that Reform voters are the most distinct political group in the country

benansell.substack.com/p/odd-ones-out

benansell.bsky.social
Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 8h
I don't know, do you think you might be arguing with a joke?