Chris Hanretty
chanret.bsky.social
Chris Hanretty
@chanret.bsky.social

I teach politics at a university in the UK. I'm interested in electoral systems, public opinion, and the politics of non-majoritarian institutions like courts and regulators.

ORCID: 0000-0002-8932-9405

Political science 32%
Law 25%

I think you'd have to say more about why the US is sui generis and why that makes this research design invalid. I know the argument for politics (US parties are not unitary actors so it's legislators maximizing goal attainment) but not for public management

Arguments for letting people get on with things: oversight of public projects increases delays and overruns (in the United States) www.jstor.org/stable/48760...
Oversight and Efficiency in Public Projects on JSTOR
Eduard Calvo, Ruomeng Cui, Juan Camilo Serpa, Oversight and Efficiency in Public Projects, Management Science, Vol. 65, No. 12 (December 2019), pp. 5651-5675
www.jstor.org
By way of preparing for teaching and making sense of current events, I spent today trying to synthesise the demand-side literature on democratic backsliding (see figure below). The starting point of most of this literature is simple: Do voters punish politicians who violate democratic norms, or do
So much stupid stuff happens when your institutions are motivated by the haunting fear that someone, somewhere is getting something they don't deserve.
This report in Nature on the costs of competing for & administering scientific grants is shocking: "In other words, European taxpayers will have spent more on the funding process than on the funding itself, and the scientific ecosystem has been drained." www.nature.com/articles/d41... 🧪
Point of no returns: researchers are crossing a threshold in the fight for funding
With so little money to go round, the costs of competing for grants can exceed what the grants are worth. When that happens, nobody wins.
www.nature.com

This is indeed the joke - and a happy New year to you too!

Makes you think

Reposted by Chris Hanretty

This is lovely. Also the ascent in the infancy is no joke: i thought i had a pretty productive 2025 but that's nothing compared to The Agent growing a fully functioning spinal column in 3 months

Want good news that isn't pablum? It's here 👇
New post!

There was a lot of innovation in medicine and biomedical research this year, and I've tried to summarize the biggest ones in this blogpost.

Medical breakthroughs in 2025. Plus a serious note at the end.
www.scientificdiscovery.dev/p/medical-br...
Medical breakthroughs in 2025
... and a happy new year.
www.scientificdiscovery.dev
Think @sundersays.bsky.social is accurate here.

The UK has not suddenly become much more racist.

However the (re)normalisation of open racism by "respectable" right-wing media and politicians has led to both increased visibility for open racists, & radicalisation of some "soft" racists/xenophobes
Longterm intergenerational shift is a civic widening of inclusion. The short-term shift is hardening views within the minority position
bsky.app/profile/prof...
Today's opinion poll news in context. The longer term trend has been away from ethno-nationalism.

Source:
Butt S, Clery E, Curtice J, editors (2022). British Social Attitudes: The 39th Report. National Centre for Social Research.

I guess you're not receiving any Christmas cards from the Economics department then...

Reposted by Chris Hanretty

Looking at the New Year Honours List, it seems remarkable heavy on people nominated "for services to defence". Are lots of MoD types doing things for Ukraine for which they can't otherwise be publicly celebrated?

OTOH, I watched it to the end, so more fool me!

Alas, just not very good

Gugu Mbatha-Raw wasted, flashback scene made no sense, preposterous conclusion. Scenery was nice though.

Anti-recommendation: do not watch The Woman in Cabin 10 (Netflix).

I guess the FT has a weakness for people who are listened to by finance types

I do hate wheeling out the "if this appeared in an undergraduate essay it would fall" trope, but "we must strengthen the executive by having a sovereign legislature" is quite a take. It's almost like this is an incoherent mash up of slogans from two very different political systems.
Liz Truss, who served 44 days as UK prime minister, goes full Curtis Yarvin.

Interviewing Yarvin on her new podcast, she calls for overhauling UK government to fit his vision.

“I agree with you, having spent 10 years in the system, you need to start from scratch,” Truss tells Yarvin.
Liz Truss, who served 44 days as UK prime minister, goes full Curtis Yarvin.

Interviewing Yarvin on her new podcast, she calls for overhauling UK government to fit his vision.

“I agree with you, having spent 10 years in the system, you need to start from scratch,” Truss tells Yarvin.

Well, I fear it probably got people rage watching
New post!

There was a lot of innovation in medicine and biomedical research this year, and I've tried to summarize the biggest ones in this blogpost.

Medical breakthroughs in 2025. Plus a serious note at the end.
www.scientificdiscovery.dev/p/medical-br...
Medical breakthroughs in 2025
... and a happy new year.
www.scientificdiscovery.dev

Well, that wasn't particularly edifying (those bits I could see)

This surface for Sabalenka-Kyrgios seems really rough...

I was also going to ask: shit, historians get advances to write books?

Ai Feynman is kind of fun if you have the right kind of data

Don't know how your Christmas holiday is going, but I've just completed Slay the Spire with all four characters.

(Do not tell me about the sequel, I will never have the time)

Thank you! I don't know yet whether that's a counsel of despair or realism...

Thank you!