Xavier Marquez
marquezxavier.bsky.social
Xavier Marquez
@marquezxavier.bsky.social
Associate Professor in Political Science at Victoria University of Wellington | Author of "Non-Democratic Politics: Authoritarianism, Dictatorship, and Democratization"
Reposted by Xavier Marquez
New version (0.6.0) of my #rstats package {democracyData} xmarquez.github.io/democracyData/ with @freedomhouse.bsky.social data to 2024, as well as several other sources, plus minor improvements all around
Access and Manipulate Most Available Democracy Datasets
Archives a large number of democracy datasets, many of historical interest. It also provides a number of functions to download these datasets (where available) and determine membership of a country in...
xmarquez.github.io
October 23, 2025 at 4:26 AM
New version (0.6.0) of my #rstats package {democracyData} xmarquez.github.io/democracyData/ with @freedomhouse.bsky.social data to 2024, as well as several other sources, plus minor improvements all around
Access and Manipulate Most Available Democracy Datasets
Archives a large number of democracy datasets, many of historical interest. It also provides a number of functions to download these datasets (where available) and determine membership of a country in...
xmarquez.github.io
October 23, 2025 at 4:26 AM
Reposted by Xavier Marquez
"how do you show your loyalty? By paying the costs of humiliation. The more grotesquely over the top your praise, the more credible it is as a signal of support for Dear Leader."
www.programmablemutter.com/p/short-post...
August 27, 2025 at 11:26 AM
Reposted by Xavier Marquez
To @jonrauch.bsky.social, @jeffkopstein.bsky.social, and @frankfukuyama.bsky.social, I say: not *just* patrimonialism, but all the facets of personalism (drawing on @marquezxavier.bsky.social) www.liberalcurrents.com/americas-pat...
March 6, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Reposted by Xavier Marquez
I am keeping a diary of daily events, as they unfold open.substack.com/pub/adamprze... It is available to everyone. I am new to Substack, so please let me know if something is wrong with the link or the file.
Diary
Week 1
open.substack.com
February 19, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Reposted by Xavier Marquez
Everyone needs to know @marquezxavier.bsky.social theory of 'flattery inflation' (short version here - abandonedfootnotes.blogspot.com/2011/12/flat..., academic version papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.... )
February 16, 2025 at 4:37 PM
Reposted by Xavier Marquez
Two books I recommend right now:
-Non-Democratic Politics by @marquezxavier.bsky.social
-Waging a Good War by Thomas E. Ricks

I am following the daily coverage though. I try to focus on coverage that talks in detail about what specific things they are doing vs simply repeating what they're saying
I think spending more time with books - getting outside the news cycle - might actually be even more important right now. Trump's folks are exploiting the news cycle to discombobulate us. Stepping outside it a little bit might be helpful.
It’s one of those periods where it feels like it’s pointless reading any article or listening to any podcast episode more than a couple hours old.
February 5, 2025 at 8:06 PM
Reposted by Xavier Marquez
“These regimes are characterized by high levels of de-institutionalization, where formal authority is no longer a good guide to the location of power.” - @marquezxavier.bsky.social on patrimonial regimes, in “The Mechanisms of Personalization” www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
The mechanisms of personalization
This article draws on Max Weber’s account of legitimate authority to argue that there are three key mechanisms that drive the personalization of power in political regimes: the mobilization of char...
www.tandfonline.com
February 2, 2025 at 12:03 AM
This is now officially published open access!
#OpenAccess from The Review of Politics -

Ancient Tyranny and Modern Dictatorship - cup.org/4hxkLyk

- @marquezxavier.bsky.social
January 27, 2025 at 8:24 PM
Reposted by Xavier Marquez
#OpenAccess from The Review of Politics -

Ancient Tyranny and Modern Dictatorship - cup.org/4hxkLyk

- @marquezxavier.bsky.social
January 27, 2025 at 9:03 AM
And now this is actually officially out, over a year later, open access here: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
January 27, 2025 at 3:02 AM
Reposted by Xavier Marquez
Trump’s threats and actions are not subtle but per @marquezxavier.bsky.social we can treat the authoritarian threat component distinctly from the risk of expanding his personal power in office, the most proximate risk right now www.liberalcurrents.com/americas-pat...
December 5, 2024 at 12:23 PM
Reposted by Xavier Marquez
Today I draw on @marquezxavier.bsky.social’s recent work on how individuals can turn political systems into systems of personal rule. It provides valuable lens for understanding how Trump operates.
“It is quite possible that over the next four years Trump will fail to surmount the status quo of term limits and competitive elections, but succeed in converting the federal executive branch into a more complete system of personal rule by the president.” www.liberalcurrents.com/americas-pat...
America's Paths to Personalism
The three primary risk vectors of the second Trump administration.
www.liberalcurrents.com
December 5, 2024 at 11:14 AM
Reposted by Xavier Marquez
And now the paper is officially published, free eprint here: www.tandfonline.com/eprint/V8C8T...
November 14, 2024 at 8:35 AM
Reposted by Xavier Marquez
November 17, 2024 at 9:16 AM
And now the paper is officially published, free eprint here: www.tandfonline.com/eprint/V8C8T...
November 14, 2024 at 8:35 AM
Reposted by Xavier Marquez
New paper! "The Mechanisms of Personalization", forthcoming in Democratization. #polisky #dictatorsky papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
The Mechanisms of Personalization
This paper draws on Max Weber's account of legitimate authority to argue that there are three key mechanisms that drive the personalization of power in politica
papers.ssrn.com
November 3, 2024 at 6:07 PM
New paper! "The Mechanisms of Personalization", forthcoming in Democratization. #polisky #dictatorsky papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
The Mechanisms of Personalization
This paper draws on Max Weber's account of legitimate authority to argue that there are three key mechanisms that drive the personalization of power in politica
papers.ssrn.com
November 3, 2024 at 6:07 PM
polisky
This paper is now officially out, open access here journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
February 14, 2024 at 6:51 PM
This paper is now officially out, open access here journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
February 14, 2024 at 6:50 PM
Reposted by Xavier Marquez
New paper! "Max Weber, Demagogy, and Political Representation" , now accepted at the European Journal of Political Theory (on my birthday!) ssrn.com/abstract=469... Polisky
January 13, 2024 at 10:30 PM
New paper! "Max Weber, Demagogy, and Political Representation" , now accepted at the European Journal of Political Theory (on my birthday!) ssrn.com/abstract=469... Polisky
January 13, 2024 at 10:30 PM
Reposted by Xavier Marquez
Snarking on OpenAI here is fun and does little harm. But in real life, copyright maximalism

a) will not stop corporate AI (they have work-arounds)
b) will make it harder for academics and open-access people to do all kinds of culturally necessary work.

So we need to think about other solutions.
January 8, 2024 at 5:35 PM