South Korean citizens helped lawmakers scale the National Assembly walls so they could bypass military barricades and vote against martial law.

During my study abroad year in the US in my undergrad. I joined my flatmate on a trip to Barnes & Noble. The LOTR trilogy was up on display in a bundle, so I figured I‘d give it a shot. As a non native English speaker, the first time reading Tolkien took me ages. But the 2nd and 3rd time was easier

It feels like we are reverting back into an Era of Darkness, despite living in a proclaimed Age of Information…

Timely topic! Congrats on that publication!

… was that both, the non-Trumpists in the Republican Party, as well as the Democratic Party were still too strong as opposition. And because Trump himself was probably surprised he even made it into the White House

… control the party and weed out potential dissidents. Installing not the most capable individuals based on merit but the most helpful ones in terms of loyalism is one of the most basic agendas once a personalist wins office. The only reason why Trump did not fully achieve this the last time, IMO, …

If we look at other backsliding cases and the convergence toward personalism as the dominant form of autocracies (instead of party or military dictatorship), leaders usually either establish their own parties or take over existing ones - with localism as supreme determinant to…

But are those appointments really a surprise? Based on everything we know about #personalist leaders and #autocratization the exact names might be, but not the personnel and what it means. Tbh, anything else would have been a surprise.

Let's enjoy it while it lasts. And hope for the best. Over the past 24 hours I have probably consumed more quality content on here than in the past 24 moneths on Twitter.

This seems rather to be a case of “And so it continues…”

Amen. Actually, they perform worse than other forms of autocracies across various indicators (see e.g. Colgan 2015 or Frantz 2022)

And further propelling Trumps clientelistic network that is essential for establishing and maintaining a personalist regime. It would be funny if it weren’t so serious how obvious and bold they act. In plain sight 🫥