Scott Gehlbach
@sgehlbach.bsky.social
University of Chicago, Political Science and Harris School. Director, PhD Program in Political Economy. Autocracy/Eurasia/HPE. Broadstreet blogger. Cards fan but o/w Chicago patriot. 🇺🇦
Good times! @luozhaotian.bsky.social @convexify.bsky.social @virginiaminni.bsky.social @dvbarron.bsky.social
November 15, 2025 at 11:28 PM
Hyde Parkers, our alderman, Desmon Yancy, is holding a town hall this evening at MSI. Let your voice be heard!
November 4, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Hyde Parkers, our alderman, Desmon Yancy, is holding a town hall this evening at MSI. Let your voice be heard!
Total elapsed time from “I feel like I’m 25 again!” to “I’m not 25 anymore.” #TornCalfMuscle
October 20, 2025 at 2:26 AM
Total elapsed time from “I feel like I’m 25 again!” to “I’m not 25 anymore.” #TornCalfMuscle
Loving Chicago—and America.
October 18, 2025 at 5:26 PM
Loving Chicago—and America.
Among the people pictured here, as of today, only @ethanbdm.bsky.social is not wanted on criminal charges in Russia. Ethan, there is still time!
Sergei has always been on the right side of history. The FSB is just catching up.
www.fsb.ru/fsb/press/me...
Sergei has always been on the right side of history. The FSB is just catching up.
www.fsb.ru/fsb/press/me...
October 14, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Among the people pictured here, as of today, only @ethanbdm.bsky.social is not wanted on criminal charges in Russia. Ethan, there is still time!
Sergei has always been on the right side of history. The FSB is just catching up.
www.fsb.ru/fsb/press/me...
Sergei has always been on the right side of history. The FSB is just catching up.
www.fsb.ru/fsb/press/me...
My father-in-law Evgeny Belodubrovsky died Thursday. Once described in the NYT as an “ebullient lover of Russian history and literature,” he was a survivor of the siege of Leningrad and a patriot of St. Petersburg, his true hometown. He was a collector of stories, an organizer, a writer, a father…💙
October 4, 2025 at 2:49 PM
My father-in-law Evgeny Belodubrovsky died Thursday. Once described in the NYT as an “ebullient lover of Russian history and literature,” he was a survivor of the siege of Leningrad and a patriot of St. Petersburg, his true hometown. He was a collector of stories, an organizer, a writer, a father…💙
I believe this is the moment that President-Elect Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and @ksonin.bsky.social compared the length of their prison sentences imposed in absentia.
September 27, 2025 at 5:29 PM
I believe this is the moment that President-Elect Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and @ksonin.bsky.social compared the length of their prison sentences imposed in absentia.
Hyde Park rooting for the good guys.
August 15, 2025 at 10:15 PM
Hyde Park rooting for the good guys.
The mystery of the strange and the critical rationality of men are both removed from the city. 3/3
August 14, 2025 at 1:00 AM
The mystery of the strange and the critical rationality of men are both removed from the city. 3/3
Paul Tillich, in The Metropolis in Modern Life:
By its nature, the metropolis provides what otherwise could be given only by traveling; namely, the strange. Since the strange leads to questions and undermines familiar tradition, it serves to elevate reason to ultimate significance… 1/3
By its nature, the metropolis provides what otherwise could be given only by traveling; namely, the strange. Since the strange leads to questions and undermines familiar tradition, it serves to elevate reason to ultimate significance… 1/3
August 14, 2025 at 1:00 AM
Paul Tillich, in The Metropolis in Modern Life:
By its nature, the metropolis provides what otherwise could be given only by traveling; namely, the strange. Since the strange leads to questions and undermines familiar tradition, it serves to elevate reason to ultimate significance… 1/3
By its nature, the metropolis provides what otherwise could be given only by traveling; namely, the strange. Since the strange leads to questions and undermines familiar tradition, it serves to elevate reason to ultimate significance… 1/3
July 24, 2025 at 8:05 PM
Here’s the punchline. Where we observe a difference between autocracies and democracies (and we don’t always), that is driven by the poor growth performance of *personalist* autocracies. There is no evidence that institutionalized autocracies underperform democracies. 9/X
July 11, 2025 at 9:21 PM
Here’s the punchline. Where we observe a difference between autocracies and democracies (and we don’t always), that is driven by the poor growth performance of *personalist* autocracies. There is no evidence that institutionalized autocracies underperform democracies. 9/X
In our main analysis, we unpack autocracy using six different measures of “personalism”—some explicitly designed to measure variation in autocracies, some plausibly appropriate for that purpose. 8/X
July 11, 2025 at 9:21 PM
In our main analysis, we unpack autocracy using six different measures of “personalism”—some explicitly designed to measure variation in autocracies, some plausibly appropriate for that purpose. 8/X
Our main focus, however, is on personalist vs. institutionalized autocracies. You can see a difference in the raw data: 2.4% growth for democracies, 2.3% for institutionalized autocracies, 1.4% for personalized autocracies. That may not sound like much, but compounded over decades, it is. 7/X
July 11, 2025 at 9:21 PM
Our main focus, however, is on personalist vs. institutionalized autocracies. You can see a difference in the raw data: 2.4% growth for democracies, 2.3% for institutionalized autocracies, 1.4% for personalized autocracies. That may not sound like much, but compounded over decades, it is. 7/X
A first step is to replicate and extend the results of ANRR. We examine a couple of measures that they do not.
Democracy probably does cause growth, but the relationship is somewhat sensitive to measurement. 6/X
Democracy probably does cause growth, but the relationship is somewhat sensitive to measurement. 6/X
July 11, 2025 at 9:21 PM
A first step is to replicate and extend the results of ANRR. We examine a couple of measures that they do not.
Democracy probably does cause growth, but the relationship is somewhat sensitive to measurement. 6/X
Democracy probably does cause growth, but the relationship is somewhat sensitive to measurement. 6/X
Conceptually and operationally, autocracy is a residual category: the set of regimes that are not democracies. But there is a big difference between personalist dictatorships like Mobutu’s Zaire and institutionalized regimes like Singapore under Lee Kuan Yew. 2/X
July 11, 2025 at 9:21 PM
Conceptually and operationally, autocracy is a residual category: the set of regimes that are not democracies. But there is a big difference between personalist dictatorships like Mobutu’s Zaire and institutionalized regimes like Singapore under Lee Kuan Yew. 2/X
New paper alert! 📣
@chrisblattman.bsky.social, Arthur Yu, and I reexamine the autocratic growth penalty—the finding that autocracies systematically underperform democracies in economic growth.
TL;DR, the penalty is concentrated in personalist, not institutionalized autocracies.
Details👇 1/X
@chrisblattman.bsky.social, Arthur Yu, and I reexamine the autocratic growth penalty—the finding that autocracies systematically underperform democracies in economic growth.
TL;DR, the penalty is concentrated in personalist, not institutionalized autocracies.
Details👇 1/X
July 11, 2025 at 9:21 PM
New paper alert! 📣
@chrisblattman.bsky.social, Arthur Yu, and I reexamine the autocratic growth penalty—the finding that autocracies systematically underperform democracies in economic growth.
TL;DR, the penalty is concentrated in personalist, not institutionalized autocracies.
Details👇 1/X
@chrisblattman.bsky.social, Arthur Yu, and I reexamine the autocratic growth penalty—the finding that autocracies systematically underperform democracies in economic growth.
TL;DR, the penalty is concentrated in personalist, not institutionalized autocracies.
Details👇 1/X
Lake Shore Drive, end of the road.
June 28, 2025 at 6:09 PM
Lake Shore Drive, end of the road.
This is Midwest erasure
June 15, 2025 at 2:31 AM
This is Midwest erasure