Oh joy, oh fun: looks like the AfD is going to kick off the national campaign with another leadership battle. Will probably come to naught, but might be entertaining nonetheless
Category: Links
Links I liked
Unmarked police in the US, extremists in the German army, and the legacy of Fascism in Italian architecture: 3 links I liked
Large parts of the GOP are nominally opposed to big government. But they have done nothing to stop the growth of ever more armed police forces – on the contrary. This long read about law enforcement in the US is worrying, but also quite fascinating from a political/administrative science point of view. Over the last…
The life and times of Henri Tajfel (podcast)
Social Identity Theory is a prominent account of intergroup hostility and hence super interesting for political scientist. Groundbreaking work in this field was carried out by Henri Tajfel, who ran fascinating experiments back in the 1960s and 70s. Today, many of these would go nowhere near an IRB.
If you have 19 minutes to spare, this podcast delivers both a vignette of Tajfel’s life and a useful primer of Social Identity Theory ? ?
Rupert Brown on Henri Tajfel #socialScienceBites
Italian Populism, Trump’s voters, Germany’s Home Office, and Neo-Nazis in Russia : 4 links I liked
A retired “general”, a symbolism that is borrowed from France’s Yellow Vests – what could possibly go wrong? Meet Italy’s latest populist craze, the Orange Jackets.
Germany’s Home Secretary said in an interview that the AfD wants to destroy the state and put this interview on the Home Office’s website. Now the FCC ruled that he was not allowed to do that. But the ruling does not say that Seehofer’s claim is factually incorrect. Like in previous cases, the judges upheld a kind of two-bodies-theory. As a politician, Seehofer was free to make this statement, but as a minister he was not allowed to use his official platform for distributing it.
Over at the Quantiative Peace, Joshua Zingher looks at Trump’s base. The bottom line? Trump’s 2020 path to the presidency is narrow. May he stray from it.
“Why are German Nazis training in Russia“? That is a bit of a rhetorical question, but the article has at least some answers.
Bonus track: German IR theory-building kit (thread)
German IR theory-building kit:
1. Define concepts, sub-(sub-) concepts & mechanisms. Quote Weber
2. Based on 1, draw model in Word. Use many arrows!
3. Illustrative case study (EU or UN) or descriptive statistics
4. Discuss normative implications from implicit liberal standpoint— Kilian Spandler (@KilianSpandler) June 10, 2020
Covid-19 and Race
In the US and elsewhere, ethnic minority groups are hit much harder by COVID-19 than whites. Mortality rates are often more than twice as high for members of these groups.
As a social scientist, I’m not in a position to comment on a possible link between genetic traits and susceptibility to the novel Corona virus. But even I know that the variance of most genetic traits is far bigger within “races” than between “races” (see what I did here?).
Conversely, it is great to see that MDs and other scientists who study the details of our messy biologies are acutely aware of the strong correlation between ethnicity on the one hand and social, political and economic inequality on the other.
Tune in into this episode of the Big Picture Science podcast to hear more about how racialised inequality makes the pandemic worse for some people, and how the Cheyenne River Sioux tribe implemented safeguards of their own.
bigpicturescience.orgThe legacy of fascist architecture
This is an interesting article about the legacy of fascist architecture in ??. The unfavourable comparison with ?? is a bit misleading: while swastikas are banned & some buildings were destroyed, we have/should have similar debates
Pegida has become a cult
Germany’s far-right group PEGIDA is mobilizing weekly ‘virtual marches’ livestreamed on YouTube. PEGIDA demonstration in Dresden December 16, 2018 | Derbrauni / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
On a Monday evening in early April 2020, around 1,000 users are waiting for a YouTube livestream, ho…
MPs under investigation, dying in Germany, quanteda goes 2.0, and academic chapters: 4 links I liked
Germany’s Office for the Protection of the Constitution (i.e. the spooks) begins to build dossiers on 3 sitting MPs for the AfD. All of them are prominent members of the most radical faction within the party (in German) In a landmark ruling, Germany’s highest court declares ban on assisted suicide unconstitutional. Judges say right to…
Sinn Fein wins big in Ireland, German centre-right does deal with the devil™️, and UK journalists: 3 links I liked
Never ever have Sinn Fein (and leftist parties more generally) done so well as in the January 2020 Irish general election. Political journalists in the UK grow some spine and boycott a press conference that was open to a select few only. Everyone is rightfully concerned about the trumpification of UK politics. Provincial centre-right politicians…
Political personalities, university cultures, radical-right environmentalism, and the armed forces: 4 links I liked
The idea that there are seriously problematic political personalities is at least a 100 years old. In a recent article, colleagues Sabrina Mayer, Carl Berning and David Johann take it for a spin and look at the Two Dimensions of Narcissistic Personality and Support for the Radical Right (open access!) Over at the Duck of…