Seán Hanley

Although as centrist I approve the idea of broad coalitions and “democracy enhancing bourgeoisie”. The implication of allying with some elite groups against others is interesting – echoes of the “pluralism by default“ pattern in some post Soviet states?

Oddly, for a piece foregrounding the democratically destructive effects of oligarchy and inequality, its political recommendations have little to say about redistribution or shifts of wealth and power. Just the rather thin gruel of “inclusive social policy” framed in defence of democracy terms.

I guess the answer may be that there was simply less democracy to backslide in the first place – and possibly mass social movements?

How Late-Stage Neoliberal Capitalism is Breaking Democracy Podcast Episode · People, Power, Politics · 31/07/2025 · 31m

Interesting, if slightly US-centric in discussion of advanced Western democracies - the accompanying @jodemocracy.bsky.social article is worth reading too.

Question in my mind. If US oligarchy was as high in C19th Golden Age why did US democracy not collapse then?
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/p...

The Peculiar Persistence of the AI Denialists The history of the world will be split into a pre-AI and a post-AI era. Too many people are still in denial.

The 3 forms of AI denialism: 1) AI is incompetent, perennially prone to hallucinations & incapable of delivering on basic tasks 2) AI is merely a pattern-matching machine, a “stochastic parrot” 3) the impact on the economy/productivity is vastly overstated yaschamounk.substack.com/p/the-peculi...

And a whopping 70% sensibly say Definitely Not.

Mali by sme sa stať súčasťou Ruska? Tretina Slovákov by súhlasila, opozícia viní vládu, politológ to nevidí tak čierno | ta3 14 percent ľudí by bolo vyslovene za to, aby sme sa pripojili k Rusku. Dokopy 30% Slovákov túto možnosť pripúšťa. Vyplynulo to z prieskumu agentúry SCIO. Politológ tvrdí, že to netreba brať dramaticky...

14% of Slovaks would consider joining Russia, says poll.

Probably something to take seriously but not literally, as the TA3 commentator suggests.

Hard to imagine that any but wildest extremes would want it, through radical right Slovak National Party refused to comment

www.ta3.com/clanok/10050...

Found it.

What the AI equivalent of Mastodon?

UK government secretly paid foreign YouTube stars for ‘propaganda’ Revealed: Media agency Zinc Network has contract to recruit social media influencers across Europe.

Report by a left-wing U.K. investigative site causing brouhaha in Slovakia: ambassador called in MFA for reprimand about supposed attempts to influence 2023 elections.

U.K. Declassified factually on point, but heavy slant on what it covers & how it presents

www.declassifieduk.org/uk-governmen...

University College Prague. Despite the name, this seems to be a merger of three smaller institutions based in Prague, Brno and Bratislava. www.ucp.cz/katedra-poli... I hadn’t heard of it before.

I’d be interested to know the equivalent findings for lecturers use of AI.

It’s been issued by a small private university and he got top marks, pretty much.

I’m tempted to be cynical here, but he did have access to the topic of his dissertation, ex-president Klaus (a political ally) so best to reserve judgement, perhaps.

Turek je nově magistr. Diplomku napsal o postojích Klause vůči intervencím USA Europoslanec Filip Turek nově používá magisterský titul. V červnu ho získal na soukromé vysoké škole University College Prague, kde obhájil diplomovou práci, v níž se zabýval pohledy Václava Klause na...

The leader of the floundering Motorists Party in Czechia has taken time out to do an MA - and he’s used it in his election materials. Academic titles are a big deal in Central Europe even if you are a populist pushing against elites.

www.idnes.cz/zpravy/domac...?

18 months. 12,000 questions. A whole lot of anxiety. What I learned from reading students’ ChatGPT logs Students increasingly use AI chatbots for anything from academic queries to emotional quandaries. But are they missing out on the chance to make their own mistakes? Three undergrads reveal all …

Fascinating - even if one of the students "suspects university authorities are unaware of how widespread the practice is." They're really not. They (we) just don't know what on earth to do about it.

The History Podcast - Invisible Hands - 5. The Lucky Gambler - BBC Sounds The billionaire who set the stage for Donald Trump.

Interesting pod on James Goldsmith and his 1997 as Referendum Party as a proto-Trumpian populist. More anti-globalisation than eurosceptic as they tell it. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Liberalism is worth saving. Just ask its critics. Why Trump 2.0 is giving some anti-liberals second thoughts.

For the past ten years or so, anti-liberal ideas have dominated the public intellectual landscape. I now believe that these ideas are in intellectual decline — that the naked authoritarianism of Trump's second term has set the stage for a liberal revival

www.vox.com/politics/418...

I believe LM’s trajectory in a libertarian direction (1990s) predates emergence of BL and the attitudes of two towards markets rather different. Glasman wrote book critical of neo-liberalism partly dealing with Eastern Europe (1996) while LM had lost interest, defending Serb nationalists (1997) etc

The fragile unity of Serbia's student protest movement – DW – 07/24/2025 Serbia's student protest movement set out to demand justice, rejecting ideology in favor of broad democratic values. But as internal divisions emerge, could diminishing unity undermine the movement's chances of success?

The fragile unity of Serbia's student protest movement

I share your disapproval, but as analysis this is a bit simplistic – mainstream political traditions (here social democracy) can morph, metastasise and illiberalize. We’ve seen this on the mainstream right, can happen on the mainstream or radical left.

That would seem to be slightly out of kilter with the Blue Labour focus on renewing conservative civil and traditional working class communities - although not necessarily inconsistent with the stress of many conservative left thinkers on dialogue and collaboration with the radical right.

Euston Road, I fear :)

YouTube video by TVP WORLD Wave after wave - Ukraine faces relentless Russian attacks | World News Tonight

Brief comments from me in this look ahead to the Czech Republic’s upcoming elections by @tvpworld.bsky.social

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjbK...

@uclssees.bsky.social

I’m not sure – I think the game has been produced as part of a student project rather than being official merch.

UCLopology game

Spied this intriguing product promoting UCL’s bicentennial.

The “properties” seem to be events in the institution’s 200 year history.

It’s very interesting how the U.K. debate on electoral reform has shifted from promoting democratic quality to preventing democratic backsliding.

Why we need to halt ‘hard right’ in its tracks Far-right parties are doing well – so it’s important that we see them for what they are. Yet, in the UK, the label ‘hard right’ is catching on. Why is debateable. But, argues Tim Bale, it’s a misdescription which sanitises these parties. Scholars of the far right should therefore push back

Every word of this, by @timbale.bsky.social 👇

Montage of Dutch bike infrastructure

IMPORTANT: The Dutch invest €595 million annually on urban biking, resulting in €19 BILLION saved in public health care costs alone. That’s how smart govts do the math on investing in better mobility.

Let’s be clear— it wastes public money to NOT do it.

#CityMakingMath HT @modacitylife.bsky.social

Add some context for us non-historians who don’t know the debate and haven’t heard of the author? I have roughly worked out by googling but y’all are maybe missing opportunity to talk to wider public here?

Why reluctantly?