Creating a compound "artisanal" measure of democracy from existing datasets, from the 18th century to 2015. My first #rstats  package! 

The King's Two Bodies in Bolshevik Political Thought

Medieval political theory, Lenin's embalming, Bolshevik transhumanists and much, much more! 

"“What do you know about Yugoslavia?” the peasant, painstaking and placid, answered, “It is a pseudosocialist country run by revisionist hyenas in the pay of American capitalism.” 

Propaganda as signaling. On Trajan's column, Paul Veyne's reflections on art without viewers, and a recent paper on propaganda in China.

Principal-agent problems in the Soviet Union, circa 1990

Happy solstice, everyone!

On the weird and wonderful world of Putiniana

On measuring (and mis-measuring) economic growth, with special reference to Singapore. Accompanied by the usual surfeit of graphs.

What do people think of democracy around the world today? A post on public opinion in the World Values Survey.

Electoral parodies. A story about the most absurdly rigged election I've ever read about, in Haiti in 1961.