Hans Noel

Politics is a team sport.

My comments with @RobSaldin @BrookingsGov about how poorly designed public participation and transparency can impair governance without necessarily improving democracy. MA examples. brookings.edu/articles/when-…

Looking forward to this great panel tonight.

"He's low-key eating here." -- student on E.E. Schattschneider's writing style in The Semisovereign People.

(Feb 2.) Marking 75 years since the re-establishment of diplomatic relations between Italy and Germany, join us on 2 February for a discussion with H.E. Ambassador Thomas Bagger @Ambtedesco . Register now, as accommodation is limited.

A judge has unsealed the memo ordering the detention & deportation of Rümeysa Öztürk. It confirms the sole evidence against her was that she co-wrote an op-ed the government disliked. Here she is being arrested by men in plainclothes. Over an op-ed.

I joined @trtworld's @The_Newsmakers to talk about the first year of Trump’s second term. youtube.com/watch?v=SNUYtG…

Next up in our "100 ideas" series — New by Brandice Canes-Wrone @HooverInst @Stanford — "The Case for Stronger Parties in a Polarized Age" Part of @nyulaw Democracy Project's "100 Ideas in 100 Days" Read the full piece here: democracyproject.org/posts/the-case…

I contributed a piece to the @NYULawDemProjct’s excellent series on 100 ideas in 100 days. “We need to embrace the central role that political parties play in a well-functioning representative democracy.”

🚨 3-Year Postdoc in Political Science at Aarhus University 🚨 I’m seeking to recruit a postdoc for my @ERC_Research project 𝑬𝑸𝑼𝑰𝑳𝑰𝑩𝑹𝑰𝑼𝑴 on state-citizen interactions. Link & more info in second post. Position Start: Fall 2026 Deadline: ‼️ Feb. 5, 2026, 23:59 CET ‼️

The 2025 Barbara Sinclair lecture, by Matthew Green. Matt’s talk turned out to violate Betteridge's Law.

Students showed up for ⁦⁦@GeorgetownHoops⁩ victory against Clemson yesterday.

Prediction markets obviously can't replace polls because polls let you ask people questions If a prediction market says "wowow voters are gonna elect mamdani" that's great. But prediction markets don't then go up to a little mini-nyc electorate and ask "wait why though" The point of polling the horse race is to establish credibility on *everything else you publish*

N.B.: @ByronYork is not radical left Antifa.

Again, this No Kings thing is not my bag. But the almost cultish refusal to understand the point by Trump’s usual apologists is bizarre. Yes: He was lawfully and legitimately elected. But Stephen Miller’s Jacksonian-Wilsonian theory that Trump has a “mandate” to do whatever he wants is anti-Constitutional hogwash (it’s amazing how the position of two of the most iconic Democrats in American history is now the religion of the GOP). The word mandate doesn’t appear in the Constitution. It is impossible to have a “mandate” to exceed your authority under the Constitution. Even if Trump won an actual landslide (he didn’t), and all of the voters wanted him to exceed his authority, it wouldn’t (and certainly shouldn’t) matter. I honestly never want to hear the faux right wing eggheady refrain “we’re not a democracy, we’re a republic” ever again from people claiming that Trump can do whatever he wants because “the American people voted for this.” That is the exact opposite of republicanism ffs. It’s also not true. Trump got lots of votes from people who just wanted prices lower or didn’t want Harris to be president. The idea all of his voters pre-approved everything he has done or will do is more cultish nonsense. Regardless, if the American people want a politician to violate the Constitution that doesn’t give that politician a scintilla more right or authority to violate the constitution. I’m used to explaining this to democracy fetishists of the left. Didn’t expect to spend the last decades of my career trying to explaining it to populism fetishists of the right.

The "it's a republic not a democracy" crowd is really leaning into "he won an election so he can't be doing anything wrong."

Habemus Praeses

Less boom, boom, more splish, splash, but OK.

How common are “survey professionals” - people who take dozens of online surveys for pay - across online panels, and do they harm data quality? Our paper, first view at @polanalysis, tackles this question using browsing data from three U.S. samples (Facebook, YouGov, Lucid):

Our government is shut down. No one wants to compromise. Congress isn't working the way it should be. Or is it? Join GU Politics for a pop-up discussion in our Living Room this Monday October 6th at 4 pm on how we make Congress great again. bit.ly/FormerFellowsP…

Look, when something’s not working, you should try just turning it off and then turning it back on again.