Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social) @samuel_e_bagg Twitter profile

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

10 months

It's finally happening. My book has a webpage! And a release date! You can pre-order it! You probably shouldn't, given the price, but if you have a library (or rich uncle), tell them to buy it for you: in UK (Jan 4) or in US (Mar 4)

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

3 years

Haven't seen one yet, so... #politicaltheory

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

2 years

OK so I'm usually on the skeptical side of things when it comes to AI stuff but I think may actually spell the end of writing assignments? Where the hell do educators even go from here? (below: a question I just asked on a midterm, and the AI's response)

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

3 years

Some exciting news, y'all: as of August, I'll be starting a position as Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of South Carolina ( @UofSC ), where @eblandesberg will also begin teaching as a full-time Instructor in the Media Arts program at @UofSC_SVAD

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

3 years

Hey folks – really excited to share that my article on randomly selected citizen oversight juries as a corrective for elite capture was published today in the American Journal of Political Science ( @AJPS_Editor ). Best of all, it’s open access! ()

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

9 months

Today's the day! (sort of...) In the UK, you can now buy a print copy of my book. Over the next 2 months, it will also be released: (1) as a Kindle ebook (for personal use); (2) on the Oxford Academic online platform (accessible via libraries); and (3) as a print book in the US.

Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

10 months

It's finally happening. My book has a webpage! And a release date! You can pre-order it! You probably shouldn't, given the price, but if you have a library (or rich uncle), tell them to buy it for you: in UK (Jan 4) or in US (Mar 4)

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

2 years

@mathesonrussell I'm not as sold on the idea that AIs will be generating *leading-edge* ideas and arguments anytime soon (bc they're trained on existing content), so there's still a role for scholars at highest level.

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

3 years

Quit while you're ahead, they said... #TypesOfScientificPapers #politicaltheory #parttwo

Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

3 years

Haven't seen one yet, so... #politicaltheory

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

3 years

Thrilled to share that my paper on intra-party democracy with @drbhatia_ud has been accepted at the Journal of Political Philosophy! Check out the pre-print here: (🧵)

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

6 years

Ever find yourself wondering what the point of democracy is, given... all this? My new APSR article shows why elections are valuable even if critics are right about voter ignorance: democracies resist state capture by elites better than the alternatives.

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

1 year

Y'all, I've finally (finally!) sent my book off to the press -- expect it on shelves in late 2023 / early 2024! More importantly, the press is asking for ideas about the cover, and I need your help. (1/15)

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

2 years

@tunablazer Totally. But most don't come in fully formed either as scholars who care or cheaters who don't - part of our job is to make caring attractive / worthwhile. By making cheating easier (and making it less important to learn how to write), the AI makes our job a bit harder, I think

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

3 years

The authors of the Communist Manifesto, according to the automatically generated transcription of my lecture: aunts and uncles, Martin Ingles, Martin mingles, Martin Eagle's, Mark's in state, marks an ankle

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

7 months

Thanks to @ISPSYale and @landemore for inviting me to speak about democracy. I'm excited to spend the next couple of weeks in New Haven as a visiting scholar: if you're in the neighborhood, reach out!

Yale ISPS

@ISPSYale

7 months

We are honored and thrilled to welcome back @samuel_e_bagg to Yale for a couple of weeks. This morning, he delivered a presentation of his new book, The Dispersion of Power.

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

1 year

Thanks to the @LPE_Project for inviting me to write for their blog - it was a great chance to synthesize a lot of what I've been thinking about recently. And @corinneblalock got the bottom line exactly right: we're right to demand more democracy, but democracy is no panacaea!

Corinne Blalock

@corinneblalock

1 year

One of my biggest frustrations within LPE is the way democracy is sometimes (not always) invoked as a panacea, so I'm *thrilled* to have @samuel_e_bagg on the blog laying out 2 common fallacies of democratic design, how they mislead, & how to avoid them

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

8 months

Honored that The Dispersion of Power was included on this list of the most anticipated books of 2024!

LPE Blog

@LPEblog

9 months

Today, the Blog brings you its most anticipated books of 2024. #ReadUP (as the kids say).

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

8 months

Book (pre-)release event last night was a great success! Thanks to @UofSCHumanities and @All_Good_Books for hosting, and to the crowd packing the room!

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

2 years

@mathesonrussell But the thing this does is wipes out the logic of all of the middle steps you need to take in order to become a scholar at the highest level. So you're right in that sense that it poses a deep challenge to some of the self-conceptions / purposes of higher ed institutions...

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

2 years

@Gregg__Miller Right, this is not top-notch work, but it's similar to what we see from many students - all but the top performers, depending on your institution. In that sense I think it still has pretty serious implications for what effective assignments are.

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

4 years

Just learned that my article on deliberation and motivated reasoning is currently the most-cited article published by the European Journal of Political Theory in 2018, and that the publisher is making it open access until the end of March. Check it out!

European Journal of Political Theory

@EJPTheory

4 years

From Vol. 17: Can deliberation neutralise power? - Samuel Bagg, @samuel_e_bagg 2018

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

5 years

Very excited to have my first piece up at @LPEblog -- a fantastic space for new thinking on the left about Law and Political Economy. My post is called "How should we think about democracy?", and highlights what I find most exciting in contemporary democratic theory.

LPE Blog

@LPEblog

5 years

What does the demand for “more democracy” really mean? @samuel_e_bagg tours democratic theory in search of LPE answers:

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

3 years

Hey y'all, I wrote some stuff a while back that you can finally read! (In fancy typesetting!)

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

2 years

Ok folks, syllabus crowdsource time. I'm teaching a whirlwind intro-level PT course covering 19c-present. Suggestions for things to swap in/out? Suggestions of which parts of the texts to read? (most are just listed as "selections" rn, and I'm teaching some for first time... 😬)

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

2 years

@BLMcKean Anyway, point is not that this is perfect but that it's on par with what we often see from students. The AI's ability to generate solid B/B+ answers is astonishing, and makes me revise my thinking about how much education will have to change (and how soon!) to adapt.

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

1 year

Reading a great undergraduate final paper discussing the 2008 financial crisis and realizing it is just as far in the past for them (c/o 2026) as the 1991 collapse of the USSR was for me (c/o 2009). And they see the former just as I saw the latter: i.e., as ancient history.

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

2 years

@thefranciscao Ultimately I think it will mean that we can't really assign papers anymore? Seems like options are: make all assignments in-class or find topics so niche that there isn't enough data for the AI to use. I guess that's a "game" but it's one the AI has more or less won already?

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

10 months

Rather than pursuing the mirage of collective decision-making on perfectly equal terms, those of us aiming to protect & enrich democracy must ask how ordinary people with relatively few resources can effectively organize themselves to contest pervasive capture by powerful elites.

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

3 years

But the way the discipline reproduces itself amounts to a decade+ hazing ritual--for the lucky few who pass through it. However banal, it bears repeating at times like this that there are simply too few lottery tickets, and too many spectacular scholars who will never find one.

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

4 years

I had a great time reading and writing about @Camila_Vergara 's fantastic new book for the @EJPTheory . Thanks to Camila for writing such a stimulating book, and thanks to the EJPT for commissioning me to write the long-form review article it deserves (it ended up at 5500 words!)

European Journal of Political Theory

@EJPTheory

4 years

New review of @Camila_Vergara 's book "Systemic Corruption: Constitutional Ideas for an Anti-Oligarchic Republic" by @samuel_e_bagg Do we need an anti-oligarchic constitution? - Samuel Bagg, 2021

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

10 months

Second, our democratic demands must extend far beyond the procedural realm. In particular, substantive policies to limit the concentration of wealth and power in a few oligarchic hands should be understood as central to sustaining democracy (see for more)

Whose Coordination? Which Democracy? On Antitrust as a Democratic Demand - Samuel Bagg, 2023

The growing movement seeking to revive an aggressive, “neo-Brandeisian” approach to antitrust policy sees it partly as a way of protecting democracy against con...

journals.sagepub.com

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

4 years

I would normally see today's pageantry -- especially all the military involvement -- as faintly ridiculous, if not proto-authoritarian. After the events of the last few weeks, months, and years, though, I found myself feeling strangely grateful for it. Anyone else feel that way?

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

10 months

On the contrary, we must assume that powerful elites will aim to co-opt whatever institutions we create, and design them with the explicit purpose of minimizing that threat -- while acknowledging that most of the time, we will fail. (see for more).

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

3 years

Just because I managed to find a winning lottery ticket, that doesn’t mean the system isn’t just as broken as it was a few weeks ago.

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

10 months

No matter what procedures a society uses to make decisions, the outcomes will reliably reflect the relative power of groups within it. And in all democratic societies today, that balance is extremely skewed -- favoring wealthy elites and various other powerful groups.

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

10 months

Finally, the most crucial democratic priority of all is neither a procedural reform nor a substantive policy, but the practice of building countervailing power -- outside of the state -- through orgs like unions, movements, and parties. (see for more).

Intra‐party Democracy: A Functionalist Account*

Click on the article title to read more.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

10 months

Sometimes, these things really can help. Yet they often do very little, and at times can even make things worse. This is because they target the symptoms of democracy's ailments while ignoring the root cause: ie, pervasive power asymmetries that advantage some groups over others.

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

2 years

@BLMcKean Well, I emphasized King's pragmatism (and Mandela's moral objectives) in class, so this is not fully accurate given what they learned from me. (And in fact no students wrote answers like this.) But seems accurate as a representation of how the contrast would often be taught?

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

3 years

@dougthomps I can’t imagine what it must be like for folks with shorter-term contracts and higher teaching loads; people with less built-in privilege and more limited access to elite networks; people whose luck doesn’t change at the last minute, or who can’t afford to wait until it does.

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

4 years

The meme form with endless possibilities

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

3 years

A few weeks after graduation, though, my luck started to change with a call from @jtlevy , and I ended up getting to spend the next five years as a postdoc in two of the best environments I can imagine for doing political theory: the RGCS at McGill, and @NuffieldCollege at Oxford.

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

10 months

I wrote it because I couldn't shake the feeling that there is something wrong with the way we think and talk about democracy -- and that this is inhibiting our ability to protect it.

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

10 months

The hegemonic groups who reliably capture state power are able to do so because of their superior organizational capacity. To build countervailing power is simply to ensure their opponents have a fighting chance -- thus making it harder for them to get their way every time.

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

5 years

My piece with Isak Tranvik, developing a realist approach to campaign ethics, is now out in print! I also have a book review in the same issue, covering two very interesting books by Sophia Rosenfeld and Anna Elisabetta Galeotti.

Perspectives on Politics

@PoPpublicsphere

5 years

**VOLUME 17, ISSUE 4 NOW OUT!** incl. Special Section: #Perspectival #Political #Theory Featuring works by @ajenniferpage @samuel_e_bagg @ManjanaM @SarahAnzia @erzen_oncel @_dbp_ & more!!

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

3 years

@dougthomps At the same time, I carry with me the lessons of six gruelling years on the academic job market. I had it good—as good as it gets, really—and the precarity and uncertainty still took its toll.

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

5 years

Excited to share this piece for Dissent on sortition - a crucial tool for weakening the power of concentrated wealth. It's a hot topic in theory but has rarely been discussed in major US publications. It's also my first time writing for such a publication. Take a look!

Dissent Magazine

@DissentMag

5 years

To fight elite capture of the state, it’s time to consider sortition, or the assignment of political power through lotteries, Michael Schulson and @samuel_e_bagg write

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

10 months

So when we talk about the challenges facing democracy, that is the fundamental problem, which any plausible solution must address. If we want a more egalitarian political order, we can't just change the procedures: we need to shift the underlying balance of power.

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

1 year

Really happy to be a part of this special issue!

LPE Blog

@LPEblog

1 year

Politics & Society published a special issue on “Antitrust in the Age of Concentrated Power,” featuring a line-up of concentrated LPE-talent: @kvj2108 , @ZephyrTeachout , @samuel_e_bagg , and @brian_callaci .

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

3 years

TIL that BP more or less invented the phrase "carbon footprint." Sometimes there is nothing left but to marvel at the purity of their commitment to destroying the world as efficiently as possible...

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

3 years

On that note, thanks again to everyone whose support has made this possible: I’m so glad I’ll finally get a chance to pay it forward.

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

10 months

What's the book about, you ask? The short answer is democracy: what it is, why it matters, and how to make it better.

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

3 years

Believe me, I’m glad I found that ticket. I am exhilarated by the diverse compendium of questions/approaches that gets stitched together into the strange, wonderful discipline we call political theory, and overjoyed that I can stop wondering whether I’ll get to keep doing it.

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

2 years

@richmintz @mathesonrussell Yes, that's the idea. We'll have to find new ways of helping / incentivizing students to build the skills they'll need to succeed on the highest level. A few will do it on their own regardless of the external incentives but many won't because thye won't see the point.

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

10 months

That is the core lesson of my book. And it's where my own work is headed next!

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

4 years

Yesterday’s conference is now available online! Thanks to BSG’s conference team for making this run so smoothly.

Jo Wolff

@JoWolffBSG

4 years

Yesterday's The Politics of Egalitarianism @BlavatnikSchool @NuffieldCollege conference is now available on YouTube (6.5 hours), with talks by: @davidwengrow @tmbejan Anne Phillips @samuel_e_bagg Charles Mills and me.

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

10 months

Most people with an institutional affiliation will have access through @OUPAcademic 's online system soon. And for those who don't, the e-book edition will be steeply discounted for the first few months of 2024 -- watch this space for updates, or DM me for other access options.

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

4 years

My wife (a filmmaker not on twitter) perusing latest issue of @jacobinmag : "Really, Jacobin? A 'new canon' with 97 films spanning 86 years of cinema, featuring one female director and one Black co-director?"

Jacobin

@jacobin

4 years

Our new issue, "Pandemic Politics," is out now. 🦠 Check out the table of contents 😷 📧 Get a discounted subscription 📮

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

6 years

This thread is great, and I'm happy to see it mentions my APSR piece as a resource for defending democracy while taking epistemic critiques seriously. Glad it's been useful for you, @henryfarrell -- looking forward to your piece w/ @hugoreasoning and Melissa! (h/t @mjackzhou )

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

2 years

@enzoreds fwiw, very different. You can re-run the same thing several times and get wildly different results. Some of the results are not good. Some are much better. But it's never the same thing.

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

3 years

It’s been a long road to get here. When I finished my PhD almost five years ago, I didn’t know what was coming next, and it was starting to feel like I might never get to have the career I’d spent the previous six years training for.

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

5 years

Fighting the grip of concentrated wealth on our political system? We've got a plan for that. @ewarren @BernieSanders @AOC

Dissent Magazine

@DissentMag

5 years

To fight elite capture of the state, it’s time to consider sortition, or the assignment of political power through lotteries, Michael Schulson and @samuel_e_bagg write

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

10 months

My book challenges the value of this commonsense ideal. For one, real democracies don't come anywhere close to it -- and they probably never could. So the ideal doesn't explain why basic electoral democracy matters; why it deserves a vigorous defense despite its many flaws.

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

2 years

@BLMcKean So in my class this would probably be a B/B+ answer but I can imagine it being an A/A- answer, if you assume that certain texts were assigned, and that the material was taught in a certain (superficial but not uncommon?) way. What about you?

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

3 years

We are thrilled to be moving back to the Carolinas, and feel so deeply fortunate that we were both able to find a home in exciting departments at such a vibrant and diverse public institution.

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

3 years

Finally, I wrote a piece for a special issue of Social Philosophy and Policy on "The Administrative State," outlining a number of strategies we can use to limit the dangers incurred by any use of state power (hopefully enabling us to use it more often!)

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

10 months

Even more importantly, the ideal of collective decision-making on equal terms doesn't tell us how to make democracy better. Or rather, when it does, it leads us to focus on the wrong things -- namely, the procedures through which we form and express our collective will.

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

3 years

That changed after chatting with Michael and reading work by Oli Dowlen, Peter Stone, @AliCirone , and @Alex_A_Guerrero , who emphasize how random selection can disrupt the influence channels that wealthy elites often use to capture political institutions.

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

3 years

This predicament is hardly unique to political theory—if anything, many fields in the humanities have it even worse—and I don’t have any profound ideas about how to fix it. But it's worth acknowledging that reality alongside my own profound gratitude and celebration today.

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

3 years

Still, it’s hard to put down roots when your life is spread across three countries, and you don’t know where the job market lottery will send you next—if it sends you anywhere at all.

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

10 months

This means a few things. First, democratic reformers are right to demand procedural changes enabling more direct popular input into policymaking and implementation. But in doing so, we cannot trust our intuitive sense that more participation is presumptively more democratic.

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

1 year

Got some invites for the blue place. It’s pretty nice over there, lmk if you want one!

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

3 years

@dougthomps Since getting the news, I’ve felt a mix of relief at finally having some security in my career, excitement about the next phase, and gratitude for all the support I’ve had at every stage—as well as a bit of pre-nostalgia about the community I’ll be leaving behind in Oxford.

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

10 months

To explain democracy's woes, different versions of the ideal may point to the structure of elections, or the lack of direct popular input, or the unreflective nature of that input -- suggesting solutions like electoral reform, or participatory governance, or renewed deliberation.

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

3 years

Well, I couldn’t be happier with where it’s finally sent us--not least because I'll get to spend so much time with @dougthomps and so many other amazing colleagues in Political Science.

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

4 years

@corinneblalock Appreciate the shout outs from folks! Linked to a bunch of my own faves on the LPE blog last year.

How Should We Think About Democracy?

The concept of democracy is critical to the Law and Political Economy approach, yet its precise meaning is not always clear. On the left, “democracy” often functions as shorthand for the opposite of…

lpeproject.org

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

3 years

@AJPS_Editor I wrote about the idea a few years ago for @DissentMag with my friend Michael Schulson (not on twitter), whose journalistic writing on the topic was part of what originally got me interested in lotteries for political office – also known as “sortition.” ()

Give Political Power to Ordinary People - Dissent Magazine

To fight elite capture of the state, it's time to consider sortition, or the assignment of political power through lotteries.

www.dissentmagazine.org

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

10 months

Still, my dream is for as many of you as possible to have the sort of experience with my book that I had with the books that shaped me as I was writing it: curled up with a hard copy, pencil in hand, underlining the bits you like and writing angry margin notes about the rest.

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

3 years

I couldn’t be prouder to have been trusted with an advance copy of this staggeringly creative novel, which New Scientist calls a “stone-cold masterpiece.” (See what Kim Stanley Robinson and Cory Doctorow thought below the fold). Pre-order today, get it on release day next week!

Monica Byrne

@monicabyrne13

3 years

"When a book is this ambitious, either it is a thumping success or it falls on its face. Happily, The Actual Star is a stone-cold masterpiece. It is one of the most moving novels I have read and surely a contender for major awards." Welp. 😳

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

2 years

@AntonJaegermm Of course this is mediocre but it’s on par with much of what students produce. Of course the best students will benefit from struggling to write an original essay but if the other 90% can get away with a B+ written by an AI, can we still assign that kind of essay in good faith?

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

2 years

@chad_bowen @alixabeth Yea, I am already paranoid about cheating so I gave this midterm in-class, using a"Lockdown Browser" that makes it impossible to view other websites while taking the exam. (Dunno if it's foolproof but it's gotta at least deter most.) But longer-form, take-home assignments...

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

10 months

Of course, building this sort of countervailing power is no easy feat. The book does discuss some inspiring examples, but that is only the beginning of a much larger project. If my argument in the book is right, though, that project should be central to democratic theory.

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

2 years

@MattSleat Check out Jacob Levy's Rationalism, Pluralism, and Freedom. Really shaped how I understood this (and taught Liberal Political Theory subsequently)

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

1 year

@Ugur_Aytac @nescio13 Just to take a quick ex: when Pettit describes loss of freedom involved in non-interfering domination, he refers to Ibsen’s Doll House. But it is Ibsen, not Pettit, who has brought this form of unfreedom to light.

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

4 years

Excited for this event next week, which is open to the public! Schedule and registration at the link below.

Jo Wolff

@JoWolffBSG

4 years

The Politics of Egalitarianism conference 18th Feb, @NuffieldCollege and @BlavatnikSchool Speakers Charles Mills, Anne Phillips, @davidwengrow @tmbejan , Sam Bagg and myself. Open to all, no charge, registrations at this link.

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

3 years

I’d usually seen sortition discussed in the context of deliberative democracy, and since I’ve tended to be skeptical of deliberation as a solution to deep-seated power asymmetries (see ), I hadn’t given much thought to its democratic potential.

Can deliberation neutralise power? - Samuel Bagg, 2018

Most democratic theorists agree that concentrations of wealth and power tend to distort the functioning of democracy and ought to be countered wherever possible...

journals.sagepub.com

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

10 months

The way we usually see it, democracy is about collective decision-making on equal terms. It is a way for people to come together, discuss their options, and make choices about the direction of their society that are both well-informed and fair to everyone involved.

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

3 years

@jtlevy @NuffieldCollege Just as fortuitously, I got to live in Montreal and Oxford: two cities that (for very different reasons!) have been wonderful places to spend my early thirties.

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

5 years

Characteristically clear and insightful stuff from @AAbizadeh now out in @PoPpublicsphere ! One of the best things you can read on #sortition .

Arash Abi𝔃adeh

@AAbizadeh

5 years

“ #Representation , #Bicameralism , #PoliticalEquality , and #Sortition ,” which argues for a bicameral legislature with one elected and one randomly selected chamber, is now out in Perspectives on Politics firstview. #CitizenAssembly #CanadaSenate #cdnpoli

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

4 years

So great to be a part of this conversation! Evidence that virtual conferences can be almost as good as the real thing.

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

4 years

Archaeologists/anthropologists need to be part of the debate on social inequality w. political scientists, philosophers & others - so I'm happy to be presenting today w. @JoWolffBSG @tmbejan @samuel_e_bagg , Anne Phillips, Charles Mills. Free + open to all.

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

1 year

Something cool! An interview I gave about sortition will be broadcast tomorrow on a (web-based) Latin American TV station.

NTV INFO

@NTVinfo

1 year

📣¿Cómo podemos acabar con la corrupción? En #FueraDeLaCaja , conversaremos sobre el sorteo ciudadano como una propuesta para la vigilancia y detección de actos de corrupción. Nos acompañará Samuel Bagg, docente de Ciencias Políticas de la Universidad de Carolina del Sur. ¡No te

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

3 years

Such a pleasure to read and engage such a wonderful book!

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

5 years

In which @astradisastra (filmmaker behind "What is Democracy?") is asked for her take on my account of democracy as a negative ideal (defined by what it is against). Thanks to @lpeblog for hosting these vital discussions!

LPE Blog

@LPEblog

5 years

What is democracy? We asked @astradisastra to find out:

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

5 years

Pleased to share a new piece (w/ Isak Tranvik) on how candidates for office should weigh substantive priorities vs preservation of democracy, now out in @PoPpublicsphere . Demonstrates virtues of democratic realism, action-oriented political theory. Enjoy!

An Adversarial Ethics for Campaigns and Elections | Perspectives on Politics | Cambridge Core

An Adversarial Ethics for Campaigns and Elections - Volume 17 Issue 4

www.cambridge.org

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

2 years

@alixabeth @chad_bowen Yea, though they'd have to be fairly short conversations for grading time to be comparable. And as someone for whom extemporaneous speaking under pressure was never a strong suit, I am sensitive to the ways it would prevent some students from doing their best (perhaps overly so?)

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

3 years

(In my view, the idea of having a randomly selected second chamber serve as a complement to an elected chamber—as proposed by @AAbizadeh , @jgastil , and others—resolves some of these problems, but not all of them. Read the paper if you’re interested!)

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

3 years

Buy this book!

Monica Byrne

@monicabyrne13

3 years

Good morning. Today is 8 Muluk 7 Ch'en, Long Count 13.0.8.15.9 by the Maya calendar, and Chak Ek' is the evening star. THE ACTUAL STAR is out today. I poured into it everything I love, mourn, and hope for. I'm so excited for you to finally read it.

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

3 years

And it occurred to me that the biggest risks of capture in a randomly selected legislature come in at the stage where participants are being supplied with training and background information by those empowered to educate them and facilitate discussion. 9/25

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

3 years

Oh, and the link for the intra-party democracy paper is here:

Intra‐party Democracy: A Functionalist Account*

Click on the article title to read more.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

2 years

@3d_historian Really depends on context. (What texts they read, how long they have to answer, what the goals of the class are). It's not a top-notch answer, but "middle of the road" seems more accurate than "terrible." Are your students are reliably generating answers far better than this?

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

2 years

Taught "Lynch Law in America" earlier this semester, and every time I write the author's name in lectures, emails to students, etc, my fingers type out "Ida Bae Wells." So far I've always caught it before sending but one of these days... 😅Thanks a lot, @nhannahjones

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Sam Bagg (migrating to @samuel-bagg.bsky.social)

@samuel_e_bagg

3 years

It would help us see (and do) democracy not as a singular moment of collective will-formation and sovereignty-a conception bound to disappoint us-but as a continuous process of chipping away at the outsized power of wealthy elites and others with concentrated private power. 18/25

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