The National Gallery in London is renovating its Sainsbury Wing and they’ve just found a secret letter from one of the original donors, sunk into a concrete column, saying that he hates the columns and is glad they’re being demolished. 10/10 unhinged rich man behaviour, no notes
"Relations between our two countries have at times been strained, but I promise you all that the entire Israeli government, myself included, still holds a high opinion of the United States’ cash."
WASHINGTON—In a concerted effort to ease growing tensions between the two nations, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu assured his critics Monday that he still has the utmost respect for U.S. mo...
🚨 New research paper: *Rulers on the Road*. We map emperors’ itinerant rule in the Holy Roman Empire from 719 to 1519 and shed light on how they projected power without centralized bureaucracies. Very fun project with @claranw.bsky.social@andrejkokkonen.bsky.socialshorturl.at/npKQ4
Happy to share our recently published article, in Latin American Politics & Society (open access), "Inside the Black Box: Uncovering Dynamics and Characteristics of the Chilean Central Government Bureaucracy with a Novel Dataset". doi.org/10.1017/lap....
However, managerial positions seem short-lived, hurting autonomy & policy stability; and some agencies seem much more politicized than others. END.
Overall, we find a bureaucracy that is closer to a Weberian than to a politicized or patronage-based model, with substantial value placed on professional expertise and that is largely stable across the political cycle.
6) We find bureaucratic careers are largely static, with scant horizontal or vertical mobility. This suggests there are low incentives for performance. However, vertical mobility is more frequent for low-level positions, while professionals and managers move a bit more between agencies.
5) We find agencies are very heterogeneous in terms of their exposure to employment shocks after elections and in their overall employment stability. This strongly suggests some parts of the state are seen as "permanent", while others are seen as more open to patronage.
4) Moreover, these "generalist" and prestigious professions are combined with sector-specific professional expertise in the top positions of each agency or department. For instance, accountants are prevalent in the Tax Agency, economists in the Budget Office, architects in the Housing Ministry, etc.
