Ben Yoel

I'm absolutely thrilled to share that, starting in August, I'll be a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University's @stanfordcddrl.bsky.social! I'll be focusing primarily on foreign pressure and opposition to democratic backsliding. I'm very grateful to my committee and others for their support.

In a few hours, Israelis head to the polls in the most consequential election. We have witnessed many events, including an attempt to start a new round of war by Bibi with Iran & now an effort to solicit a second endorsement from Trump. Stay tuned for more. www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog-oct...

Yes, Tisza had a prominent leader. But it wouldn't have succeeded without the on-the-ground mobilisation by over 2,000 semi-autonomous local groups (Tisza Islands). In the end, it was (also) civil society mobilisation that defeated Orbán.

After three years of work, I am honored to share that my dataset of US Secretary of State speeches (1997-2026) is now public! Jay Revolinsky and I introduce a novel corpus of all remarks delivered by US SoS's throughout the post-Cold War (~17,700 speeches) including Rubio. github.com/revolins/sos...

R&R for my job market paper!!!

Article accepted!!

Our paper introducing the US Secretary of State Speech (USSOS) Dataset (1997-2026) is now live on ArXiv! This was a labor of love, so we hope folks in IR/CP/AP/non-poli sci folks find it useful. A Shiny app will be out in a few weeks. All comments/suggestions most welcome. arxiv.org/abs/2610.19529

Our paper introducing the US Secretary of State Speech (USSOS) Dataset (1997-2026) is now live on ArXiv! This was a labor of love, so we hope folks in IR/CP/AP/non-poli sci folks find it useful. A Shiny app will be out in a few weeks. All comments/suggestions most welcome. arxiv.org/abs/2610.19529

I’m absolutely delighted to have been selected as an Early Career Fellow in the @epovb.bsky.social section! I’m very privileged and honored to be working with @laurenrprather.bsky.social during the academic year as I develop my book on foreign pressure and opposition to democratic backsliding.

Question to folks that have used CloudResearch for US surveys: do you know how to embed an attention check and use that to remove respondents + do the same with those that don't consent to take the survey? Thanks in advance for all the help!

How do elections in backsliding settings shape attitudes toward democracy? @gabrielagreilinger.com and I fielded two surveys: 1 pre/post & 1 after Hungary's election. In short, elections appear to increase satisfaction among winners, even months after. Working paper: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Excited to share our new working paper with @benyoel.bsky.social: we analyse public opinion dynamics around the consequential election in Hungary last April and specifically look at (anti-)democratic attitudes in the aftermath of Orbán's defeat. Available here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Tomorrow at 9am PT/12pm EST/6pm CET, I'll be giving a talk at @snfagora.bsky.social (virtually) on my job market paper and book project on foreign pressure and opposition to democratic backsliding. All are welcome! Zoom link on website: snfagora.jhu.edu/event/academ...

Tomorrow at 9am PT/12pm EST/6pm CET, I'll be giving a talk at @snfagora.bsky.social (virtually) on my job market paper and book project on foreign pressure and opposition to democratic backsliding. All are welcome! Zoom link on website: snfagora.jhu.edu/event/academ...

Question to survey methods folks: is there a paper that shows/examines whether putting items in a matrix makes them more correlated as opposed to including them as separate individual items? Thanks in advance!

Sad I won't be there, but if you're in Atlanta/GA Tech this weekend, check out the excellent @gabrielagreilinger.com presenting our joint work on the effects of consequential elections in backsliding democracies on democratic attitudes and support for retaliation against former backsliding leaders.

I'm thrilled to be giving a talk at next week at the @snfagora.bsky.social Academy Workshop on my job market paper, where I examine the causes and consequences of foreign pressure on democracy and democratic backsliding. The talk is fully online, link to join here! snfagora.jhu.edu/event/academ...

I'm very excited to have officially started as a Postdoc at @stanfordcddrl.bsky.social! I'm also grateful for their very kind write-up of my work, as well as that of my cohort members. If you're in the Bay Area this academic year, I'd love to grab coffee. cddrl.fsi.stanford.edu/news/introdu...

APSA 2026 done! Was a pleasure to serve as a discussant for an awesome panel on measuring democratic erosion and present my JMP on foreign pressure and public support for pro-democracy movements.

Still around at APSA? I'll be presenting my job market paper on the effects of foreign cues on public attitudes toward pro-democracy movements today at 10am at Hynes! The panel features a diverse set of papers on the domestic and international politics of opposition to democratic backsliding.

Good to be in Boston for the first time. APSA Pre-Conference Job Market Workshop ✔️ now onto APSA! If you’re around tomorrow until Sunday, I’d love to grab coffee. I'll also be presenting my job market paper on Sunday at 10am.

It's hard to underscore how unprecedented this move is. We have never seen a mainstream Jewish (Zionist) politician join a predominantly Islamist party. Segalovitz served as a leading figure in the Israeli police and earned a lot of allies in the Arab sector. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/31/w...

First trip to the Hoover archive! Super comprehensive collection of diplomatic cables. My first ever time doing archival data collection. Thanks to everyone for the advice and tips.

Interested in Israeli election polling? My friend Tal Elovits created this wonderful aggregation website with plenty of quality of life features for the junkies among us. k26polls.co.il/en.html

I’m so thrilled and honored to be starting a Postdoc at @stanfordcddrl.bsky.social in the next few weeks! I’ll be mostly working on a book project on international pressure and opposition to backsliding. If you’re in or around Stanford and the Bay Area for the next year, I’d love to meet.

Question to folks who have done/do archival research. What advice (if any) might you have? I'm doing some archival work for the first time for my book project at the Hoover Institution in a few weeks, and am primarily interested in digitizing documents. All comments/thoughts appreciated!

My first ever European conference ✔️! It was a delight to present my dissertation work on foreign pressure in an age of democratic backsliding, to discuss some awesome work on the international dimensions of autocratization, and meet scholars with shared interests from Europe and around the world.

Great to be at EPSS. Today at 5:10pm I’ll be presenting my work on foreign cues and public support for pro-democracy movements in backsliding contexts and discussing three excellent papers on the international consequences of autocratization across the Global North and South.