The drive for greater public engagement and the turn to social science: each is an important and welcome movement in contemporary political philosophy. However, the relationship between these two boundary-crossing endeavors is not simple or obvious. I suggest that political philosophers have sometimes been too quick to assume that empirically-sensitivity and publicness go together; and I identify some ways in which these features can diverge and even compete. More positively, I go on to outline a modestly public role for political philosophy that is facilitated by in-depth engagement with diverse forms of social scientific evidence.

In recent years, many efforts have been made to bring quantitative and qualitative methods into dialogue. This article also moves in that direction. However, in contrast to most works, the present attempt does not concern the large-N/small-N issue but focuses instead on the sole single case study framework. Within this framework, two counterfactual methods, the historical counterfactual method, the qualitative one, and the synthetic control method, the quantitative one, have gained great importance without however meeting. This paper aims to advance mixed-methods research by bridging the gap between these two approaches. More precisely, it has assessed whether these two methods can be used together to understand what would have happened in a single case Z in the absence of an event X. The case study of the impact of Thatcher’s election on the UK pension system is then presented as an example of the joint use of the two methods.

James Croxall Palmer served during the United States Exploring Expedition of 1838–1842 as assistant surgeon aboard the Peacock from late February to mid-April 1839 when it sailed with the pilot boat Flying-Fish on a difficult and treacherous high-latitude foray west of the Antarctic Peninsula. The papers of the Flying-Fish were lost with the destruction of the Peacock at the mouth of the Columbia River in July 1841, thus the book Palmer authored in 1843 under the title Thulia (a pseudonym for the Flying-Fish) became both the sole surviving firsthand account of the excursion and the first Antarctic poetry. A quarter century later, Palmer revisited, revised, and expanded Thulia, publishing it as Antarctic Mariner’s Song in 1868. Palmer’s own proof copies of Antarctic Mariner’s Song were retained by his descendants but were otherwise unknown until they recently surfaced. The proofs with Palmer’s numerous annotations contribute to the expedition’s history. A presentation and discussion constitute this report.

One-third of deals in the venture capital (VC) market involve a founder and investor from the same university. Venture capitalists are more likely to invest in and place larger bets on startups with founders from their alma mater. These deals are also more likely to lead to IPOs postfunding. Tests using VC partner turnover confirm a direct link between education ties and funding likelihood. Taken together, our results suggest that university connections facilitate improved deal-making and outcomes, rather than diverting funds toward lower-quality startups.

Historians and archaeologists have extensively studied the history of health and illness in medieval England. Despite uncovering evidence of many diseases, especially fatal ones, questions remain about the impact of infirmity on people’s lives. How often were people unable to work because of illness? Were there seasonal patterns to such absences and did some people suffer recurring bouts of sickness? It has long been recognized that sick customary tenants could, in theory, be excused from performing their labor services (known as “works”) but few examples of this practice have been found. This article presents new evidence of infirmity on the manors of Ramsey Abbey. The monks excused sick tenants from performing their labor services for up to a year and a day, and sixty-two manorial accounts offer new insights into 229 cases of infirmity among their customary tenants in the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. These accounts reveal a variety of experiences, from acute illnesses that lasted just two days, to chronic and debilitating infirmities that could result in a year’s absence. Five weeks of autumn accounted for a high number of absences, perhaps reflecting the demands of the harvest, but also the possibility of workplace accidents or even fraudulent claims of infirmity.

Democratic innovations (DIs), such as deliberative mini-publics and referenda, are gaining traction in Europe, but their legitimacy depends on public support and their ability to address democratic discontent. While prior research focuses on individual-level drivers, structural conditions remain understudied. This study uniquely integrates the regional economic context into the analysis, combining survey data (N = 16,000) with economic indicators from ninety-one regions in thirteen European countries. Findings show that DIs receive slightly more support in poorer regions. Additionally, in these regions, economic hardship fuels demand for DIs by amplifying economic deprivation and political disaffection (‘enraged’ mechanism), whereas in wealthier regions, political interest is the key driver of public support for DIs (‘engaged’ mechanism). By incorporating economic conditions into the study of DIs, this research refines two key theories of DI support and offers a more nuanced understanding of when and why citizens support institutional change, thereby informing more context-sensitive participatory policies.

Molecular tests without well-defined test performance characteristics are increasingly available for diagnosis of infectious diseases. These tests present a diagnostic stewardship challenge for institutions. We share the results of a local modified Delphi consensus undertaken to define appropriate scenarios for use of plasma metagenomic next-generation sequencing.

This paper investigates the intersection of the Japanese gramophone industry and Chinese folk storytelling performances during the Second Sino-Japanese War, centering on a 1941 recording project conducted in Japanese-occupied Chōsen. While the project aimed to promote East Asian cultural synthesis in line with Japan’s expansionist agenda, it also captured marginalized local subgenres that had been overlooked even by Chinese companies. The article explores the political motivations behind the project, shaped by the shifting propaganda objectives of the Japanese colonial authorities and their complex interactions with private gramophone companies, Chinese performers, and local audiences. Moving beyond the conventional colonial narrative focused on Japan’s formal colonies, it instead examines Japan’s engagement with the would-be colonized Huabei Plain through a bottom-up lens. The paper argues that cultural production under Japanese imperial expansion was marked by contingency and disorganization, especially in regions not yet formally colonized. Ultimately, this reveals the fractures within Japan’s colonial vision – a result chaotically shaped by the inconsistencies of imperial cultural policy, the disadvantaged position of private gramophone companies under wartime constraints, the ambiguous collaboration of Chinese performers, and the resilience of local cultural connoisseurship.

William Godwin is predominantly recognized as a theoretical anarchist who envisioned a tranquil anarchy wherein no government was deemed necessary. Equally emphasized in academic literature is Godwin’s unwavering advocacy for gradualism and pacifism as a transition mechanism toward the ideal society—a strategy criticized by some as inadequate or naive in realizing this ideal. Scholars of Godwin have identified a contradiction within his thought on this basis. This article, however, argues that this contradiction dissolves when we shift the focus to what could be termed the “time-regime” of Godwin’s politics: the business of the present differed from the business of the future, even as the present served as road to the future. Viewed through this lens of time-regime, the remarkable significance of democracy in Godwin’s scheme of anarchy becomes evident. Accordingly, this article seeks to analyze his concept of democracy within the backdrop of the French revolutionary decade.

Pizolgletscher, Swiss Alps, was already a very small glacier when the monitoring of length change was initiated 130 years ago. In situ mass balance measurements at seasonal resolution began in 2006. During the last 18 years, the glacier has lost 98% of its volume and is considered extinct since 2022. However, a tiny remnant of ice of a few thousand square metres is preserved under rockfall debris. The case of Pizolgletscher allows tracking the extinction of a glacier with a comprehensive long-term observational series. Furthermore, the vanished glacier has a touristic and cultural significance, as exemplified by a commemoration ceremony held in 2019. Here, detailed monitoring data sets (mass balance, area, volume, length) are presented that shed light on the processes of glacier disintegration before ultimate disappearance. Comparison to regional mass balance variations indicates that the signal from very small glaciers can remain representative at larger scales even during the final phase of a glacier’s lifecycle.

This multisociety guidance was endorsed by SHEA, APIC, IDSA, PALTmed, and AGS. It provides recommendations for infection prevention and control (IPC) in the context of the complexity of nursing home care in the United States: increased medical acuity of residents, the spread of multidrug-resistant organisms, and the threat of emerging pathogens. Recommendations and implementation suggestions address IPC leadership, staffing, and resources, healthcare personnel and residents‘ adherence to precautions and effective hand hygiene, outbreak preparedness, training, occupational health, cleaning and disinfection in the care environment, and the involvement of IPC in the facility. The guidance also addresses the challenges of maintaining a home-like care space while sustaining necessary IPC measures. The guidance covers the role of regulatory bodies like the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It should serve as a resource for IPC program leaders in nursing homes who are aiming to enhance infection prevention efforts.

This paper explores the role played by the UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) in the technological transfer that benefited the Bulgarian electronics industry. Utilising UNIDO and Bulgarian sources, it demonstrates the key role this technical assistance played in the growth of the socialist state’s electronic industry. Despite the official priority of North–South relations in its agenda, UNIDO developed a special relationship with the Eastern Bloc. The paper shows the critical avenue of West–East technology and expertise transfer by focusing on one of the main technical assistance projects, which supported the Research Institute for Instrument Design (NIPKIP) in Sofia. The paper assesses the impact of UNIDO’s programmes on the whole process of building an electronics industry in Bulgaria and shows converging but distinctive strategies. UNIDO facilitated the socialist state’s re-entry into the European economic and expertise exchange space and helped raise it to be a provider of technical assistance too.

In this reflection, I seek to determine to what degree Seila Law LLC v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Collins et al. v. Yellen genuinely indicate a final legal sanctioning of the unitary theory, and thus precipitate a serious and significant disruption in both the political status quo and the stability of the constitutional system of separated powers. After a rigorous analysis of the trajectory of the court’s approach to the removal power, I find that there are four potential outcomes for the upcoming clashes between the Trump administration and several recently removed independent agency heads. Each of these potential outcomes have important constitutional implications, especially for the role of the Supreme Court in the Constitution’s separation-of-powers system. Understanding these constitutional implications will help to prepare political scientists to analyze and interpret future judicial and executive behavior.

In the context of increasing historiographical attention to the emotional content of French revolutionary politics, the essentially unprecedented nationwide consultation that produced the cahiers de doléances of 1789, now available as a searchable digitised corpus, offers a route into exploring the hopes, fears, and concerns of thousands of French people who participated directly in the cahiers’ composition. Mapping their uses of the concept of ‘trust’, and its manifold implications, offers new evidence on the nature and contours of the political relationships they believed they inhabited, and on the extent to which they were enacting agency over the prospect of change. It also provides material to contemplate the implications of the highly centralized, top-down reform processes actually initiated from the summer of 1789 onwards, and the violent complexity of their reception.

Little has been written regarding the experience of training in medicine with a diagnosis of a personality disorder. The stigma of personality disorders, evidenced even within psychiatry, potentially marginalises affected students and resident doctors. This article provides a first-hand account of the lead author’s (E.M.) lived experience of being a medical student with a diagnosis of emotionally unstable personality disorder (EUPD). Challenges that have been faced include a lack of understanding, limited literature about medical students and doctors with personality disorders, and derogatory attitudes. Despite this, the positive aspects of the diagnosis are recognised, through enhanced resilience and heightened emotional sensitivity, which can benefit patients.

How do threats of interstate conflict affect American voters’ propensity to support candidates who violate democratic principles? We argue that undemocratic behavior affects perceived dominance, which citizens value in times of conflict. We fielded two conjoint experiments and a factorial vignette experiment in the United States to test this two-step argument. First, our conjoint experiments demonstrate a robust and strong relationship between undemocratic candidate behavior and dominance impressions. Second, our vignette experiment – manipulating undemocratic behavior by in-party presidential candidates and priming threats of conflict with China and Russia – shows that undemocratic candidates are evaluated more positively under conflict compared to peace. This is especially the case among Republican voters, although the pattern is also evident among Democrats and Independents. Our letter sheds light on the consequences of the escalation of wars with relevance to the United States around the globe, pointing to toleration of undemocratic behavior specifically.

In this paper, I argue for the Hidden Grounds thesis: in paradigmatic cases of religious hinge commitments, these commitments are rational in virtue of being implicitly based on epistemic grounds. The key intuition behind my argument draws on the work of John Henry Newman. As I understand him, Newman holds that both religious and non-religious hinges are rational because they are grounded in epistemic considerations that are largely implicit and not necessarily accessible to reflection. This, in turn, explains their epistemic stability. I begin by presenting the argument for the Hidden Grounds thesis. The subsequent sections support the premises of this argument. First, I introduce the concept of implicit basing and argue that some doxastic states are rational in virtue of being implicitly based on epistemic grounds. I then present Newman’s view on the implicit grounds of religious hinges and argue for its plausibility. I conclude by addressing several possible objections to my view.