This was a really weird year for all us, but spare a thought for those of us who study governance. In 2025, I wrote a lot about the erosion of US democracy and state capacity. In a previous post I highlighted my most-read pieces from the year.
Here are my personal favorites from 2025. Some reflect a personal connection I had with the article, and some were about what I saw as the most profound changes in our government. Enjoy!
I love trains! And Switzerland! And hiking in the Alps! This trip had it all. Everyone should do this it once in their lives.
All aboard the best train ride in the world
I love a good train system, partly because they are a testament to great public infrastructure, and partly because at heart I am a 9 year old kid.
At the end of 2024, I concluded my presidency of the Association of Public Policy and Management. That included giving a presidential address at the annual meeting. This took place after the election, but before Trump took office. This post summarized the speech, which outlined the looming threat of Trumpism.
At the time, the modal audience response was “wow, that was really depressing.” When I returned to the conference in November 2025, the response was “if anything, you undersold how bad things would be.” While I did not predict everything that has come to pass the idea of a Presidency centered around personal loyalty remains a pretty useful Rosetta Stone for understanding our current moment.
The Personalist Presidency
Right now, so many things are happening so quickly that it is hard to keep up. This is part of a deliberate strategy to “flood the zone” with so many changes that it is impossible to make sense of them all. I’ve been trying to step back and identify bigger patterns that help us to frame and understand these events, rather than just respond to them. Just…
This piece detailed what I see as the troubling political economy for right-wing students who see campus trolling and even harassment as a means to make it the MAGAverse. This incentive structure has become even stronger since the murder of Charlie Kirk, as others seek to take his place.
The piece critiqued an article by Jeremy Peters, a New York Times reporter. I criticize the Times a lot, even though I am both a loyal subscriber and very occasional author there, and so much of this criticism comes from a desire for it to be the best version of what it can be, even as I acknowledge that best version will also reflect my own preferences.
Anyway, Peters emailed me after he read the article…and could not have been more gracious. We disagreed on some things, but he demonstrated a genuine interest in trying to understand my perspective. Given that he and others in the media receive a lot of negative feedback, I was genuinely impressed. (Please be aware that if you ever criticize my writing, I will most likely tell you to go to hell).
How to become a right-wing star? Harass people
Here is one version of the story: A Brown University student created a shoddy AI that labeled individual university administrative employees with terms like “DEI,” “antisemitism,” and “flunkie.” He emailed all of the employees, using a DOGE style format, telling them about their evaluation, asking them to justify their job, and promising to publish the …
My academic mentor, Patrica Ingraham, died this past year. She was a wonderful person who changed my life, and opened up a world of opportunities that as a first generation college grad I simply did not understand. Her passing made me ponder about what mentorship means.
What it means to be a mentor
If you have managed any sort of career, there is usually some person, or maybe a few people, you think of as a mentor. A person who made a crucial difference at a formative moment in your early life.
Authoritarians are bound to refashion the legal system and military/paramilitary forces to demand loyalty. Trump has done so most visibly by making extraordinary new investments into immigration enforcement, which have also subsumed large chunks of existing military and law enforcement resources. As a result, America is a place today where the President routinely sends heavily armed and masked agents into the cities run by his political opponents, contrary to the wishes of the citizens who live there. This will not stop soon and will not end well.
Purge, Merge, and Surge
As Trump deploys a combination of ICE, National Guard troops and other paramilitary forces to multiple American cities, he is implementing a three-step plan. The plan involves different parts of the national security state, immigration enforcement, and the military:
Trump allowed the richest man in the world to condemn potentially millions of people to death. Its that simple. The elimination of USAID is the greatest moral atrocity of the Trump administration to date. It was done without any act of Congress, and driven by conspiracy nuts. I just cannot get over how it happened, and most people just moved on. In a just world, this triggering of such extraordinary human suffering would follow all involved — Musk, DOGErs, Russ Vought, Marco Rubio and Trump — like a trail of blood for the rest of their days.
The Death of USAID
This is a summary of a longer open-access piece appearing in the journal Public Administration and Development co-authored with Rachael Zuppke.
Finally, this story was written by Professor Chloe East, one of many wonderful guest writers who contributed this year. She studies access to SNAP, and did a deep dive explanation of how new work requirements will work (spoiler: they will be a big deal). Its a terrific social science explainer, and this piece holds a special piece in my heart because John Oliver highlighted it in Last Week Tonight.
Thanks for reading. Thanks also to everyone who joined the GiveDirectly campaign. As promised, I made a gift equivalent to all new paid subscriptions to Can We Still Govern? in December, totaling $670. If interested you can still donate here.
Happy new year! Here is hoping that 2026 brings us more reason for cheer. Take care!
Well we have reached 2026 . I predict good days and bad. The election of Democrats will help in our democracy. Perhaps a no kings moment part ( 3). Yes we can still govern there will always be hope, for all of us. Freedom rings.thank you for the article and Happy New Year 🎈🎊🎆.
Well, I've watched Jeremy Peter's pattern of sanewashing Trumpism for a decade, and he was amongst the first to jump on the McCarthy-esque bandwagon of attacking Ivy League institutions for impediments to free speech (based initially on Gaza anti-war protests and spreading to "DEI"....one of the many amorphous terms beloved by the Trump administration and billionaire class).
I no longer read the NYT, and I'm glad he contacted you, but I'd be surprised to learn that he's changed an approach that has earned him top billing at the NYT and access to the wealthy and powerful.