Social, Behavioral Scientists Eligible to Apply for NSF S-STEM Grants
Solicitations are now being sought for the National Science Foundation’s Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics program, and in an unheralded […]
September 25, 2014
Can Greater Transparency Lead to Better Social Science?
Read Now
Why Study Social Science
We study social science because social phenomena affect people’s lives in profound ways. If you want to start with Cantor’s focus—physical illness and death—then social phenomena are tremendously important.
The Study of Conflict Mediation by Political Scientists
As Hilary Clinton arrives in Israel to attempt to negotiate a cease fire in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hammas, it is worth noting that there is a sub-field of political science that focuses on the determinants and effectiveness of these kinds of mediation effects.
Economic Inequality and Political Power (Part 3 of 3)
Faith in the wisdom of the affluent to guide public policy has been sorely tested by the enormous costs in money and human suffering resulting from the Great Recession. My data cast further doubt on the notion that representational inequality arises from the greater knowledge or better judgment of those with higher incomes.
Economic Inequality and Political Power (Part 2 of 3)
In my previous post I discussed the lack of government responsiveness to the middle-class and the poor, when their policy preferences diverge […]
Economic Inequality and Political Power (Part 1 of 3)
If policy influence becomes so unequal that the wishes of most citizens are ignored most of the time, a country’s claim to be a democracy is cast in doubt. And that is exactly what I found in my analyses of the link between public preferences and government policy in the U.S.
Why the Stevens Op-Ed is Wrong
The claim that real politics is messier than the statistics are capable of capturing is obviously correct. But the implied corollary – that the government shouldn’t go out of its way to support it – doesn’t follow.
Political Science Serving the Public Interest
On May 9, the House of Representatives adopted a provision that would preclude the National Science Foundation (NSF) from supporting research in the field of political science.
