Authors

Save the Swamp

By Michael A. Smith of Emporia State University The Trump Administration’s recent reversal on immigration policy regarding children has gotten me to thinking. What exactly does it mean to “drain the swamp?” First, let me share a bit of background about the current situation. In 1997, a court ruling…


Ethnic Networks

The following is part of a series of posts written by MPSA award recipients highlighting outstanding research presented at previous MPSA annual conferences and in the American Journal of Political Science. The following AJPS Author Summary was first published on the AJPS website and is shared here…


Back End Skills

By Chad Raymond of Salve Regina University and Active Learning in Political Science Most ALPS posts deal with the front end of teaching — the stuff that eventually turns into the student experience. Today I’m going to talk about the back end of the job: skills that are beneficial for one’s career…


Differential Electoral Coordination of House Republican Intraparty Organizations

By Zachary A. McGee of the University of Texas at Austin At the start of the 115th Congress the Republican Party finally achieved unified government for the first time in more than a decade. Unfortunately for Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, his conference was not unified, and in fact, they were…


What 18,000 Declassified Documents (and a Computer) Reveal About the Credibility of Signals During Crises

By Eric Min of Stanford University Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, left, and U.S. President John F. Kennedy sit in the residence of the U.S. ambassador in Vienna, Austria, at the start of their historic talks. [AP/Wide World Photo/US Department of State]For the last couple decades, international…


Foster Care Privatization: How an Increasingly Popular Public Policy Leads to Increased Levels of Abuse and Neglect

Foster care in the United States is dramatically influenced by federal and state legislation. Since the late 1990s policies establishing privatized foster care have become increasingly popular throughout the country. The privatization of foster care, much like the privatization of other government…


In Retrospect: Tips for First-Time MPSA Attendees and Presenters

By Charmaine N. Willis of University at Albany, SUNY As I reflect on my first MPSA conference there are few things that I would have done differently, both prior to and during the conference. I offer some tips to new (and returning) attendees for future conferences. While my suggestions are based…


Diffusion by Any Means Necessary

By Harold “Harry” Young of Austin Peay State University Members of the "GRAD SCHOOL: What to Expect at a Job Interview at a Teaching School" roundtable at the 2018 MPSA conference in Chicago. They stood in place at each poster in the exhibit hall, graduate students eager to share their research…


Reflections on the #MPSA18 Mentoring Reception

On the second day of the 76th Annual Conference, MPSA held a mentoring reception for which graduate students, PhD recipients in non-academic positions, junior, mid-career, and contingent faculty could select volunteer mentors for small group mentoring to discuss their current research and…


More Bridging, Less Bonding: New Views of Social Capital

(or, Why I am Going to Watch Roseanne) by Michael A. Smith of Emporia State University Social capital has been a popular concept in political science, at least since the publication of Almond and Verba’s classic book The Civic Culture in 1963.  The idea waned for a while, then came roaring back in…