MPSA Awards
All Male Panels Erode Citizens' Perceptions of Democratic Legitimacy
By Amanda Clayton, Diana Z. O'Brien, and Jennifer M. Piscopo All-male panels increasingly face public pushback. Though once ubiquitous, male-only groups are encountering greater scrutiny at conferences, in workplaces, and especially in politics. In the United States, for example, a photo showing a…
The Deliberative Sublime: Edmund Burke on Disruptive Speech and Imaginative Judgment
Edmund Burke Engraving By Rob Goodman of McGill University Could it be true that judicious political conduct requires injudicious political language? Is there a case to be made for the value, amidst relatively settled institutions, of unsettling speech—speech characterized by rhetorical excess,…
Voting Can Be Hard, Information Helps
By Melody Crowder-Meyer, Shana Kushner Gadarian, and Jessica Trounstine When Los Angeles County voters entered their polling booths in November 2016, they were faced with a multitude of decisions. The choice of which presidential candidate to support was likely fairly straightforward. But how…
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…
Politics and Ontology in Thucydides' story of Alcmaeon
By Borden Flanagan of American University The story of Alcmaeon, in an emphatically unnecessary digression, frames Periclean imperialism in terms of the cosmological themes of motion and rest, thereby suggesting how ontological questions are disclosed in fundamental political problems. Thucydides’…
MPSA in 2017 - Accomplishments Worth Celebrating (video)
This year was confusing at times and exhausting at others, but it also had its high points. As we say goodbye to 2017, we welcome you to join us for the MPSA highlight reel. Our thanks to everyone who played a part in making these projects a reality, including our program chairs, council members,…
MPSA's Top 10 Blog Posts from 2017
There is no doubt that 2017 was a memorable year in political science. As the year comes to a close, it’s time to take a look back at our the most-read blog posts from the past twelve months. #10 Alone and Working: Making the Transition to ABD Harold Young and Adnan Rasool share lessons from…
Bridging the Gaps: Phones, Gender, and Politics
By Matthew Bondy, College of William & Mary Photo Courtesy of the Center for African Development The spread of mobile phones over the past thirty years to both developed and developing countries alike has changed the way people interact socially, commercially, and politically. However, access…