Practicing Politics: Female Political Scientists as Candidates for Elective Office

Computational Modeling Simulation Methodologies for Political Scientists

In this brief article I identify and characterize the variety of simulation methodologies relevant to political science research. Having identified them, I then recount a lighthearted tale of one successful application of a computer simulation to a real world problem of enormous significance. Extending the discussion to other examples, I discuss some of the main issues and benefits in simulatio...

Law Professors and Political Scientists: Observations on the Law/Politics Distinction in the Guinier/Rosenberg Debate

Political competition between differentiated candidates

We introduce a framework of electoral competition in which voters have general preferences over candidates’ characteristics and policies. Candidates’ immutable characteristics (such as gender, race or previously committed policy positions) are exogenously differentiated, while candidates can choose any policy for the remaining issues to maximize their winning probability. Voters have general pr...

Politics in the Supermarket: Political Consumerism as a Form of Political Participation

Both anecdotal and case-study evidence have long suggested that consumer behavior such as the buying or boycotting of products and services for political and ethical reasons can take on political significance. Despite recent claims that such behavior has become more widespread in recent years, political consumerism has not been studied systematically in survey research on political participatio...

Humans as Scientists: Scientists as Humans

This article discusses how constructivist psychology might contribute to studies of the history and philosophy of science. It is suggested that this would be a fruitful topic for graduate research, and a brief analysis is provided of what would be required to model the construct systems involved in the Priestley-Lavoisier controversy over the roles of phlogiston and oxygen in calcification. It ...