Political Science Now - American Political Science Association
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A site from the American Political Science Association covering people, research and news in political science. APSA supports political scientists from all fields of inquiry, regions, and occupational endeavors within and outside academe in order to expand awareness and understanding of politics.
Political Science Now - American Political Science Association
18h ago
State Terror and Long-Run Development: The Persistence of the Khmer Rouge
By Donald Grasse, University of Southern California
Does mass repression have a long-term economic legacy, and if so, what explains persistence? I argue repression can undermine development by delimiting human capital. I study the aftermath of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. The regime implemented a campaign of violence to reorganize society, yet governing elites varied across the communist ideological spectrum. I exploit an arbitrary border that allocated villages to either the loyalist Mok or the relatively moderate Sy ..read more
Political Science Now - American Political Science Association
2d ago
Se Habla Español: Spanish-Language Appeals and Candidate Evaluations in the United States
By Marques G. Zárate, Rice University, Enrique Quezada-llanes, Rice University and Angel D. Armenta, University of Kentucky
Political candidates use Spanish-language appeals in efforts to increase their support among Hispanic voters. We argue that candidates, Hispanic or not, can use Spanish to signal closeness to Hispanics and posit that the effectiveness of these appeals is conditional on proficiency. To test this, we run two experiments where participants listen to an audio clip of a hypothetical can ..read more
Political Science Now - American Political Science Association
3d ago
Rule Ambiguity, Institutional Clashes, and Population Loss: How Wikipedia Became the Last Good Place on the Internet
By Sverrir Steinsson, George Washington University
Scholars usually portray institutions as stable, inviting a status quo bias in their theories. Change, when it is theorized, is frequently attributed to exogenous factors. This paper, by contrast, proposes that institutional change can occur endogenously through population loss, as institutional losers become demotivated and leave, whereas institutional winners remain. This paper provides a detailed demonstration of how this f ..read more
Political Science Now - American Political Science Association
6d ago
The American Political Science Association is pleased to announce the Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant (DDRIG) Awardees for 2023. The APSA DDRIG program provides support to enhance and improve the conduct of doctoral dissertation research in political science. Awards support basic research which is theoretically derived and empirically oriented.
Suhyen Bae is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Political Science at Duke University. In her dissertation project, she investigates how and why loneliness and social isolation shape political attitudes and behavior. She bridges tog ..read more
Political Science Now - American Political Science Association
6d ago
Join the APSA Committee on the Status of Graduate Students in the Profession for their second entry to their 2024 virtual workshop series! Wednesday, March 27, 2024 | 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM EST | Register Here
The dissertation represents the culmination of a graduate student’s journey and is the foundation for an academic career. Bringing together PhD students actively working on their thesis, faculty who recently completed their dissertation, and a faculty mentor, this webinar covers the dissertation process from multiple angles to help graduate students prepare for and co ..read more
Political Science Now - American Political Science Association
6d ago
Modeling Spatial Heterogeneity and Historical Persistence: Nazi Concentration Camps and Contemporary Intolerance
By Thomas B. Pepinsky, Cornell University, Sara Wallace Goodman, University of California, Irvine and Conrad Ziller, University of Duisburg-Essen
A wealth of recent research in comparative politics examines how spatial variation in historical conditions shapes modern political outcomes. In an article in the American Political Science Review, Homola, Pereira, and Tavits argue that Germans who live nearer to former Nazi concentration camps are more likely to display out-group i ..read more
Political Science Now - American Political Science Association
1w ago
Imperfect Victims? Civilian Men, Vulnerability, and Policy Preferences
By Anne-Kathrin Kreft, University of Oslo and Mattias Agerberg, University of Gothenburg
Who is deemed vulnerable and in need of protection has a bearing on important policy decisions, such as refugee acceptance or provision of aid. In war, dominant narratives construe women as paradigmatic victims, even while civilian men are disproportionately targeted in the most lethal forms of violence. How are such gender-essentialist notions reflected in public opinion? Do regular citizens have inaccurate perceptions of male victim ..read more
Political Science Now - American Political Science Association
1w ago
Impartial Administration and Peaceful Agrarian Reform: The Foundations for Democracy in Scandinavia
By David Andersen, Aarhus University
Why was the route to democracy in Scandinavia extraordinarily stable? This paper answers this question by studying Scandinavia’s eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century peaceful agrarian reforms, which contributed to auspicious state–society relations that made democracy progress relatively smoothly. Based on comparisons with contemporary France and Prussia and process-tracing evidence, the paper shows that Scandinavia achieved relatively extensive and pea ..read more
Political Science Now - American Political Science Association
1w ago
The American Political Science Association is pleased to announce the Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant (DDRIG) Awardees for 2023. The APSA DDRIG program provides support to enhance and improve the conduct of doctoral dissertation research in political science. Awards support basic research which is theoretically derived and empirically oriented.
Ye Zhang is a PhD candidate in political science at MIT. Her research focuses on authoritarian politics, state-business relations, bureaucracy, and social welfare. Her dissertation proposes a theoretical framework for understanding ..read more
Political Science Now - American Political Science Association
1w ago
From Victims to Dissidents: Legacies of Violence and Popular Mobilization in Iraq (2003–2018)
By Chantal Berman, Georgetown University, Killian Clarke, Georgetown University, and Rima Majed, American University of Beirut
A growing literature links experiences of armed conflict with postwar political behavior. This paper examines how legacies of wartime violence shape dynamics of protest in twenty-first-century Iraq. We argue that experiences of shared violence against civilians generate strong social and organizational ties, as individuals turn to neighbors, friends, and communal organizatio ..read more