IRCPPS in the Links: Linking Human Rights and Development Assisstance

via Dart-Throwing Chimp:

...The big idea behind the MCC was to give poor countries stronger incentive to improve their economic and political governance by making a big, new pot of aid funding available, but making access to that pot conditional on countries’ performance on a basket of governance indicators. In theory, it’s like setting up a smoothie bar  in a high-school cafeteria and then telling the hungry students they’ll get free smoothies, but only if they’ve done well enough on their report cards. If they’re hungry enough (and like smoothies enough), anticipation of that reward should encourage them to improve their schoolwork, and everyone ends up better off for it....

IRCPPS in the Links: Analyzing Mexican Gang Violence as Insurgency

via the Monkey Cage:

...The violence in Mexico may not be a classic insurgency , but it is certainly being fought like one.  Like other insurgencies, the violence in Mexico – especially the brutal killings of government officials and civilians – is being used to intimidate local populations and control territory.  The Mexican government provides health, education and other public services to most citizens and provides order and security in the vast majority of towns and cities, including Mexico City.  But the insurgents control about 7 percent of the country, including important drug distribution routes, and they have used violence to do so....

Call for Papers: Special Issue on “Global Justice & Practice-Dependence” in Raisons Politiques (in English)

via Public Reason:

Deadline for submissions: April 1^st, 2012
Tentative publication date: Winter 2012

Raisons Politiques is a well-established journal of political thought currently building an international reputation with the support of Sciences Po, the French renowned research institute for social sciences. The journal endeavors to provide a forum where scholars from various backgrounds and traditions can fruitfully engage with contemporary social and political issues. By contrast with publications intended to a particular discipline, Raisons Politiques adopts a thematic approach and welcome contributions from all branches of social sciences. It encourages submissions in English or French, from both established academics and aspiring members of the scientific community.

Call for Papers: Southwest Council of Latin American Studies Conference

via ISA:

The Southwest Council of Latin American Studies (SCOLAS) is now accepting panel and paper proposals for the March 8-10 Conference in Miami. Proposals from all disciplines are encouraged, including but not limited to: Anthropology, Archaeology, Art History, Cultural Studies, Environmental Studies, Ethnomusicology, Film Studies, Gender Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature, Political Science, and Sociology. Panels should consist of three presenters and a chair/commentator. Individual paper proposals are also welcome. Papers can be in either English or Spanish. Please provide names, professional affiliations, email addresses, and a one paragraph abstract of the paper or panel you propose. The deadline for proposal applications is December 15, 2011. Please see the conference WEBSITE for more information.

IRCPPS in the Links: More on Framing and Support for Government Programs

via the Monkey Cage:

...The hidden quality of social welfare benefits in the tax code means that many people are largely unaware of them, and have no idea of their overall impact. How could these policies of the submerged state be revealed, and what difference would it make? Matt Guardino and I created a web-based experiment to test the impact of providing people with small amounts of basic information about such policies. We found that it had two basic effects: (1) people who expressed no opinion on such policies in the absence of information became significantly more likely to do so after receiving information; (2) after the provision of information, people adopted views that made sense given their political values and their interests, as defined by income. Overall, opposition grew to the policies that aid predominantly high income people, while support grew for policies that aid low income people....

IRCPPS in the Links: The Super-Committee and Side-Payments

via the Monkey Cage:

...In the end, rather than taking power away from party leaders, the SC process puts them at the center of negotiations from beginning to end, and makes their support an essential component of any successful deal. Given policy deadlock between the House and Senate, leaders’ deployment of side payments is critical for success. Moreover, party leaders can provide important political cover to their caucuses. Leader support of an SC proposal gives their backbenchers a ready-made response to constituent criticisms of a yea vote – in Fenno’s terms, an explanation of Washington activity. It is not surprising, then, that as negotiations on the SC proceed, committee members from both parties are frequently consulting party leaders on both sides of the aisle – these leaders know as well as anyone which deals might be enactable, and control the political and policy resources needed to secure these outcomes....

IRCPPS in the Links: Separation of Powers and the Executive

via the Monkey Cage:

.... A 2002 law allows Americans born in Jerusalem to place on their passports, as the place of their birth, “Israel.”  President George W. Bush objected at the time, in one of his many signing statements, that this bound the executive branch to a diplomatic position it did not hold (U.S. policy is neutral on the provenance of Jerusalem) and should be under no obligation to assert. President Obama has affirmed this position. And so Menachem Zivotovsky (or rather his parents – Menachem was born in 2002) has now sued to uphold the plain text of the statute....

IRCPPS in the Links: Is Mandatory Voting a Polarization Panacea?

via the Monkey Cage:

...the central effect of political campaigns—one identified in over 60 years of research—is to solidify and reinforce the existing social identities as well as partisan, ideological, or policy views of voters.  That is, campaigns tend to bring potentially wayward voters back “in the fold.”  This only tends to polarize voters.  Indeed, it can happen even in the space of a single 30-second ad.  If, under a mandatory voting system, candidates no longer have to worry about mobilizing voters to turn out and can concentrate on persuading voters to support them, I suspect that we would see this same effect, but magnified over the entire electorate.  So it’s entirely possible that mandatory voting may even increase polarization...

IRCPPS in the Links: Does Increased Education Enhance Women's Rights?

Chris Blattman looks at some evidence from Kenya:

...the program increased objective political knowledge, and reduced both acceptance of political authorities and satisfaction with politics. However, in our Kenyan context, this rejection of the status quo did not translate into greater perceived political efficacy, community participation or voting intentions. Instead, the program increased the perceived legitimacy of political violence...

IRCPPS in the Links: How Support For Government Programs Varies When Framed as "Tax Breaks" vs. "Grants"

via the Monkey Cage:

We presented survey respondents with a description of a federal housing program, after which they were asked to rate their approval of the program on a seven-point scale.  About half of respondents received a description of the real-life Home Mortgage Interest Deduction:

Announcement: ISA Officer Elections

via ISA:

It is time to elect new officers for ISA, including the President and three Vice Presidents. We are sending a ballot to all ISA members by e-mail today for the officer election for the term 2013-2014. The election is ongoing and will conclude on December 5, 2011. We have archived the report of the Nominating Committee HERE. Thank you to all the candidates for agreeing to run for office and contribute their time to ISA.

Call for Applicants: Fullbright Canada Scholarship

via ISA:

Are you interested in conducting research in Canada-U.S. relations in the United States? Fulbright Canada offers unique opportunities to promising and prominent Canadian scholars, as well as experienced professionals, to conduct research, develop new professional networks, guest lecture and/or teach at select American universities and research centers. The holder of the Fulbright Visiting Research Chair spends up to five months in residence at the Canada Institute of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars conducting research in the field of Canada-U.S. relations. Applications should be received by November 15, 2011. Please see the FULBRIGHT CANADA website and select Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars for more information.

IRCPPS in the Links: More on Money in Elections

Chris Blattman notes a paper by Leonard Wantchekon that indicates that spending money isn't always the most effective way to gain votes:

...The experiment took place during the March 2011 elections in Benin and involved 150 randomly selected villages. The treatment group had town hall meetings where voters deliberated over their candidate’s electoral platforms with no cash distribution. The control group had the standard campaign, i.e. one-way communication of the candidate’s platform by himself or his local broker, followed (most of the time) by cash distribution. 

We find that the treatment has a positive effect on turnout. In addition, using village level election returns, we find no significant difference in electoral support for the experimental candidate between treatment and control villages. 

…the positive treatment effect is driven in large part by active information sharing by those who attended the meetings...

IRCPPS in the Links: Does Money Affect the Outcomes of US Elections?

The Monkey Cage tackles the question:

...Candidates who raise a lot of money tend to do better, and it’s more likely than not that at least part of this relationship is due to money paying for things like ads and canvassers that help candidates win over new voters and/or turn out their bases. High-quality challengers may be deterred by large war chests, but other factors such as local political conditions and incumbent quality are more important: in most cases, a much-despised incumbent with a lot of money is in a worse position than a much-liked incumbent with very little money...

Call for Papers: Nationalism, Ethnicity, and Boundaries

via ISA:

The program chairs invite papers for the ASEN 2012 Conference on the theme: Nationalism, Ethnicity and Boundaries. The conference takes place 27-29th March, 2012 at the London School of Economics. Abstracts should be submitted ONLINE no later than November 18, 2011. Please see the conference WEBSITE for more information.

IRCPPS in the Links: Post-Election Report - Kyrgyzstan

The Monkey Cage talks Almazbek Atambayev:

...Atambayev becomes the country’s fourth president, following Askar Akaev (1990-2005, ousted during the so-called Tulip Revolution), Kurmanbek Bakiev (2005-2010, whose rule also ended abruptly) and Roza Otunbaeva, who presided over the launch of a new constitution, new parliamentary elections in October 2010, but also a dramatic and bloody descent into chaos in June 2010 as the government witnessed powerless clashes between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in the southern city of Osh, which left several hundreds dead and hundreds of thousands displaced...

Call for Nominations: ISSS Governing Council

via ISA:

Nominations are invited for elections to the Governing Council of the INTERNATIONAL SECURITY STUDIES SECTION (ISSS) of the International Studies Association. Members of this council assume the broad responsibility of assisting in the governance of the section. We welcome nominations from all regions of the world. It is desirable to have diversity on the governing council across categories that include race, ethnicity, and gender.  It is also desirable to have diversity across professional pursuits including academia, think tanks, NGOs, and government organizations. This year a total of four members will be elected to the Governing Council for a three-year term. At least one of these should be a graduate student elected to the designated student representative position. Nominees must be members of the section at the time of the election. Nominations should be sent to issselections@hotmail.com and must be received by November 23, 2012.

Call for Papers: W. E. B. Du Bois 50th Anniversary Commemorative Conference

via PSRT-L:

The year 2013 will mark the 50th anniversary of the passing of Dr.W.E.B. Du Bois. On his birthday in February of that year, it is fittingthat Clark Atlanta University (CAU) celebrate his life and scholarship:Dr. Du Bois wrote his most influential works in the 23 years he spent asa professor at Atlanta University. Serving as faculty of the Departmentsof History and Economics, he taught at Atlanta University from 1897 to1910, and then returned from 1934 to 1944 as chair of the Department ofSociology. Dr. Du Bois also had impact in the area of social work and asa novelist, poet and short story writer. The W.E.B. Du Bois and theWings of Atlanta Conference will serve as a meeting at the crossroads ofvarious paths of Du Bois's work. Conference participants will engage inan interdisciplinary and international introspection of the life,scholarship and activism of one of the most influential intellectuals ofthe 20th century.

IRCPPS in the Links: Insights on the Greek Referendum from Eastern European EU Accessions

The Monkey Cage discusses the Greek bailout referendum:

...In a series of publications with a number of different co-authors,^* I have examined the causes of attitudes towards EU membership in post-communist countries considering membership in theEU (see here and here) and then again in the actual referendum on EU membership in Poland (here). In all three articles, the overwhelming empirical lesson is clear: economic winners are more likely to support EU membership, while economic losers are more likely to oppose EU membership....

Announcement: ISA-NE Conference Program

via ISA:

The annual conference of the International Studies Association-Northeast (ISA-NE) will be held this weekend, 4-5 November 2011, at the Providence Biltmore in Providence, Rhode Island. Panels will be convened on many subjects related to international studies, broadly defined, grouped under this year’s conference theme, Continuity and Change in Global Politics. The conference program has been posted HERE for your review.

Call for Applicants: U.S.-China Economic & Security Review Commission 2012 Research Fellowship Program

received via e-mail:

The USCC was established by Congress to look into the national security implications of the bilateral trade and economic relationship between the United States and the People’s Republic of China.   Recent topics of interest to the Commission have included China’s 12th five-year plan, outward foreign direct investment, military modernization, and East Asian security and cooperation.

Humor: Stuff Political Scientists Like #12 - Artistic Pretensions

via Duck of Minerva:

...political scientists really bear no resemblance to painters. In fact they specialize in taking a fascinating reality and squeezing all the beauty, life and color out of politics by reformulating its elements and reducing its complexity to the most pedestrian of shapes – the two-by-two table. And no political scientist has ever, ever, sired multiple children by multiple different models. In fact they mean something very different by that term that isn’t sexual at all. Well, maybe for some...

IRCPPS in the Links: Can Libya's NTC Pull Itself Up By Its Bootstraps?

Dart-Throwing Chimp examines the challenges Libya's National Transition Council faces going forward:

...Libya is a collapsed state. It has no functioning central authority. The NTC has proclaimed itself to be the country’s national government, and the international community has endorsed that claim, but that claim is only now starting to get tested. The conventional view is that internal authority and external endorsement are intertwined, but that’s an international legal fiction, not real politics. As places like Afghanistan and Somalia remind us, international endorsement does not magically cause domestic factions to fall in line behind the anointed party....

IRCPPS in the Links: Does Prior Experience Impact Presidential Greatness?

John Sides considers the question at 538:

...A new paper by political scientists Joseph Uscinski and Arthur Simonprovides an answer. Knowing that previous studies such as this one haven’t provided much evidence that experience matters, they improve on these studies in several ways. For one, they focus on “modern” presidents, a category that begins with William McKinley (although similar results would emerge if the analysis had begun with Woodrow Wilson or FDR). This is because the modern presidency is a much different job that the presidency of the 1700s and much of 1800s. Messrs. Uscinski and Simon also expand the measurement of presidential greatness to include not just overall ratings but ratings on specific dimensions from the 2009 C-SPAN Survey of Presidential Leadership. Finally, they develop more precise measures of experience. So rather than simply note whether a president served in the military (most presidents did), they count the numbers of years each president served in both wartime and peacetime...

Call for Papers: The European Union and the World

via ISA:

The Graduate Society for International Studies and the Center for Regional and Global Studies, in collaboration with the Graduate Program in International Studies and AccessEU, are pleased to announce the 10th annual Graduate Research Conference to be held at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA on February 24, 2012. The conference title is "The European Union in the World: Global Dimensions and Dynamics." The organizers welcome abstracts from all programs including political science, economics, communications, humanities, history, public administration, business studies, criminology, women's studies, modeling and simulation, foreign languages and intercultural studies. Please send a 250-300 word abstract (double-spaced and clearly titled) to the Conference Coordinator by January 15, 2011. Include a cover sheet with the following information: name, mailing address, telephone numbers and e-mail address, academic affiliation, and paper title. Please see the CONFERENCE WEBSITE for more information.

IRCPPS in the Links: Argentina Post-Election Analysis

The Monkey Cage considers Kirchner's recent reelection victory:

...After August everyone predicted that President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (CFK) was going to win the general election by an enormous margin, there would be no runoff, and Hermes Binner would finish in second place. That is, the 2nd and 3rd places candidates would fall behind Binner who had come in 4th place in the primary. And this is what really happened...

IRCPPS in the Links: Ireland Post-Election Report

The Monkey Cage takes a look at the new political landscape:

...Michael D Higgins was elected the ninth President of Ireland on Saturday, 29 October 2011 with over one million votes. Higgins was the candidate from the Labour Party, the second largest party in parliament. A frontrunner for much of the campaign, he slipped into second place in the two weeks before the election before re-emerging as the overwhelming choice of the public, securing 39.6% of the first preference vote....

Call for Papers: Policy History Conference

via IPSA:

The Institute for Political History, the Journal of Policy History, and the Miller Center for Public Affairs at the University of Virginia are hosting the seventh biennial Conference on Policy History at the Marriott in downtown Richmond, Virginia from Wednesday, June 6 to Saturday, June 9, 2012. We are currently accepting panel and paper proposals on all topics regarding American political and policy history, political development, and comparative historical analysis. Complete sessions are encouraged, and individual paper proposals are welcome. The deadline for submission is December 2, 2011.

IRCPPS in the Links: Assessing Turkey's Support of the Free Syrian Army

The Monkey Cage takes a look at what the security literature has to say about Turkey's support of the Free Syrian Army:

...Ultimately, research tells us that if the Free Syrian Army is the real deal, then Turkey’s provision of sanctuary heightens the risk of protracted civil war breaking out in Syria. Before this development, civil war was already a risk. But now the risk is much higher. Before territorial protection, the group was no more than a radical flank accompanying a nonviolent campaign. But their new sanctuary will certainly help them build their strength, if not their operational effectiveness, to become a full-blown insurgency....

IRCPPS in the Links: Polling Ballot Measures

The Monkey Cage looks at when you can trust the polls, and when you can't:

...polling is especially difficult where social desirability comes into play, with respondents not wanting to seem homophobic, anti-immigrant, or pro-marijuana.  In fact, the only result that doesn’t make immediate sense from a social desirability standpoint is the null result for ballot measures on restricting gambling.  So while the polling of ballot measures is prone to significant variability, it appears to be those ballot measures that address socially sensitive groups or topics that give rise to the most predictable errors...

IRCPPS in the Links: Administrative Resource Abuse in Elections in Developing Democracies

Dart-Throwing Chimp writes on how this problem manifested itself in Kyrgyzstan:

...seeing that state resources are being used to partisan advantage does not necessarily reveal that a conspiracy is afoot. And the distinction matters. If Atambaev wins and his campaign was aided by overzealous bureaucrats, we have a structural problem. If Atambaev wins and his campaign was aided by a directed effort to take advantage of his party’s incumbency, we have a cheating problem. The first challenge for Kyrgyz watchdogs and international observers is going to be figuring out if there’s fire behind all that smoke about abuse of administrative resources.  If they do find fire, the next–and probably harder–challenge is going to be determining if it was set deliberately by Atambaev or erupted spontaneously under propitious conditions...

IRCPPS in the Links: How Influential are Public Interest Groups?

The Monkey Cage ponders the question:

...Categorizing groups as representing the “public interest” is tricky.  Even among groups typically considered “public interest groups,” a few relatively large and well-established organizations account for the bulk of opportunities for influence, such as media appearances and committee testimony. And these groups may only represent the interests of their most advantaged constituencies, ignoring the issue concerns of disadvantaged subgroups of their constituencies. “Public interest groups,” in other words, represent small portions of the public....

IRCPPS in the Links: Institutionalism and Timing

Rule22 writes about the importance of timing, from a historical institutionalist standpoint:

...Historical-institutionalists mostly study big picture questions. As their name suggests, they look at broad swaths of history to explain institutional and political developments. In short, historical institutionalism focuses on change in American politics. The irony, as Jordanpoints out, is that American politics is largely stable. Major changes are rare occurrences. Often, they occur only once in a generation. However, the fact that major developments are rare does not mean “change” is not an ongoing process. In fact, the “stable” processes and institutions that often appear very durable are marred by internal contradictions. In short, historical institutionalist illustrate that stability is not often all that stable. Beneath the surface there are several developments that slowly undermine stable foundations...

IRCPPS in the Links: Seif Gadhafi and the International Criminal Court

Emily Ritter and Scott Wolford write in to the Monkey Cage on Seif Gadhafi's possible attempt to surrender to the ICC:

 ...the ICC might view this as an opportunity to raise its profile and increase its institutional stature by prosecuting a high-profile suspect and bringing an otherwise costly period of Seif al-Islam remaining a fugitive to a quicker end. However, our paper also identifies that the benefits of pre-arrest bargaining may also come at a cost: if leaders expect that they can negotiate marginally better deals for themselves prior to surrender (which, in this case, may mean living out one’s twilight years in a country where one isn’t likely to be prosecuted again or killed), then they’ll also be marginally more willing to commit war crimes or crimes against humanity in the first place...

IRCPPS in the Links: Does Secrecy Make Good Policy?

The Monkey Cage considers the question:

...Greater openness by the panel, officially known as the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, would actually be harmful to the public interest. Private meetings are essential to give the committee’s six Republicans and six Democrats the freedom to step away from party orthodoxies, conduct serious negotiations and search for common ground, rather than engage in political posturing….

IRCPPS in the Links: Arendt, Foucault, and Occupy Wall Street

Xavier Marquez writes in Abandoned Footnotes about his forthcoming article in Polity:

Hannah Arendt and Michel Foucault developed different but complementary theories about the relationship between visibility and power.  In an Arendtian “space of appearance,” the common visibility of actors generates power, which is understood as the potential for collective action.  In a Foucauldian “space of surveillance,” visibility facilitates control and normalization.  Power generated in spaces of appearance depends on and reproduces horizontal relationships of equality, whereas power in spaces of surveillance depends on and reproduces vertical relationships of inequality.  The contrast between a space of appearance and a space of surveillance enhances both Arendt’s and Foucault’s critiques of modern society by both clarifying Arendt's concerns with the rise of the “social” in terms of  spaces of surveillance, and enriching Foucault's notion of “resistance.”

IRCPPS in the Links: Herman Cain, Outlier or the "New Normal"?

The Monkey Cage considers a Nate Silver article on Herman Cain's chances of clinching the nomination:

...I think I look at Silver’s data differently than he does. Cain is an outlier in the relationship between poll standing and insider support. But that’s not the relationship that matters. What matters is the relationship between these factors and winning the nomination. Figuring that out is hard, though, precisely because they are so related to one another. Polls and elite support (and media coverage, and money raised) are what we call multicolinear. In such a case, it’s hard to say if raising more money is more important than getting insider support, because the people who get one also get the other, and then they win...

Report: APSA Task Force on Political Science in the 21st Century

via APSA:

...the Task Force assessed the practice of political science to determine whether it is living up to its full potential as a scholarly discipline to enrich the discourse, broaden the understanding, and model the behavior necessary to build strong nation-states in a rapidly changing world where population shifts and related issues regarding race, ethnicity, immigration, and equal opportunity structure some of the most significant conflicts affecting politics and policymaking....

Call for Applicants: Erasmus Mundus Doctoral Fellowships

via ISA:

The GEM PhD School invites applications for 3-year long Erasmus Mundus Doctoral Fellowships offered by the PhD School on Globalisation, the EU and Multilateralism (GEM PhD School), which is coordinated by the Institut d’Etudes Européennes de l’Université Libre de Bruxelles and funded by the European Commission. The fellowships cover the period ranging from September 2012 to September 2015. Interested parties are invited to APPLY ONLINE by way of the School's Automated Registration System. The GEM PhD School includes 9 leading universities from across the globe engaged in a transnational education, research and mobility exercise. Applications should be received by January 16, 2012. The school also has 10 PhD scholarships set aside for non-EU applicants.

Call for Papers: 2012 Montreal Political Theory Manuscript Workshop Award

via Public Reason:

Call for applications: The Groupe de recherche interuniversitaire en philosophie politique de Montréal (GRIPP), spanning the departments of political science and philosophy at McGill University, l’Université de Montréal, Concordia University, and l’Université du Québec à Montréal, invites applications for its 2012 manuscript workshop award. The recipient of the award will be invited to Montreal  for a day-long workshop in April/May 2012 dedicated to his or her book manuscript. This “author meets critics” workshop will comprise four to five sessions dedicated to critical discussion of the manuscript; each session will begin with a critical commentary on a section of the manuscript by a  political theorist or philosopher who is part of Montreal’s GRIPP community. The format is designed to maximize feedback for a book-in-progress. The award covers the costs of travel, accommodation, and meals.

Call for Papers: CISS/Keynote 2012 Conference

via ISA:

The program chair of the Joint CISS/Keynote Conference invites paper and panel proposals on the theme Between the Global and the Local: Actors, Institutions and Processes. This international conference will take place June 24 - 26, 2012 in Prague. The conference seeks to address key dimensions of the interplay between the global stage and local in the context of the unique and, in many respects, unprecedented challenges and opportunities of the 21st century. Proposals should be received by November 30,2011. Please see the conference WEBSITE for more information.

Around Academia: Graduation Rates of Athletes vs. Non-Athletes at NCAA Universities

via Duck of Minerva:

...Are student-athletes better prepared to complete a college degree in a reasonable amount of time than the general student body? Given the stereotypes many people share about "jocks," this may seem like a startling question. Yet, the NCAA released evidence this week that claims to demonstrate that student-athletes graduate at a very high rate, often at much higher rates than other students at the same institutions...

Call for Papers: 4th Annual Conference on Governance and Democracy

Received via e-mail:

4th Annual Conference on Governance and Democracy 

Department of Political Science, University of Connecticut
Department of Political Science, City University of New York 

March 2nd-3rd, 2012 

Conference and Workshop for Graduate Students

Call for Papers: Queer Interventions and Intersections

Received via e-mail:

Call for Submissions 

Trans-Scripts, an interdisciplinary online journal in the
Humanities and Social Sciences at UC Irvine 

Volume II: 2012, “Queer Interventions and Intersections”
Journal Publication Date: April 15, 2012 

Deadline for the submission of papers: January 1, 2012

Call for Applicants: NSF Dissertation Improvement Grant Changes

Received via e-mail:  

Dear Colleagues,

Please note that the Political Science Program at the National Science Foundation has updated award information for Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grants. You will find a description of the grants on the program's website (http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/ses/polisci/ddrip1.jsp).

The most notable change is that the maximum award amount is now $14,000 plus indirect costs. Total awards with indirect costs may exceed that amount. The changes do not apply to proposals submitted for the September 16, 2011 deadline, but will apply to proposals submitted by January 15, 2012 and beyond.

IRCPPS in the Links: Micro Transitions and the Arab Spring

The Monkey Cage offers a guest post by Ellen Lust:

...The Arab awakening thus raises once again a question at the heart of the study of comparative democratization: Why now? Why has the Arab world, which appeared so resistant to change, seen such widespread unrest and transformation?  Specialists on Africa, Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union engaged in the same soul-searching after similar transformations shook those regions. That this question animates discussions today, as it did then, reminds us that we have far to go before we understand the conditions promoting such significant ruptures in seemingly stable authoritarian regimes.

IRCPPS in the Links: The Tunisian Elections

The Monkey Cage has a series of good posts about the recent Tunisian elections:

...As observers have quickly noted, Tunisia’s transition now appears deeper and more robust than the nearest regional analogue: Egypt. This year’s first free Arab vote took place on March 19, when eighteen million Egyptians voted on a set of eight amendments to the Egyptian Constitution. The referendum proceeded without violence or fraud, but it turned out to be an exercise in pseudo-democracy—the freest and fairest fake election in Egyptian history. Afterward the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces unilaterally altered an additional fifty-five constitutional articles while safeguarding the document’s most autocratic provisions. Election results also signaled the relative marginality of Egypt’s liberal activists, who vigorously opposed the motion on the ballot, but garnered less than one in four votes for their positionSince March, Egypt’s junta has signaled it intends to retain as much power as possible, dimming hopes for real regime change....

Call for Papers: Politics and the Life Sciences

via ISA:

Politics and the Life Sciences, a peer-reviewed interdisciplinary journal published by the Association for Politics and the Life Sciences, is issuing a general call for research papers.  PLS covers a broad range of topics, including evolutionary and laboratory insights into political cooperative behavior, group conflict, war and terrorism; neuroscientifically based studies of political emotion and cognition; nonverbal analysis of leader displays; political analysis of life-sciences research, health policy, environmental policy, and biosecurity policy; and, philosophical analysis of life sciences problems, such as bioethical controversies. In addition to research articles, the journal also publishes reviews, analytical perspective pieces, book reviews, and invited theme essays. Contributors include political scientists and political behaviorists; biosecurity and international-security experts; communication researchers; life scientists, clinicians, health policy scholars, and bioethicists; moral and evolutionary philosophers; environmental scientists and ecological economists; political-behavioral and environmental historians; science policy scholars and historians of science; and legal scholars. To submit, please send a blind copy of your paper, with a separate cover sheet listing contact information, as an e-mail attachment to Laurette Liesen, Contributing Editor for Submissions and Peer Review, liesenla@lewisu.edu. Submissions should include an abstract, along with a set of key words relevant to the article. Please see the journal WEBSITE for more information.

Call for Applicants: "Rethinking Diplomacy": residential fellowships for 2012-13 at the Institute for Historical Studies, UT-Austin

via PSRT-L:

For the 2012-13 theme, the Institute for Historical Studies at TheUniversity of Texas at Austin envisions a fundamental and substantivere-thinking of scholarly approaches to diplomacy as a worldwide,multi-disciplinary, historical practice.

Humor: Stuff Political Scientists Like - Faculty Meetings?

via Duck of Minerva:

...Political science faculty meetings last so long because all political scientists love the sound of their own voice. No matter the topic, they must weigh in. They suffer from a kind of non-profane Tourette’s syndrome, an audio narcissism...

IRCPPS in the Links: Why Don't Dictators Move to Florida?

...or at least retire, anyway?  Dart-throwing Chimp:

Most theories of authoritarian rule solve this problem by fiat. Rulers are simply assumed to value staying in office over everything else, and at virtually any cost. If we start with that assumption, Gaddafi’s behavior is not puzzling at all–but recently “retired” Tunisian president Ben Ali‘s is. Recall that Ben Ali fled his country just a few weeks after Tunisia’s popular uprising started to gain steam, before it was apparent whether or not the challenge could be sustained. Clearly, retirement is an option for some dictators.

IRCPPS in the Links: Political Science TED Talks

An interesting collection of 12 political science themed TED Talks.

Call for Papers: Imagining India As A World Power

via ISA:

The AMBIVIUM INSTITUTE with the MAHARAJA AGRASEN COLLEGE, University of Delhi, invites paper and panel proposals for an international conference on the theme Imagining India as a World Power: Asian Politics, the Indian Ocean, and Balancing Forces. The conference will take place from March 1-2, 2012 in New Delhi, India. Proposals of no more than 300 words with full name, title, affiliation, and contact information should be sent to 2012India@ambivium.org no later than January 06, 2012. Accepted participants will be provided accommodation, meals, and conference materials during the two-day event. All conference papers will also be considered for publication by the India Journal of Social Enquiry from Delhi University after the conference. Registration Fee of $95.00 will cover materials and logistics for the conference, participants are responsible for their own airfare from and to Delhi, India.

Call for Papers: The Santa Barbara Global Studies Conference

via ISA:

The University of California, Santa Barbara is holding an interdisciplinary global studies conference on a wide range of topics for scholars, both established and in the graduate stage, from the West Coast and beyond, under the general theme of "Crisis" as salient feature of current global conditions. Crisis may thus be understood at every level, from the economic and financial to the environmental to problems of legitimacy and human security, etc.  The conference invites papers and panels that engage with crisis from diverse theoretical and methodological perspectives from across the humanities and social sciences. The conference will take place February 24-25, 2012 in Santa Barbara, California and is hosted by the Orfalea Center and the faculty of Global & International Studies at UCSB. Proposals should include a 200-300 word abstract for a 15-20 minute presentation along with a completed registration form by Wednesday, November 30, 2011. Submit registration form by email attachment to: sbgsc@orfaleacenter.ucsb.edu. More information and updates are available at the CONFERENCE WEBSITE.

IRCPPS is Back

Thanks to the people of Louisiana for a great trip to New Orleans, Lafayette, Shreveport, and points between!

On Hiatus

IRCPPS will be on hiatus this week (10/16-10/22), although some posting may continue at a lighter schedule.

IRCPPS in the Links: Do We Need Smart Presidents? Revisited

Andrew Gelmman responds to the earlier John Sides piece in the Monkey Cage:

...I was bothered by some of the discussion of John’s recent post, “Do We Need Smart Presidents?” John and the discussants use the terms “smart,” “intellectual brilliance,” “IQ,” “intelligence,” and “candlepower.” Commenter Jordan Phillips mentions “emotional intelligence,” which seems more on the right track. Not that emotional intelligence is the only thing that matters, but politics in general (not just for presidents) involves a lot of negotiation. IQ-test skills presumably help with negotiation, coalition-formation, etc., but there are a lot of other important skills here...

Research Notes: How to Pick a Research Project

Chris Blattman passes on some advice on picking topics from Don Davis, a Columbia Economic Professor.

Research Notes: Don't Forget the General Social Survey

Andrew Gelman writes in the Monkey Cage to remind us of its usefulness.

IRCPPs in the Links: Partisan Shifts After Financial Crises

Erik Voeten considers a paper by Lawrence Broz in the Monkey Cage:

...The general claim that we should expect people to shift leftwards during crises is well-supported by logic and evidence; and not just in this paper. In this sense, Occupy Wall Street is not unexpected but the Tea Party is. Now, there is an obvious way the current US case is different: the shift to the left occurred as the crisis was unfolding. Indeed, in Germany, France, and the UK right-wing coalitions are all facing plummeting approval ratings and difficult reelection prospects (although not immediate in all countries). Perhaps the US is different in other ways too. Scholars have been debating for years why working-class radicalism is so weak in the US?. Nonetheless, the comparative perspective provides some useful context to a movement whose salience appears to surprise a lot of people...

Call for Papers: 3rd Global Conference on Revenge

via inter-disciplinary.net:

Revenge, so we are told, is a dish best served cold: a ‘sweet’ wreaking of vengeance on those who have – either in reality or in our minds – slighted, wronged or in some way ‘injured’ us and who are now ‘enjoying’ their just deserts by an avenging angel (or angels) on the great day of reckoning.

This inter- and multi-disciplinary research and publications project seeks to explore the multi-layered ideas, actions, and cultural traditions of vengeance or revenge. The project aims to explore the nature of revenge, its relationship with issues of justice, and its manifestation in the actions of individuals, cultures, communities and nations. The project will also consider the history of revenge, its ‘legitimacy’, the ‘scale’ of vengeful actions and whether revenge has (or should have) ‘limits’. Representations of revenge in film, literature, television, theatre and radio will be analysed; cultural ‘traditions’ of retaliation and revenge will be considered. And the role of mercy, forgiveness and pardon will be assessed.

Call for Applicants: Grant for Study of Transnational Crime and Corruption in Eastern Europe and Eurasia

via PSRT-L:

*Grant Opportunity for Graduate/PhD Students Pre-Tenure Faculty,
Scholars, and Professionals*

2012 IREX/WWC Regional Policy Symposium:
TRANSNATIONAL CRIME AND CORRUPTION IN EASTERN EUROPE AND EURASIA

Application Deadline: *December 9, 2011*

IRCPPS in the Links: Are Smarter Presidents Better Presidents?

Johns Sides considers this question in the Monkey Cage:

...Simonton measured various qualities of presidents by noting about 300 adjectives used to describe them in their biographies.  He then used a method of data reduction (factor-analysis) to reduce this long list of adjectives to 14 personality traits.  He demonstrates correlations between various of these traits and previous efforts at rating presidents on similar dimensions. Of course, no such effort is beyond reproach.  But Simonton’s is, on its face, a credible effort.  One of the dimensions he identifies is “intellectual brilliance”—precisely what we are discussing regarding Rick Perry.  He finds that a president’s intellectual brilliance is associated with a higher ranking by historians and others, controlling for other factors (years in office, the number of years the president presided over a war, whether the president was assassinated, beset by a scandal, or a war hero)...

IRCPPs in the Links: Did the European conquest of the Americas contribute to the "Little Ice Age"?

Abandoned Footnotes looks at the possibility of unintended environmental consequences following mass social change (in 1492!):

...Most native peoples in the Americas, lacking iron tools, practised forms of agriculture that made much use of fire. These were not "primitive" forms of agriculture, but complex land-management practices that made possible great population densities, even in places that are today only lightly inhabited (like the Amazon). Low-level burning kept grasslands from turning into forests, helped create forests that looked to Europeans like great parks, and produced charcoal that was used to make thin soils fertile through terra preta. And these practices effectively kept enormous amounts of carbon dioxide constantly in the atmosphere rather than locked into trees and other vegetation. When  native populations collapsed, however, the burning stopped or was greatly reduced, and the carbon dioxide was quickly locked up into forests again. Now, what follows is quite controversial. Mann cites some recent research that argues that this must have made a big contribution to the so-called Little Ice Age: the sudden drop in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, perhaps in combination with natural variations in solar radiation, generated global cooling from around 1550 to around 1660. And this global cooling in turn appears to have produced a great "general crisis" in Europe: famine, war, and pestilence....

Around Academia: The de-globalization of American higher education?

Dan Drezner responds to a Boston Globe article on the retrenchment many US universities are going through after greatly expanding their international presences over the last few decades:

...The logic of expanding overseas because of "prestige, planting the flag overseas, a presidential feeling that they needed to be doing adventurous things" is a depressing data point about the ways in the academy can be slaves to intellectual and business trends...

IRCPPS in the Links: Analyzing the Tymoshenko Verdict in Ukraine

the Monkey Cage provides analysis from a variety of experts:

Yesterday in Ukraine, the country’s most prominent opposition leader – and one of the heroes of the Orange Revolution – Yulia Tymoshenko – was sentenced to seven years in jail for harming Ukraine’s interest in gas negotiations with Russia during her time as Prime Minister of Ukraine. However, as the NY Times notes:

European leaders have condemned the case as politically motivated, and hinted that they are unlikely to ratify a free trade and association agreement with Ukraine, a project four years in the making.

Once again we are pleased to welcome a series of brief expert analyses from some of my colleagues at PONARS Eurasia

Summary: International Security Volume 36 - Issue 2 - 2011

In this issue of International Security:

• Brooks finds that Muslim "home grown" terrorism is not a serious threat in the United States.
• Lopez, McDermott, and Petersen offer a model for applying evolutionary psychology to international relations.
• Bennett and Lind examine what military missions to successfully stabilize North Korea would require if it suffered state collapse.
• Kennedy attempts to understand India's long path towards fielding nuclear weapons.
• Hymans discusses the domestic institutional barriers to Japan fielding nuclear weapons.

IRCPPS in the Links: The Unintended Consequences of Campaign Promises

Chris Blattman's blog offers an analysis of the Liberian elections, and an interesting vignette from Rob Blair about the unintended consequences of unfulfilled campaign promises:

In one community I visited, I asked the town chief how he adjudicated among the dozens of candidates on the ballot. He pointed to the village’s dilapidated school. During the previous congressional campaign, the district’s current representative had promised that he would repair the building, but never did. Now an opposition candidate has promised that he’ll do the job instead. That was enough to convince the town chief, who rallied the village in the opposition’s favor.

TeachIRCPPS: Doom and Gloom 101: Making Weak and Failed States Teachable

Duck of Minerva features a post tackling how to teach about weak and failed states with nuance and finesse:

Nothing risks inviting cynicism and despair like teaching and learning about failed states. For the second year I'm teaching an upper level International Relations course titled "Weak and Failed States" in the Poli Sci Department at UMass Amherst. Much to the confusion of my students, I introduce the course by explaining that "weak and failed states" is a highly contested concept, driven more by policy agendas than empirical consistencies, and analytical re-conceptualized so many times over that it's almost entirely useless. In other words, welcome to Political Science! But, as a catch-all concept it does manage to frame different types of governance challenges and threats and introduces students to case studies, like Haiti and DRC, that tend to fall off the radar for issues that matter in traditional IR. And surprisingly, the course went very well last year and so far, so good, this semester.

Conference Announcement: NYU Conference on Labor Studies and Academic Freedom

via PSRT-L:

NYU’s Frederic Ewen Academic Freedom Center Presents:

Labor Education and Academic Freedom

Recent attacks on labor studies programs violate some of the core
principles of academic freedom including the respect for the privacy
of students and faculty members to engage in free and open discussion
of ideas.

This conference will explore the current crisis in labor education and
the ways in which outside pressure groups are attacking labor studies
programs as part of a larger agenda to erode public support for the
labor movement.

IRCPPS in the Links: On Coding Corpse Counts

Michael Spagat writes to Duck of Minerva to clarify how his civilian targeting index was coded:

... UCDP coding of ‘deliberate’ or ‘intentional’ civilian targeting is not a judicial assessment (e.g. of manslaughter or murder), nor is it an attempt to ‘know’ a perpetrator’s motivations. Instead, UCDP coding methodology assesses whether particular conflict-related deaths were likely to be one-sided or battle-related based on a combined review of: the plausible target, the method by which a killing was carried out, presented evidence, and credible statements or attributions of guilt. In each situation of violence the human coders, using what evidence is at hand, first attempt to identify a likely target. Coders also consider what method of attack was used (bombing, shooting, IED, etc.)....

IRCPPS in the Links: Why did Slovakia vote "No" on the European Bailout Fund?

The Monkey Cage considers the question:

In a sentence.

Two key parties in Slovakia failed to support the EFSF expansion in the hope of domestic political gain, but now that the government has fallen it is highly likely one of those parties will shift its position and help pass the ESFS on the next round, though when this will happen depends on its intransigence in demanding concessions.

IRCPPS in the Links: Are Military Coups Making a Comeback?

Dart-Throwing Chimp runs the numbers:

The answer is a flat “no.” The chart below plots annual counts of successful coups from 1946 through the first half of 2011, using data compiled by the Center for Systemic Peace. As the chart clearly shows, the incidence of coups has fallen substantially in the post-Cold War period and remains historically low. (NB: Those figures don’t adjust for the large increase in the number of countries worldwide in the past 20 years. Against that growing baseline, the rate of successful coups has fallen even further.)

Around Academia: Should you blog about your academic work?

University Affairs looks at the pros and cons:

... for a growing number of academics the benefits of blogging outweigh the drawbacks. Those who blog – including me – agree there are positive outcomes, such as networking and collaborating, finding new audiences and opportunities, disseminating research more widely, and building one's reputation. Bloggers argue that far from diluting scholarly success, online writing can be a serious tool for academic practice.

Call for Applicants: Funded Pre-Doc Fellowship at George Washington University

received via e-mail:

*Predoctoral Fellowships*>>>      *at the Institute for Security and Conflict Studies*>>>      *Elliott School of International Affairs*>      *George Washington University*>      *Washington, DC*>> *Click here for the application form*> <http://www.gwu.edu/%7Eiscs/about/fellowapp.cfm>

IRCPPS in the Links: 2011 Polish Parliamentary Elections: Post Election Report

the Monkey Cage offers a rundown of the action:

The Polish parliamentary elections of Sunday 9 October resulted in an impressive victory for the governing liberal-conservative Civic Platform (Platforma Obywatelska, PO) over its main rival, the conservative-nationalist Law and Justice (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, PiS). PO becomes the first Polish governing party since the fall of communism to return to power. Although the race between the two main parties was – at least according to some polling agencies – substantially closer than expected given PO’s advantage over PiS for much of the parliamentary term, the two-month campaign was relatively uneventful, and the margin of victory was a surprise to most observers. The election also saw the further decline of the social-democratic post-communist successor party Democratic Left Alliance (Sojusz Lewicy Demokratycznej,SLD) and the spectacular arrival of a new party, the pro-market and libertarian Palikot Movement (Ruch Palikota, RP)...

Around Academia: California Lecturers Union Attempts to Block Online Class Offerings

Insider Higher Ed takes a look at the controversy:

The specter and promise of online education is perhaps nowhere more deeply felt than in California, where campus administrators and instructors are faced with a bloodletting. University of California officials have suggested that the system will have to innovate out of the current financial crisis by expanding online programs. (State house analysts agree.) Instructors, meanwhile, are terrified that this is code for cutting their pay, or increasing their workloads, or outsourcing their jobs to interlopers, or replacing them with online teaching software...

Summary: Comparative Political Studies Volume 44 - Issue 11 - 2011

In this issue of Comparative Political Studies:

• Doyle examines why populism has had such an enduring impact on Latin American politics, arguing that it comes down to distrust in institutions.
• Williams explains why opposition parties frequently force confidence votes in parliamentary systems, even when they are unlikely to succeed in bringing down the government.
• Carlin and Singer measure, "support for the basic rights, liberties, and practices associated with polyarchy in 12 Latin American democracies."
• Kelley disputes the common wisdom that international election monitors make election boycotts more likely.
• Herron presents a new method for garnering information about dissent in authoritarian regimes by analyzing vote returns in non-free elections.

Call for Papers: 5th Global Conference: Forgiveness, Probing the Boundaries

via inter-disciplinary.net:

This inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary conference project seeks to investigate and explore the nature, significance, and practices of forgiveness. Asking for or granting forgiveness can be a routine part of everyday life, but the nature of forgiveness as a personal, cultural, and even international practice can be complex. The acts of stating an apology and asking for forgiveness have also become part of a spectacle: witness moments of national significance to break with past wrongs. Forgiveness raises a variety of questions that touch on a vast array of academic disciplines – anthropology, literature, history, philosophy, psychology, political science, etc. In cases of significant transgressions, social tensions, and even international conflicts there are questions of what counts as forgiveness and how it moves from the level of individual to community, national and international relationships. This conference will look at the full range of this complexity. To encourage innovative trans-disciplinary dialogues, we welcome papers from all disciplines, professions and vocations.

Call for Applicants: PhD Fellowships in Political Theory at Central European University

via Public Reason:

Call for Applications:

Political Theory Track of CEU Doctoral Program in Political Science,CENTRAL EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY

DOCTORAL SCHOOL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, PUBLIC POLICY, AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 

We invite applications for the Political Theory Track of CEU Doctoral Program in Political Science for the Academic Year 2012-2013. The Political Theory track is designed to prepare students for a career in academia and institutions of applied research. It is highly competitive and welcomes applications from graduates of Political Science, Philosophy, Law, Sociology, Economics, and related disciplines.

Call for Applications: Stanford Center for Ethics in Society Postdocs 2012-13

via Public Reason:

Stanford 2012-13 | Application deadline 11 January 2012

A message from the McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society at Stanford regarding their postdoctoral fellowship opportunities for 2012-2013: