The inaugural issue of the Journal of Experimental Political Science is out. Marc Morje Howard and Meir Walters (Georgetown): Explaining the Unexpected: Political Science and the Surprises of 1989 and 2011. Nicola Smith (Birmingham) and Donna Lee (Kent): What's Queer about Political Science? Francois Bonnet (CNRS) and Clement Thery (Columbia): Sociology and Political Science in the Patrimonial Society: Implications of Piketty’s Capital. Political scientists from two of the nation's most highly respected universities, usually impartial observers of political firestorms, now find themselves at the center of an electoral drama with tens of thousands of dollars and the election of two state supreme court justices at stake (and responses by political scientists). Political scientists are conducting field experiments during this election cycle, and some people are freaking out about it. David Kurtz on the hottest thing in political science this week. Can greater transparency lead to better social science? Tom Pepinsky, Edmund J. Malesky, Nathan Jensen and Mike Findley are putting transparency to the test in a leading political science journal. If policymakers had listened to political scientists, we wouldn’t have invaded Iraq. Stephen Saideman on why Tom Ricks is so damn wrong about the relevancy of political science (and more by Ricks). Paul Staniland on how Tom Ricks doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Daniel Drezner on the real reason pundits like to diss political science. “We've frankly got enough psychologists and sociologists and political science majors and journalists”. 24 makes people support torture, and other discoveries political scientists made this year. President Obama selects Robert Axelrod as National Medal of Science winner. Paul Fairie on political science if it was taught the way people think political science is taught.
