Blog: The Monkey Cage

A Dutch parliamentarian, Kees van der Staaij, thought it was a good idea to echo Todd Akin and pronounce on Dutch television that it is a “fact” that women almost never become pregnant after rape. He went as far as to put a specific number on it: 0.5% (The Dutch newspaper NRC went through the trouble […]

This following is a guest-post from Fredrik M Sjoberg, a Postdoctoral Scholar at Columbia University (who is still disappointed about not being able to present these findings at APSA….). The paper on which this post is based is here. *********** Why is it that voters in autocratic states report a higher confidence in the honesty […]

On the eve of Ryan’s speech at the Republican National Convention, here is a recap of several key findings: When he was picked, a large fraction of Americans did not know who Paul Ryan was, or at least could not evaluate him.  Among those that could, unfavorable views were more prevalent than favorable views.  This […]

This is a guest post by Scott Weiner, a PhD student at George Washington University. ——— Last week, Political Violence @ A Glance ran a summary of a fascinating new academic paper in the American Sociological Review by Erica Chenoweth and Laura Dugan.  The paper argues that conciliatory actions – those which reward non-participation in terrorism – […]

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post’s The Fix blog: Say what you want about Paul Ryan’s politics; even Democrats in Congress struggle to find a negative word to say about him. At least, that’s what Republicans have been arguing for the last two weeks. And when it comes to the American public, it appears to […]

Hurricane Isaac, which made landfall in Louisiana last night, has not only disrupted the Republican National Convention but also brought back painful memories of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the Gulf Coast seven years ago this week. In August 2005, my wife and our small children and I evacuated to Houston just before the storm destroyed […]

Here’s something for all of you political scientists who suddenly have extra time on your hands today to ponder. The journal Economic Inquiry has adopted a “no revisions” option when you submit papers to the journal. Here’s how the process works: Under this policy, an author can submit under a ‘no revisions’ policy. This policy […]

Matthew Lebo of SUNY Stony Brook sends along the following announcement for anyone in the NYC area who was planning on going to APSA and would like a chance to present their paper and get some feedback: The Long Island Political Science Associates (we aren’t an association) will have (potentially) a two-day mini conference this […]