Math in Comparative Politics

Interesting article in Political Research Quarterly (gated) that assesses the use of data in studies of comparative politics. The authors created a dataset of articles published in leading journals (both general political science journals and cross-regional comparative journals). They find that the use of quantitative data has increased pretty sharply in recent years. But non-quantitative studies are still pretty common in comparative journals, but have disappeared almost entirely from general political science journals. Surprisingly, the most common type of quantitative article does not compare countries, but instead includes data from a single country. Also interesting is that a surprisingly large number of articles are based on original datasets developed by the authors rather than publicly-available datasets with wide coverage such as Polity. This seems to suggest that comparative politics (at least as represented in these journals) is not being driven to focus on global comparisons, but is more frequently relying on datasets for within-country comparisons.

Graduate Certificate in Terrorism Studies at the University of Maryland

START is now offering a fully online Graduate Certificate in Terrorism Studies. Application information is now available through the University of Maryland’s Graduate School’s Advanced Special Student program. Details on this Graduate Certificate are available via the START website (http://www.start.umd.edu/start/), and those interested in enrolling in the program can apply online (http://www.gradschool.umd.edu/admissions/). The second course in the 4-course certificate program will begin in June, and students can still enter the program at this point.

Respect Human Rights, Reduce Terrorism

Miller-McCune magazine discusses some of my research with Jim Piazza on human rights and terrorism here. This saves you the trouble of reading our original article! You can thank me later.

Miller-McCune is a newish magazine that summarizes and critiques new research for an audience of non-specialists. It has some interesting stuff and I suggest you check it out.