Educational Opportunities in Politics

Students interested in research on issues that lie at the intersection of economics and political science should consider a program of study leading to the Ph.D. degree in Economics with a concentration in Political Economy / Public Choice. Public Choice, an interdisciplinary field, that draws on sophisticated quantitative tools to model the functioning of institutions. Faculty and student interests cover applied areas of political decision-making such as voter and party choice, electoral systems and constitutional design, regulation, lobbying and rent-seeking activities, issues of banking, securities regulation, and taxation and income distribution and more purely theoretical and mathematical topics in social choice and social welfare theory and the theory of public goods.

The program is administered by an interdisciplinary committee of faculty, primarily from the Departments of Economics and Political Science, but also from the Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science and the Paul Merage School of Business . This group includes some of the nation's leading scholars in the area.

Requirements for the program are the same as those for the Ph.D. degree in Economics with the following two modifications. First, students must obtain (if they do not already have) a background knowledge in political science, equivalent to that provided by a one-year undergraduate survey course. Second, as one of their two required fields of competence, students must complete the year-long graduate seminar in Political Economy / Public Choice (Econ 270); the requirement for competence in a second field may be satisfied with a one-quarter course (instead of two), if it provides sufficient fluency in the field.

For a more detailed description of the program click here: Political Economy / Public Choice.

http://www.economics.uci.edu/ec_grad_conc#political

Political Economy/Public Choice

I have just recently discovered a whole new area of discourse, namely the field of political economy/public choice. As mentioned in a previous post, I believe it is critical for people to seek educational opportunities in the hard science, mathematics and economics as it relates to political science and practical campaign management. I intend to post information about such programs as I find them. My two recent finds which will be featured today are University of California - Irvine and George Mason University.

I encourage students, faculty and staff to post any similar materials under comments. I am also looking for writers to contribute content to this blog. I would also like to see the development of a blogroll and other resources.

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Mathematics of Political Science

Over the years I had heard of a number of ways of conducting elections and counting the votes, including Instant Runoff Voting (IRV), Condorcet, Range Voting and others. I really had no idea what this was all about except that there is an organization called the Center for Voting and Democracy which for years has advocated IRV and been successful at getting this method used in several cities throughout the United States.

Yesterday I had a conversation with someone who has a great deal of interest in the mathematics of political representation and apportionment. After speaking with this person and thinking about the topic it seemed reasonable that there probably was a lot more to it than I had previously believed. Indeed there is and there is some material on the web discussing a lot of complicated mathematical formulas for "counting the votes" all of which have a profound effect on the type of government we have and how much democracy we experience.

One of the reason I've started this blog and hope to promote it is that I believe that the political process in the United States has become out of reach of "We the People." I'm beginning to think that "We the People" were never really meant to be included, but it sure sounds nice as a platitude.

I am over the next few days going to try to find some scholarly, peer-reviewed articles discussing some of the complex mathematical theories pertaining to the subjects of apportionment and representation in the political sphere. I will list those articles on this blog, with proper MLA style citations so that people can easily find them. The more such information is available on the web, the better. Because many of these articles are likely to be available only through academic libraries, I may need help from one of you dear readers to help me attach the pdf file to a blog post or find another way to make the information generally available because "We the People" need the information in order to take back our country back from the professional hacks who currently do the bidding of the elites in charge.

Additionally, I'm going to be searching for accredited colleges and universities that offer degrees in areas relating to the mathematics of political science or political mathematics or any similar area. It is important the "We the People" gain access to this material.

I'm also hoping that I can interest Khan Academy and Coursera in making classes available for free on their sites.

I am looking for collaborators, commentators, writers and kibitzers. Please let me know.

Thursday, October 25, 2012

How can "We the People" Take Our Country Back?

I think it is really important that "We the People" learn how to operate in today's highly professionalized political world. One idea that I have is that it would be useful to post information about degree programs in areas such as practical politics, campaign management, lobbying and similar topics. I want to encourage people to make comments and suggestions as well as add content to this blog. I'd love to see a blogroll of similar content.

It seems to me that the professional staffers, lobbyists, operatives, financiers and bundlers are literally strangling our system. The elected officeholders are really pawns in a highly sophisticated con game that many of them don't even know how to navigate. It takes several terms in office to learn the ropes. The biggest advantage for the operatives is the number of newly elected freshmen officeholders who can be more easily manipulated, that is a major problem with term limits.