The 1995-96 academic year has been marked by many new and exciting developments in the Department of Political Science. Three junior faculty appointments were made in the areas of comparative politics and political theory. The Department continues its search to fill several positions that remain open. The Department competed aggressively this year for a new class of Ph.D. students and was successful in attracting an excellent class for the fall 1996 term.
The MIT Washington Internship Program, under the direction of Associate Professor Charles H. Stewart III, enjoyed a second very successful year. During the past two years, this program has placed 20 undergraduates from across the Institute in public and private sector assignments in Washington, D.C. as summer interns. This program brings scientists and engineers into closer contact with policy makers whose decisions affect, or are affected by, scientific and technological change. This year, the Program worked with the Technology and Policy Program to add a series of policy seminars during the spring in the areas of ozone depletion, nuclear waste disposal, and the telecommunications policy. One graduate of the Program has already graduated to work as a legislative assistant for a member of Congress, specializing in science policy.
Professor Suzanne Berger developed a new internship program under the umbrella of the Provost's MIT International Science and Technology Initiative (MISTI). Modeled after the MIT Japan Program, MISTI students are trained in Chinese language and culture before being placed in internships in companies located in China. The Program has plans to expand to Germany and Latin America as well.
Our graduate students, for their part, organized a very successful forum on non-academic careers, in which a number of our alumni/ae participated in April. Alumni/ae returned to campus to share their insights on the ways in which the analytic training of political science has served them in the worlds of business, public administration, corporate management, and consulting.
Many new subjects were developed this past year on both the graduate and undergraduate level. Working with Professor Peter Hall at Harvard, Professor Berger developed a new subject: "Domestic Politics of Trade and Integration" taught jointly at the Center for European Studies at Harvard. Assistant Professor Zhiyuan Cui developed a new subject, "New Currents in Social Theory." Assistant Professor Daniel Kryder offered a new "Field Seminar in American Politics" for graduate students. Next fall, Associate Professor Richard Locke will offer a new Political Science-Urban Studies joint seminar, with Professor Judith Tendler: "Government Policy, Secondary Associations, and Economic Development." Associate Professors Kenneth Oye and Stephen Van Evera, and Professor Myron Weiner secured funding from the MacArthur Foundation to establish a Research and Training Program on Transnational Security Issues at the Center for International Studies at MIT. Professors Barry Posen and Van Evera developed and presented a popular new IAP subject, "Counter Insurgency on the Silver Screen." Professor Harvey Sapolsky led the effort to create 17.40s, the latest venture by the Defense and Arms Control Studies program into professional education, a summer course focused on corporate and national strategies for defense. Finally, Assistant Professor David Woodruff developed two new subjects, "Philosophy of Science and the Methodology of Comparative Politics," and "Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Political Economy."
The Department has also been aggressively pursuing funds to establish an endowment that will provide graduate fellowships in honor of Professors Emeriti Lucian W. Pye, Lincoln P. Bloomfield, and Department founder Ithiel deSola Pool. Since 1992, the Department has received gifts and pledges of $2,000,000 from alumni, friends, and foundations for graduate fellowships, and this year will mark the first that a fully endowed fellowship will be awarded to a graduate student.
The Department continued to compete successfully with other major departments in the recruitment of graduate students. We attracted an excellent class of incoming Ph.D. students. Of the 21 students who accepted our offer of admission, ten are female (47%), three are international students, and five are minorities. The Department will also enroll six Masters students in September 1996.
Undergraduate enrollments went up 7% (from 756 in 1994-95 to 808 in 1995-96) although undergraduate majors decreased by 25% (from 40 in 1994-95 to 30). The number of minors also decreased. There were 126 graduate students enrolled in 1995-96.
Our graduating doctoral students continued to find positions at leading research universities such as The Johns Hopkins University, Harvard University, Brigham Young University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgetown University, Princeton University, and leading institutions in Europe and Asia.
Richard A. Joseph, from Emory University, was named the first Martin Luther King, Jr. Visiting Professor, a two year appointment effective July 1, 1995. His teaching and research interests are African Politics and Comparative Democratization.
David M. Woodruff, from U.C. Berkeley, joined the Department as Assistant Professor, effective July 1, 1995. His main interest lies in the Political Economy of the post-Socialist countries, especially Russia. Other interests include the history of the social sciences, as well as philosophy and methodology of social science.
The Department conducted several searches to fill positions at the junior and senior levels during the past year. We are delighted that Delia Boylan, Susan Giaimo, and Stuart White will join the Department as Assistant Professors, effective July 1, 1996. Professor Boylan will come to us from Stanford University in the field of Latin American Politics; Susan Giaimo will come from the University of Wisconsin in the field of German Politics and Comparative Social Policy; and Stuart White, from Oxford and Princeton Universities, will join the Department in the field of Political Theory.
Associate Professor Richard M. Locke, who holds a joint appointment with the Sloan School of Management, and specializes in Industrial Relations and Political Economy, was awarded tenure, effective July 1, 1996. Assistant Professor Stephen D. Ansolabehere, who specializes in American Political Behavior and Elections, was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure, effective July 1, 1996. Professor Joshua Cohen, who holds a joint appointment with the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy (where he serves as Section Head), and who specializes in Political Theory, was awarded the Arthur and Ruth Sloan Professorship, effective November 1, 1995. Professor Michael J. Piore, David W. Skinner Professor of Political Economy, a specialist in Labor Economics and Industrial Relations, will hold a joint appointment with the Department of Economics, effective July 1, 1996.
Despite these appointments and promotions, our "steady state" has not dramatically changed, since four faculty colleagues of long-standing elected to retire under the Institute's special retirement option this year. Professor Willard Johnson, a specialist in African Politics, and Professor George Rathjens, a specialist in Defense and Arms Control, will continue to be active in their research and writing, and will hold the title Professor Emeritus. Professor Eugene Skolnikoff, who specializes in the field of Technology and Public Policy, and Professor Myron Weiner, a leader in the field of International Migration and Political Development in the Third World, will each hold the position of Professor without tenure and will continue to teach half-time.
Increasing the presence of minorities and women in the Department remains a major concern. All four search committees made special efforts to identify outstanding women and minority candidates as an integral part of their searches. The Department received and reviewed a total of 760 applications for four open positions. Of those, 198 were women and 24 were minorities. The Department interviewed 20 candidates, of whom 8 were women. Out of the 15 finalists who were invited to present seminars, 6 were women. Three assistant professors were hired, two of the them women.
Search committees in the areas of Asia-Pacific Security Studies, International Relations, and American Politics and Public Policy have formed and will evaluate potential candidates at both the junior and senior level during the next academic year.
Faculty research activities include:
FACULTY PUBLICATIONS
Political Science faculty continue to be prolific publishers of books and articles. Here we can list only a few. Professor Ansolabehere co-authored Going Negative: How Political Advertisements Shrink and Polarize the Electorate, published by the Free Press. He also wrote articles that appeared in Legislative Studies Quarterly, and International Journal of Press/Politics. Professor Berger edited (with Ronald Dore) the book National Diversity and Global Capitalism, Cornell University Press. Professor Choucri wrote several articles and co-authored Global System for Sustainable Development (G.S.S.D.): Theory, Policy, Practice, MIT Press. Professor Cohen edited (with Archon Fung) Constitution, Democracy, State Power: The Institutions of Justice, a collection of four volumes, Edward Elgar Press. He was also editor of For Love of Country, Beacon Press. Professor Cui edited Selected Works of Roberto Unger, Verso.
Professor Joseph co-authored a chapter in Comparative Politics at the Crossroads, D.C. Heath & Co. He also wrote an article for Current History. An essay by Professor Kryder appeared in Studies in American Political Development. In addition to writing several journal articles Professor Locke co-edited (with T. Kochan and M. Piore) Employment Relations in a Changing World Economy, MIT Press, and is co-editing The Shifting Boundaries of Labor Politics: New Directions for Comparative Research and Theory, MIT Press. Professor Oye wrote a chapter in The End of the Cold War & International Relations Theory, Columbia. Professor Posen's work appeared in Political Science Quarterly and in Eagle Adrift: American Foreign Policy at the End of the Century, Harpercollins.
Professor Rathjens wrote a chapter in Racism, Xenophobia and Ethnic Conflict, Indicator Press, and a chapter in The Nuclear Proliferation Regime: Prospects for the Twentyfirst Century, Macmillan. A Korean translation of Professor Samuels' book Rich Nation, Strong Army (originally published by Cornell University Press) was published in 1996. Professor Samuels also co-authored a chapter forthcoming in Realism and International Relations after the Cold War. Professor Sapolsky wrote "The Truly Endless Frontier," which appeared in Technology Review. Professor Snyder published several articles in Legislative Quarterly and Journal of Public Economics. Professor Weiner's latest book, Threatened Peoples, Threatened Borders: Migration and U.S. Policy, was published this year.
FACULTY AWARDS AND HONORS
Our faculty once again garnered many awards and honors. Professor Ansolabehere was awarded The Goldsmith Book Prize for his book Going Negative, cited as the best book on mass media, politics, and public policy. The book has also been widely cited and reviewed in popular discussion of the 1996 presidential campaign. Reviews include national columns by David Broder and Max Frankel and in US News and World Report, book reviews in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The New Yorker, and broadcast interviews on ABC News "Primetime Live," CNBC "Equal Time" and "Washington Journal," and National Public Radio "All Things Considered."
Professor Cohen was named Wesson Lecturer at Stanford University, and Wade Lecturer at St. Louis University.
Professor Nobles was awarded the 1995 Best Dissertation Prize from the New England Council of Latin American Studies.
Professor Oye was elected to membership on the Council on Foreign Relations.
Professor Samuels was awarded the 1996 John Whitney Hall Prize of the Association for Asian Studies, and the 1996 Hiromi Arisawa Prize of the Association of American University Presses, both for his book Rich Nation, Strong Army. He was also named Distinguished Lecturer by the Association of Asian Studies.
FACULTY PROFESSIONAL AND PUBLIC ACTIVITIES
The Department's faculty continue to give many invited lectures, appear at conferences, serve on boards of professional organizations and editorial boards, in addition to acting as advisors for government, private, and international organizations and agencies. Professor Berger became Vice-President of the American Political Science Association. Professor Choucri was Special Advisor to the Administrator of the United Nations Development Program, and also Advisor to the Executive Director, UNEP and Under-Secretary General of the United Nations. Professor Samuels is Vice-Chairman, Committee on Japan of the National Research Council, and External Assessor: Division of Public Administration, Faculty of Economic and Administration at the University of Malaysia, as well as External Examiner: Department of Politics and Administrative Studies, also at the University of Malaysia. Professor Weiner gave the keynote address at the International Research and Advisory Panel Conference on Forced Migration, in Kenya in April 1996. He was appointed by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as Delegate to the American Council of Learned Societies, and is also the International Consultant to the newly formed Centre for Development and Enterprise, in Johannesburg, South Africa.
RICHARD J. SAMUELS
MIT Reports to the President 1995-96