MIT Political Science

Richard Locke's feature in The New Yorker, explains the pressures consumers exert on global supply chains. “Often, the only way factories can make the variety and quantity of goods that brands want at the price points they’re willing to pay is to squeeze the workers.” more...

Congratulations to Adam Berinsky, recipient (along with Eric Schickler), of the Warren J. Mitofsky Award for Excellence in Public Opinion Research by the Roper Center. more...

Congratulations to Professor Chappell Lawson, recipient of the James A. and Ruth Levitan Award for Excellence in Teaching. This award, given by the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social
Sciences, recognizes instructors who have demonstrated outstanding success in teaching undergraduate and graduate students, and who have been nominated by students for work above and beyond the classroom.

Taylor Fravel's research featured in the Washington Post WorldViews article, "The study that shows why china and india probably won't clash over border dispute." more...

Richard Locke discusses labor and global supply chains in the media: NPR's To the Point, Business Insider, The Globe and Mail, Radio New Zealand (RNZ), Salon, the Economic Policy Institute, AFSCME, Opinio Juris, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Toronto Star.

Congratulations to Suzanne Berger, recipient of MIT's Gordon Y. Billard Award. The Billard Award honors "special service of outstanding merit performed for the Institute" and is awarded annually to MIT's leading scholars.

Richard Locke's essay "Can Global Brands Create Just Supply Chains?" leads off a debate on corporate responsibility for factory workers in the May/June issue of Boston Review. more...

China and Japan remain miles apart on uninhabited isles: At CIS forum, diplomats and scholars reinforce high stakes, lack of progress on Asian territorial dispute. more...

Richard Locke's new book "The Promise and Limits of Private Power: Promoting Labor Standards in a Global Economy" examines and evaluates various private initiatives to enforce fair labor standards within global supply chains. more...

Richard Samuels' new book "3.11.: Disaster and Change in Japan" featured in MIT News, examines Japanese stasis after nuclear meltdown at Fukushima. "When we talk about crises ... they’re not independently transformative. They’re tools in the service of people with preferences, and those preferences are remarkably sticky." more...

Jens Hainmueller looks for experiments to tough political questions; featured on MIT's home page and highlighted in the MIT News. "Doing natural experiments requires the methodological tools, but that needs to be combined with a deep knowledge of the subject matter." more...

Suzanne Berger discusses the Production in the Innovation Economy (PIE) project, in the MIT News feature article "MIT Report Identifies Keys to New American Innovation. From ‘Main Street’ firms to multinationals, improvements possible in funding of research, collaboration among manufacturers." more...

Articles by professors Adam Berinsky and Devin Caughey were selected as Editor Choice articles by Political Analysis. Editor Choice articles represent papers that the editors see as providing an especially significant contribution to political methodology. more...

Charles Stewart's interview with the MIT News, discusses the Elections Performance Index, released by the Election Initiatives project of the Pew Charitable Trusts, a Washington-based research group. The index, which evaluates states in 17 different categories using data from the 2008 and 2010 elections, derives in large part from Professor Stewart’s research and organizing efforts; he has worked closely with Pew throughout its development. more...

Charles Stewart discusses voter waiting times at the ballot boxes in a recent New York Times article, "Blacks and Hispanics waited nearly twice as long in line to vote on average than whites." more...

Jens Hainmueller asks "Does Direct Democracy Hurt Immigrant Minorities?" Featured in the MIT News, Prof. Hainmueller investigates what happens to ethnic minorities, when the majority of voters, instead of elected politicians decide on policy. Do minorities fare worse under direct democracy than under representative democracy? more...

Fotini Christia's, book "What Really Drives Civil Wars?" featured in the Boston Globe, discusses in-depth studies of the pursuit of power behind the recent civil wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Bosnia, pursuit of power.more...

Faculty Profile — Christopher Warshaw. There is a place for each of us on Christopher Warshaw’s geopolitical map of the United States. The recently appointed assistant professor of political science can figure out people’s political preferences down to the congressional district, city and town. more...

Faculty Profile — Daniel Hidalgo. Ballot stuffing. Assassination. Revolution. The talk around the dinner table during F. Daniel Hidalgo’s formative years was unlike that of most kids. Hidalgo’s father worked in politics in Mexico before he moved his family to America when Hidalgo was four. more...

Faculty Profile — Devin Caughey. Devin Caughey, newly appointed MIT Political Science instructor, has spent much of the last few years working with vintage polling data – information gathered in the 1930s and early 1940s, before pollsters learned to implement rigorous sampling techniques. more...