tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1331441403058020963.post2942873658302647529..comments2024-03-28T06:49:24.930-04:00Comments on International Political Economy at the University of North Carolina: Distilling Great ThinkersThomas Oatleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14092437150746625670noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1331441403058020963.post-49249328990163590952009-12-20T02:16:42.568-05:002009-12-20T02:16:42.568-05:00I definitely agree that the incentives facing poli...I definitely agree that the incentives facing political scientists and economists are the same and that the public perceives economics to be far more difficult and outside of their grasp than political science.<br /><br />But, I still think we aren't doing a very good job as political scientists in disseminating our work. And I'm not talking about writing popular books that simply apply some of the reasoning and methods we use (a la Freakonomics). I mean actually promoting and disseminating some of our important theories and findings and a lot of the relevant and important work that truly signals what the discipline does. <br /><br />I think we need to start using the Alfred Marshall guide to writing: "(1) Use mathematics as shorthand language, rather than as an engine of inquiry. (2) Keep to them till you have done. (3) Translate into English. (4) Then illustrate by examples that are important in real life (5) Burn the mathematics. (6) If you can’t succeed in 4, burn 3. This I do often." Not in our initial submissions to journals but use this method to disseminate our work to a wider audience. <br /><br />We also need to start teaching political science research in the classroom to undergrads. This is one thing that UNC does a great job when teaching the undergrad classes. But most schools don't introduce actual political science research (especially the more modern stuff) to their undergrads so they don't know what is actually being produced by the discipline. It is my hope that with all of this, hopefully political science as a discipline will not be compared to the work done by CNN.Alex Paretshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08469262891974673483noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1331441403058020963.post-73183676594892605682009-12-16T20:17:42.638-05:002009-12-16T20:17:42.638-05:00I think about this too, but I think about it a bit...I think about this too, but I think about it a bit differently:<br /><br />Some "great thinkers" are *very* good at distilling academic work for a general audience. More specifically, some disciplines seem to be better at it than others. Economists from Cowen to Krugman have done an excellent job, I think. Even physicists (like Hawkins) and biologists (like Dawkins, pre-God Delusion) are very good at it.<br /><br />But not political scientists, sociologists, or business academics. Why is that? I don't buy the incentives argument, since I think it's hard to demonstrate that the incentives facing economists are so much different from those facing political scientists.<br /><br />I think it's the market: economics is generally viewed as impenetrable to the general public but nevertheless very important. If you can distill dense theories that folks couldn't grasp in college into digestible chunks, people respond to it. Political science, on the other hand, is viewed as both easily accessible (cf. Coburn's comments re: CNN as political science) and somewhat less important. Most popular political imagination is "horse-race" type punditry, which anybody can do.<br /><br />Not only that, but a lot of "economics" books are half poli-sci, e.g. "Nudge", public choice stuff, and even parts of Freakonomics-style books. To the extent that econ books have "policy implications" (as most do), they could be substitutes for "real" poli-sci in the market.<br /><br />That could change; I think Gelman's book shows that there's some market for political science-y stuff. How big that market is... I don't know. I keep expecting somebody -- probably Drezner -- to write the first IR blockbuster.Kindred Winecoffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14330671232391851377noreply@blogger.com