'09 GOVT Honors students win prizes at Political Science conf.!

The New York Political Science Association has named Deanna Edwards ('09) 's Outsourcing the Military: Blackwater, Halliburton-KBR, and a New Military-Industrial Complex and Blake Hulnick ('09)'s The Politics of State-Based Electoral College Reform the 2009 Best Student Papers! They will both be invited to the 2010 conference, where they will be presented with award certificates at the general meeting. What's more, Susan Stanton ('09) 's paper received honorable mention--well done Hamilton students!!

Civics Quiz

Test your knowledge here.

The Edmund Burke Association...

will host a discussion on...

"What does it Mean to be a Conservative?"

Monday, November 17 at 7:30 PM

At the Alexander Hamilton Institute

Rides will be available from ELS at 7:15

We will discuss the following two articles:

By Russell Kirk: http://www.kirkcenter.org/kirk/ten-principles.html

By Michael Oakeshott: http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/4887/conservative.html

The Edmund Burke Association is a student group dedicated to discussion of the foundational principles of conservatism.

Mark your calendar

Lecture on civic engagement by John Werner '92, Executive Director of Citizen Schools Boston on Wednesday, December 3 at 7:30 in Chapel.

Mark your calendar!

Town hall meeting on diversity and social capital in Chapel at 7:30PM on Tuesday, December 2.

Careers in International Affairs

The Career Center, Government Department & HCAWEG (Association of Women in Economics & Government)
present
Careers in International Affairs
an information session with panelists from the National Endowment for Democracy, Government Department & the Brookings Institute

Wednesday, November 12th at 7:30pm
Dwight Lounge (dress is business casual)
Please reserve your seat on HamNET

John Squier
National Endowment for Democracy
Senior Program Officer for Russia and Ukraine

Shelly McConnell
Hamilton College
Visiting Assistant Professor of Government
Former Senior Associate Director of the Americas Program at The Carter Center

Emily Alinikoff '07
The Brookings Institution
Research Assistant, Foreign Policy

Just some of the topics you can look forward to:

• What are some recent trends or events that will impact a person's starting in the field of International Affairs?
• What are some of the typical career options within International Affairs?
• Plus, panelists' own experiences regarding their education and career paths

The Blob

Campaign 2008 and the Future of American Politics

Mark your calendars. On Sunday, November 9 at 7:30 in the Chapel the Government Department will sponsor a panel discussion by distinguished alumni about the election and its implications for governance.

Subprime turmoil

Good analysis of financial crisis.

It's not too early......

to join LinkedIn, the Facebook for professionals. LinkedIn's CEO Dan Nye was a Government major at Hamilton. He told students last spring that if that joined, fully completed a profile, and built a list of 100 contacts, he guaranteed that something good would happen.

Women behaving badly?

Knowledge is good.

But is the Electoral College? Come to discuss at Publius Society meeting this Sunday, September 28 at 7:30PM at Alexander Hamilton Institute in Clinton. Rides available from ELS at 7:15.

Post-graduation fellowship in DC

IWF essay prize

Publius Society

The Publius Society, which is co-sponsoring Sutton lecture, is a student group that sponsors student-faculty discussions about constitutional issues. The group meets over scrumptious desserts at the Alexander Hamilton Institute in Clinton. After the Sutton lecture, the next meeting will be on the evening of 9/28 to discuss the Electoral College. Publius is a very politically diverse and fun group. To get on their mailing list, contact Sanjana Nafday '10 (snafday) or join Publius Society Facebook group.

The Fun Science

Since economics is the dismal science, I hereby declare political science the fun science. To help spread the word, I'll post news about interesting, timely, and accessible political science research. Today's Washington Post has a great example:

Political scientists Brendan Nyhan and Jason Reifler provided two groups of volunteers with the Bush administration's prewar claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. One group was given a refutation -- the comprehensive 2004 Duelfer report that concluded that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction before the United States invaded in 2003. Thirty-four percent of conservatives told only about the Bush administration's claims thought Iraq had hidden or destroyed its weapons before the U.S. invasion, but 64 percent of conservatives who heard both claim and refutation thought that Iraq really did have the weapons. The refutation, in other words, made the misinformation worse.

A similar "backfire effect" also influenced conservatives told about Bush administration assertions that tax cuts increase federal revenue. One group was offered a refutation by prominent economists that included current and former Bush administration officials. About 35 percent of conservatives told about the Bush claim believed it; 67 percent of those provided with both assertion and refutation believed that tax cuts increase revenue.

In a paper approaching publication, Nyhan, a PhD student at Duke University, and Reifler, at Georgia State University, suggest that Republicans might be especially prone to the backfire effect because conservatives may have more rigid views than liberals: Upon hearing a refutation, conservatives might "argue back" against the refutation in their minds, thereby strengthening their belief in the misinformation. Nyhan and Reifler did not see the same "backfire effect" when liberals were given misinformation and a refutation about the Bush administration's stance on stem cell research.

The full paper is here. Also Brendan Nyhan, one of the co-authors runs a great blog, so check it out.

Judge Sutton to speak on Constitution Day

The Honorable Jeffrey S. Sutton, judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, will present the inaugural David Aldrich Nelson Lecture in Constitutional Jurisprudence on Constitution Day, 17 September, at 7:30 pm in the Hamilton College Chapel. The lecture, sponsored by the AHI in conjunction with Senior Fellow Ted Eismeier and the Hamilton College government department, is open to the public.

Judge Sutton received a B. A. from Williams College in 1983 and LL. B. from the Moritz College of Law at the Ohio State University in 1990. He served as a law clerk for Judge Thomas Meskill of the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and for Justice Lewis Powell and Justice Antonin Scalia of the United States Supreme Court. Nominated for the Sixth Circuit by President George W. Bush, Judge Sutton was confirmed by the Senate in 2003. He will be presenting on "Originalism or the Living Constitution? Interpreting the Supreme Court."

The lecture honors David Aldrich Nelson, whom Judge Sutton succeeded on the Sixth Circuit. Judge Nelson was graduated from Hamilton College, 1954, valedictorian of his class. He attended the Harvard Law School and read law as a Fulbright Scholar at Cambridge University, in England. He began the practice of law with Squire, Sanders & Dempsey in Cleveland, Ohio, and served on active duty at the Pentagon as an attorney in the Office of the General Counsel of the Secretary of the Air Force. President Nixon appointed him General Counsel of the Post Office Department in 1969, and he later became Senior Assistant Postmaster General and General Counsel of the reorganized United States Postal Service. He rejoined his former law firm in 1972, remaining with it until President Reagan appointed him to the bench in 1985. Judge Nelson took senior status in 1999 but continued to hear cases until he closed his chambers in 2006. He is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He was a long-standing member of the Criminal Law Committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States. He has served as a trustee of Hamilton College and as a member of the National Council of the Ohio State University College of Law.

GOP job bank

NYC Urban Fellows Program

Should APP be abolished?