Three Things I Want to Learn From Political Scientists

I’m looking forward to attending the annual conference of the Midwest Political Science Association in Chicago next week. Given the state of the pandemic, I’m hoping it will be … well, not quite normal, but at least in the neighborhood of normal. If that’s the case, I’ll have a chance to visit with old friends and colleagues, meet folks I’ve only interacted with on Twitter or by email, and hear a fair amount of cutting edge research.

As usual, however, outside of my narrow scholarly interests (in political parties, for example), it’s not really the new research I’m most interested in, although I usually run into a few fascinating findings. What’s especially interesting to me is talking to smart people who have spent years studying stuff that I often write about outside my immediate research area, often to clear up things that baffle me or, sometimes, to confirm that my less-informed views are backed up by the experts. Since it's been awhile, I’ve been thinking about what’s going on that I’d like to understand better. So next week, I’m going to keep my ears open for three things: