Tom Coburn Doesn’t Like Political Science

Sen. Tom Coburn doesn’t like political science. Since 2009 the Oklahoma senator has been trying to ban National Science Foundation funds for political-science research. His new Senate colleague, Jeff Flake of Arizona, has an M.A. in political science, but doesn’t like it either. Flake tried to block NSF funds when he was in the House of Representatives. When Rep. Eric Cantor gave a speech last month to relaunch the Republican agenda, the Virginia congressman singled out political-science research—a tiny fraction of a tiny fraction of government spending—as a major example of government waste.

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Other Writing:

Essay

How to Save the Euro – and the EU: Reading Keynes in Brussels with John Quiggin

John Quiggin and I have a “piece”:http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/67761/henry-farrell-and-john-quiggin/how-to-save-the-euro-and-the-eu on the eurozone mess in the new issue of _Foreign Affairs._ The piece is subscriber-only, but we’re allowed to post it (in Web format) for six months or so on a personal or institutional website. Accordingly, the piece can be found below the fold. The piece was finished ...
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Chapter in an Edited Volume

“The Shared Challenges of Institutional Theories: Rational Choice,” in Historical Institutionalism, and Sociological Institutionalism, Knowledge and Institutions – eds. Johannes Glückler, Roy Suddaby and Regina Lenz

Scholarship on institutions across the social sciences faces a set of fundamental dilemmas. On the one hand, it needs to explain how institutions change. Yet explanations of change which point to external factors run the risk of reducing institutions to a mere transmission belt for other, more fundamental causes. On the other, it needs to ...
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