Stuart Russell

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🚨 What if intro political science textbooks were better and cheaper?

We built one:
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🌐 www.politicsexperiment.com

Help us spread the word! @rudalev.bsky.social & I are the editors!

Congrats, Nick! Sounds very interesting.

You have to bring the teachers along when you implement educational reform! waynesandholtz.com/pdfs/PSL_PE_... by @wsandholtz.bsky.social

Research Support Associate 2 MIT - Research Support Associate 2 - Cambridge MA 02139

JOB ALERT: Come work as lab manager / research associate at the Global Diversity Lab at MIT -- a great opportunity for recent undergraduates considering a PhD in political science #development #climate #diversity Recent LM's went to Stanford, Yale, Berkeley
careers.peopleclick.com/careerscp/cl...

Maroon banner at the top with the Swarthmore logo, then the text: Social Science Quantitative Laboratory Associate Swarthmore College: Sociology & Anthropology Department Location Swarthmore, Pennsylvania Open Date Apr 05, 2025 Description Swarthmore College is seeking an individual to serve as an Associate in its Social Sciences Quantitative Lab (SSQL). This appointment is for a full-time, academic-year position for three years, with the possibility of renewal upon successful review. The expected starting date is August 2025. The SSQL promotes students’ quantitative skills by providing tutorial services, statistical consultation, and research support to students in the social sciences. More information about the SSQL can be found here: https://www.swarthmore.edu/ssql. Swarthmore College is a highly selective liberal arts college whose mission combines academic rigor with social responsibility. It is located in the suburbs roughly 10 miles west of Philadelphia and 15 miles north of Wilmington and has a SEPTA stop right on campus. Swarthmore has a strong institutional commitment to diversity, and actively seeks and welcomes applications from candidates with exceptional qualifications, particularly those with demonstrable commitments to a more inclusive society and world. Applicants from traditionally underrepresented groups are strongly encouraged to apply. For more information on Faculty Diversity and Excellence at Swarthmore, see http://www.swarthmore.edu/faculty-diversity-excellence/information-candidates-new-faculty Responsibilities (continues in next image) Planning and facilitating in-person workshops and classroom visits to support the teaching of quantitative methods in the social sciences—particularly in Political Science and Sociology/Anthropology—with the goal of familiarizing students with statistical software (R, Stata, and Excel) and helping them develop related data skills, including data collection, management, visualization, analysis, and export

Responsibilities (continiued) Providing statistical support to students during regular office hours and by appointment, including assisting students with the identification, manipulation, and analysis of data sets for their empirical research projects Planning and hosting stand-alone workshops to train students to work with statistical software commonly used in the social sciences, such as R, Stata, Python, Matlab, and/or Geographic Information System (GIS) Collaborating with social science faculty teaching quantitative courses on how best to support their courses and their students Creating additional opportunities for students with less experience in quantitative and computational methods to develop skills and confidence Offering supplementary workshops in quantitative social sciences to help students develop skills for success as research assistants and to prepare them for quantitative careers and job markets Qualifications A Master of Arts or Science (MA or MS), or equivalent, in Political Science, Sociology, Economics, Public Policy, Statistics, Data Science, or a related field is required; a PhD in one of these fields is preferred. Familiarity with statistics/econometrics, causal inference methods, and preparing data for quantitative social science research is required. Familiarity with computational and simulation methods is a plus. Programming expertise in R and Excel and ability to learn new technical skills are required. Expertise in Python, Matlab, GIS, and/or other related software is a plus. Demonstrated excellence in inclusive and equitable teaching practices that support the success of students from diverse backgrounds and with varying levels of preparation in quantitative skills. We seek applicants who cultivate welcoming classroom environments and use pedagogical strategies that promote belonging, engagement, and academic growth for all students.

JOB! Please RT.

Swarthmore is hiring for our Social Science Quantitative Lab Associate to support & do teaching quant methods to undergrads. Especially looking for people familiar with sociology and/or political science, and R. Apply by 4/18.

apply.interfolio.com/165892

Happy to answer questions.

Any senator is free to use the rules of the chamber to take up Booker’s filibuster after he collapses in exhaustion.

Who will step up?

ODI Fellowship Scheme 2025-27 Job Opening: ODI Fellowship Scheme 2025-27 at ODI Global in Global.

If you're young and are interested in international development, it is hard to beat doing an ODI Fellowship

careers.odi.org/postings/71e...

It is a rare opportunity for foreigners to work as a civil servant in a low or lower-middle income country

Why is this a good idea? 👇

Welcome, @tanukumar.com! Really excited to have you onboard!

This tariff strategy makes sense if your only goal is to have everyone talking about you all the time.

I just can't get it out of my head why this isn't a much bigger story. I guess it's because people are generally so totally cynical about US politics already.

There are two views of US politics right now:

1. The fight is electoral. It implies, wait for thermostatic public opinion to kick in in 18 months
2. The fight is bureaucratic. It implies, stop the pillaging of the economy and the evisceration of the state right now

I’m Team 2 all the way

you're free to cover whatever topic you wish, as long as it's the topic I want. that topic? freedom

Scatterplot titled “Empirical Evidence of Ideological Targeting in Federal Layoffs: Agencies seen as liberal are significantly more likely to face DOGE layoffs.” • The x-axis represents Perceived Ideological Leaning of federal agencies, ranging from -2 (Most Liberal) to +2 (Most Conservative), based on survey responses from over 1,500 federal executives. • The y-axis shows Agency Size (Number of Staff) on a logarithmic scale from 1,000 to 1,000,000. Each point represents a federal agency: • Red dots indicate agencies that experienced DOGE layoffs. • Gray dots indicate agencies with no layoffs. Key Observations: • Liberal-leaning agencies (left side of the plot) are disproportionately represented among red dots, indicating higher layoff rates. • Notable targeted agencies include: • HHS (Health & Human Services) • EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) • NIH (National Institutes of Health) • CFPB (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau) • Dept. of Education • USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development) • The National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE), despite its conservative leaning (+1 on the scale), is an exception among targeted agencies. • A notable outlier: the Department of Veterans Affairs (moderately conservative) also faced layoffs despite its size. Takeaway: The figure visually demonstrates that DOGE layoffs disproportionately targeted liberal-leaning agencies, supporting claims of ideological bias. The pattern reveals that layoffs were not driven by agency size or budget alone but were strongly associated with perceived ideology. Source: Richardson, Clinton, & Lewis (2018). Elite Perceptions of Agency Ideology and Workforce Skill. The Journal of Politics, 80(1).

The DOGE firings have nothing to do with “efficiency” or “cutting waste.” They’re a direct push to weaken federal agencies perceived as liberal. This was evident from the start, and now the data confirms it: targeted agencies overwhelmingly those seen as more left-leaning. 🧵⬇️

What research tells us about politicization and state capacity Also, Last Week Tonight on Trump's government takeover

New, from me: I talked with producers from Last Week Tonight about politicization of government, so was looking forward to seeing this episode. Its a good one, worth sharing.
(Plus, what does the research say about politicization and government performance).
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/what-resea...

Institutions are not self-executing. Enough people must be willing to do the right thing by the rules.

Just to repeat, the White House has provided *no evidence* to back up the President’s claim of widespread fraud in USAID. The evidence it has presented points in precisely the other direction.

www.cgdev.org/blog/white-h...

Re: a debate during Trump I, can we all agree that this is a “constitutional crisis”?

USAID was never pure altruism, not even close.

But to have an agency that exists to help people no matter where they live, because we think it's the right thing to do - that's the kind of country we should try to be, and the country many around the world think we are.

No longer

Trump has not just paused new foreign aid. Today Marco Rubio sent a cable to all US diplomatic missions calling for immediate “stop work” orders on *existing* projects.

This is sweeping and reckless. People are going to die.

Tagging folks who may know potential applicants: @nlnathan.bsky.social @sarahbrierley.bsky.social @dhdannychoi.bsky.social @dhidalgo.bsky.social @guillermotoral.com @hlarreguy.bsky.social @nicolewilson.bsky.social (3/3)

Remote work is fine, but the RA should have experience working with messy administrative data in R. Knowledge of public finance is strongly preferred. Please circulate and share with anyone interested. Let me know if you have any questions. (2/3)

As part of an ongoing World Bank project, I am hiring a RA to help clean + analyze administrative data from Ghana's public financial management systems. Please see details and apply via DIME's spring recruitment drive here: datanalytics.worldbank.org/dime-applica.... Deadline is January 31. (1/3)

Straight up looting: let the wealthiest corporations carve up the state’s functions and delegate them to themselves, for profit.

The word for this in comparative politics it “predatory state.” A low autonomy, low capacity, captured state.

In a democracy, when and where should majorities rule? And when should their powers be limited? Steve Levitsky and I propose a framework to think through these questions in a new piece in the January 2025 issue of 'Journal of Democracy'
muse.jhu.edu/article/947880

Applications are open for the third year of the Pathways summer research program at MIT! Please share with interested undergrads. (TL;DR is: paid opportunity to check out PhD life for students who might not think it's open to them) @nlnathan.bsky.social

Strategy of Recruiting Cheap Militiamen Backfires in Africa By arming civilians who are poorly trained and have little to no respect for human rights, the military in Burkina Faso has brought the West African nation to the brink of civil war.

Free link to our story, with 📸 from Arlette Bashizi
www.nytimes.com/2024/12/15/w...

The Problem With U.S. Diplomacy in Africa Biden’s recent trip to Angola highlighted long-standing issues in Washington’s approach to the continent.

My new column. foreignpolicy.com?p=1180816&pr...

Sharing a starter pack for African politics for those who would find it useful. I tried my best to find everybody on Bluesky but may have missed some folks. Happy to add more people to the list. #polisky

go.bsky.app/5CAmg4o

Finally in print at the APSR! With Mai Hassan and
@stuarterussell.bsky.social doi.org/10.1017/S000...