Suchergebnisse

Lyndon State College's (LSC) participation in the America's Future Initiative on the U.S. national debt, in association with Public Agenda, began with a grant application for funding to participate. After being awarded funding, as the sole political scientist, I was selected with approval by the administration to attend the September 11 to 13, 2008, opening conference in Washington, DC. Flying into Washington, DC, on September 11 surely was a sign of commitment. At the conference, participants were schooled on the initiative by George Mehaffy of the American Democracy Project, Andrew Yarrow of Public Agenda, the Concord Coalition's Diane Rogers, and Stuart Butler from the Heritage Foundation. As a political scientist, I was well-aware of much of what was presented, but to hear differing perspectives and review the data and presentation materials was an excellent experience.

AbstractRecent actions in Congress that threaten political science funding by the National Science Foundation (NSF) have caught the attention of political scientists, but this was not the first attack and not likely to be the last. Less than one year ago, the Harper government ended the Understanding Canada program, an important source of funding for academics in the United States and abroad. This article stresses the value of the program and the importance of this funding steam by demonstrating what the grants have done both more generally as well as for the authors individually. In addition, by looking at the political process that led to the end of the Understanding Canada program and the similarities in the attacks on NSF political science funding, this article identifies potential reasons why these funds were and are at risk. We conclude by arguing that normative action in support of political science is a necessity for all political scientists.