
Celebrating student employees of the year
Luke Meyerson ’18 and Blake Harriman ’16, ’18W (MS) — student workers in the Department of Political Science and the Medical Center’s Edward G. Miner Library, respectively — are 2018 student employees of the year.

Political scientists monitor threats to US democratic institutions
“One of the greatest threats to democracy is the idea that it is unassailable.” That’s the tagline of Bright Line Watch, which neatly sums up the group’s motivation. Made up of four political scientists including University of Rochester professor Gretchen Helmke, the non-partisan initiative has set out to monitor democratic institutions in the United States and potential threats to those practices.

Federal budget process is broken
“We need to take a look at the bigger picture here, which is that this bill does nothing to deal with our long-term budget challenges,” says Rochester political scientist David Primo. “Whether you are on the left or the right, that should be a big concern.”

Multinationals pull strings at World Bank
In this episode of the Quadcast, University of Rochester professor of political science Randy Stone talks about his findings that indicate undue corporate influence at the World Bank.

Concerns build about growing national debt
In the wake of the Trump administration’s $4.4 trillion federal budget proposal last week, Rochester political scientist and author David Primo says he’s worried about the long-term effects of the growing national debt.

Does it matter if government is dysfunctional?
David Primo, the Ani and Mark Gabrellian Professor and associate professor of political science and business administration at the University of Rochester, sought to put the recent government shutdown into perspective on a guest appearance on NPR.

Rochester professor part of national campaign finance task force
In a new research report, professor David Primo argues that there’s a disconnect between what the public believe about campaign finance law and the reality, and that many popular reform proposals unlikely to bring the desired results.

Political scientist Primo says Americans should worry about government control of social media
Congress is currently considering legislation that would regulate political advertising on social media.

William Riker Prize in Political Science goes to MIT’s Acemoglu and Chicago’s Robinson
The long-time collaborators and co-authors of Why Nations Fail were honored by the University’s Department of Political Science for their work toward essentially building a new theory of political economy.

Time’s ticking as ‘Doomsday Clock’ scientists meet
As the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists meets to evaluate scenarios for man-made catastrophe, Rochester scientists worry current risk levels are “way too high.”