Comparative Politics and Political Change: what Works and Why?
“A Republic, if you can keep it.” Bejamin Franklin. When I was in graduate school, I took a course on comparative political systems. The course readings seemed to favor the parliamentary system, and I took a bit of an…
Democracy: Is the US Defining the Right Target for National Security?
“What is liberty without wisdom and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils, for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint.” –Edmund Burke “Next in importance to freedom and justice is popular education, without…
Politics and Candidate Types
Remember back to the distant past of 1991? The US had just won the Gulf War and President George H. W. Bush was riding high and looked unbeatable. None of the leading Democrats wanted to run against him and risk…
Politics, Politicians, and Accountability
There are currently 10 members of the House of Representatives, over 80. Eight are Democrats and two are Republicans. Historically, 64 were in Congress 40 years or longer. Most of these are/were Democrats as well. Five Senators are over…
Responsibility and Accountability Part 5: Voter Responsibility and Accountability
This is Part 5 of a series on accountability and responsibility. This part looks at the voters and to whom they are accountable. As the graphic from My Comic Shop shows, voters are accountable to themselves. But they are also…
Responsibility and Accountability Part 1: Command, Control, and Customer Service
This is Part 1 of a series on accountability and responsibility. As the graphic shows, the two should work together. But often the two are divorced, or at least separated. Part 1 is a vignette to frame the discussion. This…
Coexist Part 3 The Exploiters and Influencers
This is part three of the Coexist series. It explores the exploiters and influencers introduced in Part 1. I was fortunate to take the advanced political science course in my undergraduate program. We read The Grand Inquisitor on the Nature…
Coexist Part 2: Believers
This is part 2 of the series on Coexist. It explores the believers group discussed in Part 1. This part will look in more detail at the believers’ group of the Coexist set and assess their impact on Domestic…
Coexist Part 1: Framing the Issue
It is good that war is so horrible, or we might grow to like it. Robert E. Lee. I frequently see cars with the Coexist bumper sticker. When I see them, I often wonder about the person who put the…
The D in DIE
Diversification is a standard tool to reduce portfolio risk in finance. To do this, the portfolio manager seeks stocks with different risk profiles and potentially even industries and countries. But the managers do not just pick any old stocks. The…
