Describes the grading system and examination practices of the British polytechnic schools. Explains the role of the external examiner and the board of examiners. Compares the benefits and drawbacks of this system with grading practices common in United States higher education. (JDH)

Reviews Russel Kirk's THE PORTABLE CONSERVATIVE READER and George Will's STATECRAFT AS SOULCRAFT. Maintains that Americans tend to misunderstand the philosophy of traditional conservatives, confusing their stance on issues such as authority, tradition, and laissez faire government. (JDH)

Advocates political rhetoric over political philosophy as the foundation for political education as a step in the creation of good citizens. Suggests sources of the best American political rhetoric (e.g., Wilson, Lincoln, and King). Analyzes passages from a speech by F. D. Roosevelt, highlighting the fundamental political issues raised. (DMM)

Considers devices by which the executive branch exploits its scientific advisors for political advantage while concealing much of the information they have provided'' and discusses ways in which scientists can help bring into being counterbalancing political forces by providing the public and Congress with the information they need.'' (Author/AL)

Shows how the "nominal group technique" can be applied in the initial meetings of discussion groups in university courses to clarify group norms and climate and to exemplify productive discussion behaviors. (Author/RM)

Describes books and periodicals that contain public and private laws, presidential proclamations, executive orders, joint and concurrent regulations, etc. or interpretations of laws such as Supreme Court decisions and federal district court and appellate court decisions. The descriptions include information such as title, numbering system,…

Suggests that having political science college students perform in class Machiavelli's play "Mandragola" is an excellent way to expand student's appreciation of Machiavelli. Article provides a synopsis of the play, discusses Machiavelli's intent, examines the meaning of the play, and presents classroom logistics. (RM)

Profiles the new bibliographic database devoted solely to scholarly articles of political science. Two "searchguides" compare the Lockheed/DIALOG and SDC/ORBIT versions of the file. (JD)

The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), a unit within the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, is the world's largest social science data archive. The data sets in the ICPRS database give the social sciences librarian/subject specialist an opportunity of providing value-added bibliographic…

The authors propose a methodology based on the principal strata approach to causal inference for assessing the relative effectiveness of two degree programs with respect to the employment status of their graduates. An innovative use of nonparametric bounds in the principal strata framework is shown, examining the role of some assumptions in…

This project posits that incorporating political humor into the classroom can have a positive effect on learning in higher education. Specifically, we present preliminary findings from a quasi-experiment in which a humorous, "mock" textbook titled America (The Book) (Stewart, Karlin, and Javerbaum 2004) was incorporated into Introduction to…

This article focuses on the steering of higher education systems in the light of political science and public management approaches. It first recalls that an important part of the existing literature on higher education is focused on public policies in terms of reforms and decision-making, while the other part is dedicated to discovering and…

Both spatial theories of voting and our intuitions lead us to expect that political parties' ideological positions should affect individuals' turnout decisions. Contrary to these expectations, existing research finds that neither feelings of alienation--that no party adequately represents an individual's ideological position--nor…

China's People's University has demoted a dean after the well-known scholar criticized university officials and what he termed the "bureaucratization" of the nation's higher-education system. The incident started when Zhang Ming, dean of political science at People's University, posted comments on his popular personal blog in which he…