A new political science blog, Mischiefs of Faction, is up and running. It is run by political scientists Greg Koger, Seth Masket (also of Enik Rising), and Hans Noel. We’ve also been pleased to have Koger and Noel as occasional contributors here. From the inaugural post:
bq. This blog is devoted to advancing and debating our knowledge of political parties. Our main focus, at least initially, is on the “elite” side of parties. That is, we’re interested in the things that party leaders, broadly defined, do to build and protect their parties and win debates and elections. A major theme in our research—individually and collectively—is that American political parties are best understood as broad teams of actors, not just politicians and formal organizations. The true Republican and Democratic parties also include allied media, think tanks, donors, Super PACs, and perhaps even bloggers. We will certainly pay some attention to public opinion, although that is not our main area of expertise and there are already several excellent blogs dealing with this topic. Our writings will largely stay focused on trends in the United States, both nationally and at the sub-national level.
Here is Seth on why the GOP had to nominate a flipflopper. Here is Hans on Madison and factions.
Here is the blog’s RSS feed. Its Twitter handle is @MisOfFact. The “Gangs of New York” photo is their avatar. Here is why.
This is a must-read, must-follow blog for anyone interested in American politics and political parties.