I created this blog with the intention of bringing a non-partisan, political science perspective to Utah politics. In the near future, I plan to invite a few colleagues to contribute also. My goal is not to post partisan opinions or to push certain policies. Instead, I hope to publish two kinds of posts:
- Original research about Utah politics. Political science professors regularly conduct polls and other studies of Utah politics. Some of these studies make their way into academic journals, but many of these findings would be interesting to Utah’s politicos. I hope to use this site to publicize them.
- Research-based commentary on Utah politics. Frequently, we’ll read in the paper about how the best-financed candidate won more votes, or how 2010 was an anti-incumbent election year, or how the nuances of the legislative process may have made it harder for some bills to pass. As it happens, there are large research literatures within political science on many of these questions. I hope to occasionally share these insights to shed light on how politics works.
All posts will be written by political science professors. Occasionally top students may be invited to post, but student posts will be clearly marked as such.
Although I do not plan to post opinion pieces, I should state very clearly that my views are my own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer, religious leaders, wife, cats, dogs, or fish. Okay, I don’t really have cats, dogs, or fish. But you get the point. The same is true of anybody else that posts here.
This makes me very happy, Dr. Brown. Utah politics is not studied enough, especially from a quantitative viewpoint.
Now we just need to get my colleagues to start posting. A few say they’re willing. Feel free to lobby them.
And if you ever have anything you’d like to post (or send me for posting), you’d be welcome.