This paper describes a relatively new active learning approach--Design Thinking--and its adoption in two comparative politics courses. I draw on my experience using Design Thinking in political science courses to offer instructors another pedagogical tool in the active learning toolkit. I outline the rationale for adopting a Design Thinking…

As a contribution to the Teaching & Learning Symposium on Comparative Politics organized by APSA, this short article discusses the challenges in Introduction to Comparative Politics classes when comparative political behavior is examined. In the tradition of studying political participation, the discipline has witnessed the development of…

The article evaluates the civic implications of studying political science. Previous research has argued that learning rational choice models of political behavior could be detrimental to civic outcomes. However, results from our two panel surveys of students at Swedish universities show the opposite: studying political science has positive…

Scholars have researched how voters make decisions for well over a half a century, but these studies are limited in what they are able to say about how voters make decisions because they have focused on the choice rather than the process. Most of these studies have focused on the choice that voters reach or the way their memories are structured,…

Analysis of voter turnout reveals rural areas to have much higher turnout than urban. Furthermore, these rural areas have lower levels of education, income, and industrialization. Several theoretical arguments are examined. Available from: the Wayne State University Press, 5980 Cass Avenue, Detroit, Michigan 48202, $4.00 single copy. (Author/MLF)

Highlights the state government course at West Virginia University that leads students in a comparative study of state governments. Uses a natural progression of course topics from basic state-level characteristics, to political behavior, to political institutions, to policy in order to facilitate understanding of interstate political variation.…

The survey reviews recent research on political behavior in Japan and describes the nature and institutional setting of political science in Japan. Political science is regarded as a small academic discipline which is frequently an adjunct to another academic department within a university. Political scientists in Japan have exhibited less…