Any Ph.D. knows that developing a basic statement of dissertation ideas rarely begins or ends with the formal proposal. In a sense dissertators never stop “proposing.” Throughout the process of data gathering and writing, they must make sense of new ideas and information, contend with theoretical and empirical dead ends, address the suggestions (or demands!) of advisors and committees. Nevertheless, the aspiring Ph.D. must start somewhere, and finding a starting point depends on one's own aptitudes and interests and the expectations of the scholars who will ultimately assess one's work. All of these may vary widely.

The objective of this article is to report differences we have found in teaching “American National Government” via the web and in a traditional lecture/discussion format. Since beginning this quasiexperimental field study in late 1997, we have gathered a variety of comparative data concerning students' characteristics and their changes in political knowledge and attitudes—things that are important to all of us who labor teaching American government in hopes of nurturing healthy citizens.

Beginning with the 1996 election cycle, political parties and interest groups, through soft money and issue advocacy, have mounted substantial campaigns in competitive elections. Noncandidate campaigns, funded with this outside money, are in some ways extensions of independent expenditure campaigns. However, by avoiding the words of express advocacy, as defined by the Supreme Court, groups may avoid the disclosure requirements imposed on independent expenditures. Party soft money contributions are disclosed but spending is unlimited.

Academic publishing is tightly connected to college and university faculty members' prospects for promotion, tenure, salary increases, and professional recognition, and is often regarded as an index of one's scholarly contribution to a given field (Blackburn and Lawrence 1995). This is problematic because, as many researchers have clearly documented, women publish less than men. Because female faculty produce fewer publications on average than their male counterparts, they also receive lower pay and are more likely to hold the ranks of assistant and associate professor (Blackburn and Lawrence 1995; Creamer 1998; Dinauer and Ondeck 1999; Roland and Fontanesi-Seime 1996; Schneider 1998). And, although gender differences in publishing have narrowed in most disciplines over the past two decades, in most cases, men still outpublish women by a ratio of two to one (Roland and Fontanesi-Seime 1996). Among the factors cited as being important to publishing regularly are ambition, reputation, merit, institutional support and resources, professional networks and collegial/mentoring relationships, research topic and methodology, and time.

Failure to develop a dissertation topic and proposal is sometimes the downfall of graduate students. The course work may go well, exams may be passed with flying colors, and the students may even successfully write and present papers at conferences. The elusive dissertation topic, though, may continue to bring them misery. One problem is that students may wait too long to develop an idea; having no concept of what a dissertation should be and not knowing how to narrow their wide ranging interests into manageable projects, they flounder. They meet real trouble because they wait until they finish courses and exams before they even consider the topics on which to write their dissertations.

In Gilbert & Sullivan's undeservedly obscure operetta, Utopia Ltd., English invaders seek to colonize the impressionable citizens of this tropical island paradise by employing “a marvelous philologist who'll undertake to show, that ‘yes’ is but another and a neater form of ‘no.’” In our two-party form of government, citizens are colonized the same way, proving that truth can be just as goofy as fiction. We can say No to one candidate only by saying Yes to the other. That is American democracy, reinforced by laws and courts. In many of our states there are more laws concerned with the institution of political parties than there are laws concerned with the institution of marriage. This legal safety net for the two-party system was reinforced in 2000 by a decisive 7–2 Supreme Court opinion invalidating as unconstitutional a California “blanket primary” law giving voters the power to pick anyone they want—from any political party or any independent—to nominate as their candidate to run in the general election for a particular elective office. The Court called the blanket primary “a stark repudiation of freedom of association” that stripped the political parties of the ability to control their own nominating process.

For 30 years political scientists largely ignored high school education in civics and government. There are two explanations for this neglect. First, the prevailing view was that students learned nothing from civics courses (Langton and Jennings 1968). Second, social scientists increasingly saw themselves as members of scientific disciplines, so whatever interest they had in precollege education was devoted to augmenting disciplinary knowledge (Haas 1977; Janowitz 1983, ch. 6).

The job market for newly minted political science Ph.D.s has been bleak for a long time and is likely to remain so for a long time. There has been a lot of gnashing of teeth about this, and a lot has been made of doctoral students' need to consider “alternative careers.” There has not, however, been much written about an alternative some young scholars may find attractive: teaching at a community college. As a political scientist who has made the transition from a regional university to a four-year liberal arts college and, finally, to a community college, I know how rewarding it can be to teach at a community college. I also know first hand that many community colleges are actively seeking to recruit faculty with terminal degrees, partly to take advantage of the sluggish academic job market (Haworth 1999a, A12). Therefore, I thought this a propitious time to translate my experience into some useful recommendations for political science graduate students who might be weighing the advantages and disadvantages of community college teaching. My suggestions are aimed at both those with a doctorate and those who have been advanced to candidacy and might be wavering over whether to write the dissertation. They are also aimed at the faculty in doctoral departments who want to undertake serious and sustained measures to prepare some of their candidates for community college careers.

The irony was so striking that it could not be lost on anyone. Sitting before us was a soon-to-be-minted Ph.D. candidate whom we all liked tremendously, and who had an incredibly strong academic record, both in research and teaching. Yet, as our panel read his letter of application and CV, which were displayed on an overhead projector, and as we discussed them in progressively greater detail and honesty, we found several aspects of his materials off-putting. Why did he phrase something THIS way, another THAT way, we asked him? Sometimes his decisions were driven by a concern he need not have had; other times he was being advised by his graduate department. We ended by agreeing tat although he SHOULD have been given a job interview, our hypothetical search process might have passed him over for inclusion on our short list.

This is the thirtieth year that I have been monitoring participation by women at our annual meeting. These PS reports have documented the ascent of women in our profession. (At this year's meeting I reported to the Women's Caucus tracing participation by women in our programs since the 1970s.) While there are signs that women have continued to move ahead in their participation, the picture is mixed.

Activities

Bernard Grofman, professor of political science, University of California, Irvine, has been named president of the Public Choice Society for a two-year term, 2001–02.

Introduction

The Internet has recently become an important part of the democratic process (Firestone and Corrado 1996; Kamarck and Nye 1999; Rash 1997; Wilhelm 2000). It was only a matter of time until democracy and politics entered the digital world, and now we are moving toward holding elections over the Internet. A major step in this direction took place early in the 2000 presidential election when the Arizona Democratic primary offered the first binding Internet election for public office (Alvarez and Nagler 2000; Solop 2000).

The report by the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) at the University of California, Los Angeles on college or university first-year students in 2000 contains information that is important to political scientists (Kellogg 2001; Sax et al. 2000). As did Sheilah Mann's (1999) analysis of the 1998 survey, we summarize those facets of the data about freshmen in 2000 that ought to interest members of the discipline.

Activities

Chun-tu Hsueh, Huang Hsing Foundation, was elected a foreign member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and honorary fellow of the Institute of East European, Russian and Central Asian Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Elsa Chaney

Elsa Chaney passed away on June 16, 2000. A University of Wisconsin Ph.D. (1970), she is well known for path-breaking research on women and politics in Latin America, policy work on international development, and active collaboration with women in South America. In the final month before her death, she had returned from Brazil and revised a chapter for a collection edited by Irene Tinker and Arvonne Fraser.

George G. Bauroth

George G. Bauroth, who taught political science for three decades at St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, died on June 24, 2000, from a stroke. Though death has taken him away, his influence over his family, friends, and students will be felt for many years.

Like many organizations, the American Political Science Association has taken the dawn of the new millennium as an opportunity to reevaluate its institutional mission. At APSA's 2000 annual meeting, the Strategic Planning Committee (SPC) presented to the APSA Council its final report on “the overall condition of the Association relative to its mission and to the key challenges and opportunities in the external environment” (among other things). Interestingly, the SPC acknowledges that when first asked to “view the future of the APSA through the prism of its organizational mission and objectives,” it was “surprised to learn that the Association had no explicit mission statement beyond its purpose, in the original words of its Constitution, ‘to encourage the study of Political Science’ ” (<www.apsanet.org/new/planning/finalreport.cfm>). Accordingly, the Committee decided to craft an APSA mission statement suitable for the twenty-first century.

The City by the Bay will once again be home for APSA's Annual Meeting with record numbers expected to attend the conference. Led by Program co-chairs Edward Mansfield and Richard Sisson, both of Ohio State University, the 97th meeting will feature over 650 panel sessions, beginning on August 30 and continuing through mid-day on September 2, 2001. APSA's annual preconvention day of professional development workshops and research seminars will be held on Wednesday, August 29. For information on events and sessions be sure to visit APSA's web site throughout the spring and summer at www.apsanet.org/mtgs.

Northeastern Political Science Association Holds Thirty-Second Annual Meeting

More than 400 political scientists gathered in Albany, NY in early November for the Thirty-second Annual Meeting of the Northeastern Political Science Association and International Studies Association-Northeast.

Amid sunny skies and cool temperatures in San Francisco, 5,857 political scientists gathered for the ninety-seventh APSA Anuual Meeting held August 29 to September 2 at the Hilton San Francisco, Hotel Nikko and Renaissance Parc Fifty-Five hotels (and were lodged at eight additional hotels within walking distance). With members of the press, exhibitors and guests, the total attendance was 6,282, exceeding any previous West Coast meetings by more than 700 total attendees.