Jane Mansbridge's intellectual career is marked by field-shifting contributions todemocratic theory, feminist scholarship, political science methodology, and theempirical study of social movements and direct democracy. Her work has fundamentallychallenged existing paradigms in both normative political theory and empiricalpolitical science and launched new lines of scholarly inquiry on the most basicquestions of democratic equality, deliberation, collective action, and politicalrepresentation. Her three best-known books—Beyond AdversaryDemocracy (1980), Why We Lost the ERA (1986) andBeyond Self-Interest (1990a)—have become part of the politicalscience canon and remain staples on graduate course syllabi decades after theirpublication. The importance of Mansbridge's work has been recognized by hercolleagues through a trifecta of major APSA awards: the Gladys M. Kammerer Award(1987), the Victoria Schuck Award (1988), and, most recently, the James MadisonAward and Lecture (2011).

The APSA Task Force on Democracy, Economic Security, and Social Justice in aVolatile World has released its report Democratic Imperatives Democracy,Economic Security, and Social Justice in a Volatile World. The reportargues that in emerging and established democracies alike, the promise of democracyremains unfulfilled. The report focuses on policies and institutions designed todeepen democracy by increasing respect for human rights, promoting participatorygovernance, and se-curing the economic bases of democratic citizenship. It documentshow these measures can help to reduce democratic deficits by making government andpolitics more responsive, more accountable, and more transparent and by enablingcitizens to take a greater role in governing themselves.

At its recent meeting in Madrid, Spain, the council of the International PoliticalScience Association (IPSA) elected 16 new executive committee members for 2012–14and a new president. APSA member Helen V. Milner of Princeton University was electedIPSA's president. Milner is the B.C. Forbes Professor of Politics and InternationalAffairs at Princeton University and the director of the Center for Globalization andGovernance at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School. She is currently also the chair ofthe department of politics. She taught at Columbia University from 1986 to 2004. HerStatement of Objectives are posted at www.ipsa.org/news.

The author draws upon his experience and observations outside academia to provideten suggestions for graduate students in political science who are exploringnonacademic career options. Their mentors may also find this advice useful.

Today I am a researcher at Google and one of a handful of employees, out of aglobal workforce of more than 30,000, the with a PhD in political science. But lessthan two years ago, I was a tenure track professor of political science at aresearch university and could barely have imagined the unusual path my professionallife would take. That path has been incredibly rewarding, as well as instructiveboth of the broad value a PhD in political science (and the social sciences moregenerally) and of the growing role for quantitative research outside of the academy.I recount much of that path below, with the hope that it might prove useful forthose graduate students, post-docs, and professors who might be inclined to applythe knowledge and skills they have acquired in unconventional professional paths oftheir own.

This year was an unusual one for the APSA Congressional Fellowship Program—threefellows were placed with the same congressional office. The fact that three fellows,each with very different backgrounds, were drawn to the Senate Finance Committee,says something about the unique role that the committee plays in congressionalpolicymaking. As one of the “A”s of the four “Super-A” committees, along withAppropriations, Armed Services, and Foreign Relations, the Senate Finance Com-mitteeis one of the committee assignments most sought after by Senators. Its vast policyjurisdiction enables members to affect many different parts of the economy, society,and government. In addition to Chairman Baucus, the majority membership of thecommittee includes chairs of six other committees: Senators John Kerry of ForeignRelations; Jeff Bingaman of Energy and Natural Resources; John D. Rockefeller ofCommerce, Science, and Transportation; Debbie Stabenow of Agriculture and Forestry;Kent Conrad of Budget; and Chuck Schumer who serves both as chairman of the RulesCommittee and the Democratic Policy and Communications Center. On the minority side,in addition to the ranking member, Senator Orrin Hatch, the panel includes threeranking members of other committees: Senators Chuck Grassley of Judiciary, OlympiaSnowe of Small Business, and Mike Enzi of Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.They serve alongside with the Republican Whip Senator Jon Kyl, the RepublicanConference Chair John Thune, and the Republican Senatorial Campaign CommitteeChairman John Cornyn of Texas. This concentration of senatorial experience testifiesto the importance of the work undertaken by the Finance Committee.

Founded in 1953, the APSA Congressional Fellowship Program is the nation's oldestand most prestigious congressional fellowship. The program remains devoted to itsoriginal objective of expanding knowledge and awareness of Congress. For ninemonths, select political scientists, journalists, doctors, federal executives, andinternational scholars gain “hands on” understanding of the legislative process byserving on congressional staffs. Through this opportunity, the association enhancespublic understanding of policymaking and improves the quality of scholarship,teaching, and reporting on American national politics. For more information, pleasevisit http://www.apsanet.org/content_3031.cfm.

As a result of generous contributions by Association members and friends to theCentennial Campaign, APSA created nine endowments to support a diverse range ofgrant programs to encourage individual research and writing in all fields ofpolitical science and to facilitate collaboration among scholars working within thediscipline and across the social and behavioral sciences and humanities. Moredetails on the Centennial Center, these endowments, and application requirementsvisit [email protected].

From July 15 to 27, APSA launched the fifth annual Africa Workshop in partnershipwith the faculty of social sciences at the University of Botswana in Gaborone. Theprogram is part of a multiyear initiative to support political science research andteaching in Sub-Saharan Africa through a series of residential political scienceworkshops at African universities and research institutions. Funded by the Andrew W.Mellon Foundation, the Africa Workshop is a major component of APSA's efforts tosupport research networks linking US scholars with their colleagues overseas andengage political science communities outside the United States.

A preview of some of the articles in the January 2013 issue.

Recognizing excellence in the profession is one of the most important activities ofAPSA. The following awards were announced in August 2012.

Investigations by the American Association of University Professors of theadministrations of the institutions listed below show that, as evidenced by a pastviolation, they are not observing the generally recognized principles of academicfreedom and tenure approved by this Association, the Association of AmericanColleges and Universities, and more than two hundred other professional andeducational organizations which have endorsed the 1940 Statement ofPrinciples on Academic Freedom and Tenure.

Under threat of Hurricane Isaac, APSA cancelled the 108th Annual Meeting, scheduledto begin in New Orleans August 30, two days prior to its start. Preconferenceactivities scheduled for August 29 already had been canceled because of the stormthreat. In the words of then-president G. Bingham Powell, Jr. and incoming presidentJane Mansbridge this cancellation was “a disappointing intellectual loss and aparticular problem for the untenured members of our association who were counting onvarious ways on their participation.” The storm's slow, persistent trajectory overthe Gulf Region made it impossible to seek to restart the meeting after its openingdays. The devastation to the Gulf Region from Hurricane Isaac was significant, andAPSA expresses sympathies to the families of those who lost their lives and theirhomes, and to the thousands who suffered emotional, financial, and physicaldamage.

In addition to the APSA awards (see full listing and citations in the Gazette, thisissue) the following recognitions were announced by the APSA Organized Sections.

The following Ralph Bunche Scholars were selected to present their Ralph BuncheSummer Insitute research papers in a poster session at the 2012 APSA Annual Meetingin New Orleans, Louisiana.

As the world becomes more interdependent and its governance more complex, bothwithin and between nation-states, the two biggest resources for human cooperation —persuasion and legitimate coercive power — become harder to generate across culturaland linguistic lines and sovereign boundaries. Yet the future will require more ofthese resources. To help societies meet the needs for political interactions ofincreasing complexity and scale, political scientists need to understand better theuses and abuses of both persuasion and power in varying contexts and scales. Thisyear's program theme encourages scholars to consider the politics of persuasion andpower, along with their many intersections.