Lauren RubensteinOctober 22, 20152min
This election cycle, those presidential candidates who use the simplest language are performing best in the polls, an analysis by The Boston Globe found. "There's no time to explain in modern politics," Elvin Lim, associate professor of government, told the Globe. On the Republican side, front-runner Donald Trump's speeches, with short, simple words and sentence, could be understood by a fourth grader, according to the Flesch-Kincaid readability test. In comparison, Mike Huckabee and Jim Gilmore, who are struggling in the polls, communicate with voters at a 10th grade level. On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton's speeches are "just right for eighth graders," while Bernie Sanders…

Olivia DrakeMarch 3, 20143min
Logan Dancey,  assistant professor of government, is the co-author of  "Heuristics Behaving Badly: Party Cues and Voter Knowledge," published in American Journal of Political Science 57 No. 2, 312-325, April 2013. Erika Franklin Fowler, assistant professor of government, is the co-author of  "Political and News Media Factors Shaping Public Awareness of the HPV Vaccine," published in Women's Health Issues 23 No. 3, e143-e151, 2013. Giulio Gallarotti, professor of government, professor of environmental studies, tutor in the College of Social Studies,  is the author of "The Enduring Importance of Hobbes in the Study of IR," published in e-International Relations, Jan. 10, 2013. Elvin Lim, associate professor of…

Olivia DrakeDecember 2, 20111min
Elvin Lim, associate professor of government, provided a political analysis on "Why Republicans Can't Find their Candidate" in the Nov. 10 Faster Times. He discusses politicians Rick Perry, Herman Cain, Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin. "It is far from clear, then, that 2012 will be a Republican year," he writes."Conservatives have yet to explain away a fundamental puzzle: if government is so unnecessary, so inefficient, and so corrupt, why seek an office in it? This is possibly why the very brightest and savviest would-be candidates are in Wall Street, and can’t be bothered with an address change to Pennsylvania Avenue.…