Julie VanDusky-Allen

Julie VanDusky-Allen is at Boise State University and received her PhD in Political Science from Binghamton University in 2011. Her research focuses on institutional choice and development, political parties, the legislative process, and Latin American politics.

There is a Hero in All of Us

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Why does the same situation turn one person into a monster and another into a hero? What research has shown us is that not only do ordinary people all have the capacity to become monsters, we also all have the capacity to become heroes.

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BRAINZ!… Zombie Movies and War, An Odd Correlation

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I have to admit, when I first read the post “War and Social
Upheaval Causes Spikes in Zombie Movie Production” , I was a bit skeptical
about the conclusion that was drawn dealing with the correlation between
war and the number of zombie movies produced in a given year. So I collected
data and ran a model. As it turns out, there is a statistically significant
relationship between the number of zombie movies produced and whether a war was
fought within a two year time period. 

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Coffee, Ice Cream, and Democratic Duty

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This November 4th voters will be consuming more than just "democratic duty". They will also be able to receive free coffee from Starbucks and free ice cream from Ben & Jerry's. Starbucks Ben & Jerry's   These promotions could have an effect on voter turnout this year and perhaps even in subsequent years. For this … Read more

Would the Aragonese have chosen differently? Political Institutions in the New World

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Spanish American political institutions were highly centralized during the colonial time period. I always assumed this was because the Crown wanted to have more control over how the colonies were run. However, there may be other factors that influenced the choice of highly centralized institutions in the colonies. It may be that centralized political institutions were chosen over less centralized ones because the Castilian Spaniards, not the Aragonese Spaniards, initially developed the New World.

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How urgent is “Urgent”? The Bailout Package Defeated

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I watched in awe today as members in the US House of Representatives failed to pass the 700 billion dollar bailout package. How could this possibly be? All the signals from President Bush, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke indicated that if something was not done soon, we would all be doomed. McCain even “suspended” his campaign because this impending crisis was so urgent. Yet, 95 Democrats and 133 Republicans voted against this bill. To make matters worse, it seemed as though the impending doom was correctly predicted. As the votes were tallied on the floor, Wall Street watched and the Dow Jones dropped 788 points, its lowest point drop in history.

After taking a moment to calm down (and contemplating whether I should convert my dollars to pesos- Mike’s suggestion), I realized this all this drama may not be as dire as some would want the American public to believe. The Republican Party may be making this crisis seem worse for strategic purposes, which I will explain more about below. However, I want to talk about why this crisis may not be as bad as it seems.

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Legislating While Grumbling: PM Must Resign Over Cooking Show

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The Prime Minister of Thailand, Samak Sundaravej, has had a severe legitimacy problem for some time now. Not only is he facing charges of corruption, his party has also been accused of electoral fraud in the last election. There have been many protests as well, some violent. However, none of these things have been sufficient … Read more

Paranormal Phenomenon and Economics

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Peter Leeson, an economist from George Mason University, and Claudia Williamson, an economist from Appalachian University, are currently working on a UFO-Bigfoot sightings project. Their preliminary results indicate that there is a positive correlation between the number of UFO sightings in a state (per 10,000 residents) and the number of Bigfoot sightings in a state (per 10,000 residents). In other words, the more UFO sightings there are in a state, the more Bigfoot sightings there are in a state. Further, six of the top ten UFO and Bigfoot states are the same: Washington, Oregon, New Mexico, Alaska, Wyoming, and Colorado.

Peter Leeson suggests that there can be many explanations for this correlation.

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A Draft is Just a Draft (as in writing, not the “Oh No, I am going to war” type)

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Writing for Social Scientists by Howard Becker is a book I would strongly recommend to any graduate student who is about to begin the prospectus and/or dissertation process. This book is not solely about “how to write” in the sense of making outlines and editing. Instead, it is about how to overcome the obstacles people … Read more

Praying for an Orange Couch

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After reading Youssef Cohen’s Radicals, Reformers, and Reactionaries for my summer course, I was reminded of what we mean when we assume rationality in rational choice models. We assume rationality in decision making, that individuals will attempt to maximize their utility given their preferences and the constraints that exist. There are a few important components … Read more