When Topologists Are Politicians...

How to Gain Respect as an Educator

Respect is often mentioned spontaneously when people talk about relationships in society, and intuitively everyone seems to know its meaning. In any kind of relationship, respect is often said to contribute to successful interactions. Scientists, politicians, writers and journalists commonly use the term ‘respect’ in their arguments with remarkable conviction...

Outline of Math 623; Topics in Geometric Topology: Manifold Theory

The basic topic will be the classification of manifolds with a focus on surgery theory; the classification of high dimensional manifolds. I will, however, cover topics of interest to low-dimensional topologists and algebraic topologists. The prerequisites are Math 521 and 522, in other words singular homology theory, CW complexes, fundamental group, and covering spaces. But familiarity with the...

Nber Working Paper Series a Political Theory of Populism

When voters fear that politicians may have a right-wing bias or that they may be influenced or corrupted by the rich elite, signals of true left-wing conviction are valuable. As a consequence, even a moderate politician seeking reelection chooses “populist’ policies i.e., policies to the left of the median voter as a way of signaling that he is not from the right. Truly right-wing politicians r...

Of Politicians and Technocrats, and Why Global Health Scholars Are Inevitably a Bit of Both: A Response to Recent Commentaries

When Can Politicians Scare Citizens Into Supporting Bad Policies? A Theory of Incentives With Fear Based Content

Analysts make competing claims about when and how politicians use fear to gain support for suboptimal policies. Using a model, we clarify how common attributes of fear affect politicians’ abilities to achieve outcomes that are bad for voters. In it, a politician can provide information about a threat. His statement need not be true. How citizens respond differs from most gametheoretic models – ...