Bryan D. Jones University of Washington, Seattle

CAREER AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Bryan D. Jones (Ph.D., University of Texas 1970) is Donald R. Matthews Distinguished Professor of American Politics and Director of the Center for American Politics and Public Policy at the University of Washington, Seattle.  His scholarly interests focus on American public policy processes. His research concentrates on individual decision-making in policymaking organizations and on agenda-setting processes in American national political institutions.

Jones' books include Politics and the Architecture of Choice (Chicago 2001), Reconceiving Decision-Making in Democratic Politics (Chicago, 1994), both winners of the APSA Political Psychology Section Robert Lane Award;  With Frank Baumgartner, he has authored The Politics of Attention (Chicago 2005) and Agendas and Instability in American Politics (Chicago, 1993). The latter book won the 2001 Aaron Wildavsky Award for Enduring Contribution to the Study of Public Policy. Jones has received National Science Foundation Grants totaling more than $1,750,000, and has published articles in the American Political Science Review, the Journal of Politics, the American Journal of Political Science, and many other professional journals. He has served on the editorial boards of several professional journals, including the American Journal of Political Science and the Journal of Politics, and has served as Vice President of the Midwest Political Science Association.

Prior to joining the University of Washington in 1996, Jones was a professor of political science at Texas A & M University, and head of the department from1985 to 1992.  He was at Wayne State University from 1972 to 1985.

STATEMENT OF VIEWS

Among the challenges to APSA governance are issues of methodological pluralism and membership participation.  Two of the most positive recent developments in political science have been the emergence of a vigorous scholarship of qualitative methodology and the increasing role of the organized sections in the life of the association.  Qualitative methodology has, in my opinion, caused quantitative political scientists to take far more seriously the ideas of historical contingency and context.  I want to see these trends nurtured by the Association. 

Membership participation is increasingly difficult in such a large professional organization.  I hope to work toward increased transparency in governance and toward some better mechanisms for handling participation in the national meetings.  Somehow we need to encourage more discussion and roundtable panels and fewer ad hoc panels, perhaps by a heavier reliance on poster sessions.  This isn't easy, but I hope the Council can maintain focus on this important issue.