ARTHUR LUPIA

CAREER AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Arthur Lupia is the Hal R. Varian Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan and Research Professor at its Institute for Social Research. He studies how information and institutions affect policy and politics with a focus on how people make decisions when they lack information. He draws from multiple scientific and philosophical disciplines and he employs multiple research methods. His work provides insights on voting, civic competence, legislative-bureaucratic relations, parliamentary governance, and political communication.

He is co-author of two books, The Democratic Dilemma: Can Citizens Learn What They Need to Know? (1998) and Stealing the Initiative: How State Government Reacts to Direct Democracy (2001), and co-editor of Elements of Reason: Cognition, Choice, and the Bounds of Rationality (2000). His articles have appeared in a range of well-known journals. He is the recipient of the 1998 Award for Initiatives in Research from the National Academy of Sciences and other awards. He has served a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and, in 2003, he was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

He is a Principal Investigator of American National Election Studies and of the Time-shared Experiments for the Social Sciences project. He is president of the APSA Organized Section on Political Psychology, a member of the APSR Editorial Board, and has held numerous other leadership posts in the Association. Since 2001, he has served as APSA’s official liaison to the AAAS.

STATEMENT OF VIEWS

I would be grateful for an opportunity to serve APSA as a Council Member. In teaching, research, and community involvement, we must seize opportunities to provide clarity and insight to the many societies, governments, and students who can benefit from learning what Political Scientists know. From my experiences inside and outside of academics, I know that we are at our best as a social force when we focus our diverse resources on problem solving and serving others. Going forward, I believe that breaking down barriers to participation – particularly for junior faculty, graduate students, members of groups who are underrepresented in the academy, and people with interdisciplinary interests -- is an important means of improving the effectiveness of Political Science. While recent years have seen great progress, we can do better. As a council member, I will work to help APSA seek and implement new ways to build more effective communications, collaborations, and communities.