“Once one starts to think about” economic growth, “it is hard to think about anything else.” Those words, from the late economist Robert Lucas, explain why we’re so fascinated by international ...

The institution of American democracy relies as much on the actions of American citizens as it does on Constitutional actors.

Political science is a social science discipline focused on the study of political institutions, behavior, ideas, and the analytical methods used to examine them. The department’s work is structured ...

Two MIT economists were among those awarded the Nobel Prize in economics Monday for their decades of work illuminating the relationship between political institutions and economic prosperity.

Sometimes, it is not that hard to see the future. When polarization is the norm, when the electorate is split down the middle and when political institutions are unable to rein in excesses, we can ...

While a majority of people express a commitment to most of our social and political institutions and the democratic form of governance enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, there are those who relish ...