Description:

Please join the American Politics Workshop as they host Alan M. Jacobs, Professor and Department Head in the Department of Political Science at The University of British Columbia.

Session Description Forthcoming

Alan M. Jacobs (Ph.D. Harvard, 2004) is Head of Department and a Professor of Political Science specializing in the comparative political economy of advanced industrialized democracies, the politics of public policy, political behavior, and qualitative and mixed methodology. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on the comparative politics of inequality, qualitative research methods, and research design. Jacobs’ first book, Governing for the Long Term: Democracy and the Politics of Investment (Cambridge, 2011, co-winner of the APSA award for the Best Book in Comparative Politics; winner of the APSA award for the Best Book Developing or Applying Qualitative Methods; and winner of the IPSA prize for the Best Book in Comparative Policy and Administration), examined how democratic governments manage long-term policy issues. This book and related articles have sought to understand the conditions under which elected governments are willing to impose short-term costs on their constituents in order to invest in long-term social benefits. Jacobs’ work in this area has sought to identify the distinctive features of the politics of intertemporal choice as compared to the more commonly analyzed politics of redistribution.