“It’s generally taken for granted that some familiarity with economists’ research is relevant to writing about economic issues, but people seem very comfortable making broad, sweeping assertions about the American political system that are totally uninformed by research into it,” writes Matthew Yglesias on his blog.

Yglesias notes that “empirical and theoretical inquiry by political scientists can and does shed a lot of light on a lot of important issues,” and recommends Princeton Readings in American Politics, edited by Richard Valelly, to “anyone interested in deepening their understanding of American politics.”