The Society for Political Methodology will award 
its 2nd Annual Political Methodology Career 
Achievement Award at the 2008 American Political 
Science Association's Annual Meeting.  This year 
we recognize JOHN JACKSON’s outstanding career of 
intellectual accomplishment and service to the profession.

John was at the forefront in the establishment of 
the field.  Long before most were aware of what 
political methodology was about, John was 
extremely active, bringing scholars together and 
laying the foundation for work to come.  John was 
publishing high quality statistical analyses in 
the APSR in the early 1970s, and his influential 
text "Statistical Methods for Social Scientists," 
coauthored with Eric Hanushek in 1977, is still 
considered one of the best.  Likewise, John's 
pioneering empirical work showed that party 
identification need not be seen as an essentially 
permanent identity learned in 
childhood.  Instead, John demonstrated that 
partisanship also reflects an accumulation of 
citizens’ adult experiences with the parties – a 
perspective that has been built on by many 
empirical and theoretical scholars, and that has 
become the most widely accepted view of how partisan identity is formed.

John’s record of service to the subfield is 
equally impressive.  He served as the 2nd 
President of the Society for Political 
Methodology from 1985-1987, and was instrumental 
in securing funding for the early meetings from 
the National Election Studies and later the 
National Science Foundation.  Moreover, John has 
always been (and continues to be) known for 
reaching out to graduate students, spending time 
with them at them at the Political Methodology 
Meetings and assisting with their integration 
into the discipline.  And, John has been 
instrumental in the maturation of the subfield in 
another way, as he has led the charge when it 
comes to the forging of ties between political 
methodologists and methodologists in other fields 
(both in his own collaborations and in 
institutions) – this has been of fundamental 
importance to the bettering of the subfield.

John’s work has always brought methodological 
insight to important substantive questions, and 
he continues to publish state of the art work, 
having recently co-authored a book on Polish 
elections ("The Political Economy of Poland's 
Transition,” with Jacek Klich and Krystyna 
Poznanska).  In addition, John is still extremely 
active in the Society for Political Methodology, 
being both a regular at the summer meetings and a 
mentor to many.  This year, John’s career 
achievements were recognized in his election to 
the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 
confirming what one eloquent nominator noted: 
"John is an icon for political methodology."

I thank all of the letter writers for their 
nominations, as well as the other award committee 
members:  Christopher Achen (Princeton), William 
Berry (Florida State University), and Simon 
Jackman (Stanford University).  Please join us in 
congratulating John as the Political Methodology 
Society’s 2008 Career Achievement Award Recipient.

Cheers,

Jan Box-Steffensmeier






Janet M. Box-Steffensmeier, Vernal Riffe 
Professor of Political Science & Professor of Sociology
Director of the Program in Statistics and Methodology
Mailing address: Department of Political Science
Ohio State University
2140 Derby Hall, 154 N. Oval Mall
Columbus, OH  43210-1373
Phone:  (614) 292-9642
Fax:  (614) 292-1146
Location:  2049S Derby Hall
E-mail: [log in to unmask]

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