Comment on APSA statement regarding President Trump’s executive order “Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States”

APSA’s statement regarding President Trump’s executive order “Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States”, was posted on APSAnet.org earlier this week.

We invite APSA members and the political science community to comment on the statement. Use the comment area that appears after the statement on this page.


January 30, 2017

The American Political Science Association (APSA) condemns the Executive Order issued on January 27, 2017, entitled “Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States,” and strongly urges President Trump to rescind it. The order generates immediate and detrimental effects on colleagues and students with whom we teach, write, and collaborate. It undermines academic freedom in the most fundamental way by restricting the ability of scholars to meet, learn and exchange ideas on campuses of American colleges and universities. As scholars and teachers, we deplore the interruption of research, teaching, and intellectual engagement that this order causes.

The American Political Science Association is a scholarly association with over 13,000 members worldwide, including members who are residents and/or citizens of the seven countries affected by the immigration ban in the Executive Order. APSA brings together political scientists from all fields of inquiry, regions, and occupational endeavors within and outside academe to deepen our understanding of politics, democracy, and citizenship throughout the world.

As indicated in our vision statement, the APSA works to promote “scholarly understanding of political ideas, norms, behaviors, and institutions to inform public choices about government, governance and public policy”. The lack of full regard for liberal democratic norms and practices demonstrated in this Executive Order can deeply harm these scholarly understandings. We urge the President and the other federal officials to consider these and other scholarly understandings of the strengths and foundations of the United States’ political system and political culture when making decisions that may affect them, and we call on the President to rescind this order immediately.

As an organization, the APSA also stands ready to support any colleague who may be directly or indirectly affected by this executive order. If any APSA member is affected by this executive action, please contact us for any support or assistance we can provide. Visit this link for resources or to request support.

David A. Lake, President
Jennifer Hochschild, Past-President
Kathleen Thelen, President-Elect
Steven Rathgeb Smith, Executive Director

8 Comments

  1. We are signing this statement of protest against the president’s executive order entitled “Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States,” of January 27, 2017. It “suspends entry into the United States,” for various periods of time, of refugees, Syrian refugees, and “aliens” without green cards from seven nations. We offer three reasons for opposing this order:

    As political scientists, we have committed our professional lives to the study of good governance, and the attainment of the widely shared values of human dignity, rights, and democratic engagement. Research by members of our discipline shows that people’s ability to move across borders has enabled the United States to thrive, that overreach by political leaders can undermine liberal democratic norms and practices, that hostile relations with nations with whom the U.S. is not at war can increase political violence and extremism, and that the separation of religion and state is a core commitment of the United States’ constitutional system. The executive order violates all of those established findings.

    As scholars, we deplore this order’s interruption of research, teaching, and intellectual interchange at American colleges and universities. International exchanges are essential to good scholarship, and an important way for people of different cultures and political systems to engage constructively with one another.

    As teachers, we deplore the interruption of study and engagement of students who are blocked by this executive order from classes at American colleges and universities. We are concerned about the order’s impact on the many students whose lives will be directly and indirectly affected by the ban. Furthermore, this executive order teaches all the wrong lessons to our students and those coming behind them: it conveys fear, anger, governmental overreach, discrimination, and false statements.

    Therefore, we urge President Trump to rescind this executive order immediately. If he does not do so, we urge the Congress to override it, the courts to issue further stays, and Americans to protest the ban on refugees and Muslim-country residents. Political scientists’ research has shown that robust protest and political courage can offset the worst excesses of public officials; let us put that knowledge to use.

    Melani Cammett, Department of Government, Harvard University
    Daniel Carpenter, Department of Government, Harvard University
    Grzegorz Ekiert, Department of Government, Harvard University
    Frances Hagopian, Department of Government, Harvard University
    Peter Hall, Department of Government, Harvard University
    Jennifer Hochschild, Department of Government, Harvard University
    Torben Iversen, Department of Government, Harvard University
    Joshua Kertzer, Department of Government, Harvard University
    Horacio Larreguy Arbesu, Department of Government, Harvard University
    Steven Levitsky, Department of Government, Harvard University
    Elizabeth J. Perry, Department of Government, Harvard University
    Kenneth Shepsle, Department of Government, Harvard University
    Sidney Verba, Department of Government, Harvard University
    Cheryl Welch, Department of Government, Harvard University
    Daniel Ziblatt, Department of Government, Harvard University

  2. I endorse the Harvard department’s statement regarding the president’s executive order on immigration.

  3. We endorse the Harvard department’s statement regarding the President’s executive order.

    Patricia Boling, Department of Political Science, Purdue University
    Nadia Brown, Department of Political Science, Purdue University
    Ann Marie Clark, Department of Political Science, Purdue University
    Rosalee Clawson, Department of Political Science, Purdue University
    Natasha Duncan, Department of Political Science, Purdue UniversityAaron Hoffman, Department of Political Science, Purdue University
    David Johnson, Department of Political Science, Purdue University
    Jay McCann, Department of Political Science, Purdue University
    Manjana Milkoreit, Department of Political Science, Purdue University
    Leigh S. Raymond, Department of Political Science, Purdue University
    Josh Scacco, Department of Political Science, Purdue University
    Harry R. Targ, Department of Political Science, Purdue University
    S. Laurel Weldon, Department of Political Science, Purdue University

  4. PRINCETON FACULTY (All political scientists, including some emerita faculty): ENDORSE STATEMENT

    We are signing this statement of protest against the president’s executive order entitled “Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States,” of Jan. 27, 2017. It “suspends entry into the United States,” for various periods of time, of refugees, Syrian refugees, and “aliens” without green cards from seven nations. We offer three reasons for opposing this order:

    As political scientists, we have committed our professional lives to the study of good governance, and the attainment of the widely shared values of human dignity, rights, and democratic engagement. Research by members of our discipline shows that people’s ability to move across borders has enabled the United States to thrive, that overreach by political leaders can undermine liberal democratic norms and practices, that hostile relations with nations with whom the U.S. is not at war can increase political violence and extremism, and that the separation of religion and state is a core commitment of the United States’ constitutional system. The executive order violates all of those established findings.

    As scholars, we deplore this order’s interruption of research, teaching, and intellectual interchange at American colleges and universities. International exchanges are essential to good scholarship, and an important way for people of different cultures and political systems to engage constructively with one another.

    As teachers, we deplore the interruption of study and engagement of students who are blocked by this executive order from classes at American colleges and universities. We are concerned about the order’s impact on the many students whose lives will be directly and indirectly affected by the ban. Furthermore, this executive order teaches all the wrong lessons to our students and those coming behind them: It conveys fear, anger, governmental overreach, discrimination, and false statements.

    Therefore, we urge President Trump to rescind this executive order immediately. If he does not do so, we urge the Congress to override it, the courts to issue further stays, and Americans to protest the ban on refugees and Muslim-majority nation residents. Political scientists’ research has shown that robust protest and political courage can offset the worst excesses of public officials; let us put that knowledge to use.

    Faisal Z. Ahmed
    Gary J. Bass
    Mark R. Beissinger
    Charles R. Beitz
    Nancy Bermeo
    Carles Boix
    Charles M. Cameron
    Brandice Canes-Wrone
    David B. Carter
    Rafaela M. Dancygier
    Christina L. Davis
    Paul Frymer
    Martin I. Gilens
    Alisha C. Holland
    Matias Iaryczower
    G. John Ikenberry
    Kosuke Imai
    Amaney Jamal
    Robert O. Keohane
    Atul Kohli
    Melissa Lane
    Melissa M. Lee
    David Leheny
    Stephen J. Macedo
    Nolan M. McCarty
    Tali Mendelberg
    Helen Milner
    Andrew Moravcsik
    Alan Patten
    Philip N. Pettit
    Marc Ratkovic
    Jacob N. Shapiro
    Anne-Marie Slaughter
    Sarah L. Staszak
    Anna Stilz
    Ezra N. Suleiman
    Rory Truex
    Jennifer Widner
    Lynn T. White III
    Deborah J. Yashar

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