The Monkey Cage is a site about political science and politics that I helped to found in 2007. It was originally a group blog including David Park, the late Lee Sigelman, and me. It grew into a larger group blog that included Henry Farrell, Andrew Gelman, Joshua Tucker, and Erik Voeten and occasionally featured guest posts by other political scientists. As the site’s visibility increased, it won accolades: it was named 2010 Blog of the Year by The Week and a 2012 Best Blog by Time.
From September 2013 through the end of 2022, TMC published its content at the Washington Post‘s website. During this time, the site grew in many respects, with a larger editorial team that included not only political scientists but professional editors. I previously served as the Editor-in-Chief and currently serve as the Publisher. There is a broader base of contributors now numbering in the thousands. There are millions of readers who have viewed the site more than 100 million times in its history.
There is also generous foundation support from the Democracy Fund, the Hewlett Foundation’s Madison Initiative, the Carnegie Corporation, the MacArthur Foundation, the New Venture Fund, and George Washington University.
TMC is now on sabbatical and plans to relaunch as an independent site in the spring of 2023. The TMC mission remains the same: “to connect political scientists and the political conversation by creating a compelling forum, developing publicly focused scholars, and building an informed audience.”
For more, see features about TMC in the Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed as well as these pieces about political science and public engagement that I’ve authored or co-authored:
“The Political Scientist as a Blogger.” PS: Political Scientist and Politics 44(2): 267-271.
“How Political Science Can Help Journalism (and Still Let Journalists Be Journalists).” 2011. The Forum 9(1), Article 2. With Brendan Nyhan.
“Building a Political Science Public Sphere with Blogs.” 2010. The Forum 8(3), Article 10. With Henry Farrell.
JOHN SIDES 