It’s time for everyone to stock up on experts to turn to for guidance. I’ll recommend several political scientists who write publicly -- bloggers, tweeters, columnists -- to help explain the political system in 2017.

Julia Azari blogs at Mischiefs of Faction and elsewhere and tweets about the presidency, parties and plenty of other topics. I’ve linked to her often in my Early Returns newsletter (you do subscribe, right?) and I highlight her here especially because of her work on presidential mandates, in which she explains why mandates aren’t quite the fictional things clever pundits tend to think they are. 

A greater-than-usual number of people are going to want to know about obscure House and Senate procedure in 2017, and Josh Huder, who tweets and blogs at Rule22 and elsewhere, is an excellent source for everything from party leadership to changes in the filibuster. See for example this quick explainer on reconciliation.

The “A Few Reasonable Words” podcast from Casey Dominguez and two colleagues would be the absolute top of my listening list -- although, full disclosure, I’m not much of a listener to podcasts. She studies the presidency and parties. The podcast is wide-ranging across US politics.

Elizabeth Saunders blogs at the Monkey Cage and tweets about international relations and how foreign policy gets made within the US government. Excellent on the intersection between elected officials, political appointees and the permanent bureaucracy -- which is going to be a critical topic going forward.

Matt Glassman used to blog, but now he tweets, often in elongated threads. He’s an expert on Congress, on democracy and on American political development -- which means he knows about 19th-century stuff and how examples from history can illuminate the present.

David Karol is one of the co-authors of “The Party Decides,” and he’s a scholar of parties and American political institutions. Plus he just has an enormous amount of obscure knowledge about American politics. He blogs occasionally at the Monkey Cage. Here’s hoping this post will egg him on to write publicly more often.

I agree strongly with Lee Drutman, who writes at Polyarchy and other locations and tweets, about congressional capacity. He’s also an expert on lobbying and money in politics. It’s going to be an important topic for the next couple of years, and he’s well-equipped to explain what’s happening.

Sarah Binder is an expert on Congress, and she’s also invaluable on the history and current structure of the Federal Reserve. Which makes her invaluable for those interested in how the new administration and a Republican Congress will affect the economy. She tweets, and she blogs at the Monkey Cage and Brookings. 

And I’ll leave you with a few more. On the presidency: Andrew Rudalevige, who blogs at the Monkey Cage; Matthew Dickinson, who has his own blog. On Congress: Molly Reynolds writes at Brookings, and Greg Koger writes at the Monkey Cage and Mischiefs of Faction.

By Jonathan Bernstein

Jonathan Bernstein is a Bloomberg View columnist. He taught political science at the University of Texas at San Antonio and DePauw University and wrote A Plain Blog About Politics. -- Ed.

Bloomberg