bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Limits of Policy Change: Incrementalism, Worldview, and the Rule of Law By Michael T. Hayes. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2001. 204p. $60.00 cloth, $21.95 paper.
Authors: Durant Robert F.
Published: April 2008

“There remains,” writes Michael T. Hayes in his provocative new book, “a pressing need to educate the public—specialists and nonspecialists alike—on what politics can accomplish, and at what speed” (p. 189). To this end, Hayes challenges what Thomas Sowell (A Conflict of Visions, 1987) calls the tenets of “articulated rationality” (i.e., rational-comprehensive ideals) in the policy process. He vigorously asserts that the benefits of incrementalism (viz., its focus on “partisan mutual adjustment,” its understanding of “the importance of checks on the arbitrary abuse of power,” and “its ability to draw on the dispersion of knowledge throughout the political system” [p. 8]) exceed its costs (e.g., delay and incoherent policy outcomes). Moreover, on balance, “partisan mutual adjustment produces better [emphasis added] policy outcomes than any attempt at rational-comprehensive analysis” (p. 8).
Adversarial Legalism: The American Way of Law By Robert A. Kagan. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001. 339p. $49.95.
Authors: Kahn Ronald
Published: April 2008

Robert Kagan has three main objectives in writing this book: to demonstrate that the American systems of criminal and civil law, social welfare, and environmental regulation are dominated by “adversarial legalism,” to critique and explain why it has taken hold in the United States, and to make proposals for reform in light of findings in the United States and the advanced capitalist nations of Europe, the Commonwealth, and Japan.
Dreams of a More Perfect Union By Rogan Kersh. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2001. 358p. $39.95.
Authors: Martin Robert W. T.
Published: April 2008

Rogan Kersh's ambitious and well-researched book traces the history of the concept of American national “union” from the middle of the eighteenth century to the end of the nineteenth century, when the concept lost the peculiar force it had had and fell out of use (more or less replaced by such concepts as “nation,” “country,” and, especially, “America”). The analysis demonstrates how the concept of national union has been used in exclusive as well as inclusive ways. The subject is an important one, especially to an America united by terrorist threats. And it is a topic made more conspicuous in the last decade by our ongoing discourse over multiculturalism. So the concept of national union is perhaps less obscure and more relevant than Kersh suggests (p. 3). Connections to the recent work of Rogers Smith (Civic Ideals, 1997) are also apparent. Still, the term itself has been out of favor for about a century now, so Kersh's study is a welcome effort to get us thinking about a relatively novel topic.
Political Consultants in U.S. Congressional Elections By Stephen K. Medvic. Columbus: Ohio State University, 2001. 224p. $50.00 cloth.
Authors: West Darrell M.
Published: April 2008

Political consultants have become an omnipresent part of the election landscape. Almost no prominent campaign emerges without a group of paid advisors who raise money, poll, design ads, and craft messages for the candidate. Yet despite the extensive visibility of campaign consultants, few empirical studies exist that attempt to measure the impact of this important player in American elections.
The War Against the New Deal: World War II and American Democracy By Brian Waddell. DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press, 2001. 236p. $39.00.
Authors: Brand Donald R.
Published: April 2008

This book argues that the transition from the New Deal to a mobilized wartime economy during World War II restored corporate hegemony in collaboration with a state apparatus dominated by military elites. The purported losers in this transition were New Deal reformers committed to a planned economy and an extensive social welfare state, and groups like labor and small business whose interests were represented by reform elites. Organized chronologically, Waddell's account traces the development of the military-industrial complex from the War Industries Board in World War I to what Waddell asserts is a neocorporatist pattern of governance that had become established by the late 1940s and early 1950s. For the intervening years, he devotes attention to the trade association movement of the 1920s, the National Recovery Administration in the early 1930s, the New Deal turn to Keynesian economics, Harry Truman and the Marshall Plan, and the National Security Act of 1947; but the book focuses on the three periods associated with mobilization for World War II. These three periods are prewar mobilization from September, 1939 to December, 1941; the institutionalization of wartime mobilization from early 1942 through early 1943; and the battles over postwar reconversion that began in 1943 and continued into the immediate postwar era.
Unemployment in the New Europe. Edited by Nancy Bermeo. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. 368p.$70.00 cloth, $28.00 paper.
Authors: Madsen Per Kongshøj
Published: April 2008

The publication under review is the outcome of a Princeton University conference entitled “Unemployment's Effects” held in 1997. The themes of the chapters extend widely. Some authors focus on broad discussions of the possibilities for the “European model” to survive in a global economic setting, while others look at specific relations, for example, between unemployment and trade union strength, in just one European country. Some chapters have clear theoretical objectives, while others have a focus on empirical detail and statistical analysis. On the other hand, the majority of the chapters are related by a general positive view on the sustainability of the European model, even in the seemingly hostile environment of the global economy. Although the European welfare states and labor markets are often accused of being inflexible and hampered by “institutional sclerosis,” they may also foster the development of a soft and kind capitalism—or organized managed economy—as Nancy Bermeo puts it in her introduction to the book.
The Other Mirror: Grand Theory Through the Lens of Latin America. Edited by Miguel Angel Centeno and Fernando López-Alves. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001. 372p. $59.50 cloth, $15.95 paper.
Authors: Silva Eduardo
Published: April 2008

Standing the assumptions and causal propositions of established theories on their head, with an eye to refining them or pointing us to other theories, is a fruitful path to quickening the intellectual pulse, to reinvigorating a field of study, and to contributing to knowledge. The Other Mirror makes an eloquent and persuasive case for midrange theorizing as a tool for revitalizing area studies in general and Latin American studies in particular. If area studies are to recover from their marginality in the general disciplines, area specialists must once again engage the theory-building enterprise central to the disciplines that house them. By concentrating on midrange analysis, area studies have real contributions to make to general theory.
South Africa's Brittle Peace: The Problem of Post-Settlement Violence. By Pierre du Toit. New York: Palgrave, 2001. 222p. $65.00. Then I Was Black: South African Political Identities in Transition. By Courtney Jung. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000. 320p. $35.00.
Authors: Drew Allison
Published: April 2008

These two books deal with the legacy of apartheid for South Africa's democracy, approaching the problems posed by this legacy from differing perspectives about the role of the state. Pierre du Toit, in a thoughtful and well-researched book, addresses the problem of violence in post-apartheid South Africa. Peace in a society with a history of violence needs to be nurtured, he contends, and the state must play a central role.
Support for Economic and Political Change in the China Countryside: An Empirical Study of Cadres and Villagers in Four Counties, 1990 and 1996. By Samuel J. Eldersveld and Mingming Shen. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2001. 146p. $70.00.
Authors: Liu Alan P. L.
Published: April 2008

Being one of a handful of opinion surveys conducted in China, this book should be of interest not only to China specialists but also to students of public opinion, political culture, and survey research. In 1990 and 1996, a joint team of American (University of Michigan) and Chinese (National Beijing University) scholars conducted surveys of the opinions of Chinese peasants and rural cadres in four Chinese counties in north and south China (in the provinces of Hebei, Hunan, Anhui, and the special municipality of Tianjin) concerning economic and political reforms in the post-Mao years. This book represents a partial analysis of the surveys.
Multinational Democracies. Edited by Alain G. Gagnon and James Tully. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. 428p. $70.00 cloth, $25.00 paper.
Authors: Stevenson Garth
Published: April 2008

As the distinguished Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor notes in his foreword to this book, liberal democratic political systems are becoming more diverse in terms of the cultural identities of their citizens, yet their legitimacy, unlike that of autocratic states or empires, depends on maintaining a certain level of unity and homogeneity. Without it, neither democratic participation, nor a regime of equal rights, nor even satisfactory economic performance appears to be possible. The effort to create a semblance of coherence and common purpose while recognizing and accepting unavoidable diversity, a theme that has dominated Canadian political discourse and practice for a century and a half, has become a preoccupation for much of the world. Yet there are more questions than answers. Consociationalism, a fashionable concept a generation ago, no longer has many supporters among social scientists. Federalism, originally invented in the United States for quite a different purpose, can accommodate conflicting nationalisms only if a precise geographical boundary can be drawn between them—and not always then.
Politicians and Poachers: The Political Economy of Wildlife Policy in Africa. By Clark C. Gibson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. 262p. $70.00 cloth, $26.95 paper.
Authors: Hyden Goran
Published: April 2008

This interesting and insightful book on the political economy of wildlife policy in Africa is an important contribution to the literature not only on African politics but also on the role that institutions play in shaping behavior and decisions. Although wildlife may not occupy the same centrality in African economies as oil and precious metals do, it is a crucial natural resource that earns countries, especially in eastern and southern Africa, significant revenue. Few political scientists have paid attention to this sector. No one has really approached it from a political economy perspective. Yet the struggle over access to natural resources in Africa is very much a political matter. Gibson's well-crafted and thorough study fills this gap. Its main contribution to the discipline at large is its focus on the distributive nature of institutions. The latter do not just produce collective or public goods. They also serve individual interests differentially. By concentrating on the strategic interaction of individuals within institutions, Gibson, following in the tradition of Douglass North and Robert Bates, identifies the intended and unintended consequences of policy decisions made with regard to the use and conservation of wildlife in Africa.
Social Democracy and Welfare Capitalism: A Century of Income Security Politics. By Alexander Hicks. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1999. 256p. $45.00 cloth, $18.95 paper.
Authors: Furniss Norman
Published: April 2008

Alexander Hicks has written one of the most important works in the past thirty years on the development of income security policies in democratic capitalist states. (Hicks equates income security policies with “welfare states”—a point I will revisit later.) If this were not sufficient, the book also is the most significant comparative public policy study I have read. Based on years of reflection, scholarship and teaching, it covers, not merely cites, a wide range of literatures. It is extremely sensitive to particular historical experiences. It is theoretically informed. Most impressively, it is methodologically sophisticated and imaginative. And the book is concise and well–written. In short, it is a model of what exciting comparative research can be.
Brazilian Party Politics and the Coup of 1964. By Ollie Andrew Johnson III. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2001. 176p. $55.00 cloth.
Authors: Norden Deborah L.
Published: April 2008

In 1964, Brazil embarked on one of Latin America's longest experiments in modern military authoritarianism. Ollie Johnson's Brazilian Party Politics seeks to understand one of the important antecedents to the coup by looking at the political party system during the 1945–64 period. While the book does not succeed in demonstrating a strong causal connection between party politics and the coup, it does provide a very interesting new perspective on party politics and realignment, looking beyond the more immediate electoral indicators of the Brazilian party system.
Russia's Unfinished Revolution: Political Change from Gorbachev to Putin. By Michael McFaul. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2001. 384p. $35.00. The Russian Parliament: Institutional Evolution in a Transitional Regime, 1989–1999. By Thomas F. Remington. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001. 288p. $40.00.
Authors: Fish M. Steven
Published: April 2008

Each of these books is, in its own way, a tour de force; each provides the best book-length account and analysis available to date on its subject. Michael McFaul's book offers a major contribution to thinking on regime change in general, as well as a fine account and analysis of Russia's transition from Sovietism. Thomas Remington's book, which investigates the nascence and internal operation of the Russian legislature, powerfully advances our understanding of the Russian parliament and the formation of political institutions more generally. Both books are scholarly and sophisticated, but each is also elegantly written, well organized, and accessible to the nonspecialist. Both authors were present at the creation of the new Russian political order, and each book is deeply informed by extensive interviews and first-hand observation.
Black Atlantic Politics: Dilemmas of Political Empowerment in Boston and Liverpool. By William E. Nelson Jr. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2000. 344p. $74.50 cloth, $25.95 paper.
Authors: Travis Toni-Michelle C.
Published: April 2008

Studies of local politics have often narrowly focused on elites, the role of competing interest groups, or the influence of the business community in making key decisions. Nelson's comparative study raises the level of discourse by drawing our attention to the often overlooked role of blacks in municipal politics. In comparing Boston and Liverpool the study expands our understanding of the similarities between racial politics in the United States and in Great Britain.
Debating Governance: Authority, Steering, and Democracy. Edited by Jon Pierre. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. 251p. $60.00 cloth, $24.95 paper.
Authors: Ansell Christopher
Published: April 2008

If you remain befuddled, perplexed, or even a bit hazy about why scholars have shifted in the last decade from talking about “government” to talking about “governance,” this is the volume for you. Debating Governance, edited by Jon Pierre, brings together a diverse group of scholars to analyze the meaning and value of this concept within their respective subfields. The title of the volume may, however, be ambiguous. These scholars are not debating the meaning and value of the term governance among themselves. The contributors to the volume generally agree that governance is a useful and valuable concept. Despite differences in emphasis, perspective, and language, the authors generally agree about why we must shift from talking about “government” to talking about “governance.” The debate, if there is one, is with those who would deny or ignore fundamental changes in the way in which we govern ourselves over the last several decades.
Palestinian Women: Patriarchy and Resistance in the West Bank. By Cheryl A. Rubenberg. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2001. 318p. $59.95.
Authors: Roy Sara
Published: April 2008

Several years ago, not long before the signing of the Oslo agreement, I was in a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. As I was walking through the camp with a male friend, a woman whom I did not know approached me. She gently took my arm as if we were intimate friends, pulled me close, and said, “I have nothing left to feed my children but black milk.” She then turned and walked away, leaving as imperceptibly as she had approached. My male friend immediately dismissed her as crazy. Yet I have never forgotten this woman or our momentary but wrenching encounter. It was not only the poignancy of her words that struck me, but their poetry. Her message to me was one of ultimate despair: I can no longer nourish my children. What good am I?
The Politics of the Spirit: The Political Implications of Pentecostalized Religion in Costa Rica and Guatemala. By Timothy J. Steigenga. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2001. 220p. $70.00 cloth, $24.95 paper.
Authors: Garrard-Burnett Virginia
Published: April 2008

The Politics of the Spirit is Timothy Steigenga's long-awaited quantitative study of religious affiliation and political behavior in Central America. What he has done in this spare and conscientious study is to take to task the “conventional wisdom” about Protestantism in Central America. This is a formidable endeavor, given the flood of scholarly literature that has been produced by anthropologists, historians, and sociologists about Protestantism, and especially Pentecostalism, in Latin America over the past two decades. Because Pentecostalism seemed to emerge in Central America during the region's political crisis of the late twentieth century, much of this literature carried with it a highly deterministic subtext, defined by Max Weber and by models of political behavior borrowed from the United States and European experiences.
The Politics of Freeing Markets in Latin America: Chile, Argentina, and Mexico. By Judith A. Teichman. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001. 288p. $55.00 cloth, $19.95 paper.
Authors: Kingstone Peter
Published: April 2008

The politics of neoliberal reform in Latin America has produced a number of impressions that are more or less widely held, but not necessarily entirely accurate. For example, many critics of the neoliberal reform process see it as a creature of Washington and Wall Street—views of economic development imposed on vulnerable, debt-ridden Latin American governments. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank play crucial roles as carriers of the “Washington Consensus” and enforcers of its policy prescriptions. In this view, insulated technocrats—often with U.S. economics degrees—implement these essentially unpopular programs without consultation, oversight, or any societal participation. “Delegative democracy” and populations battered by a decade or more of debt and inflation help explain the extent to which these unelected and unaccountable technocrats have been able to promote this agenda. A narrow electoral coalition, anchored by wealth holders and conservative ideologues, has maintained the political space for these insulated technocrats to continue, despite deep opposition from societal groups such as labor.
The Tories and Europe. By John Turner. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2001. 282p. $29.95.
Authors: Beer Samuel H.
Published: April 2008

In this thoroughly researched, well-organized, and clearly written work, John Turner raises important questions of comparative politics. The book is packed with facts and informed by ideas. You may well disagree with his conclusions, as I do. But you must give him credit for the seriousness of his concerns and his willingness to present the evidence, even though it can sometimes be used to support a different interpretation. “Over the past forty years,” he writes, when stating his central conclusion, “Europe has transformed the nature of British politics and Tory politics in particular” (p. 1). Contrary to a view common among political scientists that foreign policy normally has far less influence on electoral behavior than on domestic policy, he finds that Britain's relation to European integration has “gradually…moved to the heart of the domestic political agenda” (p. 1), radically altering the balance of power between the two main parties. As the Euroskeptical champions of national independence, the Conservatives have become “increasingly beleaguered over the issue,” thereby making it possible for Labour “to use Europe as a way of revitalizing the party's programme and image” (p. 2). He clearly would like to see terminal decline for the Conservatives and continued success for a social democratic Britain in a similarly collectivist Europe.
Democracy, Liberalism, and War: Rethinking the Democratic Peace Debate. Edited by Tarak Barkawi and Mark Laffey. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2001. 250p. $52.00.
Authors: Dessler David
Published: April 2008

The essays in this ambitious volume take as their foil the democratic peace hypothesis: the claim that liberal democracies, while still going to war against nonliberal states, rarely wage war on one another. “This volume challenges the received international wisdom about democracy, liberalism, and war,” write the editors in the Introduction. “The democratic peace, with its transhistorical causal law based on fixed definitions of democracy and war and a nation-state ontology of the international, is far too simplistic a frame from which to analyze the various historical and contemporary configurations of democracy, liberalism, and war” (p. 2).
Rethinking Europe's Future. By David P. Calleo. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001. 381p. $24.95. From the Nation State to Europe?: Essays in Honor of Jack Hayward. Edited by Anand Menon and Vincent Wright. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. 261p. $65.00 cloth, $24.95 paper.
Authors: Duina Francesco
Published: April 2008

Rethinking Europe's Future and From the Nation State to Europe? belong to two different genres of European studies. From the Nation State to Europe? is a collection of academic essays about the transformation of the nation-state in the European Union's context and its implications for social scientific theoretical concepts. Rethinking Europe's Future is by contrast aimed at politicians and policymakers. Its major objective is to discourage policies designed to push Europe and NATO to expand eastward, perhaps to embrace Russia, and instead to encourage Western Europe to assert itself as a major independent, even if not fully united, force in the world. Despite this disciplinary difference, however, the two books complement each other well. The former is about the present state of affairs in Europe; the latter concerns the future and, for that purpose, a good deal of the past. Both involve excellent scholarship and thoughtful arguments, though organizationally they share some weaknesses. They should prove interesting to any student of European affairs.
Learning to Manage Global Environmental Risks, vols. 1 & 2. By The Social Learning Group. Edited by William C. Clark, Nancy Dickson, Jill Jäger, and Josee van Eijndhoven. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001. Vol. 1: $75.00 cloth, $30.00 paper. Vol. 2: $60.00 cloth, $27.00 paper.
Authors: DeSombre Elizabeth R.
Published: April 2008

I have a colleague who collects maps of Africa that demonstrate a specific phenomenon: the developed world's unlearning of African geography. Across the centuries, the maps seem to show that mapmakers know less about the geography of the African continent—particularly the internal parts—than previously was the case. Rivers change direction; mountain ranges disappear. This unlearning, my colleague argues, comes from notions about the acceptability of sources of information previously used. These maps show the social nature of “learning,” the idea that while in many cases there may be actual answers (after all, African geography exists), what information you look for, and from whom, determines how you will view the information you get, and ultimately what you will do with it.
Carrots, Sticks, and Ethnic Conflict: Rethinking Development Assistance. Edited by Milton J. Esman and Ronald J. Herring. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2001. 272p. $49.50.
Authors: Ryan Stephen
Published: April 2008

This excellent collection of essays takes the reader into a complex area: the relationship between economic development and ethnic conflict. It is such a tricky topic because there is consensus about neither what ethnicity is nor the contributions that economic factors make to the origins, dynamics, and resolution of ethnic strife. In fact the essays presented here steer clear of origins and resolution and focus instead on the less controversial area of how development policy impacts on the dynamics of ethnic conflicts. There is a great need for contributions in this area, because, as the introductory chapter by Herring and Esman notes, the international community is becoming more involved in humanitarian assistance and postviolence reconstruction initiatives in a number of protracted intercommunal conflicts. These include Bosnia, Kosovo, Israel and Palestine, Northern Ireland, and Lebanon. At the same time the increased awareness of ethnic conflict in the past decade has resulted in reassessments of what development means in a multicultural setting.
Governing the Internet: The Emergence of an International Regime. By Marcus Franda. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner. 2001. 255p. $49.95.
Authors: Finel Bernard I.
Published: April 2008

For many people, the Internet is simply a mass of information that arrives on their desktop through the miracle of e-mail or web browsers. The existence of reasonably efficient and intuitive interfaces, however, serves to mask the incredible complexity inherent in the establishment, growth, and maintenance of a global tangle of computer networks administered by a variety of universities, private corporations, governments, and individuals.
The Environment, International Relations, and U.S. Foreign Policy. Edited by Paul G. Harris. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2001. 276p. $65.00.
Authors: Najam Adil
Published: April 2008

The basic premise of Paul Harris's edited volume is that “understanding U.S. international environmental policy is central to the entire project of global environmental protection” because the United States is the “world's largest polluter [as well as] the world's wealthiest country” (p. 4). To argue that the United States is disproportionately important to international environmental policy (or to international policy on most other issues) is an important, but relatively uncontroversial, case to make; and it is made rather well throughout the chapters in this book.
Credible Commitment and Property Rights: Evidence from Russia
Authors: FRYE TIMOTHY
Published: April 2008

Few dispute that secure property rights are critical to economic development. But if secure property rights are so beneficial, then why are they so rare? More precisely, what factors promote secure property rights? Do rightholders view private or state agents as a greater threat to property? Do they value bureaucratic commitment or discretion? I use evidence from two original surveys of company managers in Russia to assess the institutional, social, and political determinants of secure property rights. Most managers said that state arbitration courts did not work badly in disputes with other businesses, but few expected these courts to protect their rights in disputes with state officials. More importantly, managers who expressed confidence that state arbitration courts could constrain state officials invested at higher rates, even controlling for the perceived effectiveness of state institutions. Ironically, increasing constraints on state agents can increase the security of property and bolster state capacity. These results generate insights into debates on the role of state in the economy, the origins of secure property rights, the nature of state capacity, the importance of informal institutions, and the process of legal reform.
A Model of Path-Dependence in Decisions over Multiple Propositions
Authors: LIST CHRISTIAN
Published: April 2008

I model sequential decisions over multiple interconnected propositions and investigate path-dependence in such decisions. The propositions and their interconnections are represented in propositional logic. A sequential decision process is path-dependent if its outcome depends on the order in which the propositions are considered. Assuming that earlier decisions constrain later ones, I prove three main results: First, certain rationality violations by the decision-making agent—individual or group—are necessary and sufficient for path-dependence. Second, under some conditions, path-dependence is unavoidable in decisions made by groups. Third, path-dependence makes decisions vulnerable to strategic agenda setting and strategic voting. I also discuss escape routes from path-dependence. My results are relevant to discussions on collective consistency and reason-based decision-making, focusing not only on outcomes, but also on underlying reasons, beliefs, and constraints.
Are Political Orientations Genetically Transmitted?
Authors: ALFORD JOHN R. , FUNK CAROLYN L. , HIBBING JOHN R.
Published: April 2008

We test the possibility that political attitudes and behaviors are the result of both environmental and genetic factors. Employing standard methodological approaches in behavioral genetics—specifically, comparisons of the differential correlations of the attitudes of monozygotic twins and dizygotic twins—we analyze data drawn from a large sample of twins in the United States, supplemented with findings from twins in Australia. The results indicate that genetics plays an important role in shaping political attitudes and ideologies but a more modest role in forming party identification; as such, they call for finer distinctions in theorizing about the sources of political attitudes. We conclude by urging political scientists to incorporate genetic influences, specifically interactions between genetic heritability and social environment, into models of political attitude formation.
The Rule of the People: Arendt,Archê, and Democracy
Authors: MARKELL PATCHEN
Published: April 2008

This article presents a novel critical account of a key concept in democratic theory, “rule,” via an unorthodox interpretation of Hannah Arendt's work. Many theorists treat democracy as one type of regime; others, stressing the importance of unruliness to democratic politics, challenge the reduction of democracy to a form of rule. Although this debate remains caught within conventional oppositions between order, closure, and continuity; and interruption, openness, and novelty, Arendt shows this whole matrix of oppositions to be an artifact of the dominance of a hierarchical understanding of rule. Her unusual critique of rule and her distinctive account of the meaning of “beginning” draw attention to an important dimension of political activity that lies off these axes of opposition, shedding new light on democratic agency and the forces that obstruct it.
Judicial Lobbying: The Politics of Labor Law Constitutional Interpretation
Authors: IARYCZOWER MATIAS , SPILLER PABLO T. , TOMMASI MARIANO
Published: April 2008

This paper links the theory of interest groups influence over the legislature with that of congressional control over the judiciary. The resulting framework reconciles the theoretical literature of lobbying with the negative available evidence on the impact of lobbying over legislative outcomes, and sheds light to the determinants of lobbying in separation-of-powers systems. We provide conditions for judicial decisions to be sensitive to legislative lobbying, and find that lobbying falls the more divided the legislature is on the relevant issues. We apply this framework to analyze supreme court labor decisions in Argentina, and find results consistent with the predictions of the theory.
When to Risk It? Institutions, Ambitions, and the Decision to Run for the U.S. House
Authors: MAESTAS CHERIE D. , FULTON SARAH , MAISEL L. SANDY , STONE WALTER J.
Published: April 2008

The health of any democratic system depends on political ambition to generate a steady supply of quality candidates for office. Because most models of candidate entry assume ambition rather than model it, previous research fails to understand its roots in individual and institutional characteristics. We develop a two-stage model of progressive behavior that distinguishes between the formation of ambition for higher office and the decision to enter a particular race. Using data from a survey of state legislators, we demonstrate that the intrinsic costs and benefits associated with running for and holding higher office shape ambitions but do not influence the decision to run. For progressively ambitious legislators, the second-stage decision is a strategic choice aboutwhento run rather thanwhetherto run. Our research highlights how institutional characteristics that foster progressive ambition also increase the likelihood that national or local political conditions will be translated into meaningful choices at the ballot box.
A Pivotal Politician and Constitutional Design
Authors: ROBERTSON DAVID BRIAN
Published: April 2008

“A Pivotal Voter From a Pivotal State” argues that Roger Sherman played a central role at the Constitutional Convention, but it takes a different approach to explaining Sherman's role than “Madison's Opponents and Constitutional Design.” First, the two articles are trying to answer different questions; “A Pivotal Voter” is trying to explain roll call votes, whereas “Madison's Opponents” was trying to explain the Constitution's substantive design. Second, “A Pivotal Voter” assumes that delegates' preferences were fixed, and their votes sincere, but “Madison's Opponents” finds that delegates' preferences often were contingent and votes sometimes insincere. Third, “A Pivotal Voter” ignores the sequence of choices, whereas “Madison's Opponents” argues that sequence is crucial. Finally, “A Pivotal Voter” discounts delegates' efforts to manipulate rules and agendas, whereas “Madison's Opponents” emphasizes these efforts. Together, our findings suggest the value of diversity in political science and the need for more research on the art of political manipulation.
Challenger Entry and Voter Learning
Authors: GORDON SANFORD C. , HUBER GREGORY A. , LANDA DIMITRI
Published: April 2008

We develop a model of strategic interaction between voters and potential electoral challengers to sitting incumbents, in which the very fact of a costly challenge conveys relevant information to voters. Given incumbent failure in office, challenger entry is more likely, but the threat of entry by inferior challengers creates an incentive for citizens to become more politically informed. At the same time, challenges to incumbents who perform well can neutralize a voter's positive assessment of incumbent qualifications. How a voter becomes politically informed can in turn deter challengers of different levels of competence from running, depending on the electoral environment. The model permits us to sharpen our understanding of retrospective voting, the incumbency advantage, and the relationship between electoral competition and voter welfare, while pointing to new interpretations of, and future avenues for, empirical research on elections.
Editorial Statement
Authors: Rogowski Ron
Published: April 2008

APSA is pleased to announce the next editorial team for American Political Science Review. The new team, to be located at UCLA, will begin their term on July 1, 2007. Their Editorial Statement follows. Lee Sigelman, the current APSR editor, and his team at George Washington University will conclude their term in August 2007. The transition from the Sigelman's GWU team to the UCLA team will be complete by the end of the calendar year, and the change will be reflected on the APSR masthead commencing with the first issue of Volume 102 in February of 2008.
Introducing the Electronic Version of the Canadian Journal of
Political Science
Authors: McMenemy John
Published: April 2008

Scholars are now accustomed to adapting to ever–changing forms of
communication technology that permit quicker and wider dissemination
of their research and the availability to them of the research of
others. Since 1968, the Canadian Journal of Political Science / Revue
canadienne de science politique has appeared solely in paper format
although its editorial and production procedures have become
increasingly distinguished by electronic forms of communication. In
1996, the JOURNAL's website was created, providing various editorial
and business information, including the abstracts of articles and lists
of books reviewed in recent issues.
La perception du rôle des femmes en politique au Canada : le cas
des conseillères municipales au Québec en 1997
Authors: Bédard Guy , Tremblay Manon
Published: April 2008

Au cours des dernières années, plusieurs recherches ont
été menées sur
un phénomène relativement récent en Occident:
l'accès plus important des
femmes à des charges publiques électives. Ces recherches
ont porté soit sur les caractéristiques des femmes qui sollicitaient
un mandat électif et qui parvenaient à se faire
élire, soit sur les obstacles
qui jonchaient leur route vers le pouvoir, soit sur certaines de leurs
attitudes et opinions et sur certaines perceptions, notamment quant
au rôle des femmes en politique . Ces études ont
été
effectuées à tous les paliers de gouvernement, bien que le palier
municipal ait été quelque peu négligé,
reflétant peut-être un désintérêt
plus large de notre discipline pour cette instance décisionnelle.
The Difference Debate: Reducing Rights to Cultural Flavours
Authors: Green Joyce A.
Published: April 2008

Over the past few years there has been an increase in scholarly attention to the politics, the theorization and the logic of difference as a
site of contestation; as a cultural value, as a measure of
liberalism's
capacity for tolerance and inclusion, and as a subject of state action
for protection. The debate has been joined by two contributors to this
JOURNAL: Avigail Eisenberg in 1994 and Katherine Fierlbeck in 1996.
Their thinking is fairly representative of the important debate about
the political significance of difference, especially in view of
Aboriginal rights and contemporary treaties in Canada, and deserves
closer scrutiny.
La mesure de la science et la construction statistique d'un
territoire : la Région de la capitale nationale du Canada
Authors: Godin Benoît
Published: April 2008

Le développement et l'institutionnalisation de la statistique sociale
sont intimement liés à l'État. En effet,
trés tôt dans l'histoire de l'État
moderne, celui–ci devint un important patron de la production
statistique et l'État est aujourd'hui un producteur direct de
statistiques via ses organismes nationaux. Quels facteurs ont bien pu
motiver les gouvernements à investir le champ de la mesure de la
société?
The Decline and Fall of Corporatism? Labour Legislation Reform in Mexico and Argentina during the 1990s
Authors: Patroni Viviana
Published: April 2008

The article analyzes the debate that took place in Mexico and Argentina regarding the necessary changes to labour legislation, situating its importance in a historical perspective. Insofar as labour legislation was not an obstacle for the de facto flexibilization of labour relations, the governments of these countries resisted pressures to transform the law. The limits to the changes imposed on labour relations were set by the effort to prevent the final undermining of official labour movements that had been politically associated through corporatism with the parties in power during the 1990s.
Interest Group Litigation and the Embedded State: Canada's Court Challenges Program
Authors: Brodie Ian
Published: April 2008

Interest group litigation is often seen as pitting social interests against the state. This view matches a wider perspective that judicial review is a battle between state and social actors. Recently, neo-institutionalist and postpluralists have led political scientists to question the assumptions that underlie these traditional views of judicial review and interest group litigation. If the state is an active patron of interest group litigation then the way we see interest group litigation and judicial review must change. This article traces the history of the Court Challenges Program of Canada and concludes that the Program's evolution challenges the traditional views of judicial review and interest group litigation. It shows an embedded state at war with itself in court.
Internationalism and the Canadian Public
Authors: Munton Don , Keating Tom
Published: April 2008

Internationalism has long been central to Canadian foreign policy. Although often invoked by governments and individuals, and much debated, it remains an ill-defined, even obscure concept. This article assesses empirically how the Canadian public regards internationalism, and explores the underlying structure of internationalist attitudes. Public opinion data from 1985 provide evidence of four dimensions of attitudes: active, economic, liberal-conservative and independent internationalism. There is a strong consensus on the first two types of internationalism but no such consensus behind the others. Scattered data from across the post-Second World War period seem to support these findings. Using such a typology of internationalism may both illuminate debates on Canadian foreign policy and advance studies of Canadian public attitudes.
John Stuart Mill's Asian Parable
Authors: Kurfirst Robert
Published: April 2008

While certainly not the first to portray Asian civilizations as stagnant societies, John Stuart Mill was quite adept at using the concept of ''Oriental despotism'' to warn the West that it might suffer a similar fate if its distinguishing features of individuality and political pluralism fell into a state of neglect. Such a state was imminent, Mill believed, because the tyranny of majority opinion had already begun to hold sway in most Western cultures, and centralized bureaucratic socialism appeared ready to take root in some of them. Also problematic was the fact that the democratic franchise had spread too far and too fast in his lifetime, as had a single-minded focus on material gain. Taken together, Mill feared, these last two features threatened to trap the West in a leaderless age of transition for decades and, perhaps, generations. In retrospect, however, it appears that they helped inaugurate a new ''natural'' state, in Mill's parlance, organized around the needs of the industrial economy, that has captivated the liberal project of human improvement central to his social and political thought.
Deliberation and Deconstruction: Two Views on the Space of a Post-National Democracy
Authors: Morris Martin
Published: April 2008

Theorists of deliberation and deconstruction each claim commitments to a more open and legitimate democracy than existing liberal democracy. Eschewing traditional foundations such as natural law, historical inheritance, or the constitutive formation of the nation, they seek to develop a theory of democracy that is more inclusive in conditions of social diversity and complexity. This article investigates the meaning of the open political space that fosters the democratic experience under such conditions. First, a sociologically informed political theory, such as Jürgen Habermas' powerful if flawed attempt, is required to conceive participation in the democratic political sphere. Drawing on Jacques Derrida and others, the author then argues that deconstructive insights that introduce an openness to the non-identical contribute to a more complete democratic theory, offering a crucial mode of democratic inclusion of the other and an acknowledgment of difference that might assist in reforming current institutions. Thus a blend of Habermasian orientation toward deliberation and deconstruction's ethical sensibilities presents a promising development of democratic possibilities.
L'urbain est-il plus tolérant: le Canada et les États-Unis
Authors: Turcotte Martin
Published: April 2008

The political tolerance and urban sociology literature indicates that urban residence is positively linked to tolerant attitudes and behaviour. Because the city favours more contacts with unconventional groups and individuals, urban dwellers develop a higher level of political tolerance. The present article tests the empirical relevance of the rural/urban cleavage in the Canadian context. The paper shows that ''urban'' political tolerance may be specific to the United States.
Bureaucratic Politics and the Shaping of Policies: Can We Measure Pulling and Hauling Games?
Authors: Michaud Nelson
Published: April 2008

This article re-evaluates Graham Allison's approach to bureaucratic politics in the second edition of his Essence of Decision, authored with Philip Zelikow. Although the renewed analytical framework still appears to be an excellent tool for describing policy decision-making processes, the numerous criticisms it received in the past with respect to its difficult operationalization is a problem left unsolved. To respond to this major difficulty, the author of this article combines Vincent Lemieux's structuration of power with Allison's approach. In order to validate the ensuing model, an empirical test is then conducted using the case study of the 1987 Canadian White Paper on Defence. This original proposition opens up avenues of research in the fields of foreign as well as public policy making.
Reconciling Environmentalism and the Left: Perspectives on Democracy and Social Justice in British Columbia's Environmental Movement
Authors: Salazar Debra J. , Alper Donald K.
Published: April 2008

The article examines how political ideas of environmentalists support as well as impede relations between the environmental movement and other progressive movements. This requires examination of the role and meaning of social justice and democracy in the discourse of environmentalism. This study focuses such an examination on a sample of environmental activists in British Columbia. Q methodology is used to discern patterns of association between particular sets of environmental ideas, and beliefs and values related to democracy and social justice. The authors identify four environmental/political perspectives: alienated ecocentrism, civic communitarianism, insider preservationism and green egalitarianism. These perspectives share a perception of justice focused on fair democratic procedures. Fairness is linked to inclusion and equal treatment.
Context, Cultural Difference, Sex and Social Justice
Authors: Eisenberg Avigail
Published: April 2008

Three concerns have motivated scholars to examine what is often
called the “dilemma” between sexual equality and cultural autonomy.
First, by far the majority of the world's women fail to enjoy the legal , political, social and economic status enjoyed by men and, moreover,
one of the main explanations for their relatively deprived state is
found in the cultural traditions and practices that govern their lives . Second, even though sexism is ubiquitous, the existence of gender
inequality within minority groups renders vulnerable the claims of
groups to cultural autonomy, especially claims made by groups that are
marginalized or fragile. And, third, all scholars who tread in this mine
field of issues must come to terms with the most vexing methodological
challenges in the social sciences and humanities, namely how to avoid
the excesses of, on the one hand, universalism and essentialism
and, on the other hand, relativism and social constructivism. Feminist
theory provides one of the most interesting and lively venues for
the exploration of these challenges, and the debates seem to reach a
particularly intriguing pitch when the putative conflict between gender
and culture is discussed.