bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
On the formalisation of indirect discourse
Authors: Goodstein R. L.
Published: May 2006

Mr. L. J. Cohen's interesting example of a logical truth of indirect discourse appears to be capable of a simple formalisation and proof in a variant of first order predicate calculus. His example has the form:

If A says that anything which B says is false, and B says that something which A says is true, then something which A says is false and something which B says is true.

Let ‘A says x’ be formalised by ‘A(x)’ and let assertions of truth and falsehood be formalised as in the following table.

We treat both variables x and predicates A (x) as sentences and add to the familiar axioms and inference rules of predicate logic a rule permitting the inference of A(p) from (x)A(x), where p is a closed sentence.

We have to prove that from
The implicational fragment of Dummett's LC
Authors: Bull R. A.
Published: May 2006

It has been shown in Dummett [1] that the system LC given by Heyting's Calculus plus the additional axiom ACpqCqp is complete with respect to the model having as truth values the integers 0, 1,2, … and ω, 0 being the designated value, with

In this system CCCpqrCCCqprr is equivalent to ACpqCqp, and the purpose of this paper is to show that the implicational fragment of Heyting's Calculus plus the additional axiom CCCpqrCCCqprr yields the implicational fragment of LC.
Degrees of unsolvability associated with classes of formalized theories
Authors: Feferman Solomon
Published: May 2006

In his well-known paper [11], Post founded a general theory of recursively enumerable sets, which had its metamathematical source in questions about the decision problem for deducibility in formal systems. However, in centering attention on the notion of degree of unsolvability, Post set a course for his theory which has rarely returned to this source. Among exceptions to this tendency we may mention, as being closest to the problems considered here, the work of Kleene in [8] pp. 298–316, of Myhill in [10], and of Uspenskij in [15]. It is the purpose of this paper to make some further contributions towards bridging this gap.

From a certain point of view, it may be argued that there is no real separation between metamathematics and the theory of recursively enumerable sets. For, if the notion of formal system is construed in a sufficiently wide sense, by taking as ‘axioms’ certain effectively found members of a set of ‘formal objects’ and as ‘proofs’ certain effectively found sequences of these objects, then the set of ‘provable statements’ of such a system may be identified, via Gödel's numbering technique, with a recursively enumerable set; and conversely, each recursively enumerable set is identified in this manner with some formal system (cf. [8] pp. 299–300 and 306). However, the pertinence of Post's theory is no longer clear when we turn to systems formalized within the more conventional framework of the first-order predicate calculus. It is just this restriction which serves to clarify the difference in spirit of the two disciplines.
New foundations for Lewis modal systems
Authors: Lemmon E. J.
Published: May 2006

The main aims of this paper are firstly to present new and simpler postulate sets for certain well-known systems of modal logic, and secondly, in the light of these results, to suggest some new or newly formulated calculi, capable of interpretation as systems of epistemic or deontic modalities. The symbolism throughout is that of [9] (see especially Part III, Chapter I). In what follows, by a Lewis modal system is meant a system which (i) contains the full classical propositional calculus, (ii) is contained in the Lewis system S5, (iii) admits of the substitutability of tautologous equivalents, (iv) possesses as theses the four formulae:

We shall also say that a system Σ1 is stricter than a system Σ2, if both are Lewis modal systems and Σ1 is contained in Σ2 but Σ2 is not contained in Σ1; and we shall call Σ1absolutely strict, if it possesses an infinity of irreducible modalities. Thus, the five systems of Lewis in [5], S1, S2, S3, S4, and S5, are all Lewis modal systems by this definition; they are in an order of decreasing strictness from S1 to S5; and S1 and S2 alone are absolutely strict.
Epimenides the Cretan
Authors: Prior A. N.
Published: May 2006

What I am offering here is a reconsideration, and in the end a solution, of the ancient paradox of the Epimenides. What has provoked this new assault on so old a stronghold is L. Jonathan Cohen's [2], in which it is rightly pointed out that the Epimenidean as contrasted with the Eubulidean version of the Liar paradox is the one that threatens logicians who attempt to formalise the use of indirect rather than direct discourse. Among these he includes myself, referring to the system sketched on pp. 130–131 of my [4], and suggesting that I ought to have shown how a person interpreting this system in the obvious way can avoid semantic antinomies. Here too he is right, and my main purpose now is not to criticise his paper, but to fill in this lacuna in my own work to which he has drawn attention. I do want, however, to make one small criticism at the start, namely that Cohen fails to notice what it is that is really paradoxical about the Epimenides, and in consequence fails to perceive the same paradoxical character in a proposition which he is himself quite happy to accept as a ‘logical truth.’

The point about the Epimenides, as was noted by Church in [1], is not that when we examine the truth value of a Cretan's assertion that nothing true is ever asserted by a Cretan we are led to contradictory conclusions, for we are not; the paradox is rather that such examination makes it seem possible to settle an empirical question on logical grounds. If we treat the Cretan's assertion as true, and so assume that nothing true is ever asserted by a Cretan, it follows immediately that the Cretan's assertion is false. If, however, we treat it as false, there is no way of deducing from this assumption that it is true. We can, therefore, consistently suppose it to be false, and this is all that we can consistently suppose. But to suppose it false (considering what the assertion actually is) is to suppose that something asserted by a Cretan is true; and this of course can only be some other assertion than the one mentioned. We thus reach the peculiar conclusion that if any Cretan does assert that nothing asserted by a Cretan is true, then this cannot possibly be the only assertion made by a Cretan — there must also be, beside this false Cretan assertion, some true one.
On Słupecki T-functions
Authors: Evans Trevor , Schwartz P. B.
Published: May 2006

In [2] E. L. Post defined a many-valued propositional logic to be functionally complete if, for every function on the set of truth-values, there exists a formula of the logic having that function as its associated truth-value function. He proved that the logic with truth-values 1, 2, …, m and (i) a unary connective ∼ such that ∼p has truth-value i+1 (mod m) when p has truth-value i, (ii) a binary connective ∨ such that p ∨ q has truth-value min(i, j) when p, q have truth-values i, j respectively, is functionally complete.

The many-valued logics described by Łukasiewicz and Tarski [1] are not functionally complete. These logics have truth-values 1, 2, …, m and (i) a unary connective ~ such that ~p has truth-value m−i+1 when p has truth-value i, (ii) a binary connective → such that if p, q have truth-values i, j respectively, then p → q has truth-value 1 for i ≧ j, and truth-value 1 for i ≧ j. The functional incompleteness of these logics is immediate, since there exists no formula in p having truth-value i (≠ 1 or m) when p has truth-value 1.

In [4] Słupecki showed that if a new unary connective T, such that T(p) has truth-value 2 for all truth-values assigned to p, is added to the 3-valued Łukasiewicz-Tarski logic, then the resulting logic is functionally complete. In [3] Rosser and Turquette proved this result for the m-valued (m ≧ 3) logic.
Transfinite recursive progressions of axiomatic theories
Authors: Feferman Solomon
Published: May 2006

The theories considered here are based on the classical functional calculus (possibly of higher order) together with a set A of non-logical axioms; they are also assumed to contain classical first-order number theory. In foundational investigations it is customary to further restrict attention to the case that A is recursive, or at least recursively enumerable (an equivalent restriction, by [1]). For such axiomatic theories we have the well-known incompleteness phenomena discovered by Godei [6]. Quite far removed from such theories are those based on non-constructive sets of axioms, for example the set of all true sentences of first-order number theory. According to Tarski's theorem, there is not even an arithmetically definable set of axioms A which will give the same result (cf. [18] for exposition).
A propositional logic with subjunctive conditionals
Authors: Angell R. B.
Published: May 2006

In this paper a formalized logic of propositions, PA1, is presented. It is proven consistent and its relationships to traditional logic, to PM ([15]), to subjunctive (including contrary-to-fact) implication and to the “paradoxes” of material and strict implication are developed. Apart from any intrinsic merit it possesses, its chief significance lies in demonstrating the feasibility of a general logic containing theprinciple of subjunctive contrariety, i.e., the principle that ‘Ifpwere true thenqwould be true’ and ‘Ifpwere true thenqwould be false’ are incompatible.
Canada's Constitutional Discontents
Authors: Weaver Kent
Published: May 2006

American political scientists have paid very little attention to our northern neighbor and leading trading partner. Yet as the following essays make clear, Canada poses a number of important issues of concern to scholars of American and comparative politics, including the difficulty of building coalitions for institutional reform, the development of minority group identities, and the political dynamics of direct democracy instruments such as referenda. In the following essays, three Canadian political scientists examine the constitutional crises that have repeatedly engulfed Canadian politics over the last quarter century. These crises had their most important root in efforts to find a new constitutional order that would meet the demands of the francophone-majority province of Quebec for increased autonomy, but the evolving process has attracted more participants and more demands. By the time of last October's referendum on a package of constitutional reforms known as the Charlottetown Accord, the constitutional agenda had become so overloaded that it sank under its own weight. Peter Russell's essay traces the tortuous history of Canadian negotiations over constitutional reform. Stéphane Dion examines the ebbs and flows of Quebec nationalism.
Elite Recruitment and Political Leadership
Authors: Fukai Shigeko N. , Fukui Haruhiro
Published: May 2006

Why should one study elite recruitment and political leadership in Japan? Because, our answer would go, we live in a world of ever deepening interdependence among nations where the peace, security, and prosperity of each is greatly influenced by policies and actions of another. This is particularly true when the latter is an economic superpower like Japan, the largest creditor nation and aid donor in the world of the early 1990s with a gross national product equal to about fifteen per cent of the world's total. Who makes Japanese domestic and foreign policies and how they are made has important implications for the welfare of other nations, including the United States, which maintains what a former American ambassador to Japan, Mike Mansfield, called the “most important bilateral relationship” in the world.

“Elite” and “leadership” are two concepts that help us identify and analyze those who play central roles in a nation's policymaking process. Commonplace as they are in the vocabulary of both modern political science and the mass media, these words are often used ambiguously and interchangeably. They are, however, etymologically distinctive words that can serve us as useful analytical tools only if they are clearly and distinctively defined. In the discussion that follows, we use “elite” to refer to a group of individuals who hold privilegedpositionsin society or organizations and “leadership” to refer to theexerciseof power, broadly defined, to lead others in collective action. As William Welsh has suggested, elites are thus “set apart from the rest of society by their preeminence in political and governmental hierarchies,” while leadership means “ability to mobilize human resources in pursuit of specific goals.”
People and Pedagogues: E. E. Schattschneider and the Democratic Creed
Authors: Murphy Russell D.
Published: May 2006

This is the 50th anniversary of E. E. Schattschneider's Party Government, that eloquent and influential manifesto, first published in 1942, celebrating party government and popular rule. It is also an occasion to recall one of the pioneers in the profession, and to reflect on his contributions to the development of political science as an intellectual discipline. I have been asked to comment, albeit briefly, on Schattschneider's public philosophy, and, less grandly, on his notion of citizenship and citizen education—a daunting task, at best. I say this because Schattschneider's views are widely known and widely cited, as even a cursory glance at entries in recent editions of the Social Science Citation Index reveals. And he writes in a style that is eloquent and accessible, and leaves little doubt in the reader's mind about where he stands on issues. As a result, any commentary on his views runs the risk of either stating what everyone already knows, or, worse yet, mis-stating it.
Asking Better Questions: The Problems of Constitutional Theory
Authors: Graber Mark A.
Published: May 2006

Recently, some members of the public law subfield have begun exploring American constitutionalism in ways that may sound strange, if not perverse, to the uninitiated. Panels and papers are devoted to such topics as What is the Constitution? and Can there be unconstitutional constitutional amendments? Although confusing to some academics, these novel approaches to standard academic pursuits are also opening new lines of scholarly inquiry and unearthing doubtful assumptions that have gone unchallenged for too long. By laying out the new questions that political scientists are asking and could ask about constitutional theory, this paper may provide a guide for the perplexed and directions for future research.

Throughout most of the twentieth century, the question, How should judges interpret the Constitution? was the central focus of constitutional theory. This inquiry conflated at least two distinct issues and, in so doing, ruled out legitimate constitutional possibilities. Because legal commentators failed to discriminate between theories about what the Constitution means and theories about how a particular institution, the judiciary, should resolve constitutional controversies, they normally assumed without question that the fundamental principles of the Constitution are judicially enforceable and that the judiciary is the authoritative interpreter of the Constitution.
Political Consultants: Opening Up a New System of Political Power
Authors: Lake Celinda
Published: May 2006

I would like to address the question of whether having consultants opens up or closes up the political system. I am principally interested in the election of women and minority candidates. I work now for a firm where half of our candidates are women, which is a very high proportion. On the one hand consultants reinforce incumbency because there is such a strong relationship between money and being able to hire a consultant. By the same token I think that consultants have opened up the process of running for election.

Recruitment of Candidates

When everyone talks about the decline of parties that means there are alternative routes to power, there are alternative routes to the skills that you need to get elected, and there are alternative routes to information. This has caused a major breakdown in political machines. Consultants are also aware of the different traits that can make people electable. Consultants first understood that there are certain districts where women candidates run better than male candidates, where women start out ahead because of the demographics of those districts. That is something that a male-dominated machine, for example, might resist but a consultant would relish and approach pragmatically. You also see outsiders with personal resources who have the most access to an alternative way of entering the system. The Wisconsin Democratic Senate race is a prime example of what can happen when a candidate with tremendous personal resources can hire a team and become a front-runner against people who have been running and elected for a long time.
Political Censorship: A Different View
Authors: Weissberg Robert
Published: May 2006

The 1988 Winter PS contained five essays on textbook censorship. Though they covered a wide variety of topics, they shared a common and very familiar theme. Basically, in one form or another, they depicted and deplored right wing attempts to shape textbooks content and school adoption. O'Connor and Ivers, for example, described the fundamentalist attack on evolution and its advocacy of creationism. Adler discusses how the liberal People For the American Way had led the “counterattack” against organizations such as the Educational Research Analysts, a Texas based group worried about the lack of moral absolutes in sociology textbooks.

To anyone acquainted with intellectual censorship, these tales are yet additional items to be added to thousands just like them. Indeed, there is such regularity to these stories that one might even formulate a near-universal generic school textbook censorship story: truth-seeking textbook author rejected by established publishers as too “controversial” eventually gets book into print but fails anyway due to pressure from intimidating right-wingers cloaked in the mantle of traditional American values. Intolerant jingoism again defeats truth.

These PS articles no doubt paint an accurate picture of political pressure on textbooks. But, they present only a part of the story. They tell us nothing about the pressures on the textbook writer, pressures quite different than the familiar right wing “truth squads” hounding moral relativism from subversive tracts. As one who has written a text-Understanding American Government (Random House)—with separate college and high school editions, I have some experiences in this matter.
Politics Beyond The End of Liberalism
Authors: Petracca Mark P.
Published: May 2006

The End of Liberalism is an ambitious, engaging, and intellectually provocative work even if it is also occasionally ambiguous, ahistorical, assuming, and utopian. This work attempts to build a theory of the modern American political regime which captures its complexity, inherent contradictions, institutional dilemmas, and self-destructive public philosophy. Since America has yet to abandon the politics and public philosophy of interest group liberalism, Theodore Lowi's (1969 and 1979) polemic remains a useful and now comfortable perch from which to observe the continuing crisis of public authority and shout appropriate epitaphs. There is little doubt that The End of Liberalism continues to stimulate, define, and inform intellectual and political debate in America 20 years after its initial publication.

There are two ironies about The End of Liberalism which are now apparent two decades after its publication. First, if Lowi's work had been completely successful in laying to rest the demon of interest group liberalism and its spiritual compatriots, we might not be assessing the longevity and influence of this work two decades later.
Liberalism and Juridical Democracy, or What's Interesting About Interest Group Liberalism
Authors: Spitzer Robert J.
Published: May 2006

Why is The End of Liberalism important? This work is not without its flaws or critics, but it is indisputably important—not because it is right, although I believe it largely is—but because it is provocative, stimulating, and pertinent to both scholai and practitioner.

The Culprit

One of the more revealing and less pedantic kiss-and-tell books to come out of a presidential administration was David Stockman's (1987) The Triumph of Politics. In it, Stockman detailed his dismay over the failure of the Reagan Revolution—an effort to establish “minimalist government” (p. 9) incorporating “sweeping, wrenching change” that “would have hurt millions of people” (p. 11) by such actions as “elimination of subsidies to farmers and businesses … an immediate end to welfare for the able-bodied poor … [and] no right to draw more from the Social Security fund than retirees had actually contributed” (p. 12).
How Book Reviewers Can Recognize a Classic When They See One
Authors: Ingram Helen
Published: May 2006

The End of Liberalism is one of the most widely read books in political science. As book review editor of the American Political Science Review, it interests me that the reviewers of neither the first nor second edition of the book predicted its enormous success. While the reviews were clearly positive in tone, they were far from effusive, and none suggested that the book would become required reading for a generation of political science students. My own copy of the book is annotated by three sets of underlines and comments—my own and those of my two daughters who were assigned the book as undergraduates. Why has the book become so important? What can we learn from it about the ingredients of a great book? Given the broad readership that has responded to Lowi's book, how relevant are the criteria that political scientists use to evaluate their own literature? What qualities should disciplinary reviewers watch for if they hope to recognize what will become a classic?
Text-Oriented Database Management
Authors: Permaloff Anne , Grafton Carl
Published: May 2006

The management of large amounts of data is an important part of many research efforts. Quantitative data are inputted, stored, manipulated, and analyzed using such familiar tools as spreadsheets, database management programs like dBASE or Paradox, and statistics packages. However, some text based data such as bibliographies, text for content analysis, committee hearing transcripts, and historical information are not easily processed using such software. Statistics packages can handle only single words as string variables, and spreadsheets can usefully manage only short segments of text. Traditional database management programs can store and manipulate longer text segments, but many are limited to roughly three lines of text per entry or field unless they have a feature called a memo field to be discussed below.

When we covered this topic for PS three years ago, we concluded that high end word processing packages should be considered first by most scholars who work with text data. We noted that advanced word processors contain search and sort capabilities that may be sufficient for many needs.
Toward Better Theories of the Policy Process
Authors: Sabatier Paul A.
Published: May 2006

Any theory of the manner in which governmental policies get formulated and implemented, as well as the effects of those actions on the world, requires an understanding of the behavior of major types of governmental institutions (legislatures, courts, administrative agencies, chief executives), as well as the behavior of interest groups, the general public, and the media. The dominant paradigm of the policy process, the stages heuristic popularized by Jones (1970), Anderson (1975), and Peters (1986), has outlived its usefulness and must be replaced, in large part because it is not a causal theory. In the course of their empirical work, policy scholars have highlighted a number of phenomena that need to be incorporated into theories of the policy process. The development of such theories requires an integration ‘of both political scientists’ knowledge of specific institutions and behavior and policy scholars' attention to policy communities, substantive policy information, etc.

Innovations by Policy Scholars in Understanding the Policy Process

At least since World War II, most political scientists have tended to focus on either a specific type of institution (legislatures, the presidency, courts, interest groups, administrative agencies, local governments, political parties) or on specific types of political behavior outside those institutions (public opinion, voting, political socialization). These have become the standard subfields within the discipline.

In contrast, scholars interested in public policy have not been able to stay within these subfields because the policy process spans all of them. In the course of empirical work, policy scholars have highlighted a number of phenomena often neglected by political scientists without a policy focus:

a) The importance of policy communities/networks/subsystems involving actors from numerous public and private institutions and from multiple levels of government;

b) The importance of substantive policy information;

c) The critical role of policy elites vis-a-vis the general public;

d) The desirability of longitudinal studies of a decade or more;

e) Differences in political behavior across policy types.
Political Scientists and Biotechnology Policy
Authors: Funke Odelia
Published: May 2006

The monograph, Biotechnology: Public Policy and the Social Sciences—Critical Needs in Teaching and Research [Biotechnology], emphasizes the need for social scientists to increase their participation in public policy regarding biotechnology through research, teaching and policy recommendations. The authors (Robert H. Blank, Lynton K. Caldwell, Thomas C. Wiegele, and Raymond A. Zilinskas) persuasively argue that critical issues are at stake here. Although scientific methodology and definitions underlie important choices regarding biotechnology, we face issues that go beyond scientific inquiry and expertise. Recombinant DNA research raised concerns in the late 1970s, which were sufficiently addressed through the NIH guidelines. Now commercial developments in biotechnology are posing other quite significant social and ethical issues. The idea that nonscientists should become actively involved in science policy is not new, but the message bears repeating. It has been standard practice in our society for technical experts to claim exclusive authority in broad areas of decision-making involving technical matters. Only recently, for example, have we begun to insist upon full disclosure from our doctors, and reclaim the right to make important decisions about our own lives and bodies. Technical experts cannot fully address ethical and social concerns. Moreover, in the area of biotechnology, experts have strong interests, both intellectual and financial; they are not likely to make unbiased decisions. These choices properly belong to the political realm.
Political Science and the Savings and Loan Crisis
Authors: Moe Ronald C.
Published: May 2006

The juxtaposition of “political science” with the “savings and loan crisis” is interesting in part because it appears a peculiar pairing. What does, or should, political science as an academic discipline have to do with the current crisis in the savings and loan industry? A case can be made, and indeed is arguably the present dominant view within the discipline, that political scientists ought not to seek to be involved in any systematic way with public sector management problems or with governance generally. Following this reasoning, political science ought not to be interested in the savings and loan crisis other than, possibly, to study it after the fact as a political phenomenon.

There are other political scientists, however, who are uneasy with this passive view of the discipline. They have seen the emergence of a massive institutional crisis in the financial system of the nation and no one has thought to seek their advice and counsel towards a solution to the crisis except for them to participate as taxpayers in picking up the bill. But of even greater concern to many of the thoughtful in these ranks is the realization that if someone were to call upon the discipline for advice and assistance, the discipline might have little to contribute. Few of the leaders in our discipline have expertise in the management of complex fields. Indeed, it is unusual today to find political scientists with any experience at all in governmental institutions or affairs. The estrangement between political science and the governance process of the Republic appears nearly complete.
Building a Strong Legislature: The Western Experience
Authors: Axelrod Robert
Published: May 2006

The Western democracies have gradually developed their legislative institutions over many centuries. Today the Soviet Union is building its own powerful legislature. Perhaps a look at the Western experience will be of interest to Soviet citizens who are currently thinking about how to make their own legislature an effective part of the democratic process.

Of course the Soviet Union is quite different from the Western democracies in many ways, including not only its political system, but also its economic system, its multinational character, and its social and cultural history, and the Western experience cannot be applied mechanically to such a different setting. But precisely because the Soviet Union is undertaking such bold experiments in restructuring, concrete experiences of others might be useful in suggesting ideas about legislative procedures, competitive elections, constituency relationships, and social norms.

Legislatures were originally developed in Britain, and later in France, because the kings constantly found themselves short of money. After trying many methods of raising money by command, they eventually realized that they would have to attain the support of broader and broader segments of the society.
Otto I.Q. Besser-Wisser: An Appreciation of the Pioneer of Post-Distanciationalist Politometrics
Authors: Manteltasche Dagobert D.
Published: May 2006

The death occurred on July 12, 1999, at a tragically young age, of Otto I.Q. Besser-Wisser, probably the most influential political thinker and analyst of our times.

He was born in 1906 on the island of Helgoland, where the bustling streets and crowded, busy marketplaces formed his early experience of life in a large and cosmopolitan urban metropolis. He was later to convert these young impressions into the central principles of physical and social distanciationalist politometrics, which have dominated Western political science ever since. In spite of its subsequent theoretical variations, refinements, and developments—in the form of neo-distanciationalism, post-distanciationalism, post-neodistanciationalism, and neo-postdistanciationalism—the essential core of Besser-Wisser's formulation is so simple, and yet so heuristically and ontologically valuable in the theoreticization of the politico-urban-time continuum, that it is puzzling that it took mankind two millennia to develop. The answer is, of course, that just as it took pure genius to uncover the principles of things such as gravity, the unconscious mind, the jet engine, and Guinness, so only someone of Besser-Wisser's uncommon genius and almost supernatural analytical perspicacity could go straight to the very heart of one of the simple yet eternal truths of the human condition.
Civil Society: Effective Tool of Analysis for Middle East Politics?
Authors: Bellin Eva
Published: May 2006

Does the Middle East's presumed “exceptionalism” imply the disutility of “civil society” as a tool for political analysis? Although the term has gained wide usage in other areas of the world, the Middle East specialists have shown some reluctance to employ it in their own region. This reluctance stems in part from the perception that the term is ambiguous and politically loaded. Historically, “civil society” has signified everything from the peaceable society human beings enjoy under the protection of a Leviathan state (Hobbes), to the stratum of private associations that schools citizens in civic virtue (Tocqueville, Montesquieu), to the constellation of cultural institutions that guarantee the ideological hegemony of the ruling class (Gramsci). In contemporary political debate, the term has become a normative football, representing a bulwark of freedom and anti-totalitarianism to the survivors of communism's fall in Eastern Europe while signifying the spearhead of Western imperialism to those suspicious of efforts to “export democracy” to the developing world.

But reluctance to use the term in the analysis of Middle Eastern politics goes beyond the problematic nature of the term itself and derives from a vision of the Middle East as somehow inhospitable to “civil society.” The Middle East is seen as riven by primordial cleavage, dominated by rent-swollen, power-mon-gering states, unpracticed in reverence for individual freedom and civil liberties. Sociology, economics, politics, and culture conspire to sabotage the development of civil society in the region and so, the reasoning goes, the term is best renounced to check premature expectations of its realization.
Whose Liberalism? Which Islam? Leonard Binder's “Islamic Liberalism”
Authors: Parens Joshua
Published: May 2006

For many students of contemporary Arab politics, the most pressing question is whether Islam will become democratic. One need only point to the case of Algeria to find ready evidence that Islamic movements have already become highly democratic, although frustrated in their electoral objective. Leonard Binder (1989), however, asks a far more pressing question: Will Islam become liberal?

As Tocqueville shows, democracy or the love of equality comes easily to citizens of modernity. The love of liberty, however, is a far more difficult love to cultivate. Yet, without this love of liberty, modern democracy comes to embody arguably the most oppressive tyranny in the history of the human race, the tyranny of the majority. In the aristocratic past, such an extraordinarily powerful and omnipresent tyranny was not possible. Thus, it becomes apparent just how pressing is Binder's question about the prospects for Islamic liberalism.

Although Binder's answer to this question could hardly be characterized as overly optimistic, Binder does harbor some hope for Islamic liberalism. He proposes a synthesis of Fazlur Rahman's Gadamerian version of Islam and the pragmatic liberalism of Richard Rorty. Although it is not difficult to show an affinity between Gadamer and Rorty, it is difficult to show that Islam is tending in the direction of acquiring Rahman's understanding of it. It is even more difficult to show that pragmatism is truly liberal. Although Binder points the way to an “Islamic pragmatism,” I hope to show that he fails to point the way to an “Islamic liberalism.” Binder's pragmatism cannot avoid the tyranny of the majority that Tocqueville warns us can be fought only with the love of liberty.
Comparative Middle East Politics: Still in Search of Theory
Authors: Bill James A.
Published: May 2006

In a 1985 American political science roundtable analyzing the state of the field of comparative politics, the participants concluded that Middle East studies lagged behind most other area studies in the generation of theory (PS 1985). They determined that scholars of Latin America, Asia, and Africa had traversed a greater distance along the road to theory than had analysts of the Middle East. Today, almost a decade later, despite some promising developments, the situation remains basically unchanged.

From the Rigor of Metatheory to Theoretical Rigor Mortis

In the 1960s and 1970s, scholars of comparative politics emphasized issues of philosophy of science and the logic of theory construction. They spent an inordinate amount of time debating metatheory, i.e., they theorized about theory. Although this exercise yielded important intellectual advances, it ultimately degenerated into a sterile exercise in logic for its own sake, and its formulations remained divorced from the empirical world. Partially in reaction to this preoccupation with metatheory, many comparativists in the 1980s abandoned theoretical concerns and focused instead upon empirical investigation and data collection. The result has been the generation of uneven, disconnected, and unrelated stagnant data deposits.
The Study of Campaign Consultants: A Subfield in Search of Theory
Authors: Thurber James A.
Published: May 2006

The central theme of thisPSsymposium is that political consultants are important in politics, that they have an impact on campaigns and elections. This is not news to political consultants or candidates running for office. Candidates and consultants know they need each other and the rapid growth and diversification of the profession reveals that sense of interdependence (see Thurber 1995). Though professional political consulting outside of political party organizations has been around since the 1930s, it has only recently sparked interest among political scientists. Why have consultants been ignored by political scientists? Why have consultants ignored political scientists (see Thurber and Nelson 1995)? Why is there little or no theory related to political consultants? Why do we know so little about the profession of political consultants? What subfield houses the study of political consulting: elections and voting behavior, political parties, political communications, political advertising, campaign management?

Political scientists have studied campaigns, elections, and political parties from a variety of views and methodologies, but few have focused on political consultants and their influence. Political campaigns are efforts to win elections to public office by informing the voters of a candidate's issue positions, by persuading the electorate to vote for a candidate, by activating partisans, and by mobilizing supporters. Election campaigns are combats over ideas and ways to persuade groups of voters to support those ideas. Studies have treated campaigns as symbolic events, as propaganda activities with the power to change voter preferences, and as a determinant variable in elections, but there is little consensus among political scientists about the role consultants play in campaigns.
The Politics of Universal Health Insurance: Lessons from Past Administrations?
Authors: Marmor Theodore
Published: May 2006

There is a remarkable consensus that American medical care—particularly its financing and insurance coverage—needs a major overhaul. The critical unanimity on this point—what Paul Starr has rightly termed a “negative consensus”—bridges almost all the usual cleavages in American politics—between old and young, Democrats and Republicans, management and labor, the well paid and the low paid. We spend more on and feel worse about medical care than our economic competitors, with nine out of ten Americans (including Fortune 500 executives) telling pollsters that our health system requires substantial change. That is the good news for medical reformers in the Clinton administration, the Congress, and the polity at large.

The bad news for these reformers is that, for a variety of ideological and institutional reasons, American politics makes it very difficult to coalesce around a solution that reasonably satisfies the requirements for a stable and workable system of financing and delivering modern medical care. We have no assurance that the rare agreement on the seriousness of the nation's medical ills will generate the legislative support required for a substantively adequate and administratively workable program of reform.
Federalism and Health Care
Authors: Gray Virginia
Published: May 2006

Among the many issues in the national health care debate is the role of the states. Some have asked whether the states can tackle health care on their own and have answered with a resounding “no.” Deborah Stone (1992), for example, argues that health care is too big a challenge for the states to handle: they lack sufficient autonomy from the federal government in certain areas and sufficient power over private interests in others.

But apparently, states are undeterred by such thinking. In the early 1990s, three states—Minnesota, Washington, and Florida—passed comprehensive bills incorporating elements of managed competition. Massachusetts, Oregon, and Vermont had already enacted (but not implemented) major reforms based upon different philosophies. And Hawaii led the way in 1974 with its enactment of an employer mandate.

Today, reform activity is everywhere. In 1993, 1,850 health care reform proposals were introduced in state legislatures; this year virtually every governor is working on some health care initiative. Even Lowell Weicker, Jr., governor of Connecticut, home to the nation's largest insurance companies, has announced his intention to provide universal coverage by 1997. The states are definitely not waiting around to see what the feds will do.
Community and Individual Stakes in the Collection, Analysis, and Availability of Data
Authors: Peterson M. J.
Published: May 2006

Providing good answers to the questions raised in the discussion between Gary King and Paul Herrnson requires paying attention to the full range of interests affected. Unless we pay attention, individual political scientists, research groups, departments, peer reviewers, funding organizations, data archives, journals, and presses will not be able to establish and uphold an effective set of norms relating to the collection, analysis, reporting, and preservation of data.
A Revised Proposal, Proposal
Authors: King Gary
Published: May 2006

Receiving thoughtful comments in this symposium from 19 of the discipline's most innovative empirical researchers is gratifying and goes a long way toward bringing issues of replication and data accessibility into public view. The progress made in the preceding pages clearly demonstrates the virtues of a community of scholars willing to share sufficient information to benefit from each other's work.
Pork Barrel Spending—On the Wane?
Authors: Andres Gary J.
Published: May 2006

Is pork barrel spending on the wane? Many think it is, including reformers inside and outside of Congress. Citing the recent decline of earmarks in House appropriations bills for projects in members' districts, reformers suggest that a new era of congressional spending practices is dawning.

This article argues instead that the rise in number of earmarks in the last decade as well as the recent decline depends on whether Congress and the executive branch are controlled by the same or different parties. It further predicts that the Republican takeover of the House and Senate after the 1994 congressional elections could lead to a resurgence of earmarking, in a different form, as long as the Democrats control the White House.

Among scholars, pork barrel spending analysis represents a venerable specialty in the profession, generating some of the most engaging debates and finest research in recent years. This literature analyzes how members of Congress create institutions and use legislative rules to enhance their electoral goals. While not mutually exclusive, the two dominant approaches in recent years are the “distributive” and “informational” models of congressional policy making. (For a good review of the last two decades of scholarly research on the subject, see Krehbiel 1991).

Reformers in the 103rd Congress were emboldened by the success of groups such as the “pork busters,” an informal group led by Representative Harris Fawell (R-IL), who routinely offered amendments to cut pork and unnecessary directed spending in appropriations bills.
Alternative Voting Systems for Representative Democracy
Authors: Zimmerman Joseph F.
Published: May 2006

The ideal electoral system in a representative democracy is one allowing all eligible citizens to cast an equally weighted vote, and for united groups of voters, except very small ones, to elect one or more of their candidates to a governing body. Approximate proportional representation on governing bodies would be a happenstance and not deliberate. Majority/plurality electoral systems, however, favor the dominant group and often leave women and minority groups with no direct representation.

Designers of electoral systems historically have employed various devices to reduce the influence of opposition political parties or groups and to make it difficult for them to elect their candidates to a governing body. Growing concern that numerous black citizens were prevented from voting in southern states resulted in the U.S. Congress using the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution to enact the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (79 Stat. 437, 42 U.S.C. § 1973), a statute applying to a state or local government meeting two criteria. The Congress in 1975 employed the Fourteenth Amendment to extend the Act's (89 Stat. 438, 42 U.S.C. § 1973) protection to language minorities defined as “persons who are American Indian, Asian American, Alaskan Natives, or of Spanish heritage.”

The Act has eliminated invidious discrimination against protected groups, yet many law-making bodies are still unrepresentative of their respective constituencies.
Women's Underrepresentation and Electoral Systems
Authors: Rule Wilma
Published: May 2006

Women's parliamentary representation in the 27 long-established but “unfinished democracies” (Haavio-Mannila et al. 1985) of the world varies between 2.3% in Japan's lower house to 39.0% in unicameral Finland. Women state legislators in the United States range from 4% in Kentucky to 39% in Washington in the lower house. Women are 11% of the members of the U.S. House of Representatives. The causes of this variation are primarily the electoral arrangements by which legislators are chosen and, secondarily, the political, economic, and social context.

Favorable societal conditions will not substitute for unfavorable electoral systems for women to reach their optimal representation in parliament and local legislatures. But unfavorable contextual conditions—including cultural biases and discriminatory practices—can be overcome to a great extent by alternate electoral systems. Electoral arrangements are not neutral; they are the means used to exclude or include groups. The arrangements are amenable to change faster than social biases and other barriers to women's election opportunity and fair representation.

Democracy falls short when women of whatever color or ethnic group cannot cast an effective vote to elect representatives of their choice or to enact laws they believe are critically needed. When there are higher proportions of women in parliament, for example, more laws are enacted that benefit children (Lijphart 1991).