From modernization theory to public policy: Continuity and change in the political science of political development

1980 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 26-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard A. Higgott
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Political Development ◽  
The Political ◽  
Modernization Theory ◽  
Continuity And Change

Reconsideration of the Research Trajectory on the Carceral State

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 192-207
Author(s):  
Juliette Barbera
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Political Development ◽  
American Political Development ◽  
The Political ◽  
Carceral State ◽  
Research Framework ◽  
Research Production ◽  
Fields Of Study ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
And Control

For decades, both incarceration and research on the topic have proliferated. Disciplines within the Western sciences have studied the topic of incarceration through their respective lenses. Decades of data reflect trends and consequences of the carceral state, and based on that data the various disciplines have put forth arguments as to how the trends and consequences are of relevance to their respective fields of study. The research trajectory of incarceration research, however, overlooks the assumptions behind punishment and control and their institutionalization that produce and maintain the carceral state and its study. This omission of assumptions facilitates a focus on outcomes that serve to reinforce Western perspectives, and it contributes to the overall stagnation in the incarceration research produced in Western disciplines. An assessment of the study of the carceral state within the mainstream of American Political Development in the political science discipline provides an example of how the research framework contributes to the overall stagnation, even though the framework of the subfield allows for an historical institutionalization perspective. The theoretical perspectives of Cedric J. Robinson reveal the limits of Western lenses to critically assess the state. The alternative framework he provides to challenge the limits imposed on research production by Western perspectives applies to the argument presented here concerning the limitations that hamper the study of the carceral state.

Contemporary China as a Problem for Political Science

1963 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 361-376 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. M. Halpern
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Political System ◽  
The Political ◽  
Chinese Politics ◽  
General Study ◽  
Chinese Revolution ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Communist China ◽  
Contemporary Chinese

This article attempts to set forth, in as nearly comprehensive and organized a manner as possible, a range of problems referring to the political development of Communist China whose investigation would not only advance our understanding of contemporary Chinese politics but would also produce results of value for the general study of politics. Our focus is particularly, but not exclusively, on events since the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949. Our procedure is to move from the general to the specific: that is, to inquire, first, what are the most general classes of political phenomena with which the Chinese political system has affinities; second, what are the most general developmental trends which can be observed in the Chinese revolution; and third, what are the particular aspects of the dynamics of the Chinese political system which offer rewarding opportunities for research.

Policy, Politics and Political Science

2013 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 751-772 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael M. Atkinson
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Cognitive Psychology ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
The Political ◽  
Politiques Publiques ◽  
Political Feasibility ◽  
Power Differentials ◽  
Cognitive Deficiencies ◽  
Mesures Incitatives

Abstract.Political scientists are increasingly studying public policy in interdisciplinary environments where they are challenged by the political and normative agenda of other disciplines. Political science has unique perspectives to offer, including a stress on the political feasibility of policy in an environment of power differentials. Our contributions should be informed by the insights of cognitive psychology and we should focus on improving governance, in particular the competence and integrity of decision makers. The discipline's stress on legitimacy and acceptability provides a normative anchor, but we should not over invest in the idea that incentives will achieve normative goals. Creating decision situations that overcome cognitive deficiencies is ultimately the most important strategy.Résumé.Les politologues étudient les politiques publiques dans des contextes de plus en plus interdisciplinaires, où ils sont remis en question par les préoccupations politique et normatives d'autres disciplines. La science politique a des perspectives uniques à offrir, y compris un accent sur la faisabilité politique des politiques publiques dans un contexte de relations de pouvoir asymétriques. Nos contributions doivent être informées par les idées associées à la psychologie cognitive et nous devrions nous concentrer sur l'amélioration de la gouvernance, et notamment la compétence et l'intégrité des décideurs. L'accent de notre discipline sur la légitimité et l'acceptabilité fournit un point d'ancrage normatif, mais il ne faut pas trop investir dans l'idée que des mesures incitatives permettront nécessairement d'atteindre des objectifs normatifs. Créer des situations de décision qui surmontent les lacunes cognitives des acteurs est finalement la stratégie la plus importante à adopter.

scholarly journals METHODOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF THE STUDY OF POLITICAL PROCESSES IN THE COUNTRIES OF CENTRAL ASIA

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 373-380
Author(s):  
Irlan Zh Iskakov
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Science Studies ◽  
The Political ◽  
Interstate Cooperation ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Political Reality ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Legislative Framework

Studies of political systems and political processes in the post-Soviet states of the Central Asian region are based, as a rule, on institutional and neo-institutional concepts. Attempts to mechanically apply certain ready-made western description schemes and even the corresponding conceptual apparatus to the Central Asian material rarely lead to convincing results. Many important factors affecting the political development of the region remain beyond research. By the beginning of the 2010s institutionalization and pluralization of the political space outside state control also included the development of the necessary legislative framework. Such a framework implies the consolidation of the legal basis for the creation and effective functioning of public associations and organizations, and the formation of legitimate and viable representation institutions. Russian authors are much more familiar with the material of the political reality of the CAR, therefore they give more balanced and accurate assessments. The disadvantage of Russian studies is the fact that, methodologically, they follow the approaches developed by Western political science. This encourages one to concentrate on some aspects of the political development of the Central Asian states and to underestimate or even completely ignore other, no less, and sometimes much more significant ones. In recent years, this deficiency is gradually being replenished. The findings of the researchers are becoming more objective, which helps to overcome erroneous political decisions and strengthen interstate cooperation. Over time, such studies will have the results of the development of new systematic and well-reflected approaches, adequate to the subject of political science studies.

Learning in Political Analysis

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 304-319 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thenia Vagionaki ◽  
Philipp Trein
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Policy Instruments ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Political Analysis ◽  
Key Concepts ◽  
Original Contribution ◽  
Learning Research ◽  
Political Realities

This article reviews how scholars use learning as an analytical concept across the political science and public policy literature. Three questions guide our discussion: (1) What do political actors in policy learn about (e.g. ideas or policy instruments)? (2) Who learns from whom and for what reason? And finally, (3) How does learning happen against the background of organizational and political realities? Our perspective offers an original contribution by synthesizing key concepts and empirical challenges of the learning research.

From Scientific Socialism to Political Science?

1994 ◽  
Vol 46 ◽  
pp. 63-66
Author(s):  
David Montgomery
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Labor History ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Analysis ◽  
Working Class History ◽  
Scientific Socialism

Ira Katznelson has proposed that we labor historians can recover our lost élan by engaging the agenda of liberalism. Although he acknowledges that today's writings on working-class history are variegated and richly rewarding, he regrets that they have become uncoupled from controversies over public policy and social change and run the risk of becoming little more than “sentimental reminders of times lost and aspirations disappointed.”To revitalize our sense of engagement he recommends that we call a halt to “the continuing flight within labor history from institutional-political analysis.” We should focus our attention on historical relationships between the state and civil society, and we should inform our analyses with the political theory that historically has assumed its shape around those relationships: liberalism.

Bringing the Bosses Back in: The Irish Political Machines and Urban Policy Making

1990 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 269-281 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven P. Erie
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Urban Policy ◽  
Political Mobilization ◽  
The Political ◽  
Municipal Services ◽  
Political Machines ◽  
Political Machine

Recently historians have ventured a multifaceted critique of boss rule, suggesting that the very existence of the political machine has been exaggerated, that machines did not materially affect patterns of political mobilization, had only a limited role in the making of public policy, and (contrary to pluralist theory) did little to improve the welfare of the ethnic working class. For these revisionists the boss was really a bit player in the era when he allegedly held center stage. As Terrence McDonald argued the case in the last installment of this annual, “ethnicity, patronage, and the machine” represent unduly narrow ways of viewing urban political development. According to Jon Teaford and David Thelan, urban political history needs to replace the party boss and his ethnic clientele with interest groups—business, labor, taxpayers, and consumers of municipal services—and their impact on local policies concerning economic development, taxation, and service delivery. In their view, the study of public policy making must take precedence over the allocation of party patronage.

Culture and Political Development: Herder's Suggestive Insights

1969 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 379-397 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. M. Barnard
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Political Behavior ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Political Authority ◽  
The Political ◽  
Conceptual Frameworks ◽  
Sociological Approaches ◽  
Current Concerns

When in the early thirties Harold Lasswell declared that “political symbols and practices are so intimately intertwined with the larger array of symbols and practices in culture that it is necessary to extend the scope of political investigation to include the fundamental features of the culture setting”, he was very much a voice in the wilderness. Today Lasswell's words have almost become commonplace in the vocabulary of political science. In this, as in many other current concerns, Lasswell's early work has rightly been judged seminal. It substantially contributed towards the prolific expansion of the academic boundaries of political enquiry within the last three decades, in particular to the growth of interest in psychological and sociological approaches. Increasingly students of political behavior in both ‘established’ and ‘emergent’ nations have come to realize that purely formal and legalistic conceptual frameworks are inadequate to provide meaningful answers to such problems as persistence and change, socialization, political cohesion, and the complex bases of political authority and legitimacy. This realization, though it has made political science a more rather than less problematical undertaking, nonetheless has had the result of adding new dimensions or perspectives to its analytical vision. Indeed, in the course of this development the very notion of the political has undergone a profound re-appraisal.

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