Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Epstein
Keyword(s):  
Political Communication ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Mass Communication ◽  
American Political Development ◽  
Information And Communications Technology ◽  
The Political ◽  
Communication History ◽  
Choice Phase ◽  
Core Concepts ◽  
And Diffusion

This introduction serves several important goals. It lays out both the research objective and theoretical framework placing this study on an interdisciplinary foundation that combines work from political science, American political development, mass communication, history, and diffusion studies. It introduces the core concepts of the book, concentrated around a recurring multistage process called the political communication cycle (PCC). The three stages of the PCC, detailed in the following chapters, include the information and communications technology (ICT)–focused technological imperative phase; the political choice phase, which emphasizes the behavioral process central to innovation; and stabilization through the establishment of new norms, regulations, and institutions. This process has repeated throughout history, where long periods of relative stability, known as political communication orders (PCOs), are disrupted by shorter periods of permanent change, identified as political communication revolutions (PCRs). The introduction concludes by introducing the three claims that are used throughout the book and outlining the chapters that follow.

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.

American Political Development from Citizens' Perspective: Tracking Federal Government's Presence in Individual Lives over Time

2007 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 110-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzanne Mettler ◽  
Andrew Milstein
Keyword(s):  
Political Development ◽  
American Political Development ◽  
State Building ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Quarter Century ◽  
Political Roles ◽  
Analytical Tools ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Over Time

Although scholars of American political development (APD) have helped transform many aspects of the study of U.S. politics over the last quarter-century, they have barely begun to use the powerful analytical tools of this approach to elucidate the relationship between government and citizens. APD research has probed deeply into the processes of state-building and the creation and implementation of specific policies, yet has given little attention to how such development affects the lives of individuals and the ways in which they relate to government. Studies routinely illuminate how policies influence the political roles of elites and organized groups, but barely touch on how the state shapes the experiences and responses of ordinary individuals. As a result, we know little about how governance has influenced citizenship over time or how those changes have, in turn, affected politics.

Neither Markets nor Administration: Brandeis and the Antitrust Reforms of 1914

1994 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald Berk
Keyword(s):  
Political Development ◽  
American Political Development ◽  
Political Conflict ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Old Order

The election of 1912 retains its hold on the imagination of students of American political development. Long interpreted as a conflict between tradition and modernity, Martin Sklar has recently argued that the old order had passed by 1912. In law and economy, competitive-proprietary capitalism had been eclipsed by administration. The political conflict was now overwhowould administer prices and investment, the corporation of the state?

Mediapolicy

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Рашид Мухаев ◽  
Rashid Muhaev
Keyword(s):  
Public Relations ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Political Behavior ◽  
Mass Communication ◽  
Academic Discipline ◽  
The Political ◽  
Communication Policy ◽  
Policy Space ◽  
Municipal Administration ◽  
Information And Communication

If you want to find out how the mechanisms and technologies of political domination in modern information societies have changed, then read the first Russian textbook on the new academic discipline “Media Policy”. The textbook examines the main interpretations of the information and communication policy space, its subjects, structure and information management technologies, identifies effective channels of information influence on the political behavior of a person, groups and communities, reveals the mechanism of symbolic dominance in the structure of modern politics, identifies its elements, technologies and communication strategies. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of various means and channels of mass communication, used for positioning and promoting ideas, discourses and political images, as well as constructing messages through various media. The textbook is addressed to bachelors and masters studying in the specialties “Advertising and Public Relations”, “Political Science”, “State and Municipal Administration”, as well as to theoreticians, practitioners, and experts working in the field of political communication.

Democracy and The Federalist: A Reconsideration of the Framers' Intent

1959 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Diamond
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Development ◽  
American Political Development ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
Founding Fathers ◽  
The Federalist ◽  
Contrary View ◽  
Democratic Principles ◽  
Political Principles

It has been a common teaching among modern historians of the guiding ideas in the foundation of our government that the Constitution of the United States embodied a reaction against the democratic principles espoused in the Declaration of Independence. This view has largely been accepted by political scientists and has therefore had important consequences for the way American political development has been studied. I shall present here a contrary view of the political theory of the Framers and examine some of its consequences.What is the relevance of the political thought of the Founding Fathers to an understanding of contemporary problems of liberty and justice? Four possible ways of looking at the Founding Fathers immediately suggest themselves. First, it may be that they possessed wisdom, a set of political principles still inherently adequate, and needing only to be supplemented by skill in their proper contemporary application. Second, it may be that, while the Founding Fathers' principles are still sound, they are applicable only to a part of our problems, but not to that part which is peculiarly modern; and thus new principles are needed to be joined together with the old ones. Third, it may be that the Founding Fathers have simply become; they dealt with bygone problems and their principles were relevant only to those old problems. Fourth, they may have been wrong or radically inadequate even for their own time.

Interest Group Innovation

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Epstein
Keyword(s):  
Interest Groups ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
The Political ◽  
Case Study Approach ◽  
National Rifle Association ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
Communication Goals ◽  
Choice Phase ◽  
History Of

This chapter uses a case study approach to explore the political choice phase of the political communication cycle (PCC) over time. Focusing on interest groups and detailing the long history of these organizations in America, the chapter primarily examines innovations made by four of the largest interest groups in American history: AARP, the Sierra Club, the National Rifle Association (NRA), and MoveOn.org. These four interest groups have spanned multiple political communication orders (PCOs) and their overall lack of innovativeness until recent years is tied to the distinct nature of their shared political communication goals. These goals are far narrower than campaigns or social movements and therefore are much less likely to motivate innovative efforts. These trends have started to change in the internet-based era as new organizational and communication strategies have opened up interest groups to greater innovation along the lines of MoveOn.org.

The Only Constant is Change

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Epstein
Keyword(s):  
Political Communication ◽  
The Political ◽  
Information And Communications Technologies ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Stabilization Phase ◽  
New Information ◽  
Communication Goals ◽  
Choice Phase ◽  
Communication Activity ◽  
Over Time

The Only Constant Is Change presents and tests the political communication cycle (PCC), a model describing how political actors and organizations make decisions about if, how, and when to innovate their political communication practices. Generally speaking, political communication goals have remained largely stable over time, but the strategies used to accomplish these goals have changed a great deal. The PCC describes the recurring process of political communication innovation through American political history. This model incorporates the technological, political, and behavioral factors influencing how and when changes in political communication activity take place. The PCC is made up of three phases that also serve as an organizational structure for the book. First is the technological imperative, which focuses on how new information and communications technologies (ICT) are developed and what types of ICTs may be more or less likely to be used to innovate political communication. Next, the political choice phase incorporates the behavioral processes embedded in how different types of actors choose whether to innovate or not. This phase is the most critical and is analyzed through case studies evaluating how campaigns, social movements, and interest groups have or have not changed their political communication activities over time. Finally, the stabilization phase encompasses the process of how once innovative techniques become the new status quo though the establishment of new norms, regulations, and institutions. The book explores these changes through historical and contemporary analysis, which offers important context and tools to understand political communication through history and today.

Health Reform in the Trump Era: Will Politics Unmake Policy?

The Forum ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 345-362 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew S. Kelly
Keyword(s):  
Affordable Care Act ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Health Reform ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Policy Reform ◽  
American Political Development ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Landscape ◽  
Veto Points ◽  
Trump Administration

Abstract Donald J. Trump’s unexpected victory in the 2016 presidential election cast a long shadow over the American welfare state. With continued Republican control of the House and Senate, Trump’s occupancy of the Oval Office removed a critical constraint on Republican efforts to dismantle key Democratic social policy achievements—both old and new. Despite the absence of these important institutional veto-points, the policies that were first identified and targeted by Republicans during the Trump era have proved to be more robust than many observers and policymakers initially believed. By applying the theoretical insights and methodological tools of American Political Development, this article explores how long-running policy processes have altered the political landscape in often underappreciated ways to narrow the prospects for large-scale policy reform. More specifically, this article examines the political dynamics of Medicare and the Affordable Care Act in the early days of the Trump administration. The pressures exerted on both programs by an unpredictable president and unified Republican control of Congress provides a unique opportunity to differentiate between and assess the prospects for policy sustainability and policy stability.

Race, the Canadian Census, and Interactive Political Development

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-70
Author(s):  
Debra Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Racial Difference ◽  
American Political Development ◽  
Epistemic Communities ◽  
The Political ◽  
Domestic Institutions ◽  
National Context ◽  
Comprehensive Picture ◽  
History Of

This article explores the erratic history of counting by race on the Canadian census. It argues that the political development of racial classifications on Canadian censuses has been shaped by the interactions among evolving global ideas about race, the programmatic beliefs of international epistemic communities of statisticians and census designers, and domestic institutions involved in the administration of the census. First, Canadian census designers drew from shifting global conceptions about the nature of race and racial difference, which normatively defined the legitimate ends of race policies. Second, Canadian census designers often paid heed to the programmatic beliefs of the international statistical community about the appropriateness of collecting racial data. Finally, evolving political institutions involved in the administration of the census mediated these transnational ideas, molding them to fit the Canadian national context through institutional and cultural translative processes. Theoretically, this research makes the case that focusing on interactive political development can augment the theoretical toolbox of American political development, enabling a more comprehensive picture of the emergence, dynamism, and persistence of the Canadian racial order.

Political Choice

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Epstein
Keyword(s):  
Political Communication ◽  
Communication Strategies ◽  
The Political ◽  
Information And Communications Technologies ◽  
Political Choice ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
New Information ◽  
Communications Technologies ◽  
Choice Phase ◽  
Communication Activity

Chapter 4 explains the concept of political choice, the second and most important phase of the political communication cycle (PCC). The political choice phase is the process in which political actors choose if and when to incorporate new information and communications technologies (ICTs) into their communication strategies. This chapter details the process that political actors or organizations go through when determining whether to innovate and helps to identify characteristics of those parties that are more likely to innovate earlier than others, known as innovativeness. Political choice is the behavioral component of the political communication cycle. These innovation decisions are the primary determinants regarding if and how ICT innovations are used to change political communication activity. Therefore, political choice is the most important phase of the PCC, differentiating political communication change from social and societal communication change more broadly.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document