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.

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.

Mass pressures, elite responses—roots of democratization: the case of the GDR

1992 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 305-324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Detlef Pollack
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Rapid Change ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Political Upheaval ◽  
Historical Processes ◽  
The Social ◽  
Transition Research ◽  
Agency And Structure

The article tries to explain the social and political upheaval in the former GDR by using a theoretical model worked out by Pierre Bourdieu. Transition research within political science focuses mainly on the functional prerequisites necessary to liberalize and democratize authoritarian regimes. Bourdieu’s model, however, also accounts for the historical events, the political actors and their actions, and the social and political mechanisms through which a rapid change can be realized. By applying this approach on the system’s change in the GDR it is not only possible to determine the structural and functional conditions of the upheaval, but also to describe the concrete historical processes of how the upheaval took place. The approach used here is an attempt to mediate between ‘agency’ and ‘structure’ and thus to integrate historical argumentation into the theoretical framework provided by political science and sociology.

scholarly journals Changes in the role of the political parties and institutions in the post-democracy

2021 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-22
Author(s):  
Dimitar Dimitrov
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Science ◽  
European Community ◽  
The Political ◽  
Main Approach ◽  
Democratic Societies ◽  
Corporate Elites ◽  
Political Realities ◽  
Real Danger

The article discusses the changes in the role of the political parties and institutions in the modern post-democratic societies. The goal of this paper is to present and analyze the models of establishing and functioning of the political parties and institutions in the post-democratic era, their relation with the contemporary political realities in Bulgaria and in the countries of the European Community. The main approach in the study and the analysis of the problems posed to the political parties is sociological, combined with the interdisciplinary one. The models of the political parties and institutions are traced and analyzed through the eyes of the modern political science. Outlined is the fact that there is a real danger political parties to become dependent on corporate elites and the widespread political populism. Real conditions and approaches for overcoming these shortcomings are indicated.

POLITICS, POWER AND AUTHORITY IN CONSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRACY: THE NIGERIAN EXPERIENCE FROM 2015 TO DATE

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-53
Author(s):  
Moses M. Adagbabiri
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Separation Of Powers ◽  
The Political ◽  
Leadership Roles ◽  
Constitutional Democracy ◽  
Precise Description ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Elected Representatives ◽  
Power And Authority

Politics, power, and authority are concepts in political science that have to elude precise description or apt definition because of the divergent views of the layman, scholar and the political analysts on the issue of politics, what power connotes and how authority is consti-tutionally recognized as legitimate or rightful by individuals or group. The obvious thing among these terms is the striking and often shared relationship that exist between and among them. While politics exist to pursue power, power is sought to exercise authority and pursue an interest which can either be narrowly or broadly defined in a constitutional democracy. Thus, the thrust of this paper is to assess the nitty-gritty of politics, power, and authority in Nigeria from 2015 to date with reference to constitutional and leadership roles of political actors, elected representatives and power relations among the three organs of government in a constitutional democracy. Finally, the paper recommends among others that there is a need for enlightenment program on executive – legislature relations, a col-laboration between the executive and the legislature, effective observation of the principle of separation of powers and effective oversight functions and independence of the legisla-ture and its leadership.

Some Correlates of Regime Support in Canada

1978 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allan Kornberg ◽  
Harold D. Clarke ◽  
Lawrence Leduc
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Political Regime ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Political Analysis ◽  
Matters Of Concern ◽  
Nation Wide Survey ◽  
Regime Support ◽  
The Impact

This paper is concerned with the distribution and foundations of public support for the political regime in Canada. Support for the regime historically has been a matter of concern to Canadian elites. The recent provincial electoral victory of the Parti Québécois, a party dedicated to making Quebec an independent nation, has made regime support and maintenance matters of concern to average citizens as well. The analyses that follow are based upon data gathered in a nation-wide survey of the Canadian electorate in 1974. We focus on the following areas: the extent to which socio-demographic and attitudinal variables conventionally employed in studies of political behavior are related to levels of regime support; the relationships between the direction and strength of partisanship and support for the political regime; the relationships between attitudes toward key political institutions and political actors and the level of regime support; and finally, the effects of major structural and cultural factors (i.e. federalism and regionalism) on support for the regime. From the perspective of comparative political analysis, research in these areas allows us an opportunity to comment on and expand the base of the existing empirical research on regime support. From the more particular perspective of Canadian politics, our analysis may help to clarify the impact on regime support of ethnicity, regionalism, federalism and a British-model parliamentary system.

scholarly journals Political consensus as a factor of sustainable development of the contemporary democratic society

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (10) ◽  
pp. 121-127
Author(s):  
O. L. Tupitzya ◽  
K. K. Khabarieva
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Institutional Support ◽  
Subject Area ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Responsibility ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Political Consensus ◽  
Joint Decisions ◽  
Political Compromise

The article examines innovative approaches to the use of interdisciplinary scientific research for solving the problems of contemporary political science. Attention has been given to the subject area of political consensus, in which the normative principles of the political institutes functioning acquire new meaning. The importance of political-institutional requirements for consensus-building for the legitimation of transitive political regimes is considered. The effectiveness of political consensus in the context of large-scale political crises is clarified. The importance of the stages of achieving political consensus for the new democracies, including the modern Ukraine, is determined. The purpose of the article is to establish the peculiarities of the interpretation of political consensus as a factor in the sustainable democratic development of society. The content of the theoretical and methodological foundations for the development of political and institutional support of political consensus is elucidated. The content of political consensus and its subject, activity of subjects and objects of political consensus, which interact with each other, is established. The level of the general political and legal culture of consensus relations, which is formed in each transformational society, is also characterized. The features of the political-institutional balance of political compromise and political consensus are revealed. Evaluated the importance of political consensus implies the state of universal consent of political actors within the framework of the adoption of macro-political decision. The attention was paid to promoting a political compromise in transformational societies in modern political science. The factors of political and institutional support of political consensus are analyzed, which determine the necessity of making joint decisions by separate branches of power and interim authorities. The processes were studied when the collegial consensus decision-making was established, which determined the joint political responsibility of political actors and the entire population of the country or another country that enjoyed political and legal sovereignty.The attention paid to the constitutional forms of political and institutional provision of political consensus determines the need for joint decisions by separate branches of power and interim authorities.It has been established that, unlike other political and legal acts regulating the functioning of statehood within individual countries and regions of the world, acts that are part of political and institutional support of political consensus should regulate the number of subjects of consensus and its results.It is determined that, in general, the political and institutional provision of political consensus in developed democracies forms a basic model of consensual democracy in which minority rights are provided with a high level of consultation and fulfillment of interests.It was clarified that normative-legal acts belong to the sphere of political-institutional support of political consensus not through the content, which contains specific means of regulation concerning the stage of formation of political consensus.

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