Unequal Participation: Democracy's Unresolved Dilemma Presidential Address, American Political Science Association, 1996

1997 ◽  
Vol 91 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arend Lijphart
Keyword(s):  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Presidential Address ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
The Other ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
National Elections ◽  
Compulsory Voting ◽  
Voting Age ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Science Association

Low voter turnout is a serious democratic problem for five reasons: (1) It means unequal turnout that is systematically biased against less well-to-do citizens. (2) Unequal turnout spells unequal political influence. (3) U.S. voter turnout is especially low, but, measured as percent of voting-age population, it is also relatively low in most other countries. (4) Turnout in midterm, regional, local, and supranational elections—less salient but by no means unimportant elections—tends to be especially poor. (5) Turnout appears to be declining everywhere. The problem of inequality can be solved by institutional mechanisms that maximize turnout. One option is the combination of voter-friendly registration rules, proportional representation, infrequent elections, weekend voting, and holding less salient elections concurrently with the most important national elections. The other option, which can maximize turnout by itself, is compulsory voting. Its advantages far outweigh the normative and practical objections to it.

Compulsory Voting and Income Inequality: Evidence for Lijphart's Proposition from Venezuela

2017 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
pp. 122-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
John M. Carey ◽  
Yusaku Horiuchi
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Presidential Address ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
Unequal Distribution ◽  
Compulsory Voting ◽  
Policy Debates ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Latin American Countries ◽  
Distribution Of Income ◽  
Science Association

AbstractWhat difference does it make if the state makes people vote? The question is central to normative debates about the rights and duties of citizens in a democracy, and to contemporary policy debates in a number of Latin American countries over what actions states should take to encourage electoral participation. Focusing on a rare case of abolishing compulsory voting in Venezuela, this article shows that not forcing people to vote yielded a more unequal distribution of income. The evidence supports Arend Lijphart's claim, advanced in his 1996 presidential address to the American Political Science Association, that compulsory voting can offset class bias in turnout and, in turn, contribute to the equality of influence.

The Citizen as Respondent: Sample Surveys and American Democracy Presidential Address, American Political Science Association, 1995

1996 ◽  
Vol 90 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sidney Verba
Keyword(s):  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Presidential Address ◽  
Sample Survey ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
Sample Surveys ◽  
American Democracy ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Government ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Science Association

Citizen participation is the main way in which the public communicates its needs and preferences to the government and induces the government to be responsive. Since participation depends on resources and resources are unequally distributed, the resulting communication is a biased representation of the public. Thus, the democratic ideal of equal consideration is violated. Sample surveys provide the closest approximation to an unbiased representation of the public because participation in a survey requires no resources and because surveys eliminate the selection bias inherent in the fact that participants in politics are self-selected. The contrast between the participatory process and the sample survey is used to highlight the nature of the bias in the former. Surveys, however, are not seen as a practical way of providing more equal representation.

Civil Liberty After the War

1946 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-79
Author(s):  
Linden A. Mander
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Civil Liberty ◽  
Presidential Address ◽  
Gain Control ◽  
Freedom Of Speech ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
Internal Reaction ◽  
The World ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Science Association

In his presidential address delivered before the American Political Science Association in January, 1944, Professor Robert E. Cushman set forth clearly and convincingly the dilemma which confronts contemporary democratic nations. If they suppress discussion out of fear of fifth column and other subversive elements, democracy may perish from within, since constructive critical forces will in all probability be suppressed along with the elements of danger and dissatisfaction. If they permit freedom of discussion and propaganda, those hostile to democracy may use freedom of speech to gain control of the democratic processes for the purpose of suppressing the very democracy which has permitted them to ride to power.The world has seen this process at work both in Spain and in Germany, where the abuse of parliamentary immunity helped to hasten the overthrow of free peoples. And this type of danger will face the democracies after the present war at a time when emotional attitudes will be marked by greater intolerance. The danger may possibly come from those who desire internal reaction, from those who are members of fifth column groups, or possibly from a combination of both; for in an age of confused purposes national groups willing to link themselves with foreign elements for the forcible suppression of parties and groups of which they disapprove have come to be not uncommon.

scholarly journals Law and Organization: Presidential Address the Eleventh Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association

1915 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Bassett Moore
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Annual Meeting ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Presidential Address ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
The World ◽  
The Moment ◽  
The Mind ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Science Association

Webster, as a prelude to his reply to Hayne, asked for the reading of the resolution before the Senate, in order that the mind of his hearers might be led back to the original and perhaps forgotten subject of the debate. Today we may well imitate his example, by recurring to fundamental principles. For five months we have stood in the presence of one of the most appalling wars in history, appalling not only because of its magnitude and destructiveness but also because of its frustration of hopes widely cherished that the progress of civilization had rendered an armed conflict between the leading powers of the world morally impossible. As a result we have since the outbreak of the great conflict been tossing about on the stormy sea of controversy, distrustful of our charts and guides, and assailed on every hand with cries of doubt and despair. We have been told that there is no such thing as international law; that, even if its existence be admitted, it is at most nothing but what superior force for the time being ordains; that international understandings, even when embodied in treaties, are practically worthless, being obligatory only so long as they may be conceived to subserve the interests or necessities of the moment; that the only security for the observance of international rules, general or conventional, is force, and that in force we must in the last analysis find our sole reliance.

A Way of Life and Law: Presidential Address, American Political Science Association, 1994

1995 ◽  
Vol 89 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles O. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Presidential Address ◽  
Primary Phase ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Single Institution ◽  
The Core ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Science Association

This address stresses the importance of the study of lawmaking. Three advantages in particular are emphasized: lawmaking is the core decision-making process in a democracy, its study offers an opportunity for Americanists to overcome concentrations on a single institution, and it provides a basis for comparative analysis. The discussion focuses on statute making as a primary phase of lawmaking. Four concepts—iteration, inquiry, speculation, and declaration—are identified as key, unexplored characteristics of statute making that hold substantial promise for research.

Identity challenges Facing the Association for Politics and the Life Sciences

2011 ◽  
Vol 30 (01) ◽  
pp. 77-79
Author(s):  
David Goetze
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Research Methods ◽  
Life Sciences ◽  
The Other ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
The Political ◽  
Early Success ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Science Association

Founded in 1980, the Association for Politics and the Life Sciences (APLS) sought to establish biopolitics as a recognized field and to integrate biologically based research methods into mainstream political science. The association's founders established these goals to encourage a generation of scholars and promote the spread of biopolitical knowledge. There was early success when the American Political Science Association (APSA) recognized biopolitics as an organized section. However, this development did not leave an appreciable imprint on the political science profession and the experiment conjoining the two did not last long. The other goal of the founders, to integrate biologically based research methods into mainstream political science, faced more formidable obstacles and still faces challenges, though not without some progress.

The Relations of Political Science to History and to Practice: Presidential Address, Fifth Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association

1909 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Bryce
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Annual Meeting ◽  
Presidential Address ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future ◽  
Mathematical Sciences ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Science Association ◽  
Universal Application

Whether or no it be true, as someone has said, that with words we govern men, it is at least certain that when a name has once passed into common speech it becomes a fact and a power. The term Political Science seems now generally accepted and your Association has by its very title expressed the opinion that Politics is a science. Nevertheless, to prevent misconception, we may properly ask “What sort of a science is it?” The mathematical sciences are described as exact sciences: and so too are such departments of knowledge as mechanics and physics. The laws and conclusions of these sciences can be expressed in precise terms. They can be stated in numbers. As the facts which these sciences deal with are the same everywhere and at all times, so the relations of those facts which we call Laws are of universal application. That being so we can predict their action and rely upon them to be the same in the future as they have been in the past.

Report of the Committee on Policy of the American Political Science Association for the Year 1935

1936 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 142-165
Author(s):  
Thomas H. Reed
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Presidential Address ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
Carnegie Corporation ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Set Up ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Science Association

So long a time has now elapsed since the creation of the first Committee on Policy that even old members of the Association need to be reminded of the order of events.As a result of certain expressions used by Charles A. Beard in his presidential address at the St. Louis meeting of the Association in December, 1926, a Committee on Policy was set up for the purpose of making a survey of the field of political science and the opportunities and obligations of the Association. This committee, as originally appointed by President W. B. Munro in January, 1927, consisted of C. A. Beard (chairman), C. E. Merriam, F. A. Ogg, R. C. Brooks, W. F. Willoughby, and J. R. Hayden. The following May, Dr. Beard, though remaining a member of the Committee, resigned the chairmanship and was replaced in that position by Thomas H. Reed. The Committee applied to the Carnegie Corporation for aid in making the required study and received in December, 1927, a grant of $7,500. The Committee, with certain changes in membership, continued in existence until December, 1930.

The Law and the Facts: Presidential Address, Seventh Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association

1911 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Woodrow Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Annual Meeting ◽  
Actual World ◽  
Presidential Address ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
Life Changes ◽  
The Face ◽  
Life Itself ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Science Association

The life of society is a struggle for law. Where life is fixed in unalterable grooves, where it moves from day to day without change or thought of change, law is also, of course, stationary, permanent, graven upon the face of affairs as if upon tables of stone. But where life changes law changes, changes under the impulse and fingering of life itself. For it records life; it does not contain it; it does not originate it. It is subsequent to fact; it takes its origin and energy from the actual circumstances of social experience. Law is an effort to fix in definite practice what has been found to be convenient, expedient, adapted to the circumstances of the actual world. Law in a moving, vital society grows old, obsolete, impossible, item by item. It is not necessary to repeal it or to set it formally aside. It will die of itself,—for lack of breath,—because it is no longer sustained by the facts or by the moral or practical judgments of the community whose life it has attempted to embody.

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