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Begin New Search Journal Political Science Quarterly Publication Year within 25 Years

311. The Racial Logic of Politics: Asian Americans and Party Competition

Author:
Claire Jean Kim
Publication Date:
03-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
The scholarship that addresses Asian Americans in relation to electoral politics is still small, though growing. Thomas Kim's book is a welcome addition to this literature. Kim poses a question about election year 1996: Why did Asian American political elites who appeared poised to realize gains in political influence in the presidential election season find themselves not only marginalized but also vilified by both Democrats and Republicans as agents of Communist China? The short answer, according to Kim: Asian American political elites fundamentally misunderstood the possibilities for attaining political power in the two-party system. Using the campaign finance scandal of 1996 as his main example, Kim argues that the two-party system creates structural incentives, indeed imperatives, for both parties to exclude Asian Americans and to treat them as a racial bogeyman that must be kept at bay. With Asian Americans racialized as perpetual foreigners working as agents of foreign powers, party leaders engage in a rational calculation that tells them that the political costs of bringing Asian Americans into the party outweigh the benefits. Party leaders need not be racist or hold prejudiced attitudes, Kim emphasizes; they need only behave strategically for this dynamic to hold. Destined to remain at the gate looking in, Asian Americans should turn their attention, Kim avers, to community-level political work and give up on attaining power in the national electoral arena.
Political Geography:
America and Asia

312. Electing America's Governors: The Politics of Executive Elections

Author:
Thad Kousser
Publication Date:
03-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
Governors occupy a peculiar and precarious position in American politics, David Leal's comprehensive new book on gubernatorial elections demonstrates. They are embedded in the national party system, and are often punished in open-seat elections if they are from the same party as the president. Yet they have some freedom to shape the local meaning of party labels, or even to run strongly as minor-party or independent candidates. While governors of states large and small are often mentioned as possible presidential contenders, they are twice as likely to be defeated in reelection contests as U.S. senators.
Political Geography:
United States

313. The Political and Economic Forces Shaping Concentrated Poverty

Author:
William J. Wilson
Publication Date:
12-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
Through the second half of the 1990s and into the early years of the twenty-first century, public attention to the plight of poor black Americans seemed to wane. There was scant media attention to the problem of concentrated urban poverty (neighborhoods in which a high percentage of the residents fall beneath the federally designated poverty line), little or no discussion of inner-city challenges by mainstream political leaders, and even an apparent quiescence on the part of ghetto residents themselves. This was dramatically different from the 1960s, when the transition from legal segregation to a more racially open society was punctuated by social unrest that sometimes expressed itself in violent terms, as seen in the riots that followed the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Topic:
Economics
Political Geography:
America

314. Multilateral Military Interventions: Theory and Practice

Author:
Sarah E. Kreps
Publication Date:
12-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
SARAH E. KREPS advances a two-level definition of multilateralism that incorporates both quantitative and qualitative attributes of cooperation. She argues that the relative decline in American power, rather than leading to more robust multilateralism, might instead make UN-authorized interventions less tenable and ad hoc "coalitions of the willing" a viable alternative.
Topic:
Security and United Nations
Political Geography:
America

315. George W. Bush and the Partisan Presidency

Author:
Richard M. Skinner
Publication Date:
12-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
RICHARD M. SKINNER challenges notions that the strong presidency of the modern era has proved incompatible with powerful political parties. Instead, he argues that, since 1980, the United States has seen a dramatic growth in presidential partisanship across a range of areas.
Political Geography:
United States

316. Saddam Hussein and the Sunni Insurgency: Findings from Values Surveys

Author:
Mansoor Moaddel, Mark Tessler, and Ronald Inglehart
Publication Date:
12-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
MANSOOR MOADDEL, MARK TESSLER, and RONALD INGLEHART use findings from two national values surveys that were carried out in Iraq in 2004 and 2006 to determine the attitudes of the Sunni Arabs toward Saddam Hussein, which they use as a proxy measure of their attitudes toward the Sunni insurgency and American-led coalition forces.
Political Geography:
Iraq and America

317. War, Intelligence, and Honesty: A Review Essay

Author:
Robert Jervis
Publication Date:
12-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
ROBERT JERVIS analyzes what the memoirs of George Tenet and Douglas Feith tell us about themselves and about the Bush administration's war on terror and war in Iraq. He argues that as accounts of failures, they have the difficult task of defending without seeming defensive, and in the end are as important for what they reveal inadvertently as for the information they mean to convey.
Topic:
War

318. Neil Vidmar and Valerie P. Hans, American Juries: The Verdict

Author:
Geoffrey R. Stone
Publication Date:
12-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
In recent decades, the American jury has increasingly come under attack by critics who maintain that jurors are too often uninformed, irresponsible, biased, unable or unwilling to follow instructions, and incapable of understanding scientific and expert evidence. In American Juries, Neil Vidmar and Valerie Hans, two of the nationʼs foremost experts on jury trials, consider, evaluate, and largely reject these criticisms.
Political Geography:
America

319. Abdulkader H. Sinno, Organizations at War in Afghanistan and Beyond

Author:
Kimberly Marten
Publication Date:
12-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
This is a hard book to tackle. It is not as clearly organized as it might have been, and (especially in the opening theoretical chapters) its thread often gets lost in difficult, repetitive, jargon-laden prose. Yet for anyone interested in insurgency and counterinsurgency, Afghanistan and Pakistan, or late-period Soviet military history, the book is worth the effort. Abdulkader H. Sinno sheds new light on the organizational politics and sociology of Afghanistanʼs morphing militia groups, and on the 30 years of warfare engulfing the country from the Soviet invasion of 1979 to todayʼs NATO-led peace enforcement operations.
Topic:
International Organization and Politics
Political Geography:
Pakistan and Afghanistan

320. Uwe Steinhoff, On the Ethics of War and Terrorism

Author:
Jerome Slater
Publication Date:
12-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
Can terrorism, defined to mean “the direct attack on innocents for political purposes,” ever be justified? Uwe Steinhoff, a political philosopher at Oxford University, argues that there are indeed some circumstances in which the answer may be yes. Much of his analysis focuses on traditional just-war theoryʼs prohibition of attacks on noncombatants, and what he considers to be its unconvincing equation of noncombatants with “innocents,” who by virtue of their innocence must be immune from attack, even in a defensive just war. In essence, his argument is that adult civilians who support an aggressive and unjust war carried out by their democratically elected government are not truly innocent. He has in mind Israelis and Americans, and I shall argue that this creates real problems in his argument
Topic:
Terrorism and War
Political Geography:
America