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Begin New Search Publishing Institution Academy of Political Science Publication Year within 25 Years

221. Rural Protest and the Making of Modern Democracy in Mexico, 1968–2000

Author:
Juan D. Lindau
Publication Date:
08-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
This book explores how rural activism in Mexico, fostered in part by the repression of the 1968 student movement, and of the Mexican Communist Party during the subsequent decade, promoted the eventual democratization of the polity. While many have analyzed the impacts of the 1968 student movement, identifying it as the beginning of the erosion of the regime's legitimacy, this book is the most-systematic treatment, to date, of one of its central consequences. The author argues that state repression radicalized student leaders and local communist cadres, leading them to engage with, and organize, nonviolent peasant movements across the country. This peasant agitation, in turn, activated landed interests to create organizations in order to defend their interests. The interplay between these conflicting organizations nurtured the growth of both the left and the right. Moreover, the political activation of the landed business class and the peasantry undermined longstanding arrangements between the state, peasants, and the business elite. All of this debilitated Mexican corporatist structures and the ruling party (the PRI-Party of the Institutionalized Revolution) while revitalizing the PAN (National Action Party), on the right, and the PRD (Party of the Democratic Revolution), on the left.
Political Geography:
Mexico

222. The Transformation of the Workers' Party in Brazil, 1989–2009

Author:
Peter Kingstone
Publication Date:
08-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
The victory of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and the Workers' Party (PT) in Brazil's 2002 presidential election was both a watershed in Brazilian history and an important puzzle for political science. The prospect of electing Lula and his disciplined socialist party roiled financial markets and provoked a near crisis in the months leading up to the election. But instead of socialism, Lula delivered a moderate government that melded pragmatic market reform with progressive social policy. Indeed, the PT has become the model of successful leftist government in the region. But, in government, the PT has also transformed in important and distinctive ways, including installing one of the largest corruption schemes in the history of Brazil.
Political Geography:
Brazil

223. The Domestic Politics of Irrational Intelligence Oversight

Author:
Amy B. Zegart
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
AMY B. ZEGART examines the roots of weak congressional intelligence oversight and challenges the view that ineffectual oversight stems from executive branch secrecy. Instead, she finds that Congress has tied its own hands by failing to consolidate its budgetary power or to develop robust expertise in intelligence.
Topic:
Politics

224. The Republican Resurgence in 2010

Author:
Gary C. Jacobson
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
The 2010 midterm elections produced a stunning reversal of partisan fortunes. Back-to-back surges in 2006 and 2008 had raised the Democrats ʼ share of seats in the House of Representatives from 202 to 257 and in the Senate from 45 to 59.1 The 2010 election erased all of their House gains and more, with Republicans gaining a net 64 seats to win a 242-193 majority, their best showing since 1946 (Table 1). Republicans also picked up 6 Senate seats, leaving them with 47 and within striking distance of a majority in 2012, when 23 of the 33 seats at stake will be defended by Democrats. The election was also a major setback for President Barack Obama and his administration. The Republican ascendancy in Congress not only promises to block progress on his remaining agenda but also puts his signal legislative achievements, notably health care reform and financial regulation, at risk. The election also virtually guarantees bitter partisan trench warfare and record levels of polarization during the remaining two years of Obamaʼs term.

225. Nuclear Forensics: False Hopes and Practical Realities

Author:
Richard Weitz
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
RICHARD WEITZ looks at the international politics of nuclear forensics—a scientific technique that employs various investigatory methods to reveal the source and history of nuclear material. He worries that many governments and analysts underestimate the difficulties in constructing an effective nuclear forensics regime that can pinpoint those responsible for a nuclear incident and thus weakens the ability to deter by threatening nuclear retaliation.

226. Managing Fear: The Politics of Homeland Security

Author:
Benjamin H. Friedman
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
BENJAMIN H. FRIEDMAN argues that the United States has spent excessively on homeland security since September 11. He outlines psychological and political explanations for this overreaction and concludes that these factors make some overreaction to terrorism unavoidable but offers four strategies to mitigate it.
Topic:
Security and Terrorism
Political Geography:
United States

227. America's Cultural Challenge Abroad

Author:
Harvey B. Feigenbaum
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
HARVEY B. FEIGENBAUM discusses the economic and cultural reasons for the spread of American pop culture and finds that political complaints by many countries about “Americanization” are well founded.
Topic:
Economics
Political Geography:
America

228. Why Intelligence Fails: Lessons from the Iranian Revolution and the Iraq War

Author:
Loch K. Johnson
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
Anything on intelligence written by Robert Jervis is worth reading. This volume is certainly no exception. In this instance, he takes on the difficult job of trying to understand why the United States, despite spending $80 billion on intelligence each year, still makes mistakes in predicting the trajectory of world affairs.
Political Geography:
United States and Iraq

229. Newcomers, Outsiders and Insiders: Immigrants and American Racial Politics in the Early Twenty-First Century

Author:
Rodolfo O. De La Garza
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
The nationʼs demographics have dramatically changed since its founding. Since the 1960s, immigration has transformed a society almost completely populated by Europeans into a multi-religious, polyglot, majority-minority nation. Political science, except for notable exceptions, such as Lawrence Fuchʼs encyclopedic The American Kaleidoscope, is new to the study of how these immigrants have transformed the polity. Rather than target immigrationʼs effects directly, political analyses have targeted the impact of immigration via studies of Latino and Asian ethnic politics. This work, however, has not tested or produced theoretical insights into how immigration affects the nationʼs racial political processes, which is the goal of Newcomers, Outsiders and Insiders.
Political Geography:
Europe and Asia

230. Going Local: Presidential Leadership in the Post-Broadcast Age

Author:
Martin Johnson
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
This ambitious book focuses on presidential activities in the contemporary political environment that Jeffrey Cohen characterizes as marked by polarized political parties in Congress and fragmented mass media. Building on his own work (for example, the recent The Presidency in the Era of 24-Hour News) and the contextual theory that Samuel Kernell develops in the classic Going Public, Cohen connects presidential behavior to the organization of Congress and the mass media. As the shift from congressional institutional pluralism(which Cohen identifies as prevailing 1953–1969 [p. 43]) to individual pluralism (1970–1988) helps explain presidentsʼ increased emphasis on public activities covered by national media, so more-recent changes in political context have affected presidentsʼ public behavior. Cohen argues that congressional polarization and media fragmentation (1989–present) help explain recent presidential efforts to more narrowly target constituencies via interest groups and local media. As an example of this tactical shift, Cohen notes President George W. Bushʼs schedule of domestic travel to circumvent his “national Pooh-Bahs” (p. 2) and build support for legislative initiatives.
Political Geography:
United States, China, Israel, Soviet Union, and Egypt