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432. How Change Happens—Or Doesn't: The Politics of U.S. Public Policy, Elaine C. Kamarck
- Author:
- Rob A. Deleo
- Publication Date:
- 01-2015
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Political Science Quarterly
- Institution:
- Academy of Political Science
- Abstract:
- From streams theory to the punctuated equilibrium model to the advocacy coalition framework, “policy change” is one of the most heavily theorized topics in the subfield of public policy. Elaine Kamarck's How Change Happens—Or Doesn't: The Politics of US Public Policy provides an insider's view of policy change, forgoing rigid empiricism in lieu of a more applied investigation. How Change Happens is essentially a “how to” guide for policy entrepreneurs, identifying the various political levers, players, norms, and processes that drive or stunt large-scale reform. Kamarck argues that policy change is an inherently complex and unpredictable process—often resulting from sheer luck—that cannot be explained via a single unifying academic model. - See more at: http://www.psqonline.org/article.cfm?IDArticle=19339#sthash.9K9Ebu5z.dpuf
- Topic:
- Politics
- Political Geography:
- United States
433. The American Political Landscape, Byron E. Shafer and Richard H. Spady
- Author:
- Robert A. Jackson
- Publication Date:
- 01-2015
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Political Science Quarterly
- Institution:
- Academy of Political Science
- Abstract:
- Byron Shafer and Richard Spady rely on cutting-edge data analyses and graph¬ical presentations to provide a detailed accounting of how social characteristics have shaped core political values, which, in turn, has structured the presidential vote across the 1984–2008 elections. The study stands apart for the sheer richness and depth of its analyses of a specific data source—namely, the 1987 through 2009 Pew Values Surveys—to gain insight into the shifting contours of the American electorate. An application of item response theory to consistent sets of questions enables Shafer and Spady to produce indicators of two unobservable attitudinal dimensions: economics and culture. - See more at: http://www.psqonline.org/article.cfm?IDArticle=19340#sthash.C8UA9e6m.dpuf
- Topic:
- Economics, Politics, and Culture
- Political Geography:
- America
434. Political Parties in Africa: Ethnicity and Party Formation, Sebastian Elischer
- Author:
- Michael Bratton
- Publication Date:
- 01-2015
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Political Science Quarterly
- Institution:
- Academy of Political Science
- Abstract:
- If you ask any lay person—or most scholars of comparative politics—about the motivation for party formation in Africa, they are likely to offer the same answer: ethnicity. In a welcome antidote to this orthodoxy, Sebastian Elischer argues that African political parties and party systems are much more diverse than that. He relies upon seminal analysis by Larry Diamond and Richard Gunther to propose a typology of five ideal varieties: the mono-ethnic party, the multi-ethnic alliance, the catch-all party, the programmatic party, and the personalistic party. While the first two types arise from ethnic foundations, the last three are distinctly non-ethnic. If nothing else, this book will discourage future analysts from lazily conflating all forms of party organizations in Africa under an ethnic label. - See more at: http://www.psqonline.org/article.cfm?IDArticle=19342#sthash.LW64K7fo.dpuf
- Topic:
- Politics
- Political Geography:
- Africa
435. Making Constitutions: Presidents, Parties and Institutional Choice in Latin America, Gabriel L. Negretto
- Author:
- Tom Ginsburg
- Publication Date:
- 01-2015
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Political Science Quarterly
- Institution:
- Academy of Political Science
- Abstract:
- Latin America is something of a constitutional graveyard, in which formal texts have been replaced frequently over the past two centuries. Focusing especially on the period of relative political stability after 1978, Gabriel Negretto has produced a masterful book that helps us to understand constitutional politics in the region and beyond. Integrating quantitative analysis with a series of case studies, Negretto's innovative analysis makes this book required reading for students of constitutional design. - See more at: http://www.psqonline.org/article.cfm?IDArticle=19344#sthash.T6DRR8OT.dpuf
- Topic:
- Politics
- Political Geography:
- America and Latin America
436. The Fragmented Politics of Urban Preservation: Beijing, Chicago, and Paris, Yue Zhang
- Author:
- Max Page
- Publication Date:
- 01-2015
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Political Science Quarterly
- Institution:
- Academy of Political Science
- Abstract:
- Saving, living in, and visiting historic places is perhaps the most-common way in which people consciously interact with the past. And yet, only in the last several decades has the movement received the sustained scholarly attention that it deserves, from historians, anthropologists, sociologists, and architects. Political scientists focusing on this key strategy of urban development in worldwide urban development, however, have been scarce. The Fragmented Politics of Urban Preservation is, therefore, an invaluable addition to the literature that should bring more attention to the central questions that preservationists ask: why is the effectiveness of preservation efforts so different in cities around the world? What accounts for success and failure in preservation struggles? Most preservationists have preferred to rely on limited answers about the relative significance of the buildings or landscapes to be preserved, or relative effectiveness of the advocacy coalition. In fact, Yue Zhang argues that we must understand not only the fragmented politics that define cities, but also the particular kind of fragmentation that is dominant in a given city. - See more at: http://www.psqonline.org/article.cfm?IDArticle=19348#sthash.BjImlmBj.dpuf
- Topic:
- Development and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Paris, Beijing, and Chicago
437. Why Factions Switch Sides in Civil Wars: Rivalry, Patronage, and Realignment in Sudan
- Author:
- Lee J. M. Seymour
- Publication Date:
- 01-2015
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- International Security
- Institution:
- Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- Side switching by armed groups is a prominent feature of many civil wars. Shifts in alignment have far-reaching consequences, influencing key outcomes such as civil war duration and termination, military effectiveness, levels of civilian victimization, and state-building prospects. In Sudan's wars, ideological and ethnic cleavages have not influenced factional alignments nearly as much as one might expect given the prominence of clashing political projects and ethnically organized violence in southern Sudan and Darfur. Recent explanations highlighting the role of territorial control, factional infighting, or relative power considerations also have limited value. In many wars fought in weak states characterized by low barriers to side switching, two mechanisms explain patterns of collaboration and defection: first, political rivalries that lead actors to collaborate in exchange for military support in localized struggles; and second, patronage-based incentives that induce collaboration for material gain. A nested analysis drawing on original data from wars in southern Sudan and Darfur supports this argument. The findings have implications for understanding alignments in civil wars, the role of weak states in counterinsurgency, and ethnic politics more generally, as well as policy relevance for factionalized civil wars.
- Topic:
- Politics and War
- Political Geography:
- Sudan and Darfur
438. Old Habits, New Consequences: Pakistan's Posture toward Afghanistan since 2001
- Author:
- Khalid Homayun Nadiri
- Publication Date:
- 01-2015
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- International Security
- Institution:
- Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- Since September 11, 2001, Pakistan has pursued seemingly incongruous courses of action in Afghanistan. It has participated in the U.S. and international intervention in Afghanistan at the same time as it has permitted much of the Afghan Taliban's political leadership and many of its military commanders to visit or reside in Pakistani urban centers. This incongruence is all the more puzzling in light of the expansion of indiscriminate and costly violence directed against Islamabad by Pakistani groups affiliated with the Afghan Taliban. Pakistan's policy is the result not only of its enduring rivalry with India but also of historically rooted domestic imbalances and antagonistic relations with successive governments in Afghanistan. Three critical features of the Pakistani political system—the militarized nature of foreign policy making, ties between military institutions and Islamist networks, and the more recent rise of grassroots violence—have contributed to Pakistan's accommodation of the Afghan Taliban. Additionally, mutual suspicion surrounding the contentious Afghanistan-Pakistan border and Islamabad's long record of interference in Afghan politics have continued to divide Kabul and Islamabad, diminishing the prospect of cooperation between the two capitals. These determinants of Pakistan's foreign policy behavior reveal the prospects of and obstacles to resolving the numerous issues of contention that characterize the Afghanistan-Pakistan relationship today.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy, Government, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Pakistan, Afghanistan, United States, and Taliban
439. Pivot 2.0
- Author:
- Victor D. Cha, Michael J. Green, and Nicholas Szechenyi
- Publication Date:
- 01-2015
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Strategic and International Studies
- Abstract:
- Opinion surveys demonstrate that a majority of Americans consider Asia the most important region to U.S. interests and a majority of Asian experts support the Obama administration's goal of a “pivot” or “rebalance” to the Asia-Pacific region.1 Yet doubts have also grown about whether the pivot can be sustained by a president politically weakened by the 2014 midterm results, constrained by budget sequestration, and pulled into crises from Ukraine to Iraq and Iran. On issues from immigration to Cuba policy, the Obama administration and the incoming Republican Congress appear set for confrontation. Yet Asia policy remains largely bipartisan—perhaps the most bipartisan foreign policy issue in Washington. It is therefore critical—and practical— to ask that the White House and the Republican leadership in the Congress chart a common course on policy toward Asia for the next two years. This report outlines concrete areas for action on trade, China, defense, Korea, India, and Southeast Asia.
- Topic:
- Diplomacy, Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Asia
440. Why is Politics not Essentially Contested?
- Author:
- Bojan Vranic
- Publication Date:
- 02-2015
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Central European University Political Science Journal
- Institution:
- Central European University
- Abstract:
- This paper is an attempt to defend the thesis of essential contestedness against the criticism of its logical inconsistency. The author believes that such criticism results from a misconception of whether Gallie's thesis of essential contestedness can be applied to terms such as politics, law, or history. On the example of politics, the author attempts to demonstrate that this term cannot be essentially contested for at least two reasons: firstly, politics is not a concept, but a general term; secondly, it is the appraisals of the concept that are essentially contested, not the concepts themselves. The author of the paper believes that these claims will dispel the doubts about the logical consistency of the idea of essential contestability.
- Topic:
- Politics