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Whether consciously or not, political theory has traditionally approached Aristotle by way of stark contrasts with his teacher Plato. Whether in terms of a contrast between the particular and the universal, multiple appearances and the singular form, or the empirical and the metaphysical, this distinction has attained the status of presumed truth in much of philosophy and political theory. This paper draws on the work of the philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer in order to cast doubt on this categorical distinction between Aristotle on the one hand and Plato on the other. By drawing our attention to the sense in which both Aristotle and Plato concern themselves with the same problem--the idea of the good--Gadamer uncovers convergences and parallels that are potentially fruitful for political theory. This paper concludes by applying this insight to a particularly fraught segment of the contemporary political theoretical landscape--the appropriation of Aristotle in the philosophy of social science. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of elite cues rarely consider the effect of emotion on how persuasive cues are to citizens. This paper explores how emotions influence the acceptance of elite cues, focusing on foreign policy. To test how emotion affects the acceptance of foreign policy cues, I ran an experiment through Time Sharing Experiments in the Social Sciences that manipulated the type of foreign policy cue, the cue giver's partisanship, and the emotional power of the cue. By examining how emotional appeals influence the acceptance of elite cues, I test an alternative mechanism by which elites influence the public. The findings show that fear increases the persuasiveness of cues only when the cue-giver and cue-recipient come from the same political party. However, fear may also lead citizens to adopt opinions contrary to elites’ arguments. This paper reveals that fear is most effective when communicated by a trusted elite who shares citizens’ partisanship, even if the foreign policy cue is incongruent with the party’s usual stance. By considering how fear interacts with the type of foreign policy argument as well as the political identity of cue-givers, this paper complicates our understanding of when elites can persuade citizens on foreign policy. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent work in immigrant political incorporation in the social sciences has examined level of civic participation and partisanship among new immigrants. However, little attention has been focused upon another step in the political incorporation of immigrants historically, differentiation from Blacks as expressed in negative racial attitudes towards Blacks. Do new immigrants express negative racial attitudes towards Blacks similar to those expressed by earlier White ethnic immigrant groups, and if so, what accounts for these attitudes? Using the 1992-1994 Multi City Survey of Urban Inequality, this paper examines the content of immigrant racial attitudes towards Blacks and test the utility of existing theoretical explanations of negative racial attitudes that include: context, contact, and perceptions of group conflict. These models have been used primarily to account for the attitudes of Whites toward Blacks, and although potentially important to accounting for the attitudes of new immigrants, I argue that these models do not incorporate germane variables important to understanding immigrant racial attitudes. Thus, the paper also tests the utility of assimilation theory that incorporates salient independent variables such as: ethnicity, English proficiency, level of civic participation, length of residence, skin color, white contact, citizenship, and political participation which all could account for the racial attitudes of new immigrant groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does public opinion respond to the production of major legislation? A central pillar of representative democracy is that elected officials are held accountable for their actions. There is a rich literature exploring the electoral effects for legislators who deviate from their district’s opinions, and there are numerous anecdotal arguments about the consequences of scandals and foibles for both legislators and executives. However, public policy is neither made by individual Members of Congress nor exclusively by executive actions. The most significant policies are enacted through laws passed by Congress and signed by the president. Scholars have very little understanding of how the public assigns credit or blame for the net output of the legislative system. This paper addresses this question directly. As part of a larger project, this paper will examine the impact of the passage of major legislation on congressional approval. Because approval ratings are collected from individuals but legislation is produced over time, the paper employs hierarchical statistical techniques to answer this question. This method has enjoyed some popularity in education and psychological research, but has not seen frequent use in political science. Concurrent research by the author indicates that while presidential approval is responsive to the production of the system, congressional approval is unaffected. Credit and blame for the joint activities of the political system are laid at the feet of the president, not Congress. This has implications for interbranch power dynamics as well as research on public opinion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contemporary political theory there is widespread agreement that we should recognize difference within our societies. However, the philosophical foundation for this recognition remains problematic. Attempts to ground recognition in various, traditional frameworks have been frought with difficulty. Therefore, in this paper, I try to examine what we specifically mean by providing recognition. I do so by considering two closely intertwined issues. First, I consider whether is recognition provided by one individual to another, or whether the state can provide recognitoin by some means. Second, I look at the debate between Fraser and Honneth over the difference between redistribution and recognition. Through this discussion I show that recognition is provided by individuals to one another. Because of this fact, it is difficult to imagine how the state can supply recognition to individuals or require individuals to give recognition to others. Due to these limits, recognition requires clearer moral grounding. The state cannot take simple, traditional actions to provide recognition. Instead, recognition of difference, as theorists like Honneth call for, can only be grounded in broader categories of political obligation than theliterature usually considers. Thus, recognition calls for strong philosophical support to justify fairly intrusive policies. Indeed, we should explore the possibility that the recognition called for by many political theorists requires a committment that is supererogatory in nature. I close my paper by suggesting that responsibility may be a good candidate for providing the strong moral grounding that recognition requires. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term transnationalism is now commonly used by a growing cluster of social scientists. However, some authors state that the term is practically useless: it tries to explain everything, and it ends up explaining nothing new, or even worst, its regular users seem not to agree on the definition of the term, and the debates that it generates generally takes social scientists nowhere. The proposed paper deals with this situation from two perspectives. Firstly, we point out the theoretical problems that transnationalism presents as an interdisciplinary concept. We expose the use of the term in several disciplines (political science, sociology, law, economy, migration studies, and anthropology), and emphasize how these disciplines generate different theoretical considerations. Then, we expose how each discipline has dealt with different units of analysis while attempting to build a solid theoretical background, focusing mainly on the individual, the family, organizations, the society, the economy, the polity, cultural practices, and the state. Finally, we argue that the use of the term transnationalism has been transformed to a point in which is practically impossible to sustain the broader sense of the term beyond its generic roots. Terms like political transnationalism, anthropological transnationalism, sociological transnationalism, etc., form a more feasible working frame if the term is to prevail in the neighborhood. Secondly, from an empirical perspective, we develop an analysis of political transnationalism based on the Mexican immigrant experience in American cities. We focus on an organizational analysis of transnational politics, and lay emphasis on the role of the Mexican and American states in the process. In the analysis, we underline several factors that characterize the analysis within a political transnational framework, like: (1) addressing the elite formation among immigrants in the process, (2) the agenda setting process, and (3) underlining the effect that non-electoral politics exert on electoral politics, mostly at local and state levels, within a framework of political mobilization of a immigrant community in an urban setting. Data for this paper was obtained from in-situ historical research, analysis of secondary sources, and more than 50 interviews that took place mostly in Houston and Chicago, between February and July 2002. Interviewees include leaders, activists, organizers, chairmen, and priests within a wide range of organizational backgrounds: community-based organizations, service providers, unions, church-based organizations, chambers of commerce, civic associations, and Mexican state federations. Immigration scholars, officials from the Mexican Consulate and city officials in both cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The R statistical computing environment has become increasingly popular in the social sciences. In this paper I present techniques for plotting data-based ("choropleth") maps using several R add-on packages and freely-available mapping data from the U.S. Census Bureau and other sources, which may be helpful for researchers who want to integrate cartography into their existing R workflows. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modernity, according to Charles Taylor, has presented the chief problem of modern social science. Is the unprecedented combination of new practices, new ways of living, and new forms of malaise, a single and culturally neutral phenomenon, potentially explainable by a general theory? Or does such an account, as adherents of "the politics of difference" have maintained, inevitably impose a liberal homogenizing mold upon a diverse world? This paper engages, through an interpretation of Taylor's portrayal of the contemporary claims of "the politics of equal dignity" and "the politics of difference", Taylor's argument that there are multiple modernities, which are the products of constructed self-understandings and practices, and his corresponding critique of theories of modernity which explicitly or implicitly view modernity as liberation from the confining horizons and intellectual limitations of the pre-modern world. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I offer a reinterpretation of the origins and content of Isaiah Berlin's political thought. Through an examination of post-World War II social and political thought, and Berlin's response to what he saw as the central intellectual trends of this period, I suggest that his development as a political thinker -- and, particularly, his account of liberty -- was motivated not only by opposition to Soviet Communism (as the conventional view holds), but also by a reaction against what I call 'managerialism' -- the mixture of paternalism and the application of a scientific or technical model of governance to society. Berlin's critique of the assumptions behind and implications of 'managerialism' runs through his writings on politics, history, philosophy and the social sciences. This opposition to 'managerialism' was intertwined with his account of liberty; and re-examining Berlin's account of liberty in light of his 'anti-managerialism' reveals a greater sympathy on his part for 'positive liberty' than has generally been recognized by interpreters of Berlin's work. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In his classic Bureaucracy, James Q. Wilson observes that transformational leadership in public administration is “…so heavily dependent on executive interests and beliefs as to make the chance appearance of a change-oriented personality enormously important in explaining change.” He pessimistically concludes that, “it is not easy to build a useful social science theory out of ‘chance appearances’.” But what if a change-oriented bureaucrat’s appearance at the top of an organization is not due to random chance? This paper argues that the personalities of bureaucratic agency heads are systematic consequences of professional career systems. Data are drawn from a behavioral survey and psychological probes of police chiefs serving American municipalities. I show that government hiring and promotional policies and the adaptive behaviors of professionals lead to distinct patterns of executive personality and, ultimately, political leadership in the bureaucracy. Over time, career mobility favors achievement-motivated individuals, who Wilson might say have “change-oriented personalities.” ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In April and May, 2007, our research team conducted a public engagement focussed on the issue of biobanks. This event (The BC Biobank Deliberation) was informed by political theory on deliberative democracy with the aim of informing biobank policies in British Columbia. The data generated by the event include presentations made by small breakaway groups, pre and post surveys of participants about their position on a range of biobanking issues, and audio recordings and transcripts of all deliberations. Identifying specific conclusions to be delivered to policy makers from this large amount of data is not a self evident process. The purpose of this paper is to provide a conceptual framework for the identification of such conclusions. We thus provide a critical analysis of how the “deliberative product” of a public engagement can be conceptualised given the context of a large data set and an imperative to provide useful information to policy makers, while honouring the mandate under which deliberants were recruited. In particular, we make the case for distinguishing between the deliberative outputs of public engagement and the analytical outputs that are the product of social scientific analyses of such engagements. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What are the effects of governance structures upon research concentration? This paper addresses this issue in the context of public-private R&D collaboration across 39 countries from 1981 to 2005. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What accounts for variation in support for democracy among religious organizations? This paper explores the importance of institutional factors in determining support for democracy among church authorities in Latin America from 1970-2005. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of comedy in the Nicomachean Ethics as a response to the tragedy inherent in Aristotle’s presentation of the virtues. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines those factors, both international and domestic, that are most influential in a state’s decision to adopt a legislative gender quota, including diffusion patterns and regime-type. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to understand the ways in which Montesquieu's liberalism modifies that of Locke, particularly with a view to his abandonment of the social contract, and his emphasis on moderation and piece-meal reform. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper shows how to specify and estimate models with spatial cross-unit interdependence of binary-outcome dependent-variables, and how to interpret, evaluate, and present their estimated spatial or spatio-temporally dynamic effects (w/s.e.'s). ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over recent decades in western democracies new governance patterns have emerged that have challenged prevailing analytical models and generated a diversity of new approaches. What is often missed in both cases is the issue of how the relationship between politics and policy is reconfigured and re-orientated in these new patterns. This paper attempts to first describe how this relationship appears to have changed in terms of a communication systems shift. Second, it will investigate ways of characterizing the difference between older politics-policy forms and more recent policy-politics patterns as a shift from model to modal behaviour. This second aspect draws attention to the emergent qualities of interactive policy formation thus sensitizing political analysis to questions of how open generative modes operate in fluid conditions while nonetheless 'authoritatively allocating value' (Easton). ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

My paper traces the development of Charles Taylor's thought from his interpretive approach to understanding social practices to the way his interpretivism about knowledge gives rise to and supports his account of normative politics. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Longstanding psychological theories have stressed that individual value preferences are very stable, highly structured and broadly applicable to virtually all situational contexts. But, recent research in political science suggests that value choices may be relatively malleable and susceptible to contextual effects. This paper uses some unique data obtained from an internet survey in order to address the important issues raised by these potentially conflicting perspectives. The method of triads is used to obtain replicated pairwise value choices from respondents, subject to an experimental manipulation which primed particular values and value conflicts. The empirical results show that most people do make consistent pairwise choices among values. Furthermore, most individuals' sets of pairwise choices are fullytransitive, meaning that they can be assembled into hierarchical structures. Finally, value choices are largely impervious to priming effects. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, liberal polities have seen a marked rise in group-based claims. Given that liberalism is a political theory which traditionally prioritizes the individual over groups, there has been much discussion about how liberalism might respond to multicultural demands. In this paper, I discuss what I take to be the four ways liberalism might respond, showing that liberals cannot be multiculturalists unless they embrace a libertarian form of liberalism. This is an unhappy consequence because it misses that some form of recognition is at the heart of group-based claims. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a paper on contemporary political theory that explores why Wittgenstein has not had much influence on theorizing today and seeks to show the potential of his philosophical insights for a new critical political theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does the political agenda vary across time and space? This paper provides evidence that both the number and the nature of the fundamental conflicts that underpin political competition differ in advanced industrial democracies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a new look at principal-agent theory based on a richer definition of information, more realistic structural configurations, and goal conflict. Often principal-agent models in political science are posited using a flat bi-structural assumption. This approach has produced a number of interesting findings, but it fails to capture realistically complicated structures in executive branch relationships. we evalute these principles with a look at a large, complicated, and evolving federal agency, the Department of Homeland Security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

My paper explores the renewed turn to biology social inquiry. I argue that there are multiple ways that nature can be conceptualized in social inquiry and that a Kantian model offers advantages that political scientists should find appealing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper re-assesses aspects of Martin Wight?s work. In the process, it questions many of the common interpretations of his texts. In doing so, it also forces IR to re-evaluate the English School of IR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I present data from recent experiments using functional brain imagining to argue for a broader view of political cognition rooted in our evolutionary history as social animals applying our values to achieve desired outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines social citizenship in the distinct welfare systems of Denmark and the U.S., 1990-1999. The results demonstrate that both inefficient outcomes and strict emphasis on efficiency in implementation are detrimental. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the civic potential of community-based energy. Through content analyses and participant surveys, we examine citizens' motivations for joining and participating in such organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the recommendation that knowledge questions be phrased, framed, and administered so as to minimize the frequency of "don't know" (DK) responses. We experimentally manipulate knowledge items put to a national random sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social scientists have long recognized that time-series-cross-section (TSCS) data typically correlate across time and space. Today, standard social-science practice is to model dynamics (i.e., temporal dependence) directly, typically with lags of the dependent variable, but to address spatial dependence solely by applying panel-corrected (robust) standard-errors (PCSE), thereby treating spatial dependence as a nuisance (Beck and Katz’s 1996 terminology). However, regardless of the analyst’s substantive interest in these relationships, direct modeling of spatial dependence (plus PCSE perhaps) enhances efficiency and is required for unbiased and consistent estimates of the coefficients on non-spatial regressors and any associated hypothesis tests or confidence intervals. Whereas analysts less interested in spatial relations per se will understandably wish to employ simple proxies for more complicated diffusion processes, those directly interested will prefer more sophisticated modeling techniques for estimating the dyadic patterns of diffusion in their data. Our broad project uses Monte Carlo experiments to evaluate the performance of several simple and sophisticated estimators under three important types of spatial correlation (the more-complex being spatial analogues to estimators devised for dynamic panel models: e.g., Hsiao 1986; Baltagi 1995) and develops a set of techniques and guidelines to help analysts diagnose, characterize, and gauge various sorts of spatial correlation, and to choose and interpret appropriate estimators based on their objectives. This paper leverages globalization and capital taxation as substantive venue to start such methodological explorations. Many academic and casual observers argue that the dramatic post-1970s rise in international capital mobility and the steadily upward postwar trend in trade integration, by sharpening capital’s threat against domestic governments to flee purportedly excessive and inefficient taxation, has forced and will continue to force welfare-/tax-state retrenchment and tax-burden shifts away from more-mobile capital (especially financial capital) and toward less-mobile labor (especially manual labor). Several important recent studies of the international and comparative political economy of policy change over this period challenge such claims. We review several such arguments and offer a preliminary evaluation, specifying empirical models directly from fully-developed theoretical models (e.g., Persson & Tabellini 2000, ch. 12) that, unlike these and other previous efforts, embody the spatial relationships central to such diffusion processes. Specifically, we introduce a spatial error-correction model, explain how it derives directly from the theoretical model and reflects directly the diffusion process central to that theoretical argument, and estimate it from data on capital taxation and political-economic conditions in 12 OECD countries, 1966-96. The results support a strong, but not total, constraining/diffusion effect of capital mobility on domestic autonomy in taxation. The constraining/diffusion effect varies across pairs of countries and over time in ways easily explained substantively by the political-economic context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Laments have grown in recent years over the increasingly widespread belief that most policy analysis is now being driven by the service of specific, powerful interests. Three types of responses are apparent: On the right in particular, interest groups have supported the development of "think tanks"; serving particular ideological perspectives, which nurture the development of a cadre of "hired guns"; to develop analytic resources to support established views. A second response is typified by the recent report charted by the minority party in the House, criticizing the politicization of analysis and presumably seeking a return to the world of "neutral expertise". The third response is found in the academic literature, where critics urge the development of a broader discourse (including unrepresented and under-represented groups) and information supporting neglected perspectives and voices (e.g. Hajer, 2003). We can infer a larger critique from these efforts -- that policy analytic tools, and the substantial resources of information and understanding that they represent, are skewing policy deliberation. We argue that these laments offer an incompletely specified response to the defective political process that they have identified. In answer, we offer what we call "the analytic contract" model of policy analysis which we believe offers an approach to analysis that can resolve the concerns that these critics have identified. The model has two important strengths: it prescribes a process that both enhances and focuses policy deliberation; in ways that should enrich participation, and it offers analysts a clearly prescribed role that relies on the strengths of a professional community. Briefly, the model envisages a several stage process. At the outset, an interested party or parties identifies the need for an analysis, perhaps in response to exogenous triggering events, or perhaps not. These interests, together with other interested parties, can then be expected to advertise the need for analysis. This leads to the "contract phase -- in this phase, a "professional analyst" is invited into the process, perhaps with some funding or other support, or perhaps operating on internal resources. The analyst (which may be an individual or may be an organization) then seeks to formulate an "analytic contract". They begin the process by developing a stakeholder survey: this involves the identification of relevant stakeholders (others, e.g. Dunn, 2003, have explored some of these issues, albeit not conclusively), and the development of an understanding of their interests. In this phase, the "policy analyst", operating as a professional, is responsible for identifying relevant stakeholders and incorporating them into the process. We argue that this process offers some hope of overcoming "moblization biases", by charging analysts to operate as professionals, accountable not only to recognized interests, but also to a professional community for their responsibility to identify and incorporate the interests of those interested, but not effectively mobilized. Once this stakeholder community has been identified, the policy analyst then moves to the development of an analytic contract -- but in consultation with the broader stakeholder community that has now been identified. In keeping with Lowi’s insight of many years ago, we argue that the crystallization of this process into a March and Olsen-like "choice opportunity" (as opposed to the more typical evolving soup of policy windows and deeply ambiguous moments of opportunity) improves the chances for the incorporation of poorly mobilized and thinly supported interests. This process is related, in ways to be explored in greater length in the paper, to the literature on democratic discourse and deliberative democracy. The analytic contract that is ultimately negotiated through the facilitation of the professional analysts specifies the questions to be investigated and the data and information resources to be employed (including any relevant research design issues). The analytic contract may, quite plausibly, address multiple and not necessarily commensurate objectives -- it is intended, after all, to "improve the opportunity for the exercise of informed judgement" as E.S Quade said, not to determine policy. Once this contract has been developed, the analysts is then prepared to develop funding for the work envisaged. The analyst remains responsible to the professional community for an appropriate execution of this analytic contract, but this does not preclude the development of support for the work that is more partial and self-serving (so long as the entire contracted exercise is undertaken). This process recognizes that not all analysis will prove "successful", nor will it yield unambiguous results. It seeks to offer "objective analysis"; in an "accountability framework"; (as Landau observed years ago, "objectivity is accountability"; "offering fair controls over assertions, not pristine, unambiguous facts). Analysts are accountable to the community of stakeholders (for the deliberations over the identification and clarification of their sometimes distinctive interests) and to the community of professional analysis for the appropriate development of a fully realized map of the stakeholder universe; for the development of a well articulated analytic contract, in response to their interests; and for the appropriate execution of the terms of this contract. The professional community, then, provides the validation of these analysts -- those operating without this imprimatur, then, are appropriately understood to be engaging in a different enterprise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1.My paper addreses the theoretical underpinnings of compassion-based politics through the writings of Roussea and Marvin Olasky. 2. I would also like to serve as chair of a panel dealing with the teaching of political science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What accounts for variation in compliance with international norms, specifically human rights? The literature in political science is relatively silent on this important issue. In fact, there has been little theoretical development on norm compliance in the area of human rights. Many assume that democracy leads to compliance with international norms, yet we still see varying degrees of compliance even within democratic states. Previous explanations are limited to the role of ethical and legal obligations in ensuring compliance. To date, scholars have failed to ask why a state?s self-interest might encourage compliance. For this reason, we seek to develop a theory of nation-state compliance with international norms in the context of human rights, one that remedies some of the gaps in the literature. We theorize that a state complies with human rights norms based on international and domestic factors, within which self-interest plays a significant part. In addition to internal economic and political pressures, international concerns such as reputation and regional influences affect the extent to which a state will comply with international norms. In this paper, we outline the major tenets of our theory and suggest a research design using a dependent variable that incorporates comprehensive measures of state compliance with international human rights treaties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the history of political thought, there is a discernible tradition that has long made a distinction between the form and spirit of government. This decisively European (particularly French) tradition is best represented by Montesquieu, but also includes the likes of Hegel, Rousseau and Tocqueville. The central claim of this tradition is that types of governments have both a universal and a particular form. The constitutional (institutional and procedural forms) should be particular to contexts, but should still embody the universal principles that define the form, as that designates the type of government—e.g. a democracy as opposed to a monarchy. Yet, they suggest that for the constitutional form or type to be meaningful and descriptive of the society/country, it is necessary that the principles that underlie this type of government be evident in the mores, manners, and behavior (the spirit) of its people. In other words, the forms are a) only as meaningful and accurate as a description and, more importantly, b) only likely to be successful to the extent that they become embodied in the spirit of the people. In this paper, I will first fully develop the core arguments of this tradition in political thought. As I reconstruct the core content of this tradition, I will trace it through each of theorists cited above. Then, I will argue that this tradition has its orgins in Aristotle, who argued that the legislator should model the educative process after the fact that the sociological evolution of the individual is based first on nature, then on habit, and finally on reason. After having reconstructed this tradition and demonstrated its connection to Aristotelian thought, I will then suggest that the spirit/form tradition is a valuable theoretical tool. I argue that the spirit/form tradition establishes criteria by which a political scientist can: a) Evaluate the stability of a regime type within a country b) Evaluate the legitimacy of a government within a country and c) Suggest what alternative types of government might be better suited for a country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Entering into coalitions has become a standard tactic for interest groups trying to maximize success while minimizing cost. The strategic conditions underlying decisions to form or join coalitions are beginning to be explored in the political science literature, yet very little is known about the process and criteria through which interest groups select coalition partners. In this paper, I explore the partner selection process by applying a spatial theory of coalition formation (c.f. Laver & Shepsle 1996) to interest group participation on Amicus Curiae briefs from 1999-2003. Using multidimensional scaling (MDS) techniques, I demonstrate that the lobbying efforts of groups can be used to generate a general ideological orientation for each group. With captured ideology scores, I generate statistical models of interest group participation before the Supreme Court, both in terms of frequency of participation and coalition partner selection. This research demonstrates that the “ideology” scores captured for each group are powerful predictors of both which side of a particular issue a group can be expected to support and also of which other groups are likely to be selected as coalition partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

John Nash, the subject of Nasar?s (1999) A Beautiful Mind, affected political science in important ways. His equilibrium concept and variants of it provide a foundation for many formal models of politics. But do political actors have beautiful minds? We ask this question to focus attention on the relationship between how people think and the underlying cognitive requirements of popular equilibrium concepts. Some actors, particularly citizens who are politically engaged, are unlikely to satisfy these requirements in political environments. For such actors and circumstances, we advocate a different equilibrium concept -- Fudenberg and Levine?s (1993) self-confirming equilibrium. It allows modelers to incorporate a far broader range of cognitive styles than more commonly used concepts. We close the paper with two examples that highlight the advantages of this modeling approach. We conclude that political science can increase the range and depth of its contributions by expanding its repertoire of solution concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paper proposed as part of panel 031015: Questioning the Applicability of the Natural Science Model to Political Science For over a century, hermeneutic-phenomenological thinkers such as Dilthey, Gadamar and Charles Taylor have been pointing out a critical difference between the natural and social sciences, which renders the methods of the first inappropriate for the latter. Natural objects exist independently of what the researcher thinks about them; they cannot, in Anthony Giddens’s words,answer back to the investigator. In the social sciences, however, the facts may be changed by the desire to change [them]; and this desire, already present in the mind of the investigator, may be extended, as the result of this investigation, to a sufficient number of other human beings to make it effective. The purpose is not, as in the physical sciences, irrelevant to the investigation and separable from it: it is itself one of the facts (E. H. Carr). The mainstream of American political science ignored this hermeneutic critique and had increasingly become committed to a positivist epistemology patterned after the model of the natural sciences. Interestingly, the discipline’s continuing aspiration to become a science coincides with a growing aspiration to become relevant to public debates and policymaking. For example, recent APSA president Robert Putnam launched an initiative to enhance the public presence of political science. The putative contradiction between these aspirations -- to be detached from the politics we study while seeking to influence these politics -- is rarely discussed. I seek to (re)open such a discussion through a critique of three important books in IR: Jack Snyder’s Myths of Empire, Yuen Foong Khong’s Analogies at War, and Fareed Zakaria’s From Wealth to Power. All three books were written in the idiom of science, and all of them offer generalizations claimed to apply across time and space. All three books empirically observe a pathology in the international body politic; and all of them have normative implications that, if acted upon by their readers, would cure the pathology. Herein lies the tension: if the policymakers to whom the books are partly addressed were to modify their behavior according to the lessons implicit the books, the empirical generalizations elaborated in these studies would cease to be valid. For example, if national leaders learned that the belief in security through expansion is a dangerous myth (Snyder), they might avoid expansionary policies in the future. If they do so, the empirical regularity documented by Snyder’s analysis -- the striking proclivity of great powers for over-expansion -- would no longer hold. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an assessment of Karl Popper’s controversial interpretation of Plato’s Republic in The Open Society and Its Enemies. Contrary to positions that have recently resurfaced in the literature, I argue that his interpretations of the Republic and liberalism are problematic on many counts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper articulates the relationship between social science and critical theory in a problem-oriented approach and how that approach can best promote the end of racial democratization in the case of the US. I discuss the role of social science in identifying and constituting the publics to which critique is addressed and the relation of both dominant and subordinate racial groups to the possibility of racial democratization. In particular, I advocate that critical theory should give more attention to the sources of racial hierarchy within white practice and the contradictions experienced by racial elites within that practice. These instabilities within racial hierarchy, as experienced by agents, can provide practical reasons for elites to participate in a politics of racial democratization. This attempts to address the under-theorized questions of how dominant publics relate to critical theory?s practical interest in social change and how stable egalitarian advancements are achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the 1948, when Truman's victory over Dewey surprised the public and the pollsters, public opinion polling faced a legitimacy crisis. As this paper shows, nascent survey researchers played an important role in helping pollsters to survive and prosper. In discussing academics' efforts to preserve polling for social science and democracy, this paper adds to scholarly knowledge about the growing legitimation and use of public opinion polls for measuring public opinion as well as shifts in political science and other social sciences. The paper draws from oral histories of academic survey pioneers and leading pollsters, as well as contemporaneous publications, reports, and unpublished letters and memos. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

My paper proposal for the Midwest Political Science Conference is entitled "Are All Civic Engagement Groups Created Equally?" This paper examines the role that multi-racial churches play in influencing congregant political behavior. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper notes that conventional modeling strategies for ordinal categorical response variables in social sciences frequently belie properties and assumptions of standard cumulative link models like the proportional odds model. In this paper, we ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper develops a game theoretic model of institutional change, which confirms the political theory of endogenous institutional change outlined in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Confucius has been quoted as saying, “I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand.” This has become a mantra for many of us in the disciplines of social science to engage students in innovative techniques for our classrooms. Political scientists, like their colleagues in other disciplines, have begun to move beyond the traditional lectures, which we argue still has an important role in the undergraduate classroom, to use different forms of media to engage students. Some resourceful educators and dynamic campuses have begun to give students “hands-on” experiences to help them understand the dynamics of modern day politics. While hearing, seeing and doing may help students better understand politics, there are activities that we, professionals and society at large, would prefer that student did not engage in. Most people do not want to see students “doing” genocide in order to have a better understanding of the dynamics that lead to genocide. This paper reviews the importance of engaged-learners when discussing issues of civil and political rights. The authors have sought new and innovative ways to have students think critically about human rights and social justice. This paper is a preliminary report on how their students have received techniques such as films, role-playing, research, and observation. While the authors come from different sub-fields (American politics and international relations), they have been seeking out other professionals and have had a running dialogue between themselves and other professionals on new techniques and methods. Our conclusions suggest that students are “entertained” in classrooms that employ such methods, which is not necessarily a benefit although students are engaged, but they also have a better understanding of how to critically think about the issues and understand the plight of others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Where do social institutions, such as secure property rights and democratic representation, come from? Existing theories have emphasized intentional design, evolutionary processes, conventions, and distributional conflict. I examine these theories and find that they fail to characterize the causal mechanism of institutionalization, because they do not offer a cognitive model that generates the shared expectations about collective behavior that underpin a social institution. Building on theoretical and empirical research in cognitive and behavioral sciences, I propose an alternative analytical framework. This framework explains how goal-oriented individuals come to engage in institutionalized behavior. It sheds light on different forms of institutionalization and generates empirical predictions on the nature of the resulting social institutions, some of which have not been previously recognized. Finally, the analysis illuminates the logic of institutional change. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The theory of motivated political reasoning indicates that people’s motives fall into two broad categories: (1) accuracy, where people seek to reach a correct or accurate conclusion, and (2) partisan, where people apply their reasoning as a defense of a prior conclusion. We utilize these dual motivations in a study of three areas of partisan dispute over factual information â€" WMD’s, the origins of global warming, and the origins of humans. First, we ran additive models and results predictably showed that education drastically reduced the likelihood of believing that WMD’s existed in Iraq, enhanced the chance of attributing global warming to human activity, and increased the probability of accepting as fact that humans evolve. Further the partisan motive led to predictable differences on these conclusions. Democrats did not believe WMD existed, did in fact believe in evolution, and consider human behavior as cause of global warming. Next, a series of interactions were performed between the motives and we find sevidence that partisan motives prevail over accuracy. For example, partisan identification conditioned the impact of education on the likelihood of believing Iraq had WMD: ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because of its dual nature, power needs to be tamed. Taming power is a central problem for all social sciences; many intrapersonal and structural mechanisms that have been proposed are not always successful and can be "hijacked" by power itself. To explore psychological dynamics of how power might be tamed, 25 pairs of speeches by political leaders were collected and compared. The pairs were matched for speakers' country, issue, and approximate historical era. In seven cases, both speeches were from the same leader. One speech of each pair expressed "untamed" or destructive power (calls for escalation of conflict, rejecting agreements, or punishment); the other speech expressed "tamed" power (calls for de-escalation of conflict, conciliation, cooperation). Speeches were scored for several content categories developed both from theory and also from an empirical comparison of a subsample of five pairs. Nine cross-validated categories constitute a measure of "generative historical consciousness," or GHC. As predicted, the tamed power speeches scored significantly higher in GHC than the untamed speeches. The GHC measure is proposed as important and useful in future political psychology research. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthropology concerns man as a natural being, his animalistic determinations; it constitutes the knowledge of man’s knowledge of himself, and so involves man interrogating himself, investigating his own limits. The upshot of this inflection of anthropology is that the shadow of a classical philosophy henceforth deprived of God is cast over the philosophy of our time. Anthropology only speaks the language of the limit and of negativity. Because of this, it cannot be made it into a positive field that would serve as the basis for the human sciences. Having forgotten this teaching, contemporary philosophy essentialized finitude, gave it the form of a human essence; henceforth, finitude became the truth of truth. Speculative anthropology wants to link man’s experience to philosophy in a movement in which man presents his truth as the soul of truth. And it is this movement that Nietzsche brings to a conclusion when he shows that the death of God implies the death of man. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Semi-presidential government" is about to celebrate its thirtieth birthday. The party will not take place in France, where Maurice Duverger in his book Echec au Roi (check to the king) gave birth to it. Never accepted in its birthplace, this stateless concept is nonetheless a successful product of exportation due to Duverger's article in the European Journal of Political Research.Three criteria define Duverger's concept: a government responsible before the Parliament, a President elected by a direct universal suffrage (or likely), the same having personal powers. Therefore "semi-presidential government" is said to be the child of Europe's parliamentary and United States' presidential forms of government. Refuse to recognize this child would be easy just by stressing out the conceptual variability of "semi-presidential government". Even if Maurice Duverger and his followers are here to blame, it would be insufficient, a mere check to the king. In order to checkmate this concept, it is necessary to make more substantial moves. "Semi-presidential government" has not classificatory intentions, a question which Duverger evacuates: the presidential form of government cannot be one of its parents. If "semi-presidential government" has a heuristic aim as Duverger and his followers advocate, the concept does not reach it: the criteria of "semi-presidential government" are not operative to explain how "semi-presidential countries'" political institutions work. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]