Power & Choice: An Introduction to Political Science
ISBN: 9780073379036 | 0073379034
Edition: 12thFormat: Paperback
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages
Pub. Date: 12/7/2009
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This is a comparative, conceptual introduction to political science, organized topically rather than country-by-country, providing in-depth examples at the end of most chapters to provide greater richness about various countries than a topical treatment would normally provide. The theme of "power and choice," based on a definition of politics as the making of collective choices for a group or state through the use of power, runs through much of the text.
| The Idea of Politics | |
| Politics: Setting the Stage | |
| Politics | |
| Politics as the Making of Common Decisions | |
| Politics as the Exercise of Power | |
| Politics as the Exercise of Choice | |
| Power and Choice | |
| Politics of the State | |
| Political Science | |
| The Pleasures of Politics | |
| Modern Ideologies and ... MORE | |
| American Ideologies | |
| Liberalism | |
| The Conservative Reaction | |
| The Socialist Alternative | |
| Communism and Socialism | |
| Fascism | |
| Ideologies in the Twenty-first Century | |
| Religion, Politics, and Political Philosophy | |
| Political Philosophy in Other Historical Eras | |
| The State and Public Policy | |
| The Modern State | |
| The Development of the Modern State | |
| The Origin of States: Power or Choice? | |
| The State as a Device to Provide Public Goods | |
| "State," "Nation," and the "Nation-State" | |
| State-Building | |
| Government and the State | |
| Challenges to the State | |
| Some Possible Alternatives | |
| Example: State Building in Nigeria | |
| Example: State Building in the European Union | |
| Policies of the State | |
| The Role of Government in the Third World | |
| Constraints and Conditions for Policy | |
| Defense Policy | |
| Education | |
| Research and Development | |
| Health and Social Welfare | |
| Democracy and Public Policy | |
| The Place of Power in Policy Analysis | |
| Example: The Demographic Challenge | |
| Example: Economic Development Compared with "Human Development" | |
| Example: Uganda: An African AIDS Success Story | |
| Economic Policy of the State | |
| Economic Performance 1: Growth | |
| Economic Performance 2: Controlling Inflation and Unemployment | |
| Managing Distribution to Address inequality | |
| Independent Central Banks | |
| Corruption | |
| Other Measures Available to Government | |
| Globalization: Are States Losing their Ability to Make Economic Policy? | |
| Political Economy | |
| Example: Economic Policy in Germany | |
| Example: Economic Policy in Indonesia | |
| What Lies Behind Policy: Questions of Justice and Efficiency | |
| The Problem of Justice | |
| Other Aspects of Justice: Procedural Justice | |
| Effectiveness | |
| A Basic Question of Effectiveness: Authority Versus the Market | |
| The Need to Act, Even Under Uncertainty | |
| Example: Political Choice | |
| The Citizen and the Regime | |
| Democracy and Autocracy | |
| Democracy | |
| The Coming and Going of Democracy | |
| Possible Explanations | |
| What Did We Learn From the Third Wave? | |
| Why Are Prosperous Countries Likely to Be Democracies? | |
| Democracy and Freedom | |
| Democracy and Capitalism | |
| Autocracy | |
| Military Government | |
| Why Aren't There More Military Governments? | |
| One-Party States | |
| Monarchies and Theocracies | |
| Democracy Versus Autocracy: Material Considerations | |
| "Power and Choice" Again | |
| Example: Democratization in Spain | |
| Example: Fragile Democracy in Peru | |
| Example: Theocracy in Iran | |
| How Individuals Relate to the State, and the State to the Individual | |
| Legitimacy and Authority | |
| Sources of Legitimacy | |
| The "Democratic Citizen" | |
| How Well are These Requirements Met? | |
| Social Capital | |
| Political Culture | |
| An Application of Political Culture: Robert Kagan's Of Paradise and Power | |
| Religion and Politics | |
| Political Socialization | |
| Example: Building Authority and Legitimacy in West Germany After World War II | |
| Example: Declining Democratic legitimacy in the United States | |
| The Apparatus of Governance | |
| Constitutions and the Design of Government | |
| Variations in Formality | |
| The Virtue of Vagueness | |
| Other Principles of Constitutional Design | |
| Constitution-Writing | |
| The Geographic Concentration of Power | |
| "Federal" and "Unitary" States | |
| The Distinction Between "Unitary" and "Centralized" States | |
| How Much Centralization is Good? | |
| Constitutions and Guarantees of Rights | |
| "Constitutionalism" and the Rule of Law | |
| Example: Constitutional Government in Great Britain | |
| Example: Constitutional Government in Russia | |
| Elections | |
| Elections as a Means of Building Support | |
| Elections as a Means of Selecting Leaders and Policies | |
| Electoral Systems | |
| Referendums | |
| Electoral Participation | |
| Effects of Choice and Information on Turnout | |
| The Paradox of Voting | |
| The Bases of Individuals' Electoral Choices | |
| Example: Proportional Representation Elections in Israel | |
| Example: Elections in Nigeria | |
| Parties: A Linking and Leading Mechanism in Politics | |
| The Political Party | |
| Origins of the Modern Party | |
| Political Parties and the Mobilization of the Masses | |
| Political Parties and the Recruitment and Socialization of Leaders | |
| Political Parties as a Source of Political Identity | |
| Political Parties as a Channel of Control | |
| Party Organization | |
| Party Finance | |
| Political Party Systems | |
| Power and Choice | |
| Example: The Communist Party of China | |
| Example: Canada's Political Parties | |
| Structured Conflict: Interest Groups and Politics | |
| Interest Groups and Representation | |
| Types of Interest Groups | |
| Tactics of Interest Groups | |
| Patterns of Organized Interest-Group Activity | |
| Pluralism | |
| Neocorporatism | |
| Pluralism and Neocorporatism: Power and Choice | |
| Example: Interest Groups in France | |
| Example: Interest Groups in Japan: Attenuated Neocorporatism | |
| Social Movements and Contentious Politics | |
| Why Now? | |
| Social Movements as a Public Goods Problem | |
| Advantages (and Disadvantages) of Informal Organization | |
| Example: The Rubber Tappers of Acre | |
| Example: The "Orange Revolution" in Ukraine | |
| National Decision-Making Institutions: Parliamentary Government | |
| Head of State | |
| The Cabinet | |
| Cabinet Control | |
| What Does A Parliament Do? | |
| Parliamentary Committees | |
| Advantages and Disadvantages of Parliamentary Government | |
| Let's Make Sure I Haven't Made This Sound Too Simple | |
| "Consensus" Parliamentarism | |
| Parliaments in Autocratic Systems | |
| Example: Parliamentary Government in India | |
| Example: Parliamentary Government in Germany | |
| National Decision-Making Institutions: Presidential Government | |
| Presidential and Parliamentary Systems Compared | |
| Responsibility for Policy | |
| Presidential Systems and Comprehensive Policy | |
| Recruitment of Executive Leaders | |
| Review and Control of the Executive | |
| Flexibility of the Political Process | |
| The Split Executive of Parliamentary Systems | |
| Why Aren't All Democracies parliamentary Systems? | |
| Democracy and the Question of Accountability | |
| A Note on Institutions and Power | |
| Example: Presidential Hybrid in France | |
| Example: Presidential Government in Mexico | |
| Bureaucracy and the Public Sector | |
| Public Administration as a Political Problem | |
| Characteristics of Good Public Administration | |
| "Bureaucracy": A Reform of the Nineteenth Century | |
| Bureaucracy Versus Flexibility | |
| The Problem of Protected Incompetence | |
| Adjustments to Bureaucracy | |
| Social Representativeness of Public Administration | |
| Example: The French Bureaucracy | |
| Example: Bureaucratic Cultures in Europe and Africa | |
| Law and the Courts | |
| Anglo-Saxon Case Law | |
| Continental European Code Law | |
| The Blending of Case Law and Code Law | |
| Religious Law: The Sharia | |
| Courts | |
| Judicial Review | |
| Example: The Law in China | |
| Example: The European Court of Justice | |
| International Politics | |
| Global Politics: Politics Among States (And Others) | |
| The Evolution of the International System Since World War II | |
| The World Since the Cold War | |
| International Politics | |
| The Absence of Central Authority | |
| Fiduciary Political Roles and International Morality | |
| Impediments to Political Communication | |
| Power and International Politics | |
| The Process of International Politics | |
| Power and Choice in International Politics | |
| Example: An International Failure: Rwanda | |
| Example: The United Nations | |
| Appendix: Principles of Political Analysis | |
| Falsifiability | |
| What Makes a Statement Interesting? | |
| Causation and Explanation | |
| Historical Explanation | |
| A Few Common Pitfalls in Analysis | |
| Glossary | |
| Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved. |
W. PHILLIPS SHIVELY is Professor of Political Science at the University of Minnesota, where he moved in 1971 after teaching at the University of Oregon and Yale University. He has also served as Visiting Professor at the University of Oslo in Norway. His research, which has appeared in numerous articles, deals with the comparative study of elections, and he has written The Craft of Political Research, an introduction to research techniques. He has also had practical political experience as a lobbyist in Minnesota. His true love is bird-watching.
