The Puzzles of Politics

The Puzzles of Politics
Author: Friedrich Kratochwil
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 303
Release: 2010-10-04
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1136924914

This book brings together a collection of Friedrich Kratochwil’s key essays to explain his approach to international relations and how his thinking has developed over the last 30 years. It addresses topical themes and issues, including sovereignty, law, epistemology, boundaries, global governance and world society.

Brokers, Voters, and Clientelism

Brokers, Voters, and Clientelism
Author: Susan C. Stokes
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 343
Release: 2013-09-23
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1107042208

Brokers, Voters, and Clientelism studies distributive politics: how parties and governments use material resources to win elections. The authors develop a theory that explains why loyal supporters, rather than swing voters, tend to benefit from pork-barrel politics; why poverty encourages clientelism and vote buying; and why redistribution and voter participation do not justify non-programmatic distribution.

The Puzzles of Politics

The Puzzles of Politics
Author: Friedrich V. Kratochwil
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2010
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780415581011

Friedrich Kratochwil is the author of the classic book: Rules, Norms and Decisions (1989), which introduced constructivism to international relations and has had a profound and significant impact on the discipline. The Puzzle of Politics brings together for the first time a collection of his key essays to explain his approach to international relations and how his thinking has developed over the last 30 years. It addresses topical themes and issues central to his work including sovereignty, law, epistemology, boundaries, global governance and world society. The book includes a framing introduction written for this volume in which Kratochwil provides an intellectual biography providing context as well as an introduction to his work. This important volume will be of very strong interest to students and scholars of international relation, political theory and law. Friedrich Kratochwil is presently Professor of International Relations at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, and visiting scholar at Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Korea. After receiving his Ph.D. from Princeton he taught at the in the US at Maryland, Columbia and Penn, before returning to the LMU in Munich, Germany. He has been the editor of the European Journal of International Relations and member of the editorial boards of several journals, including the Journal of International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, International Studies Quarterly, International Organization, World Politics, Review of International Studies, and the Journal of International Relations and Development.

Puzzles of Government Formation

Puzzles of Government Formation
Author: Rudy W. Andeweg
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 233
Release: 2011-04-05
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1134239726

Understanding the formation of governments has always been central to political science. Traditionally this topic has been considered from a rational choice theory perspective and the empirical testing of these theories; however neither approach alone is able to explain a large proportion of actual coalition formations. This comparative volume brings together a rational choice theory perspective and the empirical testing of these theories to study government formation. It provides in-depth studies of government formations in Europe that cannot be accounted for by existing coalition theory in order to identify potential explanatory factors that have been neglected so far. These ‘coalition puzzles’ are reconstructed by country experts based on secondary sources, newspaper accounts, internal party documents, and interviews in an effort to understand why particular governments were formed. In conclusion, this book assesses whether new factors can be integrated into rational choice theories or whether these analyses point to the need for a different paradigm. This important volume will be of interest to students and scholars of political science, European politics and comparative politics.

Processing Politics

Processing Politics
Author: Doris A. Graber
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 247
Release: 2012-07-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0226924769

How often do we hear that Americans are so ignorant about politics that their civic competence is impaired, and that the media are to blame because they do a dismal job of informing the public? Processing Politics shows that average Americans are far smarter than the critics believe. Integrating a broad range of current research on how people learn (from political science, social psychology, communication, physiology, and artificial intelligence), Doris Graber shows that televised presentations—at their best—actually excel at transmitting information and facilitating learning. She critiques current political offerings in terms of their compatibility with our learning capacities and interests, and she considers the obstacles, both economic and political, that affect the content we receive on the air, on cable, or on the Internet. More and more people rely on information from television and the Internet to make important decisions. Processing Politics offers a sound, well-researched defense of these remarkably versatile media, and challenges us to make them work for us in our democracy.

The Political Impossibility of Modern Counterinsurgency

The Political Impossibility of Modern Counterinsurgency
Author: M.L.R. Smith
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2015-05-19
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0231539126

The counterinsurgency (COIN) paradigm dominates military and political conduct in contemporary Western strategic thought. It assumes future wars will unfold as "low intensity" conflicts within rather than between states, requiring specialized military training and techniques. COIN is understood as a logical, effective, and democratically palatable method for confronting insurgency—a discrete set of practices that, through the actions of knowledgeable soldiers and under the guidance of an expert elite, creates lasting results. Through an extensive investigation into COIN's theories, methods, and outcomes, this book undermines enduring claims about COIN's success while revealing its hidden meanings and effects. Interrogating the relationship between counterinsurgency and war, the authors question the supposed uniqueness of COIN's attributes and try to resolve the puzzle of its intellectual identity. Is COIN a strategy, a doctrine, a theory, a military practice, or something else? Their analysis ultimately exposes a critical paradox within COIN: while it ignores the vital political dimensions of war, it is nevertheless the product of a misplaced ideological faith in modernization.

The Politics of the First World War

The Politics of the First World War
Author: Scott Wolford
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 469
Release: 2019-02-21
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1108612903

The Great War is an immense, confusing and overwhelming historical conflict - the ideal case study for teaching game theory and international relations. Using thirteen historical puzzles, from the outbreak of the war and the stability of attrition, to unrestricted submarine warfare and American entry into the war, this book provides students with a rigorous yet accessible training in game theory. Each chapter shows, through guided exercises, how game theoretical models can explain otherwise challenging strategic puzzles, shedding light on the role of individual leaders in world politics, cooperation between coalitions partners, the effectiveness of international law, the termination of conflict, and the challenges of making peace. Its analytical history of World War I also surveys cutting edge political science research on international relations and the causes of war. Written by a leading game theorist known for his expertise of the war, this textbook includes useful student features such as chapter key terms, contemporary maps, a timeline of events, a list of key characters and additional end-of-chapter game-theoretic exercises.

The SAGE Handbook of Research Methods in Political Science and International Relations

The SAGE Handbook of Research Methods in Political Science and International Relations
Author: Luigi Curini
Publisher: SAGE
Total Pages: 1861
Release: 2020-04-09
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1526486393

The SAGE Handbook of Research Methods in Political Science and International Relations offers a comprehensive overview of research processes in social science — from the ideation and design of research projects, through the construction of theoretical arguments, to conceptualization, measurement, & data collection, and quantitative & qualitative empirical analysis — exposited through 65 major new contributions from leading international methodologists. Each chapter surveys, builds upon, and extends the modern state of the art in its area. Following through its six-part organization, undergraduate and graduate students, researchers and practicing academics will be guided through the design, methods, and analysis of issues in Political Science and International Relations: Part One: Formulating Good Research Questions & Designing Good Research Projects Part Two: Methods of Theoretical Argumentation Part Three: Conceptualization & Measurement Part Four: Large-Scale Data Collection & Representation Methods Part Five: Quantitative-Empirical Methods Part Six: Qualitative & "Mixed" Methods

On Legislatures

On Legislatures
Author: Gerhard Loewenberg
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 168
Release: 2015-11-17
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1317255151

On Legislatures looks at why people support their individual representatives but continue to criticise the legislative system at every opportunity. Although legislatures exist in every political system and are meant to represent the people, they are generally disparaged because they appear both unrepresentative and indecisive. Gerhard Loewenberg explains this puzzling contradiction by examining what representation means and what it takes for a large number of equally representative members to reach decisions. It also describes the methods for studying legislatures that have been developed in the social sciences in the last half century and shows their importance in democratic societies throughout the world. On Legislatures gets to the heart of the current disconnect between legislatures and the public they are supposed to represent.