- Home
- A-Z Publications
- Annual Review of Political Science
- Previous Issues
- Volume 20, 2017
Annual Review of Political Science - Volume 20, 2017
Volume 20, 2017
-
-
Politics, Academics, and Africa
Vol. 20 (2017), pp. 1–14More LessThe roots of my fascination with politics and Africa run deep; so too does my need for clarity. The combination drove me into the professoriate. My research in Africa convinced me that modernization theory was wrong: The people I came to know in the field were sophisticated in their politics. Additional research convinced me that market-oriented approaches to political economy were wrong and that government intervention could lead to increases in productivity and welfare. Because neoclassical approaches are flexible, I continue to think in terms of strategy and choice and to apply them to the study of development.
-
-
-
Qualitative Methods
Vol. 20 (2017), pp. 15–36More LessOne might argue that political science has gone further than any other social science in developing a rigorous field of study devoted to qualitative methods. This review article begins by discussing the time-honored qualitative/quantitative distinction. What is qualitative data and analysis, and how does it differ from quantitative data and analysis? I propose a narrow definition of “qualitative” and explore its implications. I also explore in a speculative vein some of the factors underlying the ongoing Methodenstreit between scholars who identify with quantitative and qualitative approaches to social science. In the remainder of the article I discuss areas of qualitative research that have been especially fecund over the past decade. These include case selection, causal inference, and multimethod research.
-
-
-
Just War Theory: Revisionists Versus Traditionalists
Vol. 20 (2017), pp. 37–54More LessContemporary just war theory is divided into two broad camps: revisionists and traditionalists. Traditionalists seek to provide moral foundations for something close to current international law, and in particular the laws of armed conflict. Although they propose improvements, they do so cautiously. Revisionists argue that international law is at best a pragmatic fiction—it lacks deeper moral foundations. In this article, I present the contemporary history of analytical just war theory, from the origins of contemporary traditionalist just war theory in Michael Walzer's work to the revisionist critique of Walzer and the subsequent revival of traditionalism. I discuss central questions of methodology, as well as consider the morality of resorting to war and the morality of conduct in war. I show that although the revisionists exposed philosophical shortcomings in Walzer's arguments, their radical conclusions should prompt us not to reject the broad contemporary consensus, but instead to seek better arguments to underpin it.
-
-
-
International Courts: A Theoretical Assessment
Vol. 20 (2017), pp. 55–73More LessScholars have long been fascinated by the role of international courts in the enforcement of international rule of law. They start with a foundational question: Can international courts affect how international law is implemented? In this review, we lay out four of the most common theoretical arguments for why international courts matter. We then interrogate these accounts. In particular, we examine their views on how much influence courts have and what the likely welfare consequences are for the signatories of an agreement. In so doing, we identify critical conditions that must obtain for court influence under each of the arguments. We then bring more recent scholarship to bear on the plausibility of these conditions. In particular, we examine what research on the structure of law, the preferences of judges, and institutional design implies about the efficacy of international courts based on the four foundational arguments. We conclude with suggestions for future research.
-
-
-
Political Economy of Taxation
Vol. 20 (2017), pp. 75–92More LessThis review uses theories of political economy to provide an analytical history of systems of taxation, focusing on the determinants of total tax revenue, tax structure, and tax administration. We show that most premodern states extracted very little revenue and that total revenue increased substantially in the nineteenth century, and we explore the possibility that tax revenues have hit a ceiling in the developed world. Our history of tax structure begins by discussing the highly regressive premodern tax systems, turns to the causes of the rise of progressive taxation in the twentieth century, and concludes by arguing that the short era of progressive taxation may be ending. The sections on tax administration discuss the many varieties of premodern patrimonialism, the determinants of the development and diffusion of bureaucratic administration, and the difficulty of taxing wealth in the modern world.
-
-
-
Comparing Political Values in China and the West: What Can Be Learned and Why It Matters
Vol. 20 (2017), pp. 93–110More LessAlong with China's economic and military rise, its leading political values will increasingly shape both China and the world at large. Hence, we need to understand, compare, and learn from leading values in China's political culture. This review discusses recent efforts to systematically compare three leading values in China's philosophical traditions—meritocracy, hierarchy, and harmony—with leading values from the political culture of Western societies.
-
-
-
Culture, Politics, and Economic Development
Vol. 20 (2017), pp. 111–125More LessFor a generation, political science has been dominated by the analysis of interests within the framework of rational choice. Although this has enabled major advances, it struggles to provide a plausible analysis of many instances of sociopolitical dysfunction. This article reviews recent innovations in economics, psychology, and economic history that are converging to rehabilitate culture as a legitimate element of analysis. Culture matters, and its evolution is amenable to formal scientific analysis. But these processes need not be benign: There is no equivalent to the invisible hand of the market, guiding a culture toward social optimality. An organizational culture can trap a vital public agency, such as a tax administration, into severe dysfunction. A societal culture can trap an entire country into autocracy or poverty.
-
-
-
Progovernment Militias
Vol. 20 (2017), pp. 127–147More LessSociologists, political scientists, and economists have long emphasized the benefits of monopolizing violence and the risks of failing to do so. Yet recent research on conflict, state failure, genocide, coups, and election violence suggests governments cannot or will not form a monopoly. Governments worldwide are more risk acceptant than anticipated. They give arms and authority to a variety of nonstate actors, militias, vigilantes, death squads, proxy forces, paramilitaries, and counterbalancing forces. We develop a typology based on the links of the militia to the government and to society as a device to capture variations among these groups. We use the typology to explore insights from this emerging literature on the causes, consequences, and puzzling survival of progovernment militias and their implications for security and human rights, as well as to generate open questions for further research.
-
-
-
Voter Identification Laws and Turnout in the United States
Vol. 20 (2017), pp. 149–167More LessThis article analyzes voter identification laws in the United States and their effects on voter turnout. Theoretically, there are plausible reasons to hypothesize turnout lowering effects, though there are also reasons to hypothesize those effects might be minimal. Methodologically, there are research design hurdles to clear in order to produce effect estimates that may be attributed to voter identification laws. Empirically, a small number of studies have employed suitable research designs and generally find modest, if any, turnout effects of voter identification laws. This may indicate that voter identification laws have only minor effects on turnout, or it may be due to the fact that the type of voter identification law that may have the most significant effects—a strict photo identification law—is a relatively recent phenomenon. Future elections and the related additional data may make it possible to adjudicate among these possibilities.
-
-
-
Climate Change and International Relations (After Kyoto)
Vol. 20 (2017), pp. 169–188More LessThis review “diagnoses” climate change as an international governance challenge and explores the political feasibility of alternative “cures.” Human activities’ growing effect on Earth's climate system is extremely challenging, characterized by, inter alia, very long time lags between mitigation measures (∼costs) and environmental effects (∼benefits) and by stark asymmetries between “guilt” in causing the problem and vulnerability to climate change. Two main cures have been suggested. Some analysts argue that because climate change is a global process, adequate solutions must likewise be global. Others shift attention from the challenge's format to the sources of human motivation, arguing that a decentralized (bottom-up) approach will more directly engage a wider spectrum of motivations and actors. These cures are neither mutually exclusive nor easily combined. IR research contributes more to the former cure than to the latter but can play a constructive role in linking them.
-
-
-
Social Movement Theory and the Prospects for Climate Change Activism in the United States
Vol. 20 (2017), pp. 189–208More LessThe issue of climate change poses something of a puzzle. For all the attention accorded the issue, climate change/global warming has spawned surprisingly little grassroots activism in the contemporary United States. Drawing on social movement theory, the author seeks to explain this puzzle. The prevailing consensus among movement scholars is that the prospect for movement emergence is facilitated by the confluence of three factors: the expansion of political opportunities, the availability of mobilizing structures, and cognitive and affective mobilization through framing processes. The author then applies each of these factors to the case of climate change, arguing that (a) awareness of the issue developed during an especially inopportune period in American politics, (b) the organizations that arose to address the issue were ill suited to the kind of grassroots mobilization characteristic of successful movements, and (c) the amorphous nature of the issue played havoc with efforts at strategic framing.
-
-
-
Climate Change: US Public Opinion
Vol. 20 (2017), pp. 209–227More LessA review of research findings and polling data about Americans’ attitudes on climate change reveals a lack of meaningful long-term change in mass opinion. Instead, the structure of Americans’ attitudes toward belief in climate change's existence, concern about its consequences, and demand for policy response is similar to that regarding many other issues in contemporary US politics: stability in aggregate opinion that masks partisan and ideological polarization enhanced by communications from elites. But features of the climate change problem elicit some distinctive determinants of opinion, including individuals’ trust in science, risk processing, and personal experience. Although our review of the literature and data leaves us skeptical that majority opinion will spur elected officials anytime soon to undertake the costly solutions necessary to tackle this problem comprehensively at the national level, we identify several avenues by which attitudes might promote less substantial but nevertheless consequential policy action.
-
-
-
The Political Economy of Regional Integration
Vol. 20 (2017), pp. 229–248More LessThis article reviews and analyzes recent research on regional integration. The review is structured along a political economy framework and proceeds in three steps. After analyzing the development of regional integration agreements (RIAs) from a historical perspective, I first discuss regional integration as a consequence of the decision-making calculus of office-motivated political leaders who find themselves under pressure from different societal groups interested in promoting or hindering regional integration. These pressures are conveyed, constrained, and calibrated by domestic institutions, which provide an important context for policy making, and in particular for the choice to enter RIAs. The analysis also highlights the importance of international pressures for regional integration. Second, I summarize the determinants and consequences of variations in regional institutional design. Third, I analyze the normative and strategic consequences of regional integration. The article concludes by outlining opportunities for future research, with emphasis on the domestic politics of regional integration, the causes and consequences of institutional design beyond trade agreements, and the consequences of the increasing number of often overlapping regional agreements.
-
-
-
Bureaucracy and Service Delivery
Vol. 20 (2017), pp. 249–268More LessThis article reviews the literature on the politics of bureaucracy in the developing world, with a focus on service delivery and bureaucratic performance. We survey classic topics and themes such as the developmental state, principal–agent relations, and the efficient grease hypothesis, and we link them to new research findings in political science, sociology, and economics. We identify the concept of embeddedness as an important yet still underexplored framework that cuts across disciplines and may be used to understand bureaucratic performance and service delivery. Looking forward, we outline a framework for conceptualizing bureaucratic action by exploiting variation across time, space, task, and client, and we identify promising areas for further research on the bureaucrat–citizen encounter in developing countries.
-
-
-
Feminist Theory Today
Vol. 20 (2017), pp. 269–286More LessFeminist theory is not only about women; it is about the world, engaged through critical intersectional perspectives. Despite many significant differences, most feminist theory is reliably suspicious of dualistic thinking, generally oriented toward fluid processes of emergence rather than static entities in one-way relationships, and committed to being a political as well as an intellectual enterprise. It is rooted in and responsible to movements for equality, freedom, and justice. Three important contemporary questions within feminist theory concern (a) subjectivity, narrative, and materiality; (b) global neoliberal geopolitics; and (c) global ecologies. Feminist theorists employ the tools of intersectionality, interdisciplinarity, and the intertwinings of scholarship and activism to address these questions. While we labor to contribute to our academic fields, our primary responsibility is to contribute to positive social change.
-
-
-
When Does Globalization Help the Poor?
Nita Rudra, and Jennifer TobinVol. 20 (2017), pp. 287–307More LessWhat is the relationship between globalization and poverty? Developing economies have long turned to international trade and finance as a solution for development, yet 35% of the world's population still lives below the international poverty line. Economists and political scientists explore this relationship but are far from reaching a conclusion. We review this literature and argue that to understand the relationship between globalization and poverty, we must ultimately understand the political motivations underlying the policies directed at the poorest. Specifically, we contend that scholars need to identify the ideological positions of developing country governments, an identification that moves beyond the conventional left–right divide that prevails in developed nations. We provide theoretical guidance on how scholars might begin to operationalize ideology on a global basis and why this is necessary to evaluate the globalization–poverty linkage. Further, we provide some preliminary quantitative and qualitative tests of our argument. Ultimately, scholars from both disciplines must begin to evaluate government commitment to pro-poor redistribution (rather than the extent to which policy is beholden to vested elite interest groups) in order to assess the relationship between trade and poverty.
-
-
-
Measuring Public Opinion with Surveys
Vol. 20 (2017), pp. 309–329More LessHow can we best gauge the political opinions of the citizenry? Since their emergence in the 1930s, opinion polls—or surveys—have become the dominant way to assess the public will. But even given the long history of polling, there is no agreement among political scientists on how to best measure public opinion through polls. This article is a call for political scientists to be more self-conscious about the choices we make when we attempt to measure public opinion with surveys in two realms. I first take up the question of whom to interview, discussing the major challenges survey researchers face when sampling respondents from the population of interest. I then discuss the level of specificity with which we can properly collect information about the political preferences of individuals. I focus on the types of question wording and item aggregation strategies researchers can use to accurately measure public opinion.
-
-
-
Conflict and Cooperation on Nuclear Nonproliferation
Vol. 20 (2017), pp. 331–349More LessThis article critically reviews scholarship on the role of conflict and cooperation in conditioning nuclear proliferation. We start by laying out the trajectory of scholarship on the causes of proliferation, organizing it in three waves: (a) security and (b) nonsecurity drivers of proliferation, and (c) supply constraints on nuclear acquisition. We then examine the recent turn in the proliferation literature toward a strategic interaction approach, focusing on how conflict and cooperation between proliferators, their adversaries, and their allies shape the spread of nuclear weapons. We argue for an integrated framework for analyzing the tools states can deploy to foster or stymie proliferation. Finally, we sketch an agenda for research on nuclear proliferation. Here, we argue that scholarship should (a) incorporate nonsecurity dynamics into the strategic interaction approach to the study of proliferation and (b) combine rigorous theory with careful historical research to further our understanding of the causes of proliferation.
-
-
-
From a Deficit of Democracy to a Technocratic Order: The Postcrisis Debate on Europe
Vol. 20 (2017), pp. 351–369More LessThe political problems of democratic legitimacy related to the construction of the European Union have mutated deeply during the crisis. The survival of the Eurozone has exacted a high toll on democratic principles. National representative democracy has been weakened due to the imperatives of economic integration. The technocratic elements of European integration (independent agencies, binding rules on economic matters) have expanded dramatically in scope. In the past, the technocratic dimension was circumscribed to efficiency-enhancing policies; during the crisis, it has been extended to issues with clear distributional consequences (such as the burden of adjustment between debtor and creditor countries). The resulting paradox is that in a time of growing “politicization” of European affairs, the technocratic bias of the European Union has “depoliticized” economic issues. This article reviews the recent debates about the tension between technocracy and democracy in the context of European supranational integration.
-
-
-
Understanding the Political Economy of the Eurozone Crisis
Vol. 20 (2017), pp. 371–390More LessThe Eurozone crisis constitutes a grave challenge to European integration. This article presents an overview of the causes of the crisis and analyzes why it has been so difficult to resolve. We focus on how responses to the crisis were shaped by distributive conflicts both among and within countries. On the international level, debtor and creditor countries have fought over the distribution of responsibility for the accumulated debt; countries with current account surpluses and deficits have fought over who should implement the policies necessary to reduce the current account imbalances. Within countries, interest groups have fought to shift the costs of crisis resolution away from themselves. The article emphasizes that the Eurozone crisis shares many features of previous debt and balance-of-payments crises. However, the Eurozone's predicament is unique because it is set within a monetary union that strongly constrains the policy options available to policy makers and vastly increases the interdependence of the euro crisis countries. The outcome of the crisis has also been highly unusual because the costs of crisis resolution have been borne almost exclusively by the debtor countries and taxpayers in the Eurozone.
-
Previous Volumes
-
Volume 27 (2024)
-
Volume 26 (2023)
-
Volume 25 (2022)
-
Volume 24 (2021)
-
Volume 23 (2020)
-
Volume 22 (2019)
-
Volume 21 (2018)
-
Volume 20 (2017)
-
Volume 19 (2016)
-
Volume 18 (2015)
-
Volume 17 (2014)
-
Volume 16 (2013)
-
Volume 15 (2012)
-
Volume 14 (2011)
-
Volume 13 (2010)
-
Volume 12 (2009)
-
Volume 11 (2008)
-
Volume 10 (2007)
-
Volume 9 (2006)
-
Volume 8 (2005)
-
Volume 7 (2004)
-
Volume 6 (2003)
-
Volume 5 (2002)
-
Volume 4 (2001)
-
Volume 3 (2000)
-
Volume 2 (1999)
-
Volume 1 (1998)
-
Volume 0 (1932)