by Eleanor E. Glaessel-Brown.; Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Political Science, 1984.; MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND DEWEY.; Bibliography: leaves 440-449.

by Elizabeth Rachel Leeds.; Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Political Science, 1984.; MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND DEWEY.; Bibliography: leaves 339-355.

This thesis is about political change and the possibilities for politically creative individuals to achieve desired change. To identify such possibilities, I argue that we should employ a catalog of analytical tools from the social, psychological and cognitive sciences, organized in three sets. One covers social dynamics, the social mechanisms behind stability and change, either sudden or incremental; the second captures ordinary differences among group members in how they understand conditions, react to events, and connect to others; and the third set deals with extraordinary differences in mindsets and aptitudes which may enable individuals to exert considerable influence on conditions. A fundamental problem is the difficulty of separating the impact of individual action (agency) from effects of social conditions and trends (structure), given that political events involve interaction of the two. My solution is to focus onprojects for political change, which are long-term endeavors that go against prevailing conditions and conventional ideas, and which focus upon changing one broad element of the political landscape (such as to restructure inter-group relations, to empower a previously weak constituency, to change certain status quo ideas and practices...

by David P. Jeffrey.; Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Political Science, 2000.; Includes bibliographical references (leaves 304-325).

Nuclear weapon testing is the final step in the nuclear development process, an announcement of ability and strength. The consequences of a nuclear test are far from easy to bear, however: economic sanctions can be crippling and nuclear capability automatically makes one a nuclear target. Why, then, do states test nuclear weapons? This thesis aims to determine the answer to this question using India as a model. It is well known that India tested nuclear weapons in 1974 and in 1998, but less well known are the near-tests of 1983, 1995, and 1996. This thesis examines the situation in these years and the details of the nuclear decisions based on four hypotheses: technical concerns, security and power, domestic politics, and norms and ideas. This study shows that while all four of these theories play a role, technical concerns (contrary to popular belief) are very minor portion of the overall decision to test a nuclear weapon and are relegated to an excuse for scientists. Domestic politics, especially the political fortunes of those in power, play a large role, especially when combined with real, existential security concerns. Similarly, the prestige and status that leaders believe is imparted by nuclear ability is of major import. Understanding the reasons for nuclear testing will lead to fewer nuclear surprises in the future and may help to address the concerns of the growing number of states with latent nuclear capabilities.; by Whitney Lyke Raas.; Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology...

Introduction: While the perestroika reform movement that began in 2000 has shaken US political science, the virtual absence of methodological argument on any side means that the dispute is mostly political rather than intellectual. The discipline has been shaken but not stirred. The movement may change the balance of power within the profession, but otherwise leave the practice of political science unchanged. This paper is intended to help move methodological debate, with “methodology” taken in its broad sense of reflection upon the conduct of inquiry (so it also covers epistemology). The existing – now faltering –hegemony (usually identified with rational choice theory and quantitative methods) may be indefensible, but perestroika proposes only an empty pluralism in its place. Perestroika’s heart may be in the right place, but its head needs to catch up. I discuss a critical disciplinary pluralism, not as an alternative program for the discipline, but as a way of making the best of existing political science practice.; no

Why are some countries more technologically innovative than others? The dominant explanation amongst political-economists is that domestic institutions determine national innovation rates. However, after decades of research, the empirical evidence for this relationship remains equivocal. There are simply many countries with "good" institutions that do not innovate at the technological frontier, and many countries with "bad" institutions that have nonetheless built impressive records of technological progress. Therefore, in this dissertation, in order to probe the sources of variance in national innovation rates, I analyze quantitative data on innovation, various domestic institutions, and four types of international relationships. First, I review the National Innovation Systems literature. Second, I test the Varieties of Capitalism theory of innovation. Third, I ask whether decentralized states are better at technological innovation than centralized states. In each case, I find that there exists little empirical evidence for an aggregate relationship between domestic institutions and technological innovation. That is, although a specific domestic institution or policy might appear to explain a particular instance of innovation, they fail to explain national innovation rates across time and space.; (cont.) However...

This dissertation develops a political liberal approach to multiculturalism as an alternative to its dismissal by some egalitarian liberals and its celebration by some multicultural liberals. Some egalitarian liberals overstate the liberal tension with group-specific claims, disregard the role of culture in a person's life, and exaggerate the propensity of group-specific claims to exacerbate conflict. Confusing religion with culture, they assign to religion the status of an all purpose good that liberals traditionally assign to income and wealth. While political liberals require that the state grant exemptions to religious practices that violate uniform rules, these egalitarian liberals do not. Some multicultural liberals overstate the liberal failure to accommodate group-specific political claims, exaggerate the role of culture in a person's life, and ignore the invented nature of culture. Confusing culture with religion, they assign to culture the moral weight liberals traditionally assign to religion. Political liberals, however, assign to culture the same social weight they assign to a person's family, firm, neighborhood and other associations. Political liberals also distinguish encompassing groups, such as language-nations or factory-towns...

This study explains the construction and maintenance of a one-party dominant democratic political system in South Africa between 1994 and 1999. Against conventional explanations that rely on historical conditions and voting patterns driven by ascriptive identities, this study offers an explanation of events that focuses on the role of political institutions and social demographics in structuring the incentives that shape strategic choices made by political parties. The process by which the ruling African National Congress (ANC) entrenched its dominant position between 1994 and 1999 was attributable to a number of factors. The analysis found that the ANC actively manipulated political cleavages to perpetuate its hegemonic position in South African politics, rather than simply resting on its status as the liberation party or the ethnic loyalties of its supporters. The process of establishing and maintaining dominance, for the ANC, involved maintaining strategic alliances with labor and leftists, manipulating social and political discourse to reinforce the unity of the political community of non-Whites on whose electoral support the party relied; and finally, manipulating state institutions to help the party to reward supporters and maintain the focus of power on the national level. Through each of these strategies...

The central goal of this dissertation is to contribute to our understanding of the link between political representation and policy outcomes. In particular, this collection of essays examines how the institutional arrangements and formal processes that precede and initiate political representation either promote or hinder the representation of various interests in society and thus determine whose interests shape public policies. The first chapter studies the relationship between descriptive representation of traditionally underrepresented minority groups and substantive representation of their interests. Examining the impact of increased African American representation from the early 1970s to the late 1990s, the chapter demonstrates that legislative representation of historically marginalized groups can lead to tangible changes in public policies. The second chapter attempts to understand why legislative representation of minority groups in American society remains low, even to this day. This chapter disentangles the impact of candidates' race on voting decisions from that of candidates' ideology, by focusing on the case of the representation of African Americans.; (cont.) Using extensive individual-level voting data as well as a unique data set on candidates' ideological positions...

This dissertation assesses U.S. presidents' incentives for diversionary war. The political benefits of the use of force were measured and compared to the benefits of other dramatic foreign policy activities. Gains from force were modest, not unique, and discounted in many circumstances of political need. Statistical tests measured the changes in presidential approval ratings following uses of force, major diplomatic events, presidential speeches, and foreign travel by presidents, in the period 1953-2000. Historical sources and newspaper archives were used to identify and characterize uses of force and diplomatic events. Uses of force provide only modest and short-lived approval gains (average 6% increase with 3 month half life for major uses). Approval changes were greater with more media coverage, Congressional support, or popular goals (e.g., protecting American lives, not humanitarian intervention). Approval gains were higher during recessions, but losses occurred when prior approval was low for non-economic reasons (e.g., scandals). Diplomatic events produced slightly smaller benefits, conditioned by similar variables except for retaining their popularity during scandals. Foreign travel and speeches had little impact. The frequency of presidential activities changes in response to political variables...

Political science is divided between methodological individualists, who seek to explain political phenomena by reference to individuals and their interactions, and holists (or non-reductionists), who consider some higher-level social entities or properties such as states, institutions, or cultures ontologically or causally significant. We propose a reconciliation between these two perspectives, building on related work in philosophy. After laying out a taxonomy of different variants of each view, we observe that (i) although political phenomena result from underlying individual attitudes and behaviour, individual-level descriptions do not always capture all explanatorily salient properties, and (ii) non-reductionistic explanations are mandated when social regularities are robust to changes in their individual-level realization. We characterize the dividing line between phenomena requiring non-reductionistic explanation and phenomena permitting individualistic explanation and give examples from the study of ethnic conflicts, social-network theory, and international-relations theory.

Political science’ is a ‘vanguard’ field concerned with advancing generic knowledge of political processes, while a wider ‘political scholarship’ utilising eclectic approaches has more modest or varied ambitions. Political science nonetheless necessarily depends upon and is epistemologically comparable with political scholarship. I deploy Boyer's distinctions between discovery, integration, application and renewing the profession to show that these connections are close woven. Two sets of key challenges need to be tackled if contemporary political science is to develop positively. The first is to ditch the current unworkable and restrictive comparative politics approach, in favour of a genuinely global analysis framework. Instead of obsessively looking at data on nation states, we need to seek data completeness on the whole (multi-level) world we have. A second cluster of challenges involves looking far more deeply into political phenomena; reaping the benefits of ‘digital-era’ developments; moving from sample methods to online census methods in organisational analysis; analysing massive transactional databases and real-time political processes (again, instead of depending on surveys); and devising new forms of ‘instrumentation’...

Writing in response to Peter John’s defence of political science, Dr Mark Pack argues that research on party funding is not an academic success story but rather illustrates that political scientists simply do not know enough about what is really going in with British politics.

Political science is not more visible or more relevant than before. There is a real problem that must be addressed. Matt Flinders argues that our choice is to continue drifting amid frequent criticisms or seek to proactively steer a course towards illustrating our capacity for social engagement, impact and relevance.

John Sides has been bringing political science research to current events since he co-founded his political science blog in 2007. Here he discusses the need for political science in journalism and the role that such detailed research can play in adding to a news story, for the benefit of journalist, reader and academic.

Writing in response to Peter John’s defence of political science, Mark Pack argues that research on party funding is not an academic success story but rather illustrates that political scientists simply do not know enough about what is really going in with Britain’s political finances.

Political science is not more visible or more relevant than before. There is a real problem that must be addressed. Matt Flinders argues that our choice is to continue drifting amid frequent criticisms or seek to proactively steer a course towards illustrating our capacity for social engagement, impact and relevance.

"Political Science Research Methods: Exploring America at a Crossroads." Cal Clark. World Scientific. October 2013. --- With this textbook, Cal Clark aims to provide clear descriptions of the major statistical techniques used in political and social science research for undergraduate students. This is a rewarding read that flows coherently from concepts recognizable to most schoolchildren up to complex statistical techniques without losing its focus, finds Nicholas Thomason.

This article analyses the core critiques on institutional change theories within the neoinstitutional research agenda in comparative political science. It offers an explanatory typology using analytical challenges for the development of theories with new institutional approaches. This typology provides key critical issues that should be seriously considered by political scientists when analysing change. The framework suggests that the analytical challenges be posed in five interwoven dimensions: a) inclusion of institutional variables; b) agency and cognition; c) contextual sensitivity; d) increasing precision in the concept of institution (and institutional change); and, e) recursive interaction between agents and institutions in the process of institutional change. Based on these challenges, the article conducts a comparative analysis of the theories of change suggested by North and Aoki to understand how they deal with such issues.