I: Political Science: Method and Theory/Science Politique: Méthodes et Théories
| Published date | 01 February 2017 |
| Date | 01 February 2017 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002083451706700101 |
| Subject Matter | Abstracts |
1
I
POLITICAL SCIENCE : METHOD AND THEORY
SCIENCE POLITIQUE : MÉTHODES ET THÉORIES
67.1 ABBOTT, Kenneth W., et al. — Two logics of indirect
governance: delegation and orchestration. British Journal
of Political Science 46(4), Oct. 2016 : 719-729.
This article introduces the concept of orchestration as the mobilization of
an intermediary by an orchestrator on a voluntary basis in pursuit of a
joint governance goal. Orchestrator-Intermediary theory then provides a
model of indirect governance that supplements delegation models
premised on principal-agent theory. Under both theories, governors
enhance their governance capacity by drawing on the capabilities of third
parties. Whereas delegation is premised on hard “contractual” control
over the agent, however, orchestration relies on the soft control of like-
minded intermediaries through material and ideational support. The two
models overlap, and governors mix them in practice, but distinguishing
between them analytically can broaden and deepen analysis of indirect
forms of governance. This article discusses the circumstances [in] which
each model provides a better fit for real-world problems. [R, abr.]
67.2 ABRAMSON, Scott ; VELASCO RIVERA, Carlos — Time is
power: the noninstitutional sources of stability in autoc-
racies. Journal of Politics 78(4), Oct. 2016 : 1279-1295.
Is personal power hereditable in autocracies? Given the discretion that
autocrats often have to alter the formal rules of the game, personal
power is key for understanding political development in non-
democracies. However, recent scholarship has ignored this question. To
fill this gap we exploit the random timing of natural deaths for a set of
European monarchs to show that leaders with longer tenures tended to
be succeeded by their sons and had successors that were less fre-
quently deposed and less likely to face parliamentary constraints. Our
results are consistent with a theoretical account we develop wherein
leaders accumulate political power the longer they are in office, which
then determines patterns of succession, stability, and institutional devel-
opment in autocracies. [R, abr.]
67.3 ACHARYA, Avidit ; BLACKWELL, Matthew ; SEN, Maya —
Explaining causal findings without bias: detecting and
assessing direct effects. American Political Science Review
110(3), Aug. 2016 : 512-529.
Researchers seeking to establish causal relationships frequently control
for variables on the purported causal pathway, checking whether the
original treatment effect then disappears. Unfortunately, this common
approach may lead to biased estimates. We show that the bias can be
avoided by focusing on a quantity of interest called the controlled direct
effect. Under certain conditions, this effect enables researchers to rule
out competing explanations. To estimate the controlled direct effect
without bias, we describe an easy-to-imple ment estimation strategy from
the biostatistics literature. We extend this approach by deriving a consis-
tent variance estimator and demonstrating how to conduct a sensitivity
analysis. Two examples — one on ethnic fractionalization’s effect on civil
war and one on the impact of historical plough use on contemporary
female political participation — illustrate the framework and methodol-
ogy. [R, abr.]
67.4 AMADIEU, Jean-Baptiste — Nos censures au miroir de
l’Index librorum prohibitorum (Our censorship mirrored
in the Index librorum prohibitorum). Raisons politiques 63,
2016 : 67-84.
The Roman Index continually banned publications throughout the “Chris-
tian Republic” for four centuries, from the 16th to the 20th c. In the light of
this system of censorship, its laws and jurisprudential practice in matters of
literature, the article questions current-day regulations regarding public
speech. Some questions run through the whole history of censorship in
spite of cultural differences: do lawgivers accept their role as censors? Do
they target an author’s intention, statements or the public reception of such
statements? Is censorship limited to legal prohibitions? Is an offensive book
necessarily dangerous? Does the literary value of a text defuse or exacer-
bate the danger? What type of influence can a book have on the public?
Can and should less impressionable readers be granted exem ptions from
censorship? [R] [See Abstr. 67.101]
67.5 AMIGHETTI, Sara ; NUTI, Alasia — Towards a shared
redress: achieving historical justice through democratic
deliberation. Journal of Political Philosophy 23(4), Dec.
2015 : 385-405.
A new principle of redress for historical injustices like slavery and coloni-
alism provides an argument for the fundamental role of the wronged in
determining the appropriate form of redress for complex historical injus-
tices, while also recognizing the necessity of giving a say to the wrong-
doers, depending on the particular nature of past injustices. It likewise
shows how deliberative democracy is able to offer an entirely new
perspective in specifically addressing reparations for complex past
injustices. There are two shortcomings in the current literature on histori-
cal injustice that become particularly troubling when addressing complex
past wrongs, such as slavery and colonialism. The institutional set-up of
such a proposal functions under both conditions of structural inequality
between deliberators and conditions of power-inequality between states.
67.6 AMSLER, Lisa Blomgren — Collaborative governance:
integrating management, p olitics, and law. Public Admini-
stration Review 76(5), Sept.-Oct. 2016 : 700-711.
Scholars have engaged in an ongoing dialogue about the relationships
among management, politics, and law in public administration. Collabo-
rative governance presents new challenges to this dynamic. While
scholars have made substantial contributions to our understanding of the
design and practice of collaborative governance, others suggest that we
lack theory for this emerging body of research. Law is often omitted as a
variable. Scholarship generally does not explicitly include collaboration
as a public value. This article addresses the dialogue on management,
politics, and law with regard to collaborative governance. It provides an
overview of the current legal framework for collaborative governance in
the US at the federal, state, and local levels of government and identifies
gaps. [R, abr.]
67.7 ANDERSSON, Nils — La guerre et la paix, entre réalité et
utopie (War and peace, between reality and utopia). La
Pensée 387, July-Sept. 2016 : 38-53.
Instead of the era of peace announced by the new world order, twenty-
five years later, emerges the chaos in the Middle East and a less secure,
more dangerous world. Militarization policies (military budgets, sales of
arms …), in which are engaged the NATO countries and many other
states, carry with them the clouds of uncontrolled and uncontrollable
wars and participate in the implementation of repressive laws against
peoples. [R] [See Abstr. 67.78]
67.8 ANDRÉ, Audrey ; DEPAUW, Sam ; DESCHOUWER, Kris —
State structure and political representation: comparing
the views of statewide and sub-state legislators across
14 countries. European Journal of Political Research 55(4),
Nov. 2016 : 866-884.
How the recent creation, re-invention or reinforcement of regional levels
of political decision-making across Europe compounds political represen-
tation is one of the key issues of contemporary democratic government.
Despite growing scholarly interest, the critical question as to whether the
regional institutional setting has brought about distinct representational
roles among sub-state legislators has yet to be addressed. This study
bridges the literature on multilevel politics and legislative studies that to
date have developed in isolation. Using innovative survey data from 14
statewide and 56 regional legislatures across Europe, it provides the first
comprehensive test of how the state structure affects a legislator's views
on representation. [R, abr.]
67.9 ANTIĆ GABER, Milica — Javno mnenje in vrednote ena-
kosti spolov ali o rahljanju moške dominacije v politiki
(Public opinion and gender equality values: on the loos-
ening of male domination in politics). Teorija in Praksa
Special Issue, 2016 : 129-147.
I examine how judgments on gender equality in opinion polls are “trans-
lated” into gender relations in politics. I extracted some accountable
questions and analyzed the respondents’ changing preferences in a time
perspective. During the 1990s, when we had an extremely low share of
women in politics, the proportion of those gender equality had very
positively assessed was greatly reduced, and that at the same time the
Political science : method and theory
2
proportion of those indifferent to these values (among men and among
women) increased. Men were simultaneously perceived as better politi-
cal leaders. The share of the latter judgments in the next period declined
steadily and by 2011 had almost halved, which may indicate positive
developments also in this respect and foretell a possible shift towards
the loosening of male domination in politics. [R, abr.]
67.10 AOUST, Anne-Marie d' ; GRONDIN, David — Repenser la
politique disciplinaire des Relations internationales.
Pour une pédagogie indisciplinée des RI (Challenging
the discipline policy of IR: an argument for an undisci-
plined pedagogy of International Relations). Études inter-
nationales 46(4), Dec. 2015 : 405-442.
Challenges to the IR discipline concern its scientific aspirations and
disciplinary boundaries, as well as the ethical and social issues associ-
ated with them. The latter deal as much with the analyzes produced in IR
as with the power relations affecting the individuals making such analy-
ses. Our contribution in threefold: (1) it appeals to the necessity of
interdisciplinarity by foregrounding an "undisciplined" perspective; (2) it
insists on the primacy of actively "forgetting" IR theory, by mobilizing our
teaching practices; and (3) its shows, through a critical methodological
stance of feminist curiosity, how pedagogy may act as an opening to the
world of international relations. It promotes more openness as to what IR
might consist of and encompass, and acknowledges emotions as central
to meaning-making processes in the world of/in IR. [R, abr.] [See Abstr.
67.27]
67.11 ARIAS MALDONADO, Manuel — La digitalización de la
conversación pública: redes sociales, afectividad
política y democracia (The digitalization of public opin-
ion: social networks, political sentiment and democracy).
Revista de Estudios políticos 173, July-Sept. 2016 : 27-54.
This article deals with the impact of new communications technologies
on democracy. It analyzes the processes by which public opinion is
being partly digitalized — on account of the decisive importance that the
quality of public opinion possesses for the quality of democracy. The
focus is on the effects of citizens’ usage of social media and other digital
platforms. Citizens themselves are mainly considered as affective sub-
jects influenced by their own emotions and preconscious sensations.
Social networks turn out to be intrinsically affective technologies, whose
strong influence on political socialization and m obilization forces us to
reconsider current understandings of actually existing liberal democra-
cies. [R] [First article of a thematic issue on “Democracy and law in the
internet era”, edited and introduced by Elena GARCÍA GUITIÁN and
Josu de MIGUEL BÁRCENA. See also Abstr. 67.32, 56, 92, 171, 174,
443, 555, 928]
67.12 ARTZ, Lee — The media of power, the power of media.
Perspectives on Global Development and Technology 15(5),
2016 : 497-519.
This essay combines IPE with a critical political economy of media
perspective that recognizes the crucial role of transnational media
corporations (TNMC) in building consent for neoliberal globalization.
Media are found to be instrumental for consolidating transnational
capitalist hegemony — creating a popular culture based on individual-
ism, deference to authority, and consumerism. TNMCs consolidate
diverse national media for the production of hybrid programming that
features multiple local images and symbols wrapped in consumerist
ideology and narratives. Examples from animation reveal consistent
themes in TNMC content that entertain and appeal to diverse audiences,
illustrating media’s persuasive messages essential to the cultural he-
gemony of transnational capitalist leadership. [R]
67.13 ASAL, Victor, et al. — Repression, education, and politi-
cally motivated cyberattacks. Journal of Global Security
Studies 1(3), Aug. 2016 : 235-147.
What factors drive politically motivated cyberattacks? Our research
focuses on one particular kind of cyberattack: politically motivated,
distributed denial-of-service attacks (DDoS). We argue that denial-of-
service attacks are a particular form of a larger category of political
contention that is more similar to nonviolent than violent activism. We
offer a country-level explanation that helps establish why some nation-
states are more likely to suffer such attacks while most others are not.
When we control for wealth and internet penetration, the strongest factor
explaining why a country is more likely to suffer DDoS attacks is the
dangerous combination of repression and a highly educated population.
The results have important implications both for the scholarly study of
this form of contention, as well as for policy-makers grappling with this
new form of activism. [R]
67.14 ASAL, Victor ; HOFFMAN, Aaron M. — Media effects: do
terrorist organizations launch foreign attacks in re-
sponse to levels of press freedom or press attention?
Conflict Management and Peace Science 33(4), Sept. 2016 :
381-399.
Terrorists are supposed to be influenced by opportunities for news
coverage, but does this mean that groups initiate foreign attacks in
response to the absence of press freedom in their country or inattention
to that state by foreign media organizations? Using Asal and
Rethmeyer’s BAAD1 data on terrorist organizations, we find that increas-
ing levels of attention by the international press reduce the odds of
groups launching cross-border attacks. The propensity of groups to
launch foreign attacks appears unrelated to press freedom. These
results suggest that the protections that states provide for the press
motivate foreign terrorism less than the way the media determines
newsworthiness. [R]
67.15 AXELSEN, David V. ; NIELSEN, Lasse — Sufficiency as
freedom from duress. Journal of Political Philosophy 23(4),
Dec. 2015 : 406-426.
According to sufficientarianism or the sufficiency principle, the require-
ments of distributive justice are fulfilled when everyone has enough.
Freedom of duress is the freedom from significant pressure against
succeeding in central aspects of human life and the threshold above
which people can be said to have enough. Freedom of duress relies and
elaborates on three aspects: that justice is limited in scope, pluralist in
nature, and variable in pattern. Such a foundation leads to plausible
answers regarding why justice is not violated in cases of inequality
between people who have enough, and why we should be concerned
when people do not have enough — when they are under duress. This in
turn raises questions about the intrinsic importance of equality.
67.16 BADIE, Bertrand — Le monde par le fil du social (The
global world as a social arena). La Pensée 387, July-Sept.
2016 : 21-27.
For a long time, international relations have been commonly considered
as interstate relations. States were granted a kind of monopoly in this
field, under the pressure of international law, traditional political philoso-
phy as well as past and well established practices, together with the
national interest for the most powerful states. This conception has been
strongly challenged by the most recent researches which point the
increasing role of societies, social actors and social issues inside the
international arena. Thus, international relations are shifting into “interso-
cial” relations, in a way which questions the main concepts as well as the
main orientations of foreign policies. [R] [See Abstr. 67.78]
67.17 BAILEY, Jesse I. — Socrates as midwife and mediator: on
the political dimensions of the Cratylus. Polis (Journal of
Ancient Greek Political Thought) 33(2), 2016 : 356-378.
This paper presents a reading of the political dimensions of Plato’s
Cratylus. Following Sallis, I argue that Socrates’ claim that we can
achieve a direct access to being unmediated by language is ironic. There
is a “comedic” element to the attempt to transcend language in order to
test the names given by the “lawgiver” against a pure awareness of the
nature of beings themselves. I show that this account of human life, as
always mediated by logos, has a political dimension. Specifically, the
paper argues that the mediation performed by Socrates in the dialogue is
intended to get us to turn toward one another in the formation of com-
munities of philosophical discourse. [R]
67.18 BAKAKI, Zorzeta ; BÖHMELT, Tobias ; BOVE, Vincenzo —
Barriers to coordination? Examining the impact of cul-
ture on international mediation occurrence and effec-
tiveness. Political Studies 64(3), Oct. 2016 : 492-512.
“Culture” features prominently in the literature on international mediation:
if belligerents share cultural characteristics, they are likely to have a
common understanding and norms. This creates a common identity and
makes coordination less costly, which ultimately facilitates mediation
occurrence and effectiveness. Surprisingly, existing quantitative research
largely neglects any cultural ties [between] antagonists [and] mediators.
This article offers a joint analysis of fighting parties’ and mediators’
culture — and the interaction thereof. Based on existing work, a theoreti-
cal framework for mediation occurrence and effectiveness is developed
and innovative measures for belligerents’ cultural ties and the links to the
mediator are used. Contrary to expectations the results suggest that
larger cultural distances between antagonists make mediation more
likely, while cultural dissimilarities between them and the mediator have
the opposite effect. [R, abr.]
67.19 BAKKER, Ryan ; HILL, Daniel W, Jr. ; MOORE, Will H. —
How much terror? Dissidents, governments, institutions,
and the cross-national study of terror attacks. Journal of
Peace Research 53(5), Sept. 2016 : 711-726.
Our knowledge of the set of concepts that influence the number of terror
attacks experienced by different countries is rudimentary. Existing work
on the incidence of terror focuses upon the structural characteristics of
polities, economies, and societies, and fails to place competition be-
tween dissidents and states center stage. It also tends to treat terror as
isolated from other tactics that dissident groups might use to pressure
the state. This study addresses these shortcomings by placing govern-
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