II Political Science : Method and Theory / Science Politique : Méthodes et Théories
| Published date | 01 June 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/00208345231182639 |
| Date | 01 June 2023 |
339
II
POLITICAL SCIENCE : METHOD AND THEORY
SCIENCE POLITIQUE : MÉTHODES ET THÉORIES
73.2846 ABDELAATY, Lamis — The relationship between human
rights and refugee protection: an empirical analysis. In-
ternational Journal of Human Rights 25(10), 2021 : 1704-
1723.
What is the relationship between a government's respect for the rights of
its own citizens and that government's regard for refugee rights? On one
hand, we may expect that a country with high human rights standards will
also offer a higher quality of asylum. Domestic laws that protect citizens’
rights may be extended to refugees, for example. On the other hand,
there are reasons to theorize that a country with high human rights stand-
ards may offer a lower quality of asylum. For instance, governments may
claim that protecting citizens’ wellbeing necessitates the rejection of ref-
ugees. To explore these questions, I analyse a global dataset drawn from
reports by the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants. I find that the
relationship between citizens’ rights and refugee rights is modified by eco-
nomic conditions and the size of the refugee population. [R, abr.]
73.2847 ABIZADEH, Arash — The grammar of social power: power-
to, power-with, power-despite and power-over. Political
Studies 71(1), Feb. 2023 : 3-19.
There are two rival conceptions of power in modern sociopolitical thought.
According to one, all social power reduces to power-over-others. Accord-
ing to another, the core notion is power-to-effect-outcomes, to which even
power-over reduces. This article defends seven theses. First, agential so-
cial power consists in a relation between agent and outcomes (power-to).
Second, not all social power reduces to power-over and, third, the con-
trary view stems from conflating power-over with a distinct notion: power-
despite-resistance. Fourth, social power includes the capacity to effect
outcomes with others’ assistance. Fifth, power-with can be exercised via
joint intentional action, strategic coordination and non-strategic coordina-
tion. Sixth, agential social power is best analysed as a capacity to effect
outcomes. Seventh, power-over and power-with are not mutually exclu-
sive: each can ground the other. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 73.2989]
73.2848 ABULOF, Uriel ; LE PENNE, Shirley — Cosmic political the-
ory. Political Theory 51(1), Feb. 2023 : 6-17.
Modern political thought arrived on the heels of two revolutionary realiza-
tions: We are not at the center of the universe (Copernicus), which was
not created for us (Darwin). How might political theory respond to a third
revolutionary realization, that we are not alone, that other creatures, sen-
tient and highly intelligent, share our vast universe? We explore answers
through a dialogue between two political theorists, a human and an alien.
Rather than superimposing astropolitics upon anthropolitics, we use the
encounter to ask new questions, e.g., should PT foster bridges between
humans and aliens, or harden the boundaries? Pitting Dark Forest Theory
against the Campfire Theory, we outline the coming existential and exis-
tentialist turns in political theory, complementing Earth politics with exo-
politics. [R]
73.2849 AHEDO-GURRUTXAGA, Igor — Aprendizaje basado en
proyectos: una metodología para activar el compromiso,
la motivación y el interés en las aulas de Ciencia Política
(Project-based learning: a methodology aimed at activat-
ing commitment, motivation and interest in Political Sci-
ence classrooms). Revista española de Ciencia política 60,
Nov. 2022 : 197-224.
This article questions the possibility that active and cooperative method-
ologies, specifically Project-based learning, can increase students’ com-
mitment to their own learning process. After presenting the fundamentals
of cooperative learning, based on the principles of positive interdepend-
ence, individual responsibility, face-to-face interaction, permanent reflec-
tion and the management of interpersonal skills, this article describes a
teaching experience founded on Project-based learning implemented in
a first-year subject of the degree in Political Science. After presenting the
methodological sequence, the evaluation system and the group work
methodology, the focus shifts to the changes this type of learning requires
in the role of the instructor, the students, the evaluation and the way of
transmitting knowledge. [R, abr.]
73.2850 ALEXANDRE, Fernando ; BAÇÃO, Pedro ; VEIGA, Francisco
José — The political economy of productivity growth. Eu-
ropean Journal of Political Economy 75, 2023 : 102185.
This paper empirically evaluates the importance of institutions and politi-
cal stability for productivity growth. We explore this relation in a novel way
by evaluating the impact of political and institutional variables on the
structural change and within-sector components of labor productivity
growth. Our results do not provide robust evidence that democracy/au-
tocracy affects productivity growth, either through structural change or
within-sector productivity growth. However, political instability appears to
have adverse effects on both components of productivity growth. Our es-
timates also show that economic freedom is associated with within-sector
productivity growth. [R, abr.]
73.2851 ALLEN, Amy, et al. — The ends of radical critique? Crisis,
capitalism, emancipation: a conversation. Journal of Polit-
ical Power 16(1), 2023 : 101-124.
In a discussion of Albena Azmanova’s book Capitalism on Edge (Colum-
bia U. P., 2020), Amy Allen, Paul Apostolidis, Lea Ypi and Albena Az-
manova debate key issues critical social theory confronts today. How
should critical theorists re-engage with the critique of capitalism without
entrapment in old ideological certainties? They revisit the classical de-
bates about transformative agency, direction and methods of change, and
the place of normative ideals and of moral theory in the critique of capi-
talism in light of the current historical juncture. [R]
73.2852 AMANO, Kenya, et al. — Field research when there is lim-
ited access to the field: lessons from Japan. PS 56(1),
Jan. 2023 : 99-105.
How can scholars conduct field research when there is limited access to
the field? This article first identifies how limited and uncertain field access
can affect field research and then provides recommendations to address
these challenges. We focus on conducting field research in Japan be-
cause of our substantive expertise, but we believe that the problems and
solutions outlined in this article are applicable to a broad range of coun-
tries. Our hope is that this article contributes to the developing literature
on conducting research during times of emergency and to the larger liter-
ature on best practices for field research. [R]
73.2853 AMOORE, Louise — Machine learning political orders. Re-
view of International Studies 49(1), Jan. 2023 : 20-36.
A significant set of epistemic and political transformations are taking place
as states and societies begin to understand themselves and their prob-
lems through the paradigm of deep neural network algorithms. A machine
learning political order does not merely change the political technologies
of governance, but is itself a reordering of politics, of what the political can
be. When algorithmic systems reduce the pluridimensionality of politics to
the output of a model, they simultaneously foreclose the potential for
other political claims to be made and alternative political projects to be
built. More than this foreclosure, a machine learning political order ac-
tively profits and learns from the fracturing of communities and the desta-
bilising of democratic rights. The transformation from rules-based algo-
rithms to deep learning models has paralleled the undoing of rules-based
social and international orders. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 73.3976]
73.2854 ANDREWS, Talbot M. ; DELTON, Andrew W. ; KLINE, Reu-
ben — Is a rational politics of disaster possible? Making
useful decisions for others in an experimental disaster
game. Political Behavior 45(1), March 2023 : 305-326.
Disaster responses are political. But can citizens make useful disaster
decisions? Potential obstacles are that such decisions are complex, in-
volve public goods, and often affect other people. Theories of political
decision-making disagree on whether these problems can be overcome.
We used experimental economic games that simulate disaster to test
whether people are willing and able to prevent disasters for others.
Groups of players face a complex task in which options that might help
vary in their riskiness. Importantly, although all options are reasonable,
which option is most useful depends on the experimental condition. We
find that players will pay to help, can identify which option is most useful
across experimental conditions, and will pay to learn how best to help.
Thus, players were able to make useful and costly decisions to prevent
others from experiencing disaster. [R, abr.]
73.2855 ARMALY, Miles T. ; ENDERS, Adam M. — Filling in the
gaps: false memories and partisan bias. Political Psychol-
ogy 44(2), Apr. 2023 : 281-299.
While cognitive psychologists have learned a great deal about people's
propensity for constructing and acting on false memories, the connection
Political science : method and theory
340
between false memories and politics remains understudied. If partisan
bias guides the adoption of beliefs and colors one's interpretation of new
events and information, so too might it prove powerful enough to fabricate
memories of political circumstances. Across two studies, we first distin-
guish false memories from false beliefs and expressive responses; false
political memories appear to be genuine and subject to partisan bias. We
also examine the political and psychological correlates of false memories.
[R, abr.]
73.2856 ARNON, Daniel ; McALEXANDER, Richard J. ; RUBIN, Mi-
chael A. — Social cohesion and community displacement
in armed conflict. International Security 47(3), Winter 2022-
2023 : 52-94.
What are the origins of conflict-related population displacement? Why do
some communities in conflict zones suffer mass casualties while others
evade conflict violence? Whether civilians migrate before or after bellig-
erent operations in their vicinity influences the scale of casualties and
population displacement in war. “Preemptive evacuation” is a specific
manifestation of forced displacement, in which whole communities leave
their homes before belligerents attempt to seize control in their local area.
In conflicts involving strategic civilian-targeted violence, social cohesion,
by promoting collective action, enhances communities’ capabilities to mo-
bilize collective migration, thereby increasing the likelihood of preemptive
evacuation. An investigation of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War probes the
plausibility of the theory. [R, abr.]
73.2857 AS-SABER, Sharif ; HÄRTEL, Charmine — Cocktail geopol-
itics and the changing nature of governance. International
Journal of Public Administration 46(5), 2023 : 373-388.
Governance is considered one of the most significant concepts in today’s
society. Governance mechanism and its associated approaches vary
across countries depending on their economic as well as political contexts
and interests. Geopolitics represents political disposition of countries and
regions across a geographic milieu. Although geopolitical variables are
likely to influence governance approaches, few studies link geopolitics to
governance. It is also becoming increasingly difficult to understand the
intricate nature of constantly changing geopolitical variables, apparently
creating a combined, cocktail-like effect on governance. This paper con-
tributes to this understudied area by examining how geopolitical dimen-
sions, such as power, place and demography, change over time while
influencing a country’s governance mechanism and approaches. [R, abr.]
73.2858 ASLAM, Ali ; McIVOR, David W. ; SCHLOSSER, Joel — A
democratic turn within democratic socialism? State-cen-
tric and anti-statist visions of socialism and the challenge
of democratic mirroring. New Political Science 43(4), 2022 :
451-468.
We theorize the democratic aspect of democratic socialism through some
of its recent, theoretical articulations and several of its historical, fugitive
appearances. To illustrate a potential democratic turn, we highlight how
these moments reflect a paradox of democratic spirit: the necessity of
cultivating collective consciousness of popular power, while also acknowl-
edging the limits of this power through a lingering attachment to the liberal
democratic state as the means of achieving or supporting a democratic
socialist vision. We call this democratic mirroring, which exceeds a con-
cept of representation centered on the constitutional state. We maintain
the spirit of democratic socialism is animated by quotidian struggles for a
decent existence and those struggles must be mirrored in a way that sup-
ports the political education, political psychology, and the political self-
respect of the “demos” implied within democratic socialism. [R, abr.]
73.2859 ATSUSAKA, Yuki ; STEVENSON, Randolph T. — A bias-
corrected estimator for the crosswise model with inatten-
tive respondents. Political Analysis 31(1), Jan. 2023 : 134-
148.
The crosswise model is an increasingly popular survey technique to elicit
candid answers from respondents on sensitive questions. Recent stud-
ies, however, point out that in the presence of inattentive respondents,
the conventional estimator of the prevalence of a sensitive attribute is bi-
ased toward 0.5. To remedy this problem, we propose a simple design-
based bias correction using an anchor question that has a sensitive item
with known prevalence. We demonstrate that we can easily estimate and
correct for the bias arising from inattentive respondents without m easur-
ing individual-level attentiveness. We also offer several useful extensions
of our estimator, including a sensitivity analysis for the conventional esti-
mator, a strategy for weighting, a framework for multivariate regressions
in which a latent sensitive trait is used as an outcome or a predictor, and
tools for power analysis and parameter selection. [R, abr.]
73.2860 BAKIR, Caner — What does comparative policy analysis
have to do with the structure, institution and agency de-
bate? Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and
Practice 24(5), 2022 : 415-429.
A growing number of political and policy scientists have utilized institu-
tional theory to explain how the purposeful actions of agents shape and
are shaped by structural, institutional, a nd agential factors. Most current
studies, however, have conflated and/or combined the fundamental con-
cepts of structure, institution, and actor, overlooking how their interactions
shape policy and institutional outcomes. Furthermore, such research
lacks an approach that allows a more comprehensive means to integrate
the various dimensions of such interactions. By studying these distinct
but interdependent causal factors through an integrative approach, we
provide a richer, more comprehensive understanding of contingent con-
ditions, agency, and outcomes. [R] [First article of a thematic issue. See
also Abstr. 73.3110, 3779, 4100, 4229, 4285]
73.2861 BALDOLI, Roberto ; RADAELLI, Claudio M. — Unity in fra-
gility: nonviolence and COVID-19. Rivista italiana di Sci-
enza politica 52(3), Nov. 2022 : 378-390.
The COVID-19 pandemic witnessed extreme forms of biopolitics, as well
as the urgency to reconsider our relationship with the planet. Although
biopolitics draws attention to the technologies of domination by public au-
thorities, we cast the concepts of bios and politics in the wider framework
of nonviolence. In this framework, bios is the set of practices (praxis) of
ordinary citizens. And politics is power created by harm reduction, or ac-
tions in daily life that testimony the desire not to harm others or the planet.
We leverage nonviolence at three levels, scaling up from the individual to
social behaviour and to the planet. The first level concerns nonviolence
as self-sufferance and as praxis to claim back the sovereignty of the body.
In the second level, nonviolence is collective mobilization — building so-
cial capital, self-governance, and solidarity. The third level provides the
vision of a diverse ecological citizenship with a sustainable relationship
between human beings and the planet. [R]
73.2862 BALESTRI, Claudio — Economic notes on the concept of
political power. Journal of Political Power 16(1), 2023 : 125-
137.
These notes offer an unusual perspective on democracy by interpreting
key categories of political science through the lens of economics, specif-
ically drawing from the ‘theory of the firm’ literature. Due to incomplete
contracts, political power is conceptualized as a variable quantum that
balances power resources with constitutional and electoral constraints.
Accordingly, the proposed model is used to explain how the amount of
power can vary over time, what its determinants are, and what mecha-
nisms can lead to political regime change in an era of world polarized by
democracies and autocracies. [R]
73.2863 BARRETT, Katherine ; GREENE, Richard — The triumph
and tribulation of performance management. International
Journal of Public Administration 46(2), 2023 : 158-169.
There was a time when performance management was seen as having
the potential to seamlessly guide leaders of state and local government
in the United States to the best possible answers to difficult questions
about policy and management. As the years have passed, though there
have been some outstanding successes in this discipline, a number of
challenges have presented themselves. This essay builds a case for the
power of performance management to aid in making positive change,
while also focusing on some of the biggest challenges leaders in this field
have confronted. It also includes a series of principles designed to help
overcome or avoid these challenges. [R]
73.2864 BEARCE, David H. ; ROOSEVELT, Megan — The variation
in firm lobbyin g by political regime: can it explain trade
and currency policy differences? Political Science Re-
search and Methods 11(1), Jan. 2023 : 95-109.
Exploring if/how lobbying patterns differ by political regime, this paper
uses data from the World Bank's Enterprise Surveys with about 29,000
firms across 83 country/years to test the hypothesis that this political ac-
tivity should be greater in democracies. Considering a variety of democ-
racy indicators and different lobbying measures, it finds strong support for
this expected positive relationship. It then employs these data to consider
the trade and currency policy preferences of firms within the special inter-
est channel, comparing democracies with non-democracies. These re-
sults show a greater percentage of exporting firms, a lesser percentage
of import-competing firms, and a greater percentage of non-tradable firms
within the democratic special interest channel, helping to build a lobbying-
based explanation for why democracies tend to have more open trade
policies and more flexible exchange rate regimes. [R]
73.2865 BECK, Humberto — Twenty-first-century political theory:
a balance. Political Theory 51(1), Feb. 2023 : 18-26.
This essay is part of a special issue celebrating 50 years of Political The-
ory. The ambition of the editors was to mar k this half century not with a
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