International Political Science Abstracts
| Published date | 01 February 2021 |
| Date | 01 February 2021 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0020834521996533 |
| Subject Matter | Abstracts |
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POLITICAL SCIENCE : METHOD AND THEORY
SCIENCE POLITIQUE : MÉTHODES ET THÉORIES
71.1 ACOSTA, Benjamin ; ZIEGLER ROGERS, Melissa — When
militant organizations lose militarily but win politically.
Cooperation and Conflict 55(3), Sept. 200 : 365-387.
The literature on political violence emphasizes two main ways that
militant organizations ‘win’: eliminating the adversary outright or coercing
the adversary into making concessions. While most do not win in this
way, some organizations that fail to win go on to achieve their goals in
post-conflict political competition. What explains variation in the post-
conflict political success of militant organizations that did not achieve
their organizational goals on the battlefield? In this study, we run the first
large-n empirical analysis of the phenomenon. O ur empirical results
show that organizational size and wartime lethal capacity positively
predict the political success of militant organizations that did not win on
the battlefield. Other plausibly related features of militant organizations,
such as their united wartime front or coherent ideology, do not predict
eventual political success. [R, abr.]
71.2 ALBERTSEN, Andreas — Personal responsibility in health
and health care: luck egalitarianism as a plausible and
flexible approach to health. Political Research Quarterly
73(3), Sept. 2020 : 583-595.
This article presents a framework of luck egalitarianism in health, which
integrates other concerns of justice than health, is pluralist, and is com-
patible with a wide range of measures for giving lower priority to those
deemed responsible. Applying this framework to oral health, the alloca-
tion of livers among potential transplant recipients and travel insurance
demonstrates that this version of luck egalitarianism is a much more
attractive and flexible theory than much of the contemporary discussion
allows. This also pertains to its ability to provide plausible answers to two
prominent critiques of harshness and intrusiveness. The discussion also
shows that the luck egalitarian commitment to eliminating the influence of
luck on people’s lives is likely to require substantial redistribution. [R,
abr.]
71.3 ALIYEV, Huseyn — Why are some civil wars more lethal
than others? The effect of pro-regime proxies on conflict
lethality. Political Studies 68(3), Aug. 2020 : 749-767.
Previous large-N studies on conflict lethality have focused in large part
either on structural factors or on the properties of key conflict protago-
nists — governments and rebels. This article challenges the dyadic two-
actor approach to studying conflict lethality that examines exclusively the
key actors of the dyad, and — on the example of pro-regime militias —
hypothesizes that participation of extra-state actors in civil wars can exert
significant influence on battlefield lethality. It is proposed here that pro-
regime militias can swell the number of combat deaths through acting as
‘extra boots’ on the ground, providing governments with auxiliary forces
and local intelligence, and enabling incumbents to launch more effective
and often more deadly attacks on insurgents. Militias also affect the
number of battle deaths by forcing rebels to protect their civilian support
bases. [R, abr.]
71.4 ALMUSLEM, Abdulaziz G. — Post conflict justice, peace-
keeping, and civil conflict recurrence. International Peace-
keeping 27(3), June 2020 : 467-509.
This article studies how when post-conflict justice works alongside a
peacekeeping operation following a civil conflict, a two-pronged pacifying
effect is activated. While justice mechanisms deal with the factors under-
lying the conflict, peacekeepers increase the costs for the potential
spoilers of the peace while also supporting the justice processes. The
findings in this study have important implications for conflict-ridden states
attempting to escape the ‘conflict trap’. [R]
71.5 ALTMAN, Dan — The evolution of territorial conquest
after 1945 and the limits of the territorial integrity norm.
International Organization 74(3), Summer 2020 : 490-522.
Past studies conclude that a territorial integrity norm caused territorial
conquest to decline sharply after 1945, virtually subsiding after 1975.
However, using new and more comprehensive data on territorial con-
quest attempts, this study presents a revised history of conquest after
1945. Unlike attempts to conquer entire states, attempts to conquer parts
of states remained far more common than previously recognized. More
than conquest declined in frequency, its relationship with war evolved.
Challengers attempting conquest before 1945 often initiated a war, then
sought to occupy large territories. Today, challengers more often seize
small regions, then attempt to avoid war. Adopting this strategy, the fait
accompli, challengers increasingly came to target territories with charac-
teristics that reduce the risk of provoking war — such as a low population
and the absence of a defending military garrison — but challengers
nonetheless take a calculated gamble. [R, abr.]
71.6 AMICK, Joe ; CHAPMAN, Terrence ; ELKINS, Zachary — On
constitutionalizing a balanced budget. Journal of Politics
82(3), July 2020 : 1078-1096.
Do constitutional rules that mandate a balanced budget promote fiscal
discipline? Although such rules are at the heart of austerity debates
across the world, we know surprisingly little about their consequences.
We leverage original data on constitutional budget provisions and ana-
lyze their effect on governments’ primary budget balances. We find that
constitutional rules that require balanced budgets are robustly associated
with fiscal discipline. The constitutional effect remains even after control-
ling for statutory balanced-budget rules. Furthermore, the effect
strengthens as constitutions become more difficult to amend and under
conditions of borderline solvency — two implications consistent with a
constitutional impact. The results will be surprising to those who appreci-
ate both the strong pressures against fiscal discipline and the creativity
of governments in devising strategies to evade spending limits. [R, abr.]
71.7 ANDERS, Therese ; FARISS, Christopher J. ; MARKOWITZ,
Jonathan N. — Bread before guns or butter: introducing
Surplus Domestic Product (SDP). International Studies
Quarterly 64(2), June 2020 : 392-405.
Scholars systematically mismeasure power resources and military
burdens by using gross domestic product (GDP) as a proxy for the
income states can devote to arming. The core problem is that GDP
confounds two conceptually distinct forms of income into one additive
indicator. Subsistence income represents resources needed to provide
the “bread” necessary to cover the basic subsistence needs of the
population. Surplus income represents the remaining resources that
could be allocated to “guns” or “butter.” Our new measure of surplus
domestic product (SDP) corrects for this measurement error by decom-
posing subsistence income and surplus income from total GDP. Valida-
tion exercises demonstrate that SDP outperforms GDP at measuring the
distribution of power resources. [R, abr.]
71.8 ARFI, Badredine — Security qua existential surviving
(while becoming otherwise) through performative leaps
of faith. International Theory 12(2), July 2020 : 291-305.
This paper analyzes the idea of ‘ontological security’ to make three
arguments: (1) that to be secure in one's being is paradoxical in the
sense that to be is to survive while always becoming otherwise, (2)
that to survive is to be anxious, and (3) that to get attached to such a
security of one's always becoming otherwise is to engage in performative
leaps of faith in the security of one's existence. This framework is used to
suggest a new interpretation of the security dilemma. [R] [See Abstr.
71.984]
71.9 BAMBRICK, Christina — Horizontal rights: a republican
vein in liberal constitutionalism. Polity 52(3), July 2020 :
401-429.
While liberal constitutional theory typically understands constitutions as
establishing vertical arrangements in which governments protect individ-
ual rights, some courts have introduced doctrines of horizontal effect,
holding private bodies responsible for the rights of others. This article
argues that we can understand such horizontal rights as a republican
vein in the tradition of liberal constitutionalism. While the conventional
liberal narrative emphasizes the rights of individuals, horizontal effect
builds a catalogue of individual duties as well, corresponding to the
commitments and aspirations of a given constitutional order. This article
draws on classical and contemporary republican political theory, as well
as cases from Germany, India, and South Africa, to demonstrate how the
structure of and arguments for horizontal rights reflect proclivities and
track commitments associated with republicanism. [R, abr.]
Political science : method and theory
2
71.10 BARRINGER, Elizabeth — Origin stories: wonder woman
and sovereign exceptionalism. Contemporary Political
Theory 19(3), Sept. 2020 : 430-452.
This article approaches the recent Wonder Woman (2017) film as a
presentation of the tensions traditionally associated with the paradox of
democratic foundations. Steeped in classical mythology, Wonder Woman
adapts two origin myths from the Athenian polis: th e myth of Pandora
and the myth of the heroic colonizing demigod. Through its adaptation of
these myths I argue that Wonder Woman offers two competing respons-
es to the democratic paradox of founding. One is exceptionalist, where
sovereign interventions by extraordinary ‘super-agents’ like Wonder
Woman are justified by their unique origins and identities. The second
response subverts this narrative, however, offering a tragic depiction of
democratic agency. Through the relationships formed with Diana’s
human companions, I argue that Wonder Woman shows the insufficiency
of a politics of heroic origins. [R, abr.]
71.11 BAUBÖCK, Rainer — A free movement paradox: dena-
tionalisation and depor tation in mobile societies. Citizen-
ship Studies 24(3), May 2020 : 389-403.
This epilogue to the special issue of Citizenship Studies reflects on the
connections between states’ powers to deport foreigners and to dena-
tionalise citizens and asks how both powers ought to be hedged in by
liberal and democratic constraints. The article argues that citizenship
revocation powers are ultimately at odds with a democratic principle that
governments are collectively authorised by citizens. It suggests also that
the protection of long-te rm foreign residents from deportation is due to
the emergence of a quasi-citizenship status for denizens in liberal de-
mocracies. Finally, the article raises a question about the future of the
power to expel in increasingly mobile and interconnected societies. [R,
abr.] [See Abstr. 71.84]
71.12 BAUBÖCK, Rainer — The democratic case for immigra-
tion. Politische Vierteljahresschrift 61(2), June 2020 : 357-
375.
I present three challenges to the view that democratic self-determination
justifies immigration control. I propose, first, that the reason democratic
states can claim immigration control powers is not that they are demo-
cratic, but that they are independent states. Exercising this power is
legitimate when immigration control is needed to preserve the conditions
for democratic self-government. Second, I argue that democratic norms
provide positive reasons for promoting free international movement and
admission claims for family migrants, labor migrants, and refugees.
Third, I suggest that current disputes over immigration policy in the
European Union reflect deeper conflicts between open and closed
conceptions of democracy. If this is correct, then choosing closure over
openness may put the future of democracy itself at risk and should thus
not be regarded as an issue of democratic self-determination. [R] [See
Abstr. 71.1169]
71.13 BAUHR, Monika, et al. — Lights on the shadows of public
procurement: transparency as an antidote to corruption.
Governance 33(3), July 2020 : 495-523.
The increased focus on marketizing mechanisms and contracting-out
operations following the New Public Management reform agenda has
sparked a debate on whether the close interactions between public and
private actors might drive corruption in the public sector. The main
response to those worries has been increased transparency, but so far
empirical evidence of its efficiency remains scant and mixed. This article
argues that the beneficial effects of transparency on corruption are
contingent on type of transparency, and in particular, who the intended
receiver of the information is. The analysis shows that overall tender
transparency reduces corruption risks substantially, yet that the effect is
largely driven by ex ante transparency, that is, transparency that allows
for horizontal monitoring by insiders in the bidding process. [R, abr.] [See
Abstr. 71.127]
71.14 BAUMGARTNER, Michael ; AMBÜHL, Mathias — Causal
modeling with multi-value and fuzzy-set Coincidence
Analysis. Political Science Research and Methods 8(3), July
2020 : 526-542.
Coincidence Analysis (CNA) is a configurational comparative method of
causal data-analysis that is related to Qualitative Comparative Analysis
(QCA) but, contrary to the latter, is custom-built for analyzing causal
structures with multiple outcomes. This paper generalizes CNA for multi-
value variables as well as continuous variables whose values are inter-
preted as membership scores in fuzzy sets. This generalization comes
with a major adaptation of CNA’s algorithmic protocol, which, in an
extended series of benchmark tests, is shown to give CNA an edge over
QCA not only with respect to multi-outcome structures but also with
respect to the analysis of non-ideal data stemming from single-outcome
structures. The inferential pow er of multi-value and fuzzy-set CNA is
made available to end users in the newest version of the R pack-
age CNA. [R]
71.15 BEARDSLEY, Kyle, et al. — Hierarchy and the provision of
order in international politics. Journal of Politics 82(2),
2020 : 731-746.
The anarchic international system is actually heavily structured: commu-
nities of states join together for common benefit; strong states form
hierarchical relationships with weak states to enforce order and achieve
preferred outcomes. Breaking from prior research, we conceptualize
structures such as community and hierarchy as properties of networks of
states’ interactions that can capture unobserved constraints in state
behavior, constraints that may reduce conflict. We offer two claims. One,
common membership in trade communities pacifies to the extent that
breaking trade ties would entail high switching costs: thus, we expect
heavy arms trade, more than most types of commercial trade, to reduce
intracommunity conflict. Two, this is driven by hierarchical communities in
which strong states can use high switching costs as leverage to con-
strain conflict between weaker states in the community. [R, abr.]
71.16 BELOSHITZKAYA, Vera — Democracy and redistribution:
the role of regime revisited. East European Politics and
Societies and Cultures 34(3), Aug. 2020 : 571-590.
This study challenges a well-supported institutionalist theory in compara-
tive po litics that links democracy with higher levels of redistribution as
well as studies that link authoritarianism with welfare state liberalization.
Using pooled cross-sectional data for ten post-communist countries
spanning twenty-five years and a dynamic model specification, the study
shows that, contrary to what the institutionalist theory predicts, post-
communist democratic governments redistribute about 0.6 percent less
of their GDP on social protection in the short term and 1.3 percent less in
the long term than post-communist autocrats do. However, consistent
with the cultural legacies hypothesis, there are no differences when it
comes to redistribution of life chances through health care and educa-
tion. [R, abr.]
71.17 BENTLEY, Tom — Settler state apologies and the elu-
siveness of forgiveness: the purification ritual that does
not purify. Contemporary Political Theory 19(3), Sept. 2020 :
381-403.
Focusing on Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s 2008 apology to the
Stolen Generations, this article asks: can colonial-settler states obtain
forgiveness through political apologies? The article first defends Jacques
Derrida’s observation that political apologies resemble the Christian
practice of confession. In doing so, it subsequently draws on Michel
Foucault’s detailed treatise on confession in order to assess the potential
for absolution. For Foucault, the process of engaging in exhaustive truth-
telling of sin before a demarcated authority provides a route to such
atonement. By contrast, any potential unburdening of sin is lost when
there is either no adequate authority to coax the confession or if the
confession is less than full. The problem for the settler state is that it is
predisposed to re-evoking the imaginary of the settler nation and West-
phalian sovereignty in the very process of apologizing. [R, abr.]
71.18 BERENSKÖTTER, Felix — Anxiety, time, and agency.
International Theory 12(2), July 2020 : 273-290.
This article scrutinizes two concepts central to the ontological security
framework, agency and anxiety. Its point of departure is the view that
conceptions of agency are expressed in the attempt to become ontologi-
cally secure, which requires a more careful look at how humans try to
satisfy the need for a ‘stable sense of Self’ by putting in place ‘anxiety
controlling mechanisms’. This, in turn, raises the question what these
mechanisms are supposed to control, which shifts attention to the con-
cept of ‘anxiety’. Going back to Kierkegaard's original treatment and
Heidegger's existential phenomenology, the article reviews the emer-
gence of anxiety as a core feature of the human condition and highlights
what it calls the ‘anxiety paradox’: the tendency of reflexive humans
facing the freedom of being in time to attach themselves to constructs
that provide a sense of temporal continuity, or certainty. [R, abr.] [See
Abstr. 71.984]
71.19 BERG, Sebastian, et al. — Die digitale Konstellation. Eine
Positionsbestimmung (The digital constellation. A posi-
tioning system). Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft 30(2),
June 2020 : 171-191.
So far Political Science has been at the margins of the debate [on the
digital society] being restricted by a rather narrow focus on networked
communications. The paper attempts to change this by presenting
a more encompassing way to thematize digitalization from within Political
Science. After briefly having criticized the research development Political
Science the paper reconstructs at length some of the most popular
conceptualizations in neighboring disciplines. While we highlight the
Science politique : méthodes et théories
3
commonalities and strengths of those approaches in theorizing digitaliza-
tion, we criticize their rather de rivative understanding of democratic
practices and the political as such. We propose a modified understand-
ing — labeled the “digital constellation” — that looks at the changing
shape of democracy by developing a much more nuanced understanding
of the interplay of societies and technology. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 71.31]
71.20 BERGERON, Dave A. ; GABOURY, Isabelle — Challenges
related to the analytical process in realist evaluation and
latest developments on the use of NVivo from a realist
perspective. International Journal of Social Research Meth-
odology 23(3), May 2020 : 355-365.
Realist evaluation (RE) is a research design increasingly used in pro-
gram evaluation, that aims to explore and understand the influence of
context and underlying mechanisms on intervention or program out-
comes. Several methodological challenges, however, are associated
with this approach. This article summarizes RE key principles and exam-
ines some documented challenges and solutions when analyzing RE
data, including the development of Context-Mechanism-Outcome config-
urations. An analytic method using NVivo features is also presented.
This method makes it possible to respond to certain analytic difficulties
associated with RE by facilitating the identification of patterns and ensur-
ing transparency in the analytical process. [R]
71.21 BERTELLI, Anthony M. ; MELE, Valentina ; WHITFORD,
Andrew B. — When new public management fails: infra-
structure public-private partnerships and political con-
straints in developing and transitional economies. Gov-
ernance 33(3), July 2020 : 477-493.
Amidst calls for more scrutiny of the failure of infrastructure public-private
partnerships (PPPs), uncertainty about how we can measure failure
remains, and little systematic evidence illuminates its likelihood. Our
mixed-methods design explores the notion of failure and identifies the
conditions under which it happens. The first phase of our research
employs documentary analysis and semistructured expert interviews,
and identifies project cancellation as capturing the most severe occur-
rences of failure. A second phase statistically analyzes a unique World
Bank data set capturing the provisions of over 4,000 infrastructure PPPs
launched between 1990 and 2015 in 89 countries. We find robust evi-
dence supporting the theoretical claim that PPPs are less likely to be
canceled in countries with more veto points among their political institu-
tions to restrain politicians from intervening in policy implementation. [R,
abr.] [See Abstr. 71.127]
71.22 BEVIR, Mark ; HALL, Ian — Interpreting the English
school: history, science and philosophy. Journal of Inter-
national Political Theory 16(2), June 2020 : 120-132.
This article introduces the Special Issue on ‘Interpretivism and the
English School of International Relations’. It distinguishes between what
we term the interpretivist and structuralist wings of the school and argues
that disagreement about its preferred approach to the study of interna-
tional relations has generated confusion about what it stands for and
weakened its capacity to respond to alternative approaches. It puts the
case for a reconsideration of the underlying philosophical positions that
the school wishes to affirm and suggests that a properly grounded
interpretivism may serve it best. The final part of the article discusses the
topics and arguments of the remaining pieces in the Special Issue. [R]
[First article of a thematic issue on “Interpretivism and the English School
of International Relations”. See also Abstr. 71.23, 88, 156, 159, 219, 243,
1008]
71.23 BEVIR, Mark ; HALL, Ian — The English school and the
classical approach: between modernism and interpre-
tivism. Journal of International Political Theory 16(2), June
2020 : 153-170.
This article analyses the evolution of the English school’s approach to
international relations from the work of the early British Committee in the
late 1950s and early 1960s to its revival in the 1990s and afterwards. It
argues that the school’s so-called ‘classical approach’ was shaped by
the crisis of developmental historicism brou ght on by the First World War
and by the reactions of historians like Herbert Butterfield and Martin
Wight to the rise of modernist social science in the twentieth century. It
characterises the classical approach, as advanced by Hedley Bull, as a
form of ‘reluctant modernism’ with underlying interpretivist commitments
and unresolved tensions with modernist approaches. It argues that to
resolve some of the confusion concerning its preferred approach to the
study of international relations, the English school should return to the
interpretivist commitments of its early thinkers. [R] [See Abstr. 71.22]
71.24 BILS, Peter ; ROTHENBERG, Lawrence S. ; SMITH, Bradley
C. — The amicus game. Journal of Politics 82(3), July
2020 : 1113-1126.
Despite increased scholarly attention toward analyzing the influence of
amicus briefs on case outcomes, we lack a microfounded model for
understanding what we observe. Our analysis remedies this gap, model-
ing a world in which potential filers can advocate for a particular ruling
and may provide information to influence a judge’s decision. We show
that the influence of an amicus brief depends on the interaction of the
group’s bias and contextual factors. Specifically, while the influence of
biased groups is sensitive to features of each case, such as the stakes of
the issue, moderate group influence is relatively stable. Our findings are
also relevant for empirical studies; they indicate that analyses of influ-
ence with observational data are likely undermined by a failure to ac-
count for strategic group behavior. [R, abr.]
71.25 BIRNIE, Rutger — Citizenship, domicile and deportability:
who should be exempt from the state’s power to expel?
Citizenship Studies 24(3), May 2020 : 371-388.
Legally and practically, only those with citizenship status enjoy absolute
protections against deportation in liberal democracies. Yet deporting
non-citizens who have resided on a state’s territory for many years is
increasingly controversial, as demonstrated by the many protests such
deportations generate and the growing number of political theorists who
argue that long-term residents should be granted a right to stay. In this
article, I agree with these theorists that deporting long-term residents is
morally troubling but propose an alternative theory about its wrongs.
Instead of grounding these in the fact that such individuals have be-
come de facto members of the societies in which they live, the contribu-
tions such individuals have made to their host societies, or their compati-
bility with these societies, I draw on theories about the moral importance
of stable territorial residence as a basic background condition for human
flourishing to formulate what I call a ‘domicile principle of non-
deportability’. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 71.84]
71.26 BISBEE, James, et al. — Decompensating domestically:
the political economy of anti-globalism. Journal of Euro-
pean Public Policy 27(7), 2020 : 1090-1102.
The rise of populism across advanced industrial countries presents a
challenge to the institutions and norms that make up the current global
order and threatens to undo the global system that has enabled decades
of free trade and investment. We outline in this paper a domestic political
economy account of the contemporary crisis of the global order, rooted in
disenchantment with the redistributive bargain between globalization’s
winners and losers. We present individual and local-level evidence that is
consistent with this account, first documenting the decline of the embed-
ded liberal compromise over the past 40 years in Europe, and then
providing individual-level evidence from the United States o f growing
protectionism and xenophobia in response to import exposure, particular-
ly among respondents whose occupational profile is most risk-exposed.
[R] [See Abstr. 71.66]
71.27 BLAIR, Alasdair ; STOCKEMER, Daniel — Teaching poli-
tics in an era of Trump. European Political Science 19(2),
June 2020 : 222-225.
One of the most important challenges facing Political Science Faculty is
the way in which the curriculum engages with, and responds to, the
populist tide that has spread across a significant number of countries in
recent decades. Over recent years there has been an increased level of
research activity that has sought to explain the factors for the rise in
populism. Yet less attention has been focused on the way in which the
political science curriculum could, or should, respond to this change. This
article provides an introductory landscape that sets out these challenges
and identifies the contextual background for the three articles which
comprise this symposium. [R] [See also Abstr. 71.68, 760]
71.28 BLAYDES, Lisa ; GRIMMER, Justin — Political cultures:
measuring values heterogeneity. Political Science Re-
search and Methods 8(3), July 2020 : 571-579.
Using data from the World Values Survey, we analyze the extent to
which value consensus exists within countries. To do this, we introduce a
statistical model which allows us to generate country-level measures of
cultural heterogeneity. Our statistical approach models each country as a
mixture of subcultures that are shared across the world. Our results
demonstrate that value consensus varies substantially across countries
and regions. [R]
71.29 BLUNT, Gwilym David — The case for epistocratic repub-
licanism. Politics 40(3), Aug. 2020 : 363-376.
This article examines the claim made by Jason Brennan that epistocracy,
rule by the ‘knowledgeable’, is compatible with freedom from domination.
It explains epistocracy and republicanism. It then presents the argument
for epistocratic republicanism: that democracy can be a source of domi-
nation and that freedom from domination can be secured through non-
democratic political institutions. The case against epistocratic republican-
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