A text that emphasizes the importance of case studies in social science scholarship and shows how to make case study practices more rigorous.

Case Studies and Theory Development in the Social Sciences

It is increasingly common for social scientists to describe political processes as “path dependent.” The concept, however, is often employed without careful elaboration. This article conceptualizes path dependence as a social process grounded in a dynamic of “increasing returns.” Reviewing recent literature in economics and suggesting extensions to the world of politics, the article demonstrates that increasing returns processes are likely to be prevalent, and that good analytical foundations exist for exploring their causes and consequences. The investigation of increasing returns can provide a more rigorous framework for developing some of the key claims of recent scholarship in historical institutionalism: Specific patterns of timing and sequence matter; a wide range of social outcomes may be possible; large consequences may result from relatively small or contingent events; particular courses of action, once introduced, can be almost impossible to reverse; and consequently, political development is punctuated by critical moments or junctures that shape the basic contours of social life.

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Increasing Returns, Path Dependence, and the Study of Politics

Drawing upon philosophy and social theory, Social Theory of International Politics develops a theory of the international system as a social construction. Alexander Wendt clarifies the central claims of the constructivist approach, presenting a structural and idealist worldview which contrasts with the individualism and materialism which underpins much mainstream international relations theory. He builds a cultural theory of international politics, which takes whether states view each other as enemies, rivals or friends as a fundamental determinant. Wendt characterises these roles as 'cultures of anarchy', described as Hobbesian, Lockean and Kantian respectively. These cultures are shared ideas which help shape state interests and capabilities, and generate tendencies in the international system. The book describes four factors which can drive structural change from one culture to another - interdependence, common fate, homogenization, and self-restraint - and examines the effects of capitalism and democracy in the emergence of a Kantian culture in the West.

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Social Theory of International Politics

This book proposes a framework for comparative analysis of the relation between the media and the political system Building on a survey of media institutions in eighteen West European and North American democracies, Hallin and Mancini identify the principal dimensions of variation in media systems and the political variables that have shaped their evolution They go on to identify three major models of media system development, the Polarized Pluralist, Democratic Corporatist, and Liberal models; to explain why the media have played a different role in politics in each of these systems; and to explore the force of change that are currently transforming them It provides a key theoretical statement about the relation between media and political systems, a key statement about the methodology of comparative analysis in political communication, and a clear overview of the variety of media institutions that have developed in the West, understood within their political and historical context

Comparing Media Systems: three models of media and politics

List of Figures ix List of Tables xi Preface and Acknowledgments xiii Introduction 1 PART I: VETO PLAYERS THEORY 17 One: Individual Veto Players 19 Two: Collective Veto Players 38 PART II: VETO PLAYERS AND INSTITUTIONAL ANALYSIS 65 Three: Regimes: Nondemocratic, Presidential, and Parliamentary 67 Four: Governments and Parliaments 91 Five: Referendums 116 Six: Federalism, Bicameralism, and Qualified Majorities 136 PART III: POLICY EFFECTS OF VETO PLAYERS 161 Seven: Legislation 165 Eight: Macroeconomic Policies 187 PART IV: SYSTEMIC EFFECTS OF VETO PLAYERS 207 Nine: Government Stability 209 Ten: Judiciary and Bureaucracies 222 Eleven: Veto Players Analysis of European Union Institutions 248 Conclusion 283 Bibliography 291 Index 309

Veto Players: How Political Institutions Work

Parties and Party Systems: A Framework for Analysis

“To have mastered ‘theory’ and ‘method’ is to have become a conscious thinker, a man at work and aware of the assumptions and implications of whatever he is about. To be mastered by ‘method’ or ‘theory’ is simply to be kept from working.” The sentence applies nicely to the present plight of political science. The profession as a whole oscillates between two unsound extremes. At the one end a large majority of political scientists qualify as pure and simple unconscious thinkers. At the other end a sophisticated minority qualify as overconscious thinkers, in the sense that their standards of method and theory are drawn from the physical, “paradigmatic” sciences. The wide gap between the unconscious and the overconscious thinker is concealed by the growing sophistication of statistical and research techniques. Most of the literature introduced by the title “Methods” (in the social, behavioral or political sciences) actually deals with survey techniques and social statistics, and has little if anything to share with the crucial concern of “methodology,” which is a concern with the logical structure and procedure of scientific enquiry. In a very crucial sense there is no methodology without logos, without thinking about thinking. And if a firm distinction is drawn—as it should be—between methodology and technique, the latter is no substitute for the former. One may be a wonderful researcher and manipulator of data, and yet remain an unconscious thinker.

Concept Misformation in Comparative Politics

Parties and Party Systems

Part 2 The classical issues: what is democracy? definition, proof, and preference - are definitions arbitrary?, a criticism of conventionalism, words as experience carriers, the search for proof, a comparative evaluation Greek democracy and modern democracy - homonymy, not homology, direct or polis democracy, individualism and freedom, old and new, the modern idea and ideal, a reversal of perspective liberty and law - freedom and freedoms, political freedom, liberal freedom, the supremacy of law in Rousseau, autonomy - a criticism, the principle of diminishing consequences, from the rule of law to the rule of legislators equality - a protest ideal, justice and sameness, predemocratic and democratic equalities, equal opportunities and equal circumstances, egalitarian criteria, treatments and outcomes, the maximization of equality, liberty and equality liberism, liberalism, and democracy - overlaps, an unfortunate timing, property and possessive individualism, liberalism defined, liberal democracy, democracy within liberalism, democracy without liberalism market, capitalism, planning, and technocracy - what is planning?, what is the market?, capitalism, individualism, collectivism, market socialism, democratic planning, democracy, power, and incompetence, the role of the expert, the government of science another democracy? - the good society of Rousseau and Marx, democracy and the state in Marx and Lenin, popular democracy, the theory of democratic dictatorship, democracy and demophily, the war of words the poverty of ideology - the exhaustion of ideals, inevitables and evitables, the witch-hunting of ideas, novitism and beyondism, epilogue.

The theory of democracy revisited

Preface - Foreword to the Second Edition - PART 1: ELECTORAL SYSTEMS - Majoritarian and Proportional Systems - Who Gets Elected? - The Importance of Electoral Systems - Choosing an Electoral System - PART 2: PRESIDENTIALISM AND PARLIAMENTARIANISM - Presidentialism - Parliamentary Systems - Semi-Presidentialism - PART 3: ISSUES AND PROPOSALS - The Difficulty of Politics - Alternating Presidentialism: A Proposal - The Paradox of Governing by Legislating - Problems with Presidential Systems - Problems with Parliamentary Systems - Constitutional Engineering - Bibliography - Index

Giovanni Sartori

Papers

Parties and Party Systems: A Framework for Analysis

Concept Misformation in Comparative Politics

Parties and Party Systems

The theory of democracy revisited

Comparative Constitutional Engineering: An Inquiry into Structures, Incentives and Outcomes