Politics

About: Politics is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 263762 publications have been published within this topic receiving 5388913 citations.

Punctuated-Equilibrium Theory : Explaining Stability and Change in Public Policymaking

Abstract: Punctuated-equilibrium theory seeks to explain a simple observation: political processes are generally characterized by stability and incrementalism, but occasionally they produce large-scale departures. Punctuated-equilibrium theory extends these observations by placing the policy process on a dual foundation of political institutions and boundedly rational decisionmaking. It emphasizes two related elements of the policy process: issue definition and agenda setting. The chapter examines punctuated-equilibrium theory and its foundations in the longitudinal study of political institutions and in political decisionmaking. It provides the punctuated-equilibrium theory to national budgeting and provide some recent evidence of punctuations and equilibria in US national government spending since World War II. The chapter shows how the theory has been generalized, including extensions to policymaking in US state and local governments as well as European national governments. It concludes with an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of this approach to understanding public policymaking.

The political system

Abstract: The systems analysis of political life might be used as a basis for teaching about the political process in all grades, including elementary school. A political system is part of an intra-societal environment including ecological, biological, personality, economic, cultural, and other systems, all operating in society and bound by an extra-societal environment Which is the sphere of relations among national societies. This system, emphasizing the relationship of the political system to its environment, is regulated by "demands," one of the two major inputs fro* the environment; "outputs," the decisions made by the authorities; "su%pport" for the system, and other major input; and "feedback," a concept which unifies the Whole analysis. The three basic components of the system unified by the feedback process are the political community, the regime, and the authorities. The concept of politics as a feedback system focuses on the cycle of inputs and outputs and presents the political system as a conversion process that regulates itself in order to persist. This cycle is the political function of allocating authoritatively the valued things of society, which is an order-maintaining role. This theory of the political system deals with fundamental processes and relationships rather than isolated facts. (JH)

What is political discourse analysis

Abstract: L'A. se propose de definir ce que l'on entend par discours politique et montre comment il peut etre etudie d'une maniere critique. Selon lui, une telle analyse ne doit pas simplement etre une contribution aux etudes discursives, mais aussi aux sciences politiques et aux sciences sociales en general. Ainsi, le discours politique est essentiellement defini contextuellement, c-a-d en termes de pratiques ou d'evenements particuliers dont le but et la fonction ne sont peut-etre pas exclusivement, mais au moins initialement, politiques. D'un point de vue analytique, cette definition contextuelle suggere que l'etude du discours politique ne doit pas se limiter aux proprietes structurales du texte ou du discours, mais doit aussi inclure une prise en consideration systematique du contexte politique, du processus politique et du systeme politique et de leurs relations aux structures discursives

Nationalism and the politics of culture in Quebec

Abstract: Richard Handler s pathbreaking study of nationalistic politics in Quebec is a striking and successful example of the new experimental type of ethnography, interdisciplinary in nature and intensively concerned with rhetoric and not only of anthropologists but also of scholars in a wide range of fields, and it is likely to stir sharp controversy. Bringing together methodologies of history, sociology, political science, and philosophy, as well as anthropology, Handler centers on the period 1976 1984, during which the "independantiste" Parti Quebeois was in control of the provincial government and nationalistic sentiment was especially strong. Handler draws on historical and archival research, and on interviews with Quebec and Canadian government officials, as he addresses the central question: Given the similarities between the epistemologies of both anthropology and nationalist ideology, how can one write an ethnography of nationalism that does not simply reproduce and thereby endorse nationalistic beliefs? Handler analyzes various responses to the nationalist vision of a threatened existence. He examines cultural tourism, ideology of the Quebec government, legislations concerning historical preservation, language legislation and policies towards immigrants and cultural minorities. He concludes with a thoughtful meditation on the futility of nationalisms."

Information and American Democracy: Technology in the Evolution of Political Power

Abstract: This book assesses the consequences of new information technologies for American democracy in a way that is theoretical and also historically grounded. The author argues that new technologies have produced the fourth in a series of 'information revolutions' in the US, stretching back to the founding. Each of these, he argues, led to important structural changes in politics. After re-interpreting historical American political development from the perspective of evolving characteristics of information and political communications, the author evaluates effects of the Internet and related new media. The analysis shows that the use of new technologies is contributing to 'post-bureaucratic' political organization and fundamental changes in the structure of political interests. The author's conclusions tie together scholarship on parties, interest groups, bureaucracy, collective action, and political behavior with new theory and evidence about politics in the information age.