The Handbook of Political Behavior: Volume 5

ISBN-13: 9781475705812 / Angielski / Miękka / 2012 / 366 str.

Samuel Long

Opis

In the writing of prefaces for works of this sort, most editors report being faced with similar challenges and have much in common in relating how these challenges are met. They acknowledge that their paramount ob- jective is to provide more than an overview of topics but rather to offer selective critical reviews that will serve to advance theory and research in the particular area reviewed. The question of the appropriate audience to be addressed is usually answered by directing material to a potential audience of social scientists, graduate students, and, occasionally, ad- vanced undergraduate students. Editors who are confronted with the problem of structuring their material often explore various means by which their social science discipline might be subdivided, then generally conclude that no particular classification strategy is superior. In elabo- rating on the process by which the enterprise was initiated, editors typ- ically resort to a panel of luminaries, who provide independent support for the idea and then offer both suggestions for topics and the authors who will write them. Editors usually concede that chapter topics and content do not reflect their original conception but are a compromise between their wishes and the authors' expertise and capabilities. Editors report that inevitable delays occur, authors drop out of projects and are replaced, and new topics are introduced. Finally, editors frequently con- fess that the final product is incomplete, with gaps occurring because of failed commitments by authors or because authors could not be secured to write certain chapters.

Spis treści

1 Epistemology, Methodology, and Method in the Study of Political Behavior.- Alternative Philosophies of Science.- Some Observation-Centered Approaches.- Some Hypothesis-Centered Approaches.- Philosophies of Metascience.- Kuhn.- Lakatos.- General Strategic Postures: Some Verbal Cartoons.- Postpositivist Research and Theorizing.- The Conduct of Participant-Observation Research.- The Role of Empirical Axioms in Theory.- Scientific Aspects of Normative Statements.- Methodology as a Normative Aspect of Science.- Concluding Remarks.- References.- 2 Political Behavior and American Public Policy: The Case of the Political Business Cycle.- The Literature on the Political Business Cycle.- Political Regularities in Government Behavior and Economic Performance.- Economic Performance and Presidential Popularity.- Economic Performance and the Vote.- Congress and the Distribution of Political Benefits.- The Example of Transfer Payments.- Fiscal Illusion.- Election and Transfer Programs.- Anomalies in the Electoral-Cycle Literature.- Who Is Politically Responsible for the Electoral Economic Cycle?.- Statutory Limits on Budget Manipulation.- Other Obstacles to Budgetary Manipulation.- Election Year Changes in Government Programs.- Changes in the Money Supply and Surplus versus Deficit Financing.- The 1964 Tax Cut as a Misleading Prototype.- A Test Case: The President’s Disaster Funds.- Congressional Creation of the Electoral Economic Cycle.- Selective Agencies versus Collective Agencies.- The Predicted Electoral Economic Cycle.- The Agency as Spending Advocate.- The House and the Senate.- The House and Senate Appropriations Committees.- Summary and Conclusion.- Conclusion.- References.- 3 Administrative Behavior.- The Emergence of Program Management.- Program Management: Social Strategy for Societal Development.- Urbanization as a Developmental Force.- Indigenous versus Self-Consciously Constructed Social Systems.- Management: Custodian of Program Capability.- Management Acumen as Social Intelligence.- Limited Efficacy of Management’s Social Calculus.- Administrative Behavior: Working Face between Management on Behalf of Purposes and the Politics of Social Adaptation.- The Organizational Dilemma.- Disjunctive Structures as Loci for Rational and Nonrational Forces.- Parallel Agendas.- Administrative Behavior: A Nonrational Response to Program Conflictuation.- Conflictuation: Legacy of Dualism.- Resolving Dilemmas by Forging Trade-offs.- References.- 4 Interest Groups, Social Conflict, and Public Policy.- Organizations and Social Complexity.- The Impact of Population Concentration.- Institutional Centralization.- Concentration or Dispersion of Governmental Authority.- The Growth of Technology and Expertise.- Groups and the Culture of Political Society.- The Focus on Conflict.- Conflict Management.- The Policy Process.- Demands and Responses: Reversing the Process.- Proposal Development.- Executive Review.- Legislative Action.- Supplementary Change.- Implementation.- Professional Expertise.- Hierarchical Management.- The Paradox of Mobility.- Review.- Conclusions.- References.- 5 Judicial Behavior: Models and Literature of the Field.- Models of Judicial Decision Making.- The Legalistic Model.- The Group Theory Model.- The Input-Output Model.- The Decision Theory Model.- The Legalistic Model of Judicial Behavior.- Definition.- Origins of the Legalistic Approach.- Debate over Outcomes from the Legalistic Model of Decision Making.- Deviation from the Legalistic Model.- Summary and Conclusions.- Courts as Arenas for Group Politics.- Group Activity in the Appointment Process.- Direct Involvement of Groups in Litigation.- Amicus and Other Activity.- The Extent of Interest Group Involvement.- A Few Words of Caution.- Judicial Behavior.- The Judicial Personality.- The Socialization Process.- Judicial Attitudes.- The Judicial Role.- Judicial Interaction.- Summary and Conclusions.- Decision Theory and Judicial Decisions.- Defining Decision Theory and Reviewing the Literature.- Deducing the Effects of Policy Changes.- Optimizing Alternative Public Policies.- Some Conclusions.- References.- 6 Presidential Behavior.- The President’s Environment: Institutional Constraints on Behavior.- Presidential Roles in Historical Perspective.- The President as Manager/Leader.- The President’s Options vis-à-vis the Bureaucracy.- The President and Congress: Separated Institutions Having to Share Powers.- Summary: The State of the Institutionalized Presidency.- Personality and Presidential Behavior.- Conclusion: Presidential Behavior in an Era of Limits.- References.