Frederic C. Schaffer challenges the assumption often made by American scholars that democracy has been achieved in foreign countries when criteria such as free elections are met. Elections, he argues, often have cultural underpinnings that are invisible to outsiders. To examine grassroots understandings of democratic institutions and political concepts, Schaffer conducted fieldwork in Senegal, a mostly Islamic and agrarian country with a long history of electoral politics. Schaffer discovered that ideas of "demokaraasi" held by Wolof-speakers often reflect concerns about collective security....
Frederic C. Schaffer challenges the assumption often made by American scholars that democracy has been achieved in foreign countries when criteria suc...
American voters are increasingly aware that the mechanics of elections matter. The conduct of elections how eligible voters make it onto the voter rolls, how voters cast their ballots, and how those votes are counted determines the degree to which the people's preferences are expressed freely, weighed equally, and recorded accurately. It is not surprising, then, that attempts to "clean up" elections are widely applauded as being unambiguously good for democracy.
In The Hidden Costs of Clean Election Reform, Frederic Charles Schaffer reveals how tinkering with the electoral...
American voters are increasingly aware that the mechanics of elections matter. The conduct of elections how eligible voters make it onto the voter ...
Concepts have always been foundational to the social science enterprise. This book is a guide to working with them. Against the positivist project of concept "reconstruction"-the formulation of a technical, purportedly neutral vocabulary for measuring, comparing, and generalizing-Schaffer adopts an interpretivist approach that he calls "elucidation." Elucidation includes both a reflexive examination of social science technical language and an investigation into the language of daily life. It is intended to produce a clear view of both types of language, the relationship between them, and...
Concepts have always been foundational to the social science enterprise. This book is a guide to working with them. Against the positivist project ...
Concepts have always been foundational to the social science enterprise. This book is a guide to working with them. Against the positivist project of concept "reconstruction"-the formulation of a technical, purportedly neutral vocabulary for measuring, comparing, and generalizing-Schaffer adopts an interpretivist approach that he calls "elucidation." Elucidation includes both a reflexive examination of social science technical language and an investigation into the language of daily life. It is intended to produce a clear view of both types of language, the relationship between them, and...
Concepts have always been foundational to the social science enterprise. This book is a guide to working with them. Against the positivist project ...
