Power
and Choice, Thirteenth Edition is a comparative, conceptual
introduction to political science which involves students in the
dramatic and interesting variety of politics around the world; students
clearly are the audience of this text. The theme of "power and choice,"
based on a definition of politics as the making of collective choices
for a group or state through the use of power, runs through much of the
text.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Examples and Boxed Features xiii
Preface xiv
The Idea of Politics 1
Politics: Setting the Stage 1
Politics 2
Politics as the Making of Common Decisions 3
Politics as the Exercise of Power 4
Power and Choice 10
Politics of the State 13
Political Science 14
The Pleasures of Politics 17
Modern Ideologies and Political Philosophy 20
American Ideologies 22
Liberalism 25
The Conservative Reaction 27
The Socialist Alternative 31
Communism and Socialism 34
Fascism 35
Ideologies in the Twenty-First Century 36
Religion, Politics, and Political Philosophy 38
Political Philosophy in Other Historical Eras 40
The State and Public Policy 47
The Modern State 47
The Development of the Modern State 49
The Origin of States: Power, or Choice? 51
The State as a Device to Provide Public Goods 53
"State," "Nation," and the "Nation-State" 55
State-Building 61
Government and the State 62
Challenges to the State 64
Some Possible Alternatives 67
Example: State-Building in Nigeria 68
Example: State-Building in the European Union 70
Policies of the State 75
The Role of Government in the Third World 78
Constraints and Conditions for Policy 80
Defense Policy 82
Education 83
Research and Development 84
Health and Social Welfare 88
The Place of Power in Policy Analysis 90
Example: The Demographic Challenge 90
Example: Economic Development Compared with "Human Development" 91
Example: Uganda, An African AIDS Success Story 93
Economic Policy of the State 96
Economic Performance I: Growth 97
Economic Performance II: Controlling Inflation and Unemployment 105
Unemployment 106
Managing Distribution to Address Inequality 108
Independent Central Banks 111
Corruption 114
Other Measures Available to Government 118
Globalization: Are States Losing Their Ability to Make Economic Policy? 118
Political Economy 120
Example: Economic Policy in Germany 122
Example: Economic Policy in Indonesia 126
What Lies Behind Policy: Questions of Justice and Effectiveness 131
The Problem of Justice 132
Other Aspects of Justice: Procedural Justice 134
Effectiveness 138
A Basic Question of Effectiveness: Authority versus the Market 140
Power and Choice 145
The Need to Act, Even under Uncertainty 145
Example: Political Choice 146
The Citizen and the Regime 149
Democracy and Autocracy 149
Democracy 149
The Coming and Going of Democracy 151
Possible Explanations 152
What Did We Learn from the Third Wave? 154
Why Are Prosperous Countries Likely to Be Democracies? 157
Democracy and Freedom 159
Democracy and Capitalism 160
Autocracy 161
Military Government 163
Why Aren't There More Military Governments? 166
One-Party States 168
Monarchies and Theocracies 169
Democracy versus Autocracy: Material Considerations 170
"Power and Choice" Again 172
Example: Democratization in Spain 172
Example: Fragile Democracy in Peru 174
Example: Theocracy in Iran 177
How Individuals Relate to the State, and the State to the Individual 181
Legitimacy and Authority 183
Sources of Legitimacy 184
The "Democratic Citizen" 186
How Well Are These Requirements Met? 188
Social Capital 192
Political Culture 193
An Application of Political Culture: Robert Kagan's Of Paradise and Power 194
Religion and Political Culture 195
Political Socialization 198
Example: Building Authority and Legitimacy in West Germany after World War II 201
Example: Declining Democratic Legitimacy in the United States 203
The Apparatus of Governance 209
Constitutions and the Design of Government 209
Variations in Formality 210
The Virtue of Vagueness 211
Other Principles of Constitutional Design 212
Constitution-Writing 215
The Geographic Concentration of Power 217
"Federal" and "Unitary" States 218
The Distinction between "Unitary" and "Centralized" States 220
How Much Centralization Is Good? 221
Constitutions and Guarantees of Rights 222
"Constitutionalism" and the Rule of Law 223
Example: Constitutional Government in Great Britain 224
Example: Constitutional Government in Russia 227
Elections 230
Elections as a Means of Building Support 230
Elections as a Means of Selecting Leaders and Policies 235
Electoral Systems 235
Referendums 240
Electoral Participation 241
Effects of Choice and Information on Turnout 244
The Paradox of Voting 245
The Bases of Individuals' Electoral Choices 246
Example: Proportional Representation Elections in Israel 250
Example: Elections in Nigeria 251
Parties: A Linking and Leading Mechanism in Politics 255
The Political Party 255
Origins of the Modern Party 256
Political Parties and the Mobilization of the Masses 258
Political Parties and the Recruitment and Socialization of Leaders 259
Political Parties as a Source of Political Identity 260
Political Parties as a Channel of Control 263
Party Organization 263
Party Finance 265
Political Party Systems 266
Power and Choice 271
Example: The Communist Party of China 272
Example: Canada's Political Parties 273
Structured Conflict: Interest Groups and Politics 278
Interest Groups and Representation 280
Types of Interest Groups 286
Tactics of Interest Groups 288
Patterns of Organized Interest-Group Activity 292
Pluralism 293
Neocorporatism 294
Pluralism and Neocorporatism: Power and Choice 296
Example: Interest Groups in France 297
Example: Interest Groups in Japan: Attenuated Neocorporatism 298
Social Movements and Contentious Politics 303
Why Now? 305
Social Movements as a Public Goods Problem 307
Advantages (and Disadvantages) of Informal Organization 307
Example: The Rubber Tappers of Acre 311
Example: The "Orange Revolution" in Ukraine 315
National Decision-Making Institutions: Parliamentary Government 318
Head of State 320
The Cabinet 321
Cabinet Control 322
What Does a Parliament Do? 322
Parliamentary Committees 326
Advantages and Disadvantages of Parliamentary Government 327
Let's Make Sure I Haven't Made This Sound Too Simple 329
"Consensus" Parliamentarism 329
Parliaments in Autocratic Systems 331
Example: Parliamentary Government in India 333
Example: Parliamentary Government in Germany 336
National Decision-Making Institutions: Presidential Government 341
Presidential and Parliamentary Systems Compared 344
Responsibility for Policy 345
Presidential Systems and Comprehensive Policy 346
Recruitment of Executive Leaders 346
Review and Control of the Executive 347
Flexibility of the Political Process 349
The Split Executive of Parliamentary Systems 349
Why Aren't All Democracies Parliamentary Systems? 351
Constitutional Review and the Fragmentation of Power 353
A Note on Constitutions and Power 356
Example: Presidential Hybrid in France 357
Example: Presidential Government in Mexico 359
Bureaucracy and the Public Sector 363
Public Administration as a Political Problem 364
Characteristics of Good Public Administration 366
"Bureaucracy": A Reform of the Nineteenth Century 367
Bureaucracy versus Flexibility 368
The Problem of Protected Incompetence 369
Adjustments to Bureaucracy 370
Social Representativeness of Public Administration 371
Example: The French Bureaucracy 374
Example: Bureaucratic Cultures in Europe and Africa 375
Law and the Courts 379
Anglo-Saxon Case Law 380
Continental European Code Law 381
The Blending of Case Law and Code Law 383
Religious Law: The Sharia 384
Courts 386
Example: The Law in China 388
Example: The European Court of Justice 391
International Politics 395
Global Politics: Politics among States (and Others) 395
The Evolution of the International System since World War II 395
The World since the Cold War 398
International Politics 403
The Absence of Central Authority 404
Fiduciary Political Roles and International Morality 406
Impediments to International Communication 407
Power and International Politics 408
The Process of International Politics 411
Power and Choice in International Politics 417
Example: An International Failure: Rwanda 418
Example: The United Nations 421
A Personal Note 423
Principles of Political Analysis 427
Falsifiability 427
What Makes a Statement Interesting? 428
Causation and Explanation 429
Historical Explanation 431
A Few Common Pitfalls in Analysis 432
Glossary G-1
Index I
