Book

Democratic Elitism: The Founding Myth of American Political Science

April 2025

DOI:10.2307/jj.22092254

ISBN: 9780674295377

Authors:

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ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any references for this publication.

Article

Reviewing the Reviewers: Ideological Bias in the APSR Book Section

November 2022 · PS

Michael Parenti

I would like to give attention to that portion of the American Political Science Review which is most read and least criticized, the book review section. My reading of APSR book reviews in recent years leads me to the following observations: Most of the books selected for review adhere to the orthodox ideological values of today's political establishment. More importantly, these books almost ... [Show full abstract] invariably are reviewed by political scientists who share the same centrist ideological slant as the authors they are reviewing. In the reviews dealing with international relations, for instance, cold war terms like “totalitarianism”, “Castroism”, “subversion” and “Free World” are employed uncritically. Western capitalist nations are described as having “governments”, while socialist nations are said to have “regimes”, usually identified as being under the tutelage of one personage, hence: “Mao Tse-tung's regime”, and “Fidel Castro's Cuba”. The idea that popular sentiments and democratic in-puts might be part of the governance of countries like Cuba or China is not entertained.

Article

Europa, wie es den Bürgern gefällt? Positionen von Wählern, Parteien und ihren Europa-Abgeordneten i...

January 2003

Thorsten Faas

„The party system that is needed must be democratic, responsible and effective“ (APSA 1950) — so lautet die Kurzformel des Berichts „Toward a More Responsible Two-Party System“ des „American Political Science Association’s Committee on Political Parties“ aus dem Jahre 1950. „Responsible“, so der Bericht, sind Parteien und ein Parteiensystem dann, wenn die Wähler am Wahltag zwischen klaren ... [Show full abstract] Optionen (aufgrund von Wahlprogrammen) ihre Entscheidung treffen können. „Effective“ sind Parteien und das Parteiensystem dann, wenn die entsprechenden Programme von den Parteien — mittels ihrer gewählten Repräsentanten — in der Folgezeit weitgehend umgesetzt werden. Ist beides erfüllt, so folgt daraus, dass das Parteiensystem „democratic“ ist, nämlich in dem Sinne, dass die Wähler am Wahltag eine klare Präferenz äußern können und in der Folge ihre Präferenzen in konkrete Politiken umgesetzt sehen. Idealiter funktioniert so das Modell der politischen Repräsentation mittels politischer Parteien.

Article

Political Science as a Vocation: An Appreciation of the Life and the Work of James Q. Wilson

January 2012 · The Forum

Rowell Melnick

James Q. Wilson produced a remarkably varied, influential, and profound body of scholarly work on American politics. The first part of this tribute provides an overview of his contribution to our understanding of city politics, crime and policing, voluntary organizations, bureaucracy, and the development of those character traits upon which democratic government depends. The second part of the ... [Show full abstract] essay describes key features of Wilson's approach to studying politics, features notably and lamentably absent from most political science today.

Article

Full-text available

Old Dog New Tricks: Understanding the Role of the Sejm Since Democratization

January 2002

Amie Kreppel

Prepared for delivery at the 2002 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, August 29 -September 1, 2002. The author thanks Tomasz Bartosz for much needed and appreciated assistance with translations; all errors are the responsibility of the author alone.

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Article

A Primary/Secondary Democracy Distinction

September 1994 · Political Science and Politics

Herbert H. Werlin

Just as sportsmanship is essential for competitive sports, statesmanship is necessary for competitive democracy. This obvious assertion, which I followed with a distinction between primary and secondary democracy, was greeted with some misunderstanding when it was presented at a 1993 American Political Science Association workshop on democratization headed by Gabriel Almond. Because this ... [Show full abstract] distinction appears to be controversial, let me defend it here as a way to overcome some of the quandaries found in the literature on democracy; to link democracy to development; and to suggest more fruitful approaches to encouraging democracy than elections. Professor Almond's response to my primary/secondary democracy distinction was to point out that those participating in his workshop had used a definition of democracy presented by Dahl (1971) in his book on polyarchy, emphasizing two dimensions: widespread participation and contestation (including competition and conflict). This seems to me a one-sided definition (focusing almost exclusively on what I call “primary democracy”), leaving out the aspects emerging from secondary democracy: a mutual respect among competing groups and between leaders and followers and consensus on governmental goals and procedures. Without secondary democracy, primary democracy tends to be meaningless, much like an Olympics without the necessary conditions for sporting events and rules for participating, competing, and officiating. Another way of making the distinction here presented would be the “two ideals of democracy” suggested by Mansbridge (1991, 7): “one based on conflict, the other on commonality.”

Chapter

Maastricht and the Democratic Deficit

January 2000

This chapter compares the power of the different institutional actors of the EU (Council Commission and European Parliament) under the cooperation and codecision procedures. A series of spatial models enables the reader to evaluate the influence of each one of these three actors in the legislative process. The conclusions are that: 1. The Commission’s power to set the agenda is unambiguously ... [Show full abstract] reduced by codecision. 2. The relationship between Council and Parliament becomes more ambiguous, since the ability of the EP to affect institutional decisions increases (through the veto power introduced by the codecision procedure), but its ability to influence policy decisions (through conditional agenda setting introduced by the cooperation procedure) is reduced. The chapter makes the prediction that the role of the European Court of Justice in adjudicating disputes between the Council and the EP will be reduced, because each one of these actors has now the power to block European decisionmaking independently, and so, resolve the disputes politically.

Article

Full-text available

The Democratic Contribution of Group-Led Mobilization in the UK

January 1970

A paper prepared for the Britain After Blair conference, British Politics Group of the American Political Science Association, Chicago, Il., 29 th August 2007.

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Article

Parties Without Principles: The Doctrine of Responsible Party Government in a Bipartisan Era

January 1970

Sam Rosenfeld

This paper assesses the postwar revival of responsible party doctrine among political scientists and its public reception during the 1950s. I recount the origin and activities of the American Political Science Association's Committee on Political Parties, its publication of Toward a More Responsible Two-Party System in 1950, and the debate the report engendered among scholars and, soon enough, ... [Show full abstract] journalists, activists, and politicians. Responsible party doctrine offered a critique of the American party system's decentralized character and fuzzy programmatic lines, and articulated an alternative vision of parties' proper role and structure emphasizing internal cohesion, mutual distinctiveness, and coherent policy programs. The publication of the APSA report in turn motivated critics of responsible party doctrine to mount a vigorous defense of traditional American parties as forces for stabilization and inclusion. In the arguments of both sides, the concept of ideology played unstable and contradictory roles. This scholarly debate, contrary to many retrospective assessments, played a role in real-world political conflicts during the 1950s. The gradual emergence of "amateur" issue-based activism, on the one hand, and the catalytic politics of civil rights, on the other, underlay a new receptivity among key party factions to programmatic conceptions of partisanship and visions of ideological realignment. Liberal Democrats proved most receptive to the responsible party vision. I explore this through an account of Paul Butler's stormy tenure as Democratic National Chairman from 1954 to 1960, which featured institutional innovations taken directly from responsible party theory as well as recurring clashes with southern Democrats, party professionals, and congressional leaders over the proper role of an opposition party.

Article

Candidate Qualities Through a Partisan Lens: A Theory of Trait Ownership

October 2005 · American Journal of Political Science

Danny Hayes

UsingPetrocik's (1996)theory of issue ownership as a point of departure, I develop and test a theory of “trait ownership” that provides an explanation for the origins of candidate trait perceptions and illustrates an important way that candidates affect voters. Specifically, I argue for a direct connection between the issues owned by a political party and evaluations of the personal attributes of ... [Show full abstract] its candidates. As a result, the American public views Republicans as stronger leaders and more moral, while Democrats hold advantages on compassion and empathy. I also draw on “expectations gap” arguments from psychology and political science to demonstrate how a candidate may gain an electoral advantage by successfully “trespassing” on his opponent's trait territory. National Election Studies data from the 1980–2004 presidential elections are used to demonstrate the existence, durability, and effects of trait ownership in contemporary American political campaigns.

Chapter

Do Facts Change Public Attitudes toward Fiscal Policy?

January 2022

John Sides

In American politics, the truth is rapidly losing relevance. The public square is teeming with misinformation, conspiracy theories, cynicism and hubris. Why has this happened? What does it mean? What can we do about it? In this volume, leading scholars offer multiple perspectives on these questions, and others, to provide the first comprehensive empirical examination of the “politics of ... [Show full abstract] truth”—its context, causes, and potential correctives. Combining insights from the fields of political science, political theory, communication, and psychology and offering substantial new arguments and evidence, the experts in this volume draw compelling (if sometimes competing) conclusions regarding this rising democratic threat.

Chapter

Deliberative Democracy

September 2014

Philip A. Michelbach

The deliberative ideal is now a central topic in democratic theory. Theories of deliberative democracy are a critical response to liberal democratic thought, and in particular to the liberal theories of democracy that dominated American political science in the mid‐twentieth century. As a research project, the “deliberative turn” is relatively recent, emerging as a coherent strand of theory over ... [Show full abstract] the last three decades. Despite its relative novelty, at this point deliberative theory is now a relatively mature field, and has moved far beyond an early theoretical stage and into many areas of democratic practice. Theorists of deliberative democracy attempt to elaborate definitions of democracy that are simultaneously normatively ideal and practical. They seek to provide a definition of democracy that supplants what it sees as the thin, liberal, and “aggregative” model of democracy with one based in participation, rational deliberation, and a politics centered on a strong conception of the public good. Deliberative theorists also aim to make practical contributions, by discovering and fostering deliberative opportunities within existing institutions.

Book

The United States and the World: From imitation to Challenge

January 2010

The conference "The United States and the World: from Imitation to Challenge" was meant to gather those interested in various aspects of the mutual connections between the United States and the world. It concentrated on the problem of the model of American democracy, the presidential system, American politics, American society, American culture and the world's reflections about them from ... [Show full abstract] imitation to challenge. For this, there was an invitation to scholars from many research fields: political science, philosophy, law, culture studies, economy, and sociology. It was a result of our vision of American Studies as an interdisciplinary effort. And so, thanks to the rich and diverse approaches of the participants, our vision turned out to be true. The effect of the conference is reflected in the contributions that follow in this volume and in the rich, interdisciplinary debate over the American impact on the world, integration in Pax Americana and patterns of integration in other parts of the world, different and/or similar approaches to challenges to international order, and last but not least the issue of continuity and change in politics. Here one also needs to mention the ever-present debate on the American "export" of values: separation of church and state, human rights, the idea of sovereignty, the rule of separation of powers, modern federalism, democratization approaches, Americanism, American Studies dilemmas, American exceptionalism, uniqueness in contemporary American society, and patterns in foregin policy. © by Jagiellonian University First Edition, Kraków 2009. All rights reserved.

Last Updated: 04 Apr 2025