Political Responses to Pain and Loss Presidential Address, American Political Science Association, 1998

1999 ◽  
Vol 93 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Kent Jennings
Keyword(s):  
Presidential Address ◽  
Political Process ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
The Political ◽  
Major Research ◽  
The Core ◽  
Political Experience ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Science Association

Although manifestations of pain and loss phenomena are treated in various parts of the discipline, the focus is seldom on pain and loss as a distinctive form of political experience or as one that offers a broad canvas on which the workings of the political process can be depicted. By contrast, this article makes four arguments: (1) pain and loss experiences cut to the core of everyday lives and frequently infuse them with politics; (2) responses to pain and loss events occupy a prominent place in the domains of public opinion and issue activism; (3) these events and responses have some unique properties; and (4) major research questions can be organized around the study of pain and loss phenomena.

A Way of Life and Law: Presidential Address, American Political Science Association, 1994

1995 ◽  
Vol 89 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles O. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Presidential Address ◽  
Primary Phase ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Single Institution ◽  
The Core ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Science Association

This address stresses the importance of the study of lawmaking. Three advantages in particular are emphasized: lawmaking is the core decision-making process in a democracy, its study offers an opportunity for Americanists to overcome concentrations on a single institution, and it provides a basis for comparative analysis. The discussion focuses on statute making as a primary phase of lawmaking. Four concepts—iteration, inquiry, speculation, and declaration—are identified as key, unexplored characteristics of statute making that hold substantial promise for research.

The Physiology of Politics: Presidential Address, Sixth Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association

1910 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Lawrence Lowell
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Presidential Address ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Body ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Subject ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Science Association

Our organization is known as the Political Science Association, and yet the subject to which it is devoted lacks the first essential of a modern science—a nomenclature incomprehensible to educated men. Other sciences employ terms of art which are exact because barbarous, that is remote from common usage, and therefore devoid of the connotations which give to language its richness and at the same time an absence of precision. But the want of an exact terminology is not the only defect of our subject. It suffers also from imperfect development of the means of self-expansion. The natural sciences grow by segmentation, each division, like the severed fragments of an earthworm, having a vitality of its own. Thus in zoölogy and botany we hear of cytology, histology, morphology and physiology, expressions which correspond, perhaps, with aspects of our own ancient, yet infantile, branch of learning.The first of the divisions already mentioned, cytology, deals with the cell as the unit of structure, and bears thus an analogy to the study of man as an individual, a social being by nature, no doubt, but considered from this point of view as a separate personality; to some extent at least as an end in himself. It corresponds rather to psychology than politics. Histology, if I am correctly informed, is concerned with the tissues made by the organic connection of many cells, the substances of which the body is formed, and by means of which its manifold operations are conducted. We may fancy that it has its counterpart in sociology, that science of which the late Gabriel Tarde remarked that it was named before its birth, although the time had come when it ought to be born.

The Political Scientist Decides: An Examination of the 1969 APSA Ballot

1970 ◽  
Vol 3 (03) ◽  
pp. 311-320
Author(s):  
John E. Mueller
Keyword(s):  
Annual Meeting ◽  
Response Rate ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Scientist ◽  
Alphabetical Order ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
First Time ◽  
Vote Result ◽  
Science Association

I always vote for the man, not the party.–Trad.In its election for offices in 1969, the American Political Science Association, apparently for the first time in its rarely turbulent history, found the nominees of its Official Nominating Committee challenged by an insurgent group. In order to handle this unprecedented situation, it was decided at the annual meeting to carry out the election by mail ballot and the American Arbitration Association was engaged to administer the operation.Ballots were mailed to the 13,061 members of the Association in October, 1969. Accompanying them were materials containing statements of belief and biographies for each of the candidates. The response rate was 64 percent.The ballots carried the contestants indicated in Table 1. For each office the candidates are listed in the Table in the order of their vote result (they were listed in alphabetical order on the ballot) and for each candidate the group endorsements, as they were presented on the ballot, are indicated. Except for the group endorsements, no identifying information accompanied the names of the candidates on the ballots.

The Paradox of Partisanship

2020 ◽  
pp. 35-57
Author(s):  
Lee Drutman
Keyword(s):  
Political Thought ◽  
Republican Party ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Party System ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
The Political ◽  
American Political Thought ◽  
The Right ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Science Association

This chapter examines the paradox of partisanship. In 1950, the American Political Science Association put out a major report arguing for a “more responsible two-party system.” The two parties—the Democratic Party and the Republican Party—were then largely indistinguishable coalitions of parochial local parties, and the political scientists argued that too little, rather than too much polarization, was the problem. This sets up a paradox: Some party division is necessary, but too much can be deadly. Various traditions in American political thought have tried to resolve this paradox. Antipartisans have urged consensus above all. Responsible partisans have urged competition above all. Meanwhile, bipartisans have urged compromise above all. Consensus is impossible. However, both compromise and competition are essential to democracy. Only the neglected multiparty tradition can solve the paradox with the right balance of competition and compromise.

The Citizen as Respondent: Sample Surveys and American Democracy Presidential Address, American Political Science Association, 1995

1996 ◽  
Vol 90 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sidney Verba
Keyword(s):  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Presidential Address ◽  
Sample Survey ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
Sample Surveys ◽  
American Democracy ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Government ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Science Association

Citizen participation is the main way in which the public communicates its needs and preferences to the government and induces the government to be responsive. Since participation depends on resources and resources are unequally distributed, the resulting communication is a biased representation of the public. Thus, the democratic ideal of equal consideration is violated. Sample surveys provide the closest approximation to an unbiased representation of the public because participation in a survey requires no resources and because surveys eliminate the selection bias inherent in the fact that participants in politics are self-selected. The contrast between the participatory process and the sample survey is used to highlight the nature of the bias in the former. Surveys, however, are not seen as a practical way of providing more equal representation.

Civil Liberty After the War

1946 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-79
Author(s):  
Linden A. Mander
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Civil Liberty ◽  
Presidential Address ◽  
Gain Control ◽  
Freedom Of Speech ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
Internal Reaction ◽  
The World ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Science Association

In his presidential address delivered before the American Political Science Association in January, 1944, Professor Robert E. Cushman set forth clearly and convincingly the dilemma which confronts contemporary democratic nations. If they suppress discussion out of fear of fifth column and other subversive elements, democracy may perish from within, since constructive critical forces will in all probability be suppressed along with the elements of danger and dissatisfaction. If they permit freedom of discussion and propaganda, those hostile to democracy may use freedom of speech to gain control of the democratic processes for the purpose of suppressing the very democracy which has permitted them to ride to power.The world has seen this process at work both in Spain and in Germany, where the abuse of parliamentary immunity helped to hasten the overthrow of free peoples. And this type of danger will face the democracies after the present war at a time when emotional attitudes will be marked by greater intolerance. The danger may possibly come from those who desire internal reaction, from those who are members of fifth column groups, or possibly from a combination of both; for in an age of confused purposes national groups willing to link themselves with foreign elements for the forcible suppression of parties and groups of which they disapprove have come to be not uncommon.

Compulsory Voting and Income Inequality: Evidence for Lijphart's Proposition from Venezuela

2017 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
pp. 122-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
John M. Carey ◽  
Yusaku Horiuchi
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Presidential Address ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
Unequal Distribution ◽  
Compulsory Voting ◽  
Policy Debates ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Latin American Countries ◽  
Distribution Of Income ◽  
Science Association

AbstractWhat difference does it make if the state makes people vote? The question is central to normative debates about the rights and duties of citizens in a democracy, and to contemporary policy debates in a number of Latin American countries over what actions states should take to encourage electoral participation. Focusing on a rare case of abolishing compulsory voting in Venezuela, this article shows that not forcing people to vote yielded a more unequal distribution of income. The evidence supports Arend Lijphart's claim, advanced in his 1996 presidential address to the American Political Science Association, that compulsory voting can offset class bias in turnout and, in turn, contribute to the equality of influence.

The Political Science Curriculum in War-Time: Report of the Committee of the American Political Science Association on War-Time Changes in the Political Science Curriculum

1942 ◽  
Vol 36 (6) ◽  
pp. 1142-1146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ethan P. Allen ◽  
Rodney L. Mott ◽  
Kenneth O. Warner ◽  
Francis O. Wilcox ◽  
E. M. Kirkpatrick
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Science Curriculum ◽  
Educational Leaders ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
The Political ◽  
The People ◽  
The Common ◽  
Time Changes ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Science Association

In these days of war, with democracy facing the greatest challenge in its history, it would be a sad mistake for anyone to assume an attitude of smug complacency. Such would be disastrous if not literally treasonable. Educators, therefore, along with labor and industry, business and agriculture, need to re-examine and revaluate their contribution to the common welfare of the community. Engaged in a war that threatens the very existence of freedom of thought, scholarship, and teaching, educational leaders have an obligation to see that the best possible use is made of one of democracy's outstanding institutions—a free educational system. If the democratic nations fail to train men in good moral and intellectual habits, fail to produce men of keen insight and critical judgment, fail to give us free minds that can join in our struggle toward a better life for all the people of the world, they will have failed in one of their most important obligations to the human race, no matter how the struggle upon the field of battle may end.

scholarly journals Law and Organization: Presidential Address the Eleventh Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association

1915 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Bassett Moore
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Annual Meeting ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Presidential Address ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
The World ◽  
The Moment ◽  
The Mind ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Science Association

Webster, as a prelude to his reply to Hayne, asked for the reading of the resolution before the Senate, in order that the mind of his hearers might be led back to the original and perhaps forgotten subject of the debate. Today we may well imitate his example, by recurring to fundamental principles. For five months we have stood in the presence of one of the most appalling wars in history, appalling not only because of its magnitude and destructiveness but also because of its frustration of hopes widely cherished that the progress of civilization had rendered an armed conflict between the leading powers of the world morally impossible. As a result we have since the outbreak of the great conflict been tossing about on the stormy sea of controversy, distrustful of our charts and guides, and assailed on every hand with cries of doubt and despair. We have been told that there is no such thing as international law; that, even if its existence be admitted, it is at most nothing but what superior force for the time being ordains; that international understandings, even when embodied in treaties, are practically worthless, being obligatory only so long as they may be conceived to subserve the interests or necessities of the moment; that the only security for the observance of international rules, general or conventional, is force, and that in force we must in the last analysis find our sole reliance.

Unequal Participation: Democracy's Unresolved Dilemma Presidential Address, American Political Science Association, 1996

1997 ◽  
Vol 91 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arend Lijphart
Keyword(s):  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Presidential Address ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
The Other ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
National Elections ◽  
Compulsory Voting ◽  
Voting Age ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Science Association

Low voter turnout is a serious democratic problem for five reasons: (1) It means unequal turnout that is systematically biased against less well-to-do citizens. (2) Unequal turnout spells unequal political influence. (3) U.S. voter turnout is especially low, but, measured as percent of voting-age population, it is also relatively low in most other countries. (4) Turnout in midterm, regional, local, and supranational elections—less salient but by no means unimportant elections—tends to be especially poor. (5) Turnout appears to be declining everywhere. The problem of inequality can be solved by institutional mechanisms that maximize turnout. One option is the combination of voter-friendly registration rules, proportional representation, infrequent elections, weekend voting, and holding less salient elections concurrently with the most important national elections. The other option, which can maximize turnout by itself, is compulsory voting. Its advantages far outweigh the normative and practical objections to it.

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