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Mark Blyth, Johns Hopkins University, Mark.Blyth@jhu.edu  

The section on the comparative politics of advanced industrial societies (AIS) seeks panel and individual paper proposals that engage the conference theme of complexity and change. The study of advanced industrial societies is a rich area of political science that cuts across several subfields ranging from political economy to political behavior to political culture. While perspectives that focus upon the continuities of politics have much to offer, we should not be pursuing such research at the expense of the analysis of change. The focus on stability rather than change, however, does appear to be the rule rather than the exception. For example, rational actor models tend to focus on equilibrium states, historical institutionalists seek to explain path-dependent continuities of politics, and cultural and ideational approaches also stress the stabilizing impact of ideas and culture. While such approaches are of great value they share a common drawback: they are often taken by surprise by rapid change, such as the sudden prominence of collateral debt obligations in developed financial markets or spiralling oil prices. However, such changes do occur, which suggests that a direct engagement with the themes of change and complexity is most urgent.

Taking the conference themes as an opportunity to push research in new directions this section seeks papers that go beyond our standard models to explore what complexity and change means for political science and the study of the AIS. Consequently, this section welcomes proposals that pursue interdisciplinary approaches that engage and employ non-traditional methods. It is completely open to orientation, seeking the broadest set of approaches possible that engage with the issues of understanding change and coping (theoretically) with complexity. Cutting edge approaches such as agent-based modeling and the analysis of performativity in complex systems are as welcome as ethnographic and historical research. Panels that blend diverse methods and approaches by attacking change and complexity as common problems are especially welcome.