PS: Political Science & PoliticsPS: Political Science & Politics is a peer-reviewed journal focusing on contemporary politics, teaching, and the discipline. PS is also APSA’s journal of record for the profession.
January 2012 VOLUME 45 NUMBER 1
In this issue...
This issue features two outstanding lectures from the 2011 Annual Meeting: The James Madison Lecture: On the Importance of Getting Things Done by Jane Mansbridge, Harvard University; and Organizations, Politics, and Public Purposes by Hal G. Rainey, The University of Georgia. Timely "Spotlight" articles include a look at the constitutionality of the presidency and how a high-trust society responds to terrorism. Also, are current presidential primaries passé? Read about the Voter Turnout Initiative that proposes a change to the current primary system. Is temperature related to voter turnout? A Wuffle has the answer. To view all articles, Go to Table of Contents
SPECIAL to PS
On the Importance of Getting Things Done by Jane Mansbridge, Harvard University.
Trend plus inaction causes drift. The first recipient of the Madison Award, Robert Dahl, singled out two great "impediments to democracy in the United States": the power of "corporate capitalism" and a separation of powers that tends to deadlock. The two are causally related. Since the late 1970s, when Dahl spoke, deadlock has let a trend of increasing corporate power and inequality drift unimpeded. Worldwide, deadlock has let global warming drift. When trends drift toward unacceptable consequences, a Madisonian system of democracy, which lets only a little government action through the grid, no longer works. It takes new democratic institutions, such as Denmark's slowly evolved structures of political negotiation, to combine non-tyranny and action.
The tradition of western liberal democracy, however, has its deepest roots in resistance, not in devising democratic paths to action. From the first written exposition of social contract theory in 1185, western democratic theory has been founded in resistance to tyranny. When the biggest threat was tyranny, that theory served us well. When inaction poses as large a threat, that theory is insufficient. A democratic theory of action must accept the necessity for mutual coercion, recognize that no coercion can ever fully meet all democratic standards, and learn how to act from the practices of democracies around the world.
Organizations, Politics, and Public Purposes: Analyzing Public Organizations and Public Management byHal G. Rainey, The University of Georgia.
Rainey describes developments in research on public organizations and their management that bring together concepts and ideas from public administration, organization theory, and political science. He discusses research that he and others have done to compare and contrast government and private business organizations and their management, and the challenges involved in making such comparisons. Referring to 120 studies of this sort that researchers have reported, he describes the wide variations among the studies, but also some of their consistent findings. These include distinctive roles for organizational leaders in public organizations, differences in organizational structures, and differences in employee values. He reports decades of findings of sharp differences in incentive systems. Rainey then notes that critics sometimes complain that public administration as an academic field lacks the richness and activity in theoretical development and research that other fields in the social and administrative sciences display. Rainey contends, however, that cadres of researchers are developing interesting and valuable streams of research that bring together political science and public administration, on such topics as networks, organizational change, representative bureaucracy and diversity, privatization and contracting, characteristics of public organizations such as variations in goal clarity, and many others.
SPOTLIGHTS
Teaching the Presidency: Idealizing a Constitutional Office by Louis Fisher, The Constitution Project.
From World War II to the present, prominent scholars placed their hopes in the presidency to protect the nation from outside threats and effectively deal with domestic crises. Their theories weakened the constitutional system of separation of powers and checks and balances by reviving an outsized trust in executive power (especially over external affairs) that William Blackstone and others promoted in eighteenth-century England. The American framers of the Constitution studied those models with great care and fully rejected those precedents when they declared their independence from England.
Nevertheless, from the 1940s through the 1960s, several scholars argued that it was politically necessary and constitutionally permissible to transfer ever greater power to the president. The unpopularity of the Vietnam War caused some scholars, to rethink vesting such power in the executive branch. Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, studies on the presidency have been divided between those who urge the concentration of power in the president in times of emergency, and those who insist that the executive branch lacks both the competence and the authority to exercise power unchecked by Congress, the courts, and the general public.
After Utøya: How a High Trust Society Reacts to Terror-Trust and Civic Engagement in the Aftermath of July 22 by Dag Wollebæk, Bernard Enjolras, Kari Steen-Johnsen, and Guro Ødegård
The authors examine short-term effects of terror on trust and civic engagement in Norway. Prior to the July 22, 2011 attacks, Norway ranked among the nations with the highest levels of trust and civic engagement in the world. How does a nation of trusters react to terror? Based on two web surveys conducted in March/April 2011 and August 2011 short-term effects on trust, fear, and political interest and participation are analyzed. Two competing hypotheses are explored: first, the "end of innocence-hypothesis," which assumes that the attacks have disrupted trust and instilled a new culture of fear, and second, the "remobilization hypothesis," which assumes that the attacks have led to reinforcement of trust and of civic values. Our results show increased interpersonal and institutional trust as well as a modest increase in civic engagement, especially among youth. Moreover, there is little increase in experienced fear within the population. Our study therefore supports the remobilization hypothesis. Contrary to the intended aims of the attacker, the structures of trust and civic engagement seem to have been reinforced in Norwegian society. This study in part corroborates findings concerning short-term effects after September 11, 2001.
FEATURES
Including
The Gerrymanderers Are Coming! Legislative Redistricting Won't Affect Competition or Polarization Much, No Matter Who Does It by Seth E. Masket, Jonathan Winburn, and Gerald C. Wright
Reforming the Presidential Primary System: The Voter Turnout Initiative by Heather Frederick
The Never-Ending Drug War: Obstacles to Drug War Policy Termination by Renee Schlerlen
Taking the Temperature: Implications for Adoption of Election Day Registration, State-Level Voter Turnout, and Life Expectancy by A Wuffle, Craig Leonard Brians, and Kristine Coulter
THE PROFESSION
Including Practicing Politics: Female Political Scientists as Candidates for Elective Office by Barbara Burrell
Has Political Science Ignored Religion? by Steven Kettell
THE TEACHER
Including
Teaching "Islam and Human Rights" in the Classroom by Fait A. Muedini
Plus, from the APSA Congressional Fellowship Program, The Senate Budget Committee: The Impact of Polarization on Institutional Design by Joseph Bafumi.
And More... listings of awards, appointments, retirements; news updates on Task Force Report on Political Science in the 21st Century, new features of APSA Teaching and Learning Conference, APSA election results, Section updates, and our "honor roll" of APSA contributors.
PS: Political Science & Politics-- always interesting and engaging. Read it online now. Hardcopy mailed January 16, 2012.
Members: to view articles online, login to MyAPSA and click the PS link.
Online Commenting System: To expand participation in PS, we have adopted a new online commenting system in conjunction with our publisher, Cambridge University Press. Communicate with authors and other readers by logging onto your MyAPSA account choosing PS: Political Science and Politics under your Access Areas, and creating a free account with Cambridge. You can comment on each individual article.
Login or create account 
Contribute
Contact APSA
