Consider how differently you might view your life, your goals, and your

Transcription

1 1 U Itroductio Cosider how differetly you might view your life, your goals, ad your attitudes about politics if you could be trasported across the boudaries of idetity, geder, atioality, age, ad/or ecoomic status. Imagie for a momet that you reside i Cairo s City of the Dead, a sprawlig, crowded cemetery i which tombs are itersected by satellite dishes. The City of the Dead has become home to may of Cairo s poor ad homeless as the city s populatio growth has outpaced its ifrastructure. If recet predictios by the Uited Natios prove to Cegage Learig be correct, your life oe lived i cogested urba quarters will become the life of more ad more me ad wome as the year 2030 approaches. Ideed, the Uited Natios cautios that ours is becomig a plaet of slums. Now, imagie yourself a member of the Nukak-Maku, a omadic, selfcotaied people livig far away from cities ad deep i the jugles of Colombia. If you happeed to be oe of the approximately 80 members of your people who recetly for reasos uclear to outsiders left the Amazoia jugle ad etered Sa Jose del Guaviare, you ecoutered a ufamiliar world. You brought with you o word for moey, o uderstadig of airplaes (you have asked if they move o hidde paths i the sky), ad you have ever heard of Colombia, the coutry i whose borders you ad your people have existed for hudreds of years. Imagie you are Dea al-atassi. You were the oly Muslim i your high school i Buell, Florida. A daughter of a Syria father ad a U.S. mother, you have edured death threats for wearig a scarf (hejab). Your stepmother stopped wearig her scarf out of fear of a backlash agaist all Muslims after 9/11. However, you fid stregth i followig the example of Muslim wome who wear the scarf. You pledge to ever let your fear compel you to remove the hejab. Imagie you are Mark Osterloh of Tucso, Arizoa. You have a pla for addressig the problem of low voter turout i the Uited States. Why ot, you 1

2 2 CHAPTER 1 ª Courtesy of Elle Grigsby City of the Dead, Cairo, Egypt. Cairo s vast cemetery is also home to may of the city s poor ad otherwise homeless. The Uited Natios estimates that a billio people more tha oe-third of all those Cegage livig i urba areas reside Learig slums. O the growth global urbaizatio ad slum rates, see Mark Jacobso, Dharavi: Mumbai s Shadow City: Some Call the Dharavi Slum a Embarrassig Eyesore i the Middle of Idia s Fiacial Capital. Its Residets Call it Home, Natioal Geographic (May 2007). ask, give people a clear, irresistible icetive to vote i electios? You decide to put forward the Voter Reward Act, a proposal to make all those who vote i state electios eligible for a $1millio drawig. How could people cotiue to say o to votig uder such a system? You have observed that people buy lottery tickets i spite of the odds, ad you ca poit out that the odds of wiig uder the Voter Reward Act are better tha wiig the lottery. Imagie you are Ehre Watada. Whe you were studyig for your busiess degree at Hawaii Pacific Uiversity i Hoolulu, the 9/11 terrorist attacks happeed. You joied the military to serve your coutry. However, you became coviced that the war i Iraq was ot the right way to fight terrorism; you voluteered to be deployed to Afghaista, but you refused to serve i Iraq. The military brought charges agaist you; your court martial eded i a mistrial i February Imagie you are Elle Johso-Sirleaf. I 2005, you were elected with 59 percet of the vote to be Liberia s first woma presidet ad Africa s first woma elected head of state. Oe of your priorities is seekig debt relief/forgiveess for

3 INTRODUCTION 3 ª AP Photo/Joe Gibli Elle Johso-Sirleaf, Presidet of Liberia. Cegage Learig Liberia uder the Heavily Idebted Poor Coutry Iitiative. Your electio was ot the oly milestoe for femiist politics i recet years: Socialist Michelle Bachelet was elected the first woma presidet of Chile i 2006, the same year i which the wome of Kuwait, for the first time i history, were accorded the right to vote i parliametary electios. Fially, imagie you are Illiois Represetative Rahm Emauel, a very practical ma whose job it is as 2007 Democratic Caucus Chair to promote the Democratic Party. Promotig the Party meas, i part, helpig Democrats i the House of Represetatives avoid public missteps. Oe of your goals i 2007 was to covice Democrats to adopt a policy of ot appearig o Steve Colbert s The Colbert Report. You kow that Colbert has roughly 1.2 millio viewers who tue i to his ews report. You remember that Colbert oce asked Illiois Represetative Phil Hare, If you could embalm ayoe i Cogress, who would it be? You kow that Colbert asked Georgia Republica Ly Westmorelad, a co-sposor of a bill that would require the postig of the Te Commadmets i the atio s capital, to recite all te ad he could come up with oly three. You remember also that Colbert coaxed Florida Democrat Robert Wexler to agree to complete the followig setece: I like cocaie because... 1

4 4 CHAPTER 1 ª Gail Oski/Getty Images Stephe Colbert s The Colbert Report subverts covetioal presetatios of ewsworthy evets. Cegage Learig The challeges of tryig to view the world of politics from so may differet perspectives has threateed to overwhelm the most experieced ad respected of political scietists. 2 As you read this text, keep i mid what political scietist David Easto has observed: Politics ivolves chage. 3 Politics is a world of flux, tesios, ad trasitios. Chage ca be global i its cosequeces, as i the rise ad fall of world powers such as the Soviet Uio. Chage ca be primarily domestic, as whe oe political party defeats aother i a coutry s electios. I a icreasigly iterdepedet world, however, eve those chages that appear essetially domestic i ature may resoate with iteratioal sigificace. 4 Politics also ivolves decisio makig over the world s resources. Whereas we ca look to Easto s commets to appreciate the cocept of chage as cetral to politics, we ca also draw o the teachigs of political scietist Harold Lasswell to cosider that politics is about decidig who does ad does ot get access to what the world has to offer. 5 Lasswell s isights are importat for us to reflect o as we begi studyig politics because they poit us i the directio of questios both itriguig ad disturbig i their complexity, such as, Why is a America citize likely to live loger tha a Liberia citize? Politics, Lasswell s isights

5 INTRODUCTION 5 BOX 1.1 Chage ad Politics What Were U.S. Citizes Cocered About 100 Years Ago? Studyig politics ivolves studyig chage chage i govermets, laws, ad political social attitudes ad opiios. A examiatio of public attitudes held by U.S. citizes 100 years ago reveals that our couterparts 100 years ago had much to worry about: Air pollutio. Filthy air seemed a ievitable part of city livig. I 1881, New York s State Board of Health foud that air quality was compromised by fumes from sulfur, kerosee, maure, ammoia, ad other smells, producig a icliatio to vomit. The term smog was coied soo after the tur of the cetury, i Crowdig. Busy city streets were hazardous. Pedestrias risked ijury from trolleys ad carriages. Ideed, Brookly s beloved baseball team (the Trolley Dodgers) took its ame from a dagerous, but uavoidable, urba practice of competig for scarce space with speedig trolleys. Food impurities. Americas of the late ieteeth cetury ofte foud iterestig additives i their basic foodstuffs. Milk, for example, was likely to cotai chalk or plaster of Paris, i that both items could improve the appearace of milk produced from diseased cattle. Druk cows were aother problem. Distilleries ofte used waste products from whiskey productio as cattle feed; milk from these cows could cotai eough alcohol to itoxicate babies who cosumed the milk. Epidemics. Cegage Smallpox ad malaria werelearig two diseases threateig Americas at the tur of the twetieth cetury. Wome ad me were vulerable to these predators ad were ofte fearful of losig their lives to diseases they could either uderstad or be assured of protectio agaist. Race relatios. Racism was pervasive as the twetieth cetury approached. Violece agaist Africa-Americas was widespread. Lychigs of Africa- Americas reached record umbers i the 1890s ad declied with the tur of the cetury; from 1882 to 1968, however, 4,743 (of whom 3,446 were Africa- America) Americas were murdered by lychig. Family stability. I the years aroud 1900, approximately 20 percet of America childre lived i orphaages because their parets were too poor to provide for them. I other families, childre worked i factories ad mies to supplemet ustable family icomes. At the begiig of the twetieth cetury, approximately oe-fourth of the employees i textile mills i the souther Uited States were childre. Household budgets. Some historias have described the last half of the ieteeth cetury as the age of the robber baros, as millioaires such as Corelius Vaderbilt, Adrew Caregie, ad Joh D. Rockefeller assumed positios of power ad ifluece. As the ieteeth cetury closed, the gap betwee rich ad poor was vast, as average Americas struggled ad saved to pay their bills. Ideed, more tha 80 percet of the coutry s wealth was cotrolled by just over 10 percet of the atio s households i 1890.

6 6 CHAPTER 1 Box 1.1 (Cotiued) Progress. X-rays, telephoes, record players, electric lightig, combustible egies these ad other ivetios from the late ieteeth cetury promised to chage life i the twetieth cetury. Americas had hopes that the chages would be for the good, as see, for istace, i the optimism surroudig the World Fairs at which may of these ivetios were showcased. At the same time, the ew ivetios could shock ad frighte. Oe woders, for istace, how may Americas could idetify with the character i Thomas Ma s The Magic Moutai whe he remarked that lookig at a X-ray was like lookig ito the grave. SOURCES: Otto Bettma, TheGoodOldDays TheyWereTerrible(New York: Radom House, 1974); Stephe Ker, The Culture of Time ad Space, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Uiversity Press, 1983); Cythia Eloe, Baaas, Beaches, & Bases: Makig Femiist Sese of Iteratioal Politics (Berkeley: Uiversity of Califoria Press, 1989); Stephaie Cootz, The Way We Never Were: America Families ad the Nostalgia Trap (New York: Basic Books, 1992); Bejami Schwarz, America Iequality: Its History ad Scary Future, The New York Times (19 December 1995): A19; Robert L. Zagrado, Lychig, pp i The Reader s Compaio to America History, eds. Eric Foer ad Joh Garraty (Bosto: Houghto Miffli, 1991); Frederick Lewis Alle, The Big Chage, (New York: Batam, 1965), especially Chapters 1 4; Geoffrey C. Ward ad Ke Burs, Baseball: A Illustrated History (New York: Kopf, 1994), p. xvii. would tell us, has a lot to do with it. Life expectacy, access to safe water sources, ad opportuities for jobs payig livable wages are all areas of our lives affected eormously bycegage political decisios of the world s Learig govermets, as those govermets make choices about how the world s resources are to be distributed ad how coflict is to be resolved. Peace, war, medicie, water, food, housig, ad jobs are ot pheomea over which wome ad me have o cotrol. To the cotrary, the world of politics cosists of those govermetal decisios that exted life expectacies or shorte them, ehace or reduce access to basic ecessities, implemet a rule of law or violate it. I other words, politics ivolves the choices govermets ad citizes (i societies i which this freedom is observed) make i shapig the process whereby medicie, water, food, housig, ad jobs are made available or uavailable to the world s people. Ideed, politics ecompasses all those decisios regardig how we make rules that gover our commo life. These rules may be made i a democratic or authoritaria maer, may sactio peace or violece, ad may empower state or ostate actors (such as trade associatios, media represetatives, ad multiatioal corporatios). Whatever the rules, however, politics is based o the recogitio that our lives are shared, as log as we live i commo, public spaces such as state territories. If you have traversed a public road, used books at a public library, stopped at a public street sig, or walked across a public uiversity campus today, you have shared space ad resources govered by politically made rules implemeted by states. Thus, whether you are coscious of it or ot, as you go

7 INTRODUCTION 7 ª Suzae De Chillo/The New York Times Artist Reee Cox has challeged political ad cultural sesibilities through her art. I this photo, she is stadig beside her work Yo Mama s Last Supper. The New York City Mayor ad 2008 Republica presidetial hopeful Rudolph Giuliai respoded to Cox s work by raisig questios about the appropriateess of displayig it a publicly fuded area. By articulatig Cegage such questios, GiuliaiLearig suggested that the scope of politics ad the jurisdictio of govermet icludes settig boudaries o creative expressio. about your days, you are immersed i politics. As the aciet Greek philosopher Aristotle taught, i essece, we are political creatures, ihabitig a world of shared problems ad possibilities. Ideed, Aristotle coteded, to try to remove ourselves from politics would be to remove ourselves from the world of our commo humaity. 6 I short, as you aalyze politics, you will see that politics touches everythig, as political scietist Robert Dahl oce suggested. 7 If you doubt Dahl s poit, take a momet to thik of a issue or topic that seems to have othig to do with politics it could be art, love, emotio, or a myriad of topics seemigly persoal ad apolitical. If Dahl s observatios are bore out, by the ed of this text you may well see politics evelopig eve these aspects of your life. This text seeks to itroduce to you some of the ways i which political sciece aalyzes politics by explorig differet subfields of political sciece. This brief opeig chapter itroduces political sciece as a field of iquiry seekig to examie political processes i a maer that offers iformatio without deyig complexity ad uace. Chapter 2 looks at the ways i which political scietists

8 8 CHAPTER 1 BOX 1.2 What Is Political About That? May parts of our lives may, at first, appear apolitical. Very rarely is this true, however. Political decisio makig ca iclude almost everythig i its reach. Cosider how politics touches the followig ostesibly opolitical issues: Art. Robert Mapplethorpe is oe of several artists whose work has elicited debate betwee coservatives ad liberals. Mapplethorpe s portfolio icludes photographs of gay me. Critics have ofte described these works as porographic, whereas may supporters have coutered that they are represetatios of gay erotica. Should public dollars be used to subsidize ad promote such art? Politics ivolves makig such decisios. Love. Two people i love may ot believe that politics has aythig to do with their relatioship. However, politics greatly iflueces the ways i which love may be expressed. At what age may couples get married, for istace? Why ca some couples (heterosexual) get married, whereas others (gay) caot? Govermets aswer such political questios. Emotio. What could be more persoal tha emotios? How ca your emotios have aythig to do with politics? Your emotios are very political if, for istace, you are accused of committig what the govermet defies as a crime. A perso s state of mid may be oe of the variables cosidered whe the state brigs charges ad makes recommedatios for setecig i crimial cases. Cegage Learig collect political data. Chapter 2 ecourages readers to thik about the process of thikig itself ad to reflect o the propositio that the perspective from which you choose to view politics iflueces what you see; for example, traditioalists, behavioralists, ad postbehavioralists may study the same political pheomeo but see differet thigs. Chapter 3 examies key cocepts used i political sciece to classify ad aalyze political processes. Cocepts such as power, states, ad atios are assessed. Chapter 4 explores a umber of theoretical debates that have itrigued studets of politics. For example, we will examie debates about whether govermets should try to promote equality, ad we will evaluate philosophical disagreemets over whether govermets should try to eforce a public morality. I Chapters 5 7, we will aalyze differet political ideologies ad see how liberalism, coservatism, socialism, fascism, femiism, ad evirometalism differ i their views of politics, govermet, ad citizeship. Chapter 8 looks at variatios i democratic ad odemocratic govermets. Chapters 9 ad 10 focus o comparisos of differet aspects of citize participatio (such as votig) ad govermet decisio makig (such as judicial review). These chapters discuss U.S. politics ad govermet withi the cotext of comparative aalysis. By thikig about U.S. political issues from a comparative perspective, you ca, perhaps, better view the Uited States as other coutries

9 ª AP Photo ª Paul Boisvert/The New York Times Should govermet have the power to dey iterracial couples the right to marry? Should it have the power to dey this Cegage Learig right to same-sex couples? I 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court overtured a Virgiia law prohibitig marriage betwee Africa- Americas ad whites. Mildred ad Richard Lovig, the couple who challeged the iterracial ba, are show above. Lois Burham ad Holly Puterbaugh (show to the right, alog with a official who civil uioed them) had bee i a relatioship for 28 years by the time their govermet grated same-sex couples the optio of a legally valid civil uio ceremoy. Oe of the sogs performed at their service was The Impossible Dream. Could it be that these cases illustrate that fallig i love ca be very political ideed?

10 10 CHAPTER 1 might. You ca assess U.S. govermet ad political decisio makig as part of the larger political world, ot i isolatio from this world. For example, you ca view U.S. electio laws as but oe of may legal alteratives for societies. By comparig how the Uited States ad other coutries make goverig choices, you ca begi to see, for istace, that U.S. executive legislative relatios are aythig but the most obvious way to set up govermet offices. Our comparative aalysis will examie how the U.S. goverig system is but oe choice amog may possibilities. I Chapters 11 ad 12, issues i iteratioal politics are examied. Realist ad idealist debates o the ature of iteratioal affairs are scrutiized, as are questios cocerig the place of the Uited Natios ad NATO. Globalizatio, media relatios, ad iteratioal ecoomics are also discussed. For example, we will explore some of the dyamics by which the World Bak ad other iteratioal fiacial istitutios have become focal poits for citize groups wishig to discuss the coectios amog politics, chage, resources, ad public decisio makig. Ideed, protesters i the streets are askig questios similar to the oes posed by Dahl ad Lasswell: Who is to have the power to shape the political decisios over who gets a lot (i terms of civil rights, ecoomic resources, or life expectacies) ad who gets a little? As you explore the questios i this text, feel free to me directly with commets ad/or questios; I will respod, ad we ca egage a dialogue about Cegage Learig the political issues raised i the pages that follow. Who kows where your questios ad our discussios may take us? My address is egrigsby@um.edu

11 2 U Political Sciece ad Scietific Methods i Studyig Politics I 1971, uiversity studets were ivited by Staford Psychology Professor Philip Zimbardo to participate i a experimet. All the studets were i good metal ad physical coditio, all were well-adjusted (for example, oe had a record of crimial or disorderly coduct), ad all were male. Professor Zimbardo was iterested Cegage i explorig the iteractios Learig betwee idividuals i situatios wherei some had authority over others; to accomplish this objective, he set up a mock priso i the basemet of the Psychology Departmet ad he radomly assiged some of the studet participats to be guards i this priso ad others to be imates. He iteded for the experimet to last 2 weeks. However, by the ed of the secod day, guards were actig aggressively toward imates. By the fifth day, guards were forcig imates to surreder their clothig, to wear head coverigs, to edure sleep deprivatio, ad to submit to sexual humiliatio. Upo the urgig of a former graduate studet, Professor Zimbardo called a ed to the experimet after 6 days rather tha allow the physical, sexual, ad verbal tauts to cotiue. I 2007, Professor Zimbardo reflected o this experimet. He shared his covictio that his research could offer isights ito the abuses that had take place at Abu Ghraib Priso i Iraq ad that had bee revealed to the public i 2004; at Abu Ghraib, a group of U.S. military ad itelligece agecy persoel egaged i acts of physical abuse ad sexual humiliatio of Iraqi detaiees. I the Staford priso experimet, Professor Zimbardo explaied, studets succumbed to situatioal cues (for example, actig the role of guard over submissive imates i a preted-priso) permittig of abusive behavior after oly a few days; cosider how much stroger the temptatio toward aggressive actio 11

12 12 CHAPTER 2 agaist submissive populatios i a actual priso facility uder the stress of war could become, Professor Zimbardo oted. Sciece i this case, a social sciece experimet revealed ucomfortable truths about huma psychology, truths relevat to both citizes ad political leaders strugglig to uderstad how Abu Ghraib could have happeed. 1 If Professor Zimbardo is correct if sciece ca provide reliable iformatio about the ease with which power ca be abused by otherwise good people should sciece be accorded special claims to authority whe studyig politics? Should those ivestigatig the political world scietifically have a greater voice tha others o matters pertaiig to politics? If scietists make claims to havig a reliable ad disiterested expertise, should you believe them? This chapter seeks to help you sort through such questios by explorig what political scietists mea whe they preset their fidigs as scietific. Chapter 2 poits out that political sciece has chaged over the ceturies; the chapter further aalyzes relatioships betwee political sciece ad sciece, scietific processes, the use of scietific processes i aalyzig political data, ad limitatios of sciece. Cegage Learig THE RANGE OF POLITICAL SCIENCE: HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS Political sciece ofte traces its begiigs to aciet Greece ad the teachigs of political thikers such as Socrates, Plato, ad Aristotle. 2 Political sciece as a academic field, however, is much ewer. I the Uited States, the first political sciece departmet was orgaized at Columbia Uiversity i 1880, ad i 1903 the America Political Sciece Associatio was formed. At the tur of the twetieth cetury, probably o more tha a couple of hudred people i the etire Uited States thought of themselves as political scietists. 3 I fact, fewer tha 500 doctoral degrees i political sciece were awarded betwee 1936 ad 1942, a umber all the more strikig whe oe realizes that accordig to the U.S. Departmet of Educatio more tha 600 PhDs i Political Sciece were recetly awarded i a sigle year ( ). 4 From these begiigs, political sciece has developed differet subfields (areas of specializatio) ad research methods, ad the disciplie has grow to iclude more tha 14,000 political scietists i the America Political Sciece Associatio (APSA) aloe. I 2007, approximately 10 percet of APSA members resided outside of North America. 5 Some political scietists focus o studyig ormative issues (issues ivolvig value judgmets ad ethics), others cocetrate o empirical (observable ad factual) ivestigatios, ad still others study both. Whatever the focus, political sciece begis by askig questios. Why do people vote as they do? Why are some people coservative ad others ot? Why

13 POLITICAL SCIENCE AND SCIENTIFIC METHODS 13 are some iterest groups more successful tha others? Does moey buy electios? Are U.S. electios fair? The subject matter of politics is varied ad complex, ad political sciece is o less so. I this chapter, we will see that political scietists use a wide rage of research methods ad aalytical approaches. I its early years, political sciece geerally ivolved the aalysis of the formal, legal, official side of political life. 6 This approach is kow as traditioalism. Traditioalists tried to uderstad politics by examiig laws, govermetal offices, costitutios, ad other official istitutios associated with politics; they tried to describe how istitutios operated by formal rules ad publicly sactioed procedures. A traditioalist, for example, who wished to uderstad the U.S. Supreme Court might study the official rules the Court followed i makig judicial decisios, or, perhaps, the formal/legal basis of the Court s authority as spelled out i the U.S. Costitutio. Traditioalists ofte teded to focus o what was goig o iside govermet as opposed to lookig at social ad ecoomic processes i the coutry. 7 Traditioalist approaches were ofte both historical ad ormative: historical i outliig the processes by which the formal rules of politics were modified over time through court decisios, laws, executive orders, ad the like, ad ormative i the sese of hopig to provide iformatio for improvig these rules. 8 Although traditioalist approaches are still preset i political sciece research, additioal approaches have supplemeted traditioalism. Behavioralism is oe alterative to traditioalism. Behavioralism became popular i political sciece after World War II. The roots of behavioralist political sciece Cegage have bee traced backlearig to the 1920s ad the works of political scietists such as Charles Merriam. Merriam asserted the usefuless of lookig at the actual behavior of politically ivolved idividuals ad groups, ot oly the formal/legal rules by which those idividuals ad groups were supposed to abide. 9 Thus, a behavioralist approach to the study of Cogress might iclude a examiatio of how members of Cogress actually behave i their positios. For example, a behavioralist might ask the followig type of questio: How much time is devoted by members of Cogress to such tasks as writig laws, iteractig with lobbyists, raisig moey for reelectio, givig speeches, studyig domestic issues, attedig committee ad subcommittee meetigs, castig votes, meetig with foreig digitaries, ad the like? The behavioralist, therefore, is less iterested i how Cogress looks officially o paper (for example, what the U.S. Costitutio says about Cogress) ad more iterested i how Cogress becomes a area of actios, the origis ad motivatios of which may be foud outside the formal sphere of govermet. That is, a behavioralist may look for iformal sources of power emaatig from ecoomics, ethic cleavages, ad social relatioships. 10 Thus, to a behavioralist, traditioalist approaches, focused so exclusively o govermet per se, were iadequate for uderstadig the larger cotext of political life. 11 Behavioralist approaches stress the importace of empirical aalysis. Behavioralists ask: How better to study behavior tha through careful observatio of specific actios? Ideed, behavioralism is almost syoymous with empiricism, accordig to may political scietists. 12 Empiricism is a meas of collectig data

14 14 CHAPTER 2 BOX 2.1 Some of the Subfields i Political Sciece Political sciece has a variety of subfields. Each subfield focuses o a particular set of questios. The major subfields iclude Comparative politics, focusig o examiig how differet political systems operate. It ca iclude comparisos of systems at a macro or micro level, that is, comparig geeral political structures or focusig o idividual elemets of political systems. For example, comparative politics ca iclude a compariso of how democratic ad authoritaria political structures differ, as well as a compariso of how specific rules goverig campaig cotributios differ from oe coutry to the ext. America politics, cosistig of a aalysis of govermet ad politics i the Uited States. This subfield ecompasses studies of federal, as well as state ad local, politics ad govermet. Some political scietists view it as a elemet of comparative politics. Iteratioal relatios, focusig o relatioships betwee ad amog states. Ulike comparative politics, which zeroes i o how govermet or politics operates withi a coutry, iteratioal relatios studies what traspires betwee states. Its subject matter icludes war, regioal itegratio, iteratioal orgaizatios, military alliaces, ecoomic pacts, ad so o. Public policy, studyig how laws, regulatios, ad other policies are formulated, implemeted, ad evaluated. This subfield looks closely at such questios as, What makes a ew policy ecessary? How ca policies be desiged to meet specific eeds Cegage effectively? What cotributes Learig to a policy s effectiveess? Why are ieffective policies sometimes cotiued rather tha discotiued? What should be the stadards for evaluatig policies? Political research methods, focusig o a study of the may details of empirical social sciece. Data collectio, measuremet, ad aalysis are key areas of iquiry i this subfield. Political methods study seeks to uderstad the empirical research process i all its complexity ad to develop meas of achievig scietific rigor i the collectio ad iterpretatio of data. Political theory, i some ways uique amog the subfields of political sciece isofar as it is cocered with ormative questios. Political theory icludes the study of the history of political philosophy, philosophies of explaatio or sciece, ad philosophical iquiries ito the ethical dimesios of politics. I additio to these historical subfields, political sciece is orgaized ito a umber of more specialized groups. For istace, the America Political Sciece Associatio provides the followig specialized sectios that members may joi: based o observatio. From a empirical stadpoit, X is a fact if X is observed. 13 Behavioralists ofte favor statistical, mathematical, ad ecoomic models of aalysis, isofar as they allow for a more miute empirical ivestigatio of pheomea tha would be provided by assessig the cotet of costitutios,

15 POLITICAL SCIENCE AND SCIENTIFIC METHODS 15 Federalism/Itergovermetal Relatios Law/Courts Legislative Studies Public Policy Political Orgaizatios/Parties Public Admiistratio Coflict Represetatio/Electio Systems Presidecy Political Methodology Religio/Politics Politics/Techology/Eviromet Urba Politics Wome/Politics Political Theory Computers/Multimedia Iteratioal Security/Arms Cotrol Cegage Learig Comparative Politics Politics/Society Wester Europe State Politics Political Commuicatio Politics/History Political Ecoomy Trasformatioal Politics New Political Sciece Political Psychology Udergraduate Educatio Politics/Literature Foreig Policy Domestic Sources Electios/Opiio/Votig Race, Ethicity, ad Politics SOURCES: APSA Executive Director s Report, Reported July 12, 2000, Catherie E. Rudder, PS Olie ( David M. Ricci, The Tragedy of Political Sciece: Politics, Scholarship, ad Democracy (New Have, CT: Yale Uiversity Press, 1984), p. 9. laws, ad govermetal procedures. Give its focus o empiricism, behavioralism teds to reject historical aalysis, fidig little reaso to explore the past (for iterpretatios, isights, ad opiios o matters of politics) whe observatio is viewed as the most reliable route to kowledge. 14 The empirical orietatio

16 16 CHAPTER 2 toward the aalysis of what is (observable) also stads i cotrast to a orietatio that asks what should be. Ideed, oe of the defiig attributes of behavioralism is its rejectio of the ormative questios associated with traditioalism. 15 A behavioralist studyig Cogress does ot ask how a seator or represetative should act. Rather, a behavioralist examies how a seator or represetative does act. Postbehavioralism is a alterative to both traditioalism ad behavioralism. I 1969, David Easto aouced that a postbehavioral orietatio had arrived i political sciece. 16 What had ispired it? Easto was very explicit i his aswer: Postbehavioralism emerged as a reactio agaist the empirical orietatio of behavioralism by political scietists who foud such a orietatio excessive ad irresposible. Empiricism, if take to the extremes of deyig the importace of values ad ethics ad ecouragig a arrowig of research questios to oly those matters self-evidetly observable, could udermie political sciece. I such cases, postbehavioralists wared, political sciece would produce data that were scietifically reliable (empirically observed) but irrelevat. Moreover, postbehavioralists asserted that behavioralism is ot truly value free because it implicitly affirms that uderstadig comes from observatio, ot ethical assessmets. Behavioralism is ot i oppositio to values, but is itself a value statemet, isofar as it upholds as reliable what is observable ad distrusts as ureliable what is ituited as ethical or moral. I other words, behavioralism values the observable ad devalues the uobservable. Thus, if the postbehavioralists are correct, behavioralism is as ormative as traditioalism. 17 Postbehavioralists Cegage argue that political sciece Learig should be relevat as well as empirically reliable, ad that the iformatio produced by political sciece has ethical implicatios. Easto tried to remid political scietists that political pheomea were ofte matters of life ad death matters pertaiig to war, populatio growth, evirometal degradatio, ad racial ad ethic coflict. Political scietists have a resposibility to ackowledge that what they choose to ivestigate through the empirical methods of political sciece ad what they discover by meas of these methods affect the lives of wome ad me. 18 We ca see the ifluece of postbehavioralism i Lucius J. Barker s presidetial address to the APSA i Barker challeged political scietists to be egaged citizes, actively takig part i reformig their ow societies. Barker specifically recommeded that political scietists promote civil rights for all citizes through such measures as the recruitmet of Africa-Americas ito the disciplie of political sciece. 19 Note the remarkable differece betwee Barker s view of the resposibilities of the political scietist ad the view of the behavioralists who rejected ormative judgmets. The debates amog traditioalists, behavioralists, ad postbehavioralists are importat ot oly for illustratig the tesios ad coflicts withi the disciplie of political sciece as it evolved. These debates are also importat i raisig questios at the ceter of political sciece today: What is the ature of scietific iquiry? How is sciece differet from ethical ad/or religious perspectives o truth?

17 POLITICAL SCIENCE AND SCIENTIFIC METHODS 17 How ca political sciece be scietific? How ca ayoe study complex political pheomea i a scietific maer? What are the methods of the scietific study of politics? Should sciece be value free? Will sciece be corrupted by bias if it is ot value free? How relevat is political sciece? What are other sources of kowledge about politics? The questios are difficult oes, ad political scietists ofte disagree o how best to aswer them. I fact, oe studet of the disciplie of political sciece has suggested that the disciplie s history has bee tragic: Political scietists have ofte failed to itegrate the demads of sciece ad humaity, fallig short of Easto s plea for relevace ad reliability, eve as the disciplie has opeed up to iclude multiple research ad aalytical approaches. 20 It seems that the historical debates refuse to die, as we will see as we examie the precedig questios i greater detail. THINKING SCIENTIFICALLY: SOME FOUNDATIONS OF SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY Cegage Learig Albert Eistei believed that sciece creates cocepts for elucidatig reality. 21 Scietists search for ways to idetify, defie, aalyze, clarify, ad uderstad the world. Religio, art, ad philosophy also seek to produce laguages ad models to make the uiverse comprehesible. 22 Each of these pursuits sciece, spirituality, religio, art, ad philosophy may be coceptualized as ways of comig up with ames ad categories for what is cosidered to be real. Spirituality may ame as real what is kow by faith; some philosophies may ame as real what is kow through reaso. Sciece differs from these two edeavors i terms of what ad how it goes about amig pheomea as real, but, like spirituality ad philosophy, sciece ca be thought of as a type of amig system coectig what we thik of as mid ad world. 23 To illustrate this poit, we ca look to the writigs of Phillip Coverse. Coverse was presidet of the APSA i the early 1980s. Accordig to Coverse, sciece uses ames to poit to what it sees as truth. That is, sciece tells us that its ames truly correspod to reality. However, sciece by its very ature is a process of cotiuously reamig ad improvig o older amig schema. Sciece is therefore premised o the uderstadig that truth, at ay particular time, is icompletely amed (ad icompletely kow). Religio, accordig to Coverse, is premised o a uderstadig that there is a truth outside that is capable of beig amed by sciece, eve by a sciece so rigorous as to overcome its ow errors of amig. Coverse s discussio is valuable i highlightig the similarities of sciece ad religio (both are amig systems), as well as their dissimilarities (they ame differet pheomea as real, ad they rest o differet uderstadigs of the ature of truth). 24

18 18 CHAPTER 2 Sciece ames reality by meas of a scietific method, a set of procedures (for gatherig iformatio) restig o certai epistemological assumptios. Epistemology is a brach of philosophy that examies evaluatios of what costitutes truth; thus, epistemological assumptios are assumptios about the essece of truth. Scietific method is characterized by epistemological empiricism (isofar as it is based o the assumptio that what is true is what is observable). Its procedures reflect this epistemological assumptio, for pursuig truth by meas of the scietific method etails the collectio of data. The data selected for collectio are the set of data observed (ot what is assumed, ituited, revealed by faith, or judged to be good or bad o ormative grouds). I this maer, scietific method s epistemological empiricism is reflected i its methodological (procedural) empiricism. Oce collected, the sets of data are aalyzed, ad whe the aalysis leads to assertios cocerig the ature of the data, these assertios are subject to testig. The testig of assertios provides verificatio (acceptace of the assertios) or falsificatio (rejectio of the assertios). Through these steps of data collectio, aalysis, testig, verificatio, ad falsificatio, the scietific method offers explaatios of reality. Sciece s explaatios are ecessarily icomplete ad tetative, isofar as they are always subject to falsificatio at a later time. Political scietists use sciece s methods to study questios as diverse as the causes of war ad the origis of public opiios. Studyig political questios i a scietific maer ofte ivolves the followig: Cegage Learig Formulatig hypotheses Operatioalizig cocepts Idetifyig idepedet ad depedet variables Clarifyig measuremet criteria Distiguishig betwee causatio ad correlatio Developig scietific theories Formulatig a hypothesis ca be a key step i the applicatio of the scietific method to the study of politics. A hypothesis is a statemet proposig a specific relatioship betwee pheomea. 25 A hypothesis puts forward a idea that X ad Y are coected i a certai, idetifiable way. 26 A example ca help illustrate the differet dimesios of hypothesis formulatio. A political scietist may be itrigued by the followig questio: Is votig i U.S. electios related to age? The political scietist may suspect that youger adults are less likely to vote tha are middle-aged adults. This suspicio may be articulated as a hypothetical statemet such as, U.S. citizes years of age will vote i lower umbers tha will U.S. citizes years of age. This hypothesis exemplifies the defiitio just oted two pheomea (age ad votig) are posited as havig a specific relatioship. Oce formulated, hypotheses are tested. Data collectio proceeds accordig to the logic of the operatioal defiitios cotaied i the hypothesis. A operatioal defiitio is a defiitio so precise that it allows for empirical testig. 27 Uless a hypothesis defies the pheomeo i questio precisely eough

19 POLITICAL SCIENCE AND SCIENTIFIC METHODS 19 to measure that pheomeo, the hypothesis caot be tested empirically. We caot cofirm/verify or falsify if we caot measure degrees of correspodece betwee what a hypothesis states as a relatioship ad what we observe as actual facts. This is very importat because verificatio ofte ivolves multiple tests of a hypothesis. 28 For example, youth is a geeral cocept. We tur the cocept ito a operatioal defiitio whe we defie youth as those who are years of age. Oce we have thus operatioalized youth, youth is somethig that we ca observe with clarity ad specificity. We ca measure the correspodece betwee what we expect to see this group doig (as stated i our hypothesis) ad what we actually see it doig. Scietists ofte refer to the pheomea liked together i a hypothesis as variables. I our example, age is oe variable ad votig is a secod variable. A variable is somethig that varies, chages, or maifests itself differetly from oe case to aother. Idepedet variables are preseted as those that act o or affect somethig. Depedet variables are what the hypothesis presets as beig acted o by the idepedet variable. Which is the idepedet variable ad which is the depedet i our example? Age is put forth as havig a impact o votig. Age, therefore, is the idepedet variable, which has a effect o levels of votig (the depedet variable). 29 As scietists proceed to test hypotheses (with the operatioalized variables), they must clarify their meas of testig, or measurig, the correspodece betwee hypothetical relatioships ad what is observable empirically. This Cegage Learig clarificatio ivolves specifyig what is take as a idicator of the variable. A idicator is evidece. How could we obtai evidece regardig our variable of votig? We could poll idividuals ad ask about their votig behavior. Their resposes would provide evidece. As oted, operatioalizig cocepts ad determiig measuremet (idicator) criteria are closely related. I our example, we could chage our depedet variable from votig to political participatio; our operatioalizatios ad idicators would also chage. How could we operatioalize ad idetify idicators for political participatio? We could poll idividuals ad iquire about ot oly such activities as votig, but also joiig iterest groups, idetifyig with a political party, writig petitios, attedig demostratios, debatig political issues, ad the like. I additio to testig hypothetical relatioships, political sciece also poits to the importace of uderstadig the differece betwee correlatio ad causatio. Correlatio is a relatioship i which chages i oe variable appear whe there are chages i aother variable (for example, lower votig appears with youger age groups). Correlatio is ot the same as ultimate, idisputable causatio (oe variable absolutely causig or creatig the other). Were we to cofirm our hypothesis o age ad votig, for istace, we could ot say that we have prove that beig age 20 absolutely determies whether someoe will vote. Perhaps additioal variables (icome, educatioal level, or mobility) are associated with this perso s votig behavior. As political scietist Duca MacRae, Jr., has oted, there is ofte a alterative explaatio for what we thik we have cofirmed. 30 MacRae s isight poits back to the usefuless of Coverse s

20 20 CHAPTER 2 assertio that sciece ca ame reality, but oly i a icomplete, coditioal, partial, ad tetative maer. Scietific research ofte ivolves the costructio of scietific theories based o empirically verified hypotheses. Although based o observable data, scietific theory attempts to trasced the limits of the observable. Scietific theories seek to offer explaatios about why ad how correlatios occur. I this maer, scietific theory also seeks to predict. 31 For example, after havig foud a relatioship betwee age ad votig, the political scietist might theorize that this relatioship is related to differet mobility patters amog groups. Perhaps youger people move more ofte tha other groups ad do ot always register to vote after movig to ew cities. Theory buildig ca be oe of the most iterestig aspects of sciece because it takes the political scietist beyod the task of merely describig ad observig. Descriptios aloe may offer little i the way of meaigful additios to our uderstadig of politics. Explaatios delvig ito the why ad how of politics seek a more profoud level of uderstadig. I fact, the search for such explaatios ca be oe of the most productive sources for geeratig ew hypotheses. The processes associated with differet usages of the scietific method hypothesis formulatio, operatioalizatio, ad so o ca be fasciatig. Political scietist James Roseau has described his ow experiece with the excitemet of scietific research by otig the itese aticipatio, curiosity, ad expectatio oe feels while testig hypotheses ad seekig out correlatios. 32 Moreover, although the method Cegage of sciece is orderly, ofte Learig the actual practice of sciece is ot. The lack of regimetatio ca be part of the fu. Political scietist Thomas Dye has described the scietific method as somethig of a adveture. 33 Sciece is ot so borig as to be thoroughly predictable because scietists ofte ecouter the uexpected ad the uusual. 34 Roseau ad Dye are ot aloe i beig surprised by the directio i which sciece sometimes takes them. Ideed, oe offerig of sciece is the promise of seeig the world differetly, of comig to ame ad iterpret perceptios i ways that may depart radically from our commoplace assumptios. I the 1600s, Fracis Baco poited to this dimesio of sciece by arguig that sciece ca free us from various idols (errors, miscoceptios, ad distorted views). Baco categorized these miscoceptios: Idols of the marketplace: Errors based o misuderstadig ad faulty commuicatios; errors related to our iexact use of laguage. Idols of the tribe: Errors related to the flaws of huma ature; errors caused by the huma tedecy to be quick to judge ad to be superficial i our assessmets. Idols of the de: Errors caused by our iability to see beyod our ow particular surroudigs; errors related to our earsightedess ad proclivity for viewig our particular way of life as the stadard for judgig all others.

21 POLITICAL SCIENCE AND SCIENTIFIC METHODS 21 Idols of the theater: Errors based o our beliefs i dogmatic teachigs; errors caused by believig i systems of thought characterized by iflexibility ad closed off to questioig ad critical aalysis. 35 Baco s isights have remaied relevat over the ceturies. Cosider the followig examples of miscoceptios assumed by may at the time to be facts. I the 1800s, U.S. wome who demaded the right to vote were ot ifrequetly described as abormal. I short, such wome were likely to be see as freaks. For example, oppoets of wome s suffrage sometimes charged that because such wome were actig like me i terms of watig to vote, they must be like me i other ways; they must be, the argumet cotiued, hermaphroditic (half female ad half male). 36 I the same cetury, a umber of scholars misused Charles Darwi s theories of evolutio to claim that some races were superior to others. Erst Haeckel, for oe, argued that white Europeas were superior to other peoples. 37 These examples illustrate the sigificace of Baco s teachigs. Idols ca be powerful seductive to those who use them i a self-justifyig maer ad oppressive to those whose lives are circumscribed by their claims. Idols ca form the basis of a society s discrimiatory treatmet of groups deemed uworthy of equal rights. Idols come i may forms stereotypes, prejudices, ad biases amog them. I cotrast, sciece, with its empiricism ad logical methods of data aalysis, ca offer a alterative to such distortios. Cegage Learig THINKING SCIENTIFICALLY ABOUT POLITICS Political scietists use the scietific method i a variety of ways. A political scietist iterested i iteratioal politics may wish to fid out how coutries become democratic. Or a political scietist may be curious about how U.S. presidets develop strategies for maagig uruly press cofereces, or how a member of Cogress ca sabotage a bill he or she despises. How could these questios be aswered? Case studies, survey research, experimets, quasiexperimets, ad idirect quatitative aalysis are five ways i which political scietists may ivestigate ad aswer these questios. Case Studies A case study is a ivestigatio of a specific pheomeo or etity. A case study might examie a sigle coutry, law, govermetal office, war, riot, presidet, political decisio, or other pheomeo. Case studies have a major beefit over other research approaches: They allow for i-depth examiatio of the pheomeo selected. Because the research focuses o a arrowly defied topic, the research ca be thoroughly detailed i brigig to light all kids of iformatio pertaiig to that topic. Imagie, for example, the differece betwee doig research o a sigle coutry as opposed to coductig research o 50 or 100 coutries; usig the former method, all the researcher s time, eergy, ad

22 22 CHAPTER 2 BOX 2.2 Case Studies Suppose you are a political scietist wishig to describe the impact of poverty o idividuals. Surveys, idirect quatitative aalysis, experimets, ad case studies could be used. How would you select amog these approaches? If you wish to show depth ad itesity, a case study approach might be the logical choice. Cosider the picture Barbara Robiette Moss presets. I her autobiography, she describes the followig evet from her childhood. It was 1962, ad she was livig with her mother ad six sibligs i Eastaboga, Alabama. Her father had traveled to aother tow i search of work. Everyday, she ad her family watched for the mail ad hoped that moey from her father would be delivered. As days passed ad the family s food ad moey were used up, her mother became desperate. At oe poit, the oly food left i the home was a cotaier of cor ad beas. The problem, however, was that this food had bee soaked with pesticides so that the beas ad kerels of cor could be plated as seeds the followig sprig. The pesticides were highly toxic. The mother faced a very difficult decisio: Should she feed her childre poisoed food or let them cotiue to go hugry? She decided to use herself as a test subject. She washed ad cooked the beas ad cor, ate a portio of them, ad iformed her childre that they were to observe her for two hours ad, if she tured out to be still alive ad well, they too could eat the poisoed food. I the evet that she lost cosciousess, they were to call a relative livig i Birmigham ad explai what had happeed. At the ed of two hours, she felt well, so she offered her kids the remaiig beas ad cor. Moss recalls that she ad her sisters ad brothers took the food gratefully. Their huger pais were stroger tha their fears of the poiso. Their mother read them a fairy tale while they hadcegage the best meal they eate Learig days. Could impersoal statistics ad poll results describe poverty i such vivid terms? Sometimes case studies ot oly istruct. They haut. SOURCES: Barbara Robiette Moss, Chage Me ito Zeus s Daughter (New York: Scriber s, 2000), pp creativity are devoted to a sigle case ad this facilitates ucoverig miute, specific facts, which might be overlooked i the secod approach of dividig the researcher s efforts across so may coutries. Case studies are ot without problems, however. First, a case study aloe does ot allow for empirically verified geeralizatios beyod the etity studied. It tells us about the particular etity comprisig the case but ot about other etities. For example, research about oe coutry may produce iformatio that does ot apply beyod that coutry. Secod, case studies typically examie a etity or evet i a give time period but do ot provide data beyod that time period. I other words, case studies ofte have a time-boud limitatio. For these reasos, it is difficult to costruct scietific theories ad to make predictios o the basis of sigle case studies. 38 Still, case studies ca provide fasciatig iformatio. For example, case studies of Spaish politics have provided data o the process of buildig a democratic society i the aftermath of authoritariaism. Spai had a authoritaria govermet, headed by Fracisco Fraco, from 1939 to Sice 1975, Spai has democratized its society, replacig the previous dictatorship with

23 POLITICAL SCIENCE AND SCIENTIFIC METHODS 23 political parties ad electios. What makes such a astoudig trasitio possible? Studies focusig o Spai have poited to a umber of factors crucial to the democratizatio process: Fraco s withdrawal from politics prior to his death (which made possible the etry ito politics of competig political groups), the existece of a growth-orieted ecoomic structure, the existece of a stable middle class supportive of democratic processes, ad the forgig of cross-class alliaces for democratizatio (such as support for democracy from labor ad maagemet groups i Spaish society). 39 A case study of Spai aloe caot, however, determie how may of these factors are also associated with democratizatio i other coutries at other times ad how may are uique to Spai s democratizatio. Case studies have also provided a much deeper uderstadig of the legislative process ad the civil rights movemet i the Uited States. For istace, case studies of the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964 have poited out the legths to which politicias were willig to go i tryig to kill proposed civil rights laws i the 1960s. As origially writte, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 called for federal protectio agaist discrimiatio directed toward miority groups. Oppoets of the measure fought hard agaist it. Whe it appeared that passage was ievitable, oppoets scrambled to fid a way to stop this bill. A igeious strategy struck them. What if the law were rewritte to iclude a provisio callig for protectio agaist discrimiatory treatmet directed toward wome as well as miorities? Would t that be so outrageous as to esure defeat for the etire law? Assumig the aswer to that questio was yes, oppoets itroduced such a provisio. The act passed, Cegage however. With its passage, civil Learig rights for miorities ad wome were upheld, ad although the oppoets failed to achieve their goal of sabotagig the Civil Rights Act, their actios revealed volumes of iformatio relatig to U.S. cultural assumptios. A great iroy stems from this episode: A measure that has subsequetly served to uphold the legal rights of wome was itroduced by oppoets of both the wome s movemet ad the civil rights movemet. Although it is clear that we caot geeralize beyod this study without stretchig the scietific method too far, it is also obvious that a case study approach ucoverig such couterituitive facts pertaiig to this particular legislatio broades our uderstadig of recet America politics. 40 Case study iformatio has also eriched our uderstadig of presidetial politics. By lookig at idividual presidets, political scietists have leared of astoudigly clever ways used by presidets to maeuver through press cofereces. Lookig to the right rather tha the left souds harmless, does t it? I fact, it was a strategy employed by the Reaga admiistratio to maipulate press cofereces. Although the televisio-viewig public watched Presidet Reaga aswer questios from reporters i a apparetly uorchestrated fashio, a very meticulously thought-out orchestratio program was i effect. What was hidde from the viewers watchig televisio? The fact that Reaga s staff had cosciously ad carefully seated pro-reaga press represetatives i the frot of the presidetial podium ad to Reaga s immediate right. If questioig from hostile reporters raised difficult or embarrassig issues, Reaga kew he could halt these questios by callig o reporters seated to the right i the easy

24 24 CHAPTER 2 sectio of the audiece. 41 Of course, case study materials delvig ito the dyamics of press cofereces of a sigle presidet do ot geerate data sufficiet for costructig a scietific theory about all presidets, but these materials disclose a reality the presidet himself tried to coceal. From the stadpoit of democracy, that aloe makes this iformatio relevat. Survey Research I March 2003, a majority of U.S. citizes (approximately 64 percet) supported the ivasio of Iraq. By December 2006, a majority of U.S. citizes (approximately 62 percet) called the ivasio a mistake. What makes accurate kowledge of public opiio o the Iraq war or o other public policy questios possible? Scietific survey research provides a basis for such kowledge. Political scietists use survey research (questioaires ad/or iterviews) to gather data. Surveys usually cosist of closed questios (questios with a rage of optioal aswers provided). Survey research is oe of the most popular research approaches i political sciece, i part because survey questios may be admiistered to large umbers of people ad the results may be tabulated by meas of precise statistical measuremets. 42 I other words, surveys are useful because they make it possible to study larger populatios tha oe ca examie usig the case study approach. I this maer, survey research provides greater breadth tha that preseted i sigle case studies. Isofar as surveys provide data that ca be measured mathematically, they allow researchers to test their fidigs for statistical sigificace (testig Cegage to determie if a fidig islearig likely to have occurred radomly or by chace; if the fidig is ot likely to have occurred by chace, the the fidig is cosidered statistically sigificat). Survey research is ivaluable but complex. I usig survey fidigs, it is importat to uderstad the limitatios of this approach. First, surveys are ot desiged to provide detailed probig of idividual etities. Surveys idetify patters pertaiig to large umbers of idividuals, but ot the idiosycratic, uique, quirky details associated with sigle case studies. Secod, whe surveys idetify patters they are ot ecessarily idetifyig idividuals orgaized ito groups. However, survey fidigs are sometimes (mis)read so that patters are assumed to be idetical to groups. A example ca help clarify this distictio. Imagie that a survey reveals that idividuals with traits X, Y, ad Z ted to feel favorably toward Cadidate N. This survey has revealed a patter ivolvig idividuals exhibitig X, Y, ad Z, but these idividuals may or may ot represet a actual self-idetified group (a group of people coected together i a orgaized maer at some poit i space ad aware of themselves as group members). 43 That is, a hypothetical survey might suggest that wome earig more tha $100,000 ad livig i urba areas strogly support cadidate Mary Smith. If these wome earig more tha $100,000 ad livig i urba areas do ot cosciously associate amog themselves i a orgaizatio with membership reflectig these traits (female, earig more tha $100,000, ad livig i urba areas), the this hypothetical survey has idetified a patter but ot a group. This is importat because if the patter is ot preset i a orgaized group, the

25 POLITICAL SCIENCE AND SCIENTIFIC METHODS 25 BOX 2.3 Are Surveys Good for Democracy? Survey research is a subject that ca elicit strog emotios. Critics ca poit to fiascos, such as istaces i which two polls tryig to figure out the same thig produce absolutely opposite results. This happeed with a poll coducted i 1992 by Ross Perot, whose presidetial campaig of that year caused major headaches for both Bill Clito ad George Bush. Perot was spearheadig a effort to orgaize popular support for tax ad spedig reform. His poll cotaied a questio about whether respodets wated to see reductios i govermet spedig. Niety-seve percet of respodets aswered yes. The results looked uambiguous. However, pollig expert Daiel Yakelovich ad associates repeated the questio, worded i what they cosidered a more eutral fashio ad admiistered to a more represetative sample, ad foud the opposite. The Yakelovich questio asked whether respodets wated to see govermet spedig reductios eve if such reductios meat curtailig popular programs such as Social Security. Sixty-oe percet of respodets aswered o. The results suggested that the America public opposed such cuts i spedig. This example illustrates the dagers of survey results. Wordig a questio differetly ad admiisterig a survey to populatios chose by meas of differet selectio criteria produce differet sets of aswers. This raises the possibility that polls ca be used to cofuse ad mislead. Such istaces raise the specter of polls beig devised to produce whatever results the pollster wats ad the passed off as what the public wats. Thus, critics fear that polls could subvert the democratic process. If surveys are used i a maipulative way, how ca we tell the differece betwee what the people truly wat ad what the bogus poll results say they wat? The wishes of the peoplet Cegage are a commodity that ca belearig maufactured by ayoe who ca hire the services of a pollig firm. Political scietist Sidey Verba offers a very differet view of polls. Aware of the potetial abuses of surveys, Verba, oetheless, isists that polls ca promote democracy. Cosider, Verba tells us, the differece betwee electios ad surveys. Both are meas of expressig the popular will. I electios, people vote ad the most popular cadidate wis. I polls, people express their will by aswerig questios admiistered i the survey; the results are tabulated ad the most popular respose is oted as such. I electios, however, a urepresetative sample participates. As we will see i later chapters, some people are more likely to vote tha others. Therefore, the results of a electio are skewed i favor of the opiios of the people most likely to vote. Electios do ot truly reflect the people s will. They reflect the voters will. However, a well-admiistered survey does ot produce skewed results. Because the survey is admiistered to a radom sample of people with o group havig a greater or lesser likelihood of participatio tha ay other group it reflects the will of the etire people. Therefore, surveys are more accurate reflectios of the popular will tha are electios. Verba s commets are itriguig. Would it be more democratic to decide key debates abortio, gu cotrol, taxes, affirmative actio, ad so o by basig our laws o public opiio surveys rather tha the decisios of politicias selected through electios? SOURCES: Daiel Golema, Pollsters Elist Psychologists i Quest for Ubiased Results, New York Times (September 7, 1993): B5, B8; Christopher Hitches, Votig i the Passive Voice, Harper s (April 1992): 45 52; Sidey Verba, The Citize as Respodet: Sample Surveys ad America Democracy. Presidetial Address, America Political Sciece Associatio, 1995, America Political Sciece Review 90 (March 1996): 1 7.

26 26 CHAPTER 2 patter may be short term (ot sustaied over time by a ogoig orgaizatio). I this maer, survey research fidigs may be as time boud as sigle case studies. 44 I additio, a umber of specific difficulties may arise as the researcher is developig the questios for the survey, selectig the populatio to whom the survey will be admiistered, ad carryig out the survey. First, if the populatio chose to participate i the survey is ot radomly selected, the fidigs of the survey will be ureliable. Radom selectio requires that each perso i the populatio to be studied must have a equal chace (compared to all others i the populatio) of beig selected. Thus, if a political scietist wishes to study the populatio of registered Republicas, he or she must esure that each registered Republica has a equal chace of beig chose to participate i the survey. Because it is difficult (ad expesive) to get a radom sample of a very large group (such as Republicas), researchers ofte use a variat of radom samplig either stratified samplig (radom samples of demographic subgroups withi the populatio to be studied) or cluster samplig (radom samples of geographic subgroups withi the populatio to be studied). I our example, a stratified radom sample would radomly select Republicas i various age, sex, ethic, occupatioal, religious, ad other demographic categories, whereas a cluster sample would obtai radom samples from various geographic commuities of Republicas. 45 Sometimes eve the most coscietious efforts to esure radomess ca fall short ad create erroeous results. For example, the 1984 presidetial electio, Republica pollsters Cegage experieced mild paiclearig whe their pollig bega to suggest that Reaga was begiig to trail behid Democratic cadidate Walter Modale. Republicas had bee cofidet of Reaga s lead over Modale util pollig data sigaled Modale gais. Iterestigly, they oticed that they teded to pick up this Modale surge i surveys coducted o Friday ights. The it occurred to them to ask, What if Republicas are more likely to go out o Friday ights tha are Democrats? If so, pollig o Friday ights is ot truly radom (it is skewed i favor of fidig more Democrats tha Republicas at home to aswer survey questios, so it is ot a accurate sample of the populatio voters it is seekig to study). 46 Secod, if questios i a survey are leadig or ambiguous, this compromises the reliability of survey research. Researchers have foud, for istace, that a word such as few is very ambiguous. Differet people have differet otios of what a few cosists of, so survey researchers must be careful i wordig questios. Third, resposes to questios i a survey ca be affected by the orgaizatio of the questios i a survey. Both the order of questios ad the possible aswers to a questio ca affect how people aswer the questios. Why would this be so? I terms of the order of questios, oe questio ca trigger a thought or idea that iflueces the way someoe thiks about aother questio. Should govermets provide health care beefits to poor residets? Cosider how you might aswer that questio differetly if it is preceded by either of the followig questios: Do you support raisig taxes to fud health care programs for the poor? or If you had a sick relative who lacked moey for health care,

27 POLITICAL SCIENCE AND SCIENTIFIC METHODS 27 would you hope to see a state program i place to provide health care for the poor? Moreover, if people are give the optio of aswerig I do t kow to a questio, this ca lead to differet resposes from whe they are give oly yes or o optios. 47 The iformatio levels of respodets ca also seriously affect the results of a survey. Political scietists have log kow that a respodet may give a opiio o a subject whether or ot that respodet actually has ay iformatio o that subject. Studies askig respodets about their opiios o bogus laws ofte elicit opiios o the laws, eve though the laws do ot exist. Similarly, surveys askig for opiios about imagiary ethic groups have produced aswers givig detailed opiios o these groups eve though the groups were oexistet. 48 I fact, it is sometimes startlig to cosider how serious a potetial problem this lack of iformatio ca be. After the 1992 electio to the U.S. Cogress, a group of freshme represetatives were asked their opiios o the coflict i Fredoia. They gave various opiios, icludig support for U.S. ivolvemet i the coutry s iteral affairs. Where is Fredoia? It does ot exist. Noe of these ewly elected represetatives kew that, however. Whether you cosider these results amusig or frighteig, they illustrate the limitatios of the survey method. 49 Whe preseted with survey results, political scietists must always be aware that the opiios recorded may reflect low levels of kowledge. Fially, survey fidigs may be compromised by the comfort level of respodets. I short, people may ot be comfortable aswerig a questio hoestly. They may lie. Burs W. Roper, former chair of the public opiio pollig firmcegage Roper Starch, has commeted Learig o this problem. His experiece has suggested that Roper survey results were affected by dishoest aswers o more tha oe occasio. For example, he believes that white respodets may be less tha cadid whe surveyed about issues pertaiig to race. I additio, he suspects that survey questios about AIDS have sometimes elicited dishoest aswers because the people i the survey were ucomfortable talkig about certai sexual practices. 50 Despite such limitatios, survey research has provided eormously useful data to political scietists. Presidetial politics is oe area i which survey research has bee highly successful i icreasig our kowledge. For example, surveys of U.S. voters have show that presidetial popularity teds to declie over a presidet s first year i office. This drop i popularity holds true for Republicas ad Democrats ad seems to occur regardless of the persoal decisios, maagemet styles, ad policy proposals of presidets. I fact, public opiio research has idicated that presidets ca expect to see their support levels dimiish by approximately 15 percet by the ed of their first year. This fidig is very sigificat it suggests that we should be cautious i predictig doom for ew presidets whose popularity slips. The slippage may ot mea the presidet is a defiite oe-termer; rather, it may mea busiess as usual i America politics. To illustrate, oe-term presidet Jimmy Carter s approval ratig (45.5 percet) i his secod year is oly slightly differet from two-term presidet Roald Reaga s approval ratig (43.7 percet) i Reaga s secod year. As you ca see, the actual umbers captured by the survey research are virtually idetical,

28 28 CHAPTER 2 although the geeral assumptio (the idol, i Baco s termiology) is typically that Reaga was oe of the most edurigly popular presidets i recet history ad Carter was oe of the most edurigly upopular oes. 51 I additio, survey research has show that presidetial popularity is correlated with certai types of evets. For example, a presidet s approval ratig is likely to rise if the Uited States becomes ivolved i a short-term military coflict, as whe Presidet George Bush ejoyed higher tha usual approval ratigs durig the Gulf War ad Presidet Clito did so durig U.S. itervetio i Haiti. Some studies have suggested that presidets beefit from higher approval ratigs simply by travelig abroad. However, presidetial approval ratigs may declie radically with log-term military ivolvemet, as has bee the case with Presidet George W. Bush. Specifically, Bush s average 2007 approval ratig was oly 35 percet ad citizes rated him most egatively for his Iraq War policy. Oly two previous presidets Truma ( ) ad Nixo ( ) had loger periods durig which less tha 40 percet of the America public approved of the presidet s leadership. 52 Experimets ad Quasi-Experimets A experimet ivestigates a hypothesis by usig a test group ad a cotrol group. The test group is exposed to a variable, whereas the cotrol group is ot. The researcher the observes whether the variable produces the hypothesized effect. I medicie, for example, researchers may test the effects of a experimetal drug bycegage comparig the progress of a test Learig group (takig the drug) with that of a cotrol group (ot takig the drug). Clearly, the cotrol group is a vital elemet i the experimet; used as a referece poit, it allows the researcher to more accurately examie the effects of a variable (such as a drug). I the social scieces, experimets have bee used to test a variety of hypotheses, ragig from oes postulatig the egative effects of authoritaria situatios (cofirmed i the Staford Priso Experimet discussed earlier i this chapter) to the examiatio of the tedecy of egative campaig advertisig to reduce voter turout (cofirmed by Stephe Asolabehere et al.). 53 I medicie ad social sciece, experimets ca go awry. The Hawthore effect is oe dager that researchers must avoid. Named after a series of experimets ivolvig the Hawthore Works of the Wester Electric Compay, this effect appears whe members of a test group modify their behavior because they kow they are i a experimet. Subjects who kow they are beig observed may ot act accordig to their usual behavioral mode. The Rosethal effect ca also udermie a experimet s itegrity. This effect is produced whe ivestigators uwittigly covey their expectatios to the subjects i the experimet. Double-blid experimets (i which either researcher or subject kows pertiet details relatig to the experimet) ca protect agaist these effects. 54 Quasi-experimets are also kow as field experimets. Quasi-experimets are ivestigatios i which the effect of a variable is studied by comparig differet groups, eve though the ivestigator kows that either group completely meets

29 POLITICAL SCIENCE AND SCIENTIFIC METHODS 29 the criteria of a cotrol group, or i which a ivestigator studies a group before ad after a occurrece to observe the effects of the occurrece, although the before group fails to fully meet the criteria of a cotrol group. That is, quasiexperimets are experimets i the real world, i which laboratory coditios ad perfect cotrol groups do ot exist. The quasi-experimet replicates the logic of the experimet, but oly imperfectly. Sometimes quasi-experimets are the most obvious way to study certai questios. Suppose a political scietist wished to determie whether local immuizatio programs help cotai the spread of ifectious diseases. The political scietist could coduct a quasi-experimet to compare ifectio rates of before groups (preimmuizatio populatios) ad after groups (postimmuizatio populatios). 55 Data based o these studies could help cofirm or falsify hypotheses cocerig the effectiveess of immuizatio policies, eve though o perfectly defied cotrol group existed. Idirect Quatitative Aalysis Idirect quatitative aalysis is a research approach that is idirect i the sese that it uses data already compiled by others (as opposed to origial survey research, for example, which collects data directly through questioaires). 56 It assesses quatitative (that is, mathematical ad statistical) iformatio to discover empirically verifiable patters. For example, political scietists ad other researchers might study statistics compiled by the World Bak ad other iteratioal orgaizatios Cegage to fid patterslearig o life expectacy, ifat morality, ad literacy levels i differet coutries. This approach formed the basis of may of the fidigs i the study titled The Material World: A Global Family Portrait. I this study, ivestigator Peter Mezel compared statistics o populatio desity, populatio growth, eergy cosumptio, icome levels, daily caloric cosumptio, life expectacy, major causes of death, ad other variables across 30 coutries to provide a overview of family well-beig i the late twetieth cetury. The idirect quatitative aalysis i this study shows that high-icome societies ted to have certai types of families (for example, havig low birth rates), whereas low-icome societies ted to have other types (characterized by high birth rates ad low status for wome relative to me). 57 Idirect quatitative aalysis is a very useful research strategy providig a meas of iterpretig iformatio o a variety of empirically based political topics. A recet study of articles published betwee 1906 ad 2006 i the America Political Sciece Review foud that 60 percet of all articles were based o empirically orieted/quatitative scietific approaches. Quatitative aalysis is especially importat give the possibilities for data maiteace ad trasmissios through computers. With the Iteret, it is icreasigly possible to use data already collected ad stored by previous ivestigators. However, political scietist Frak L. Wilso has oted that this research strategy has its drawbacks. Idirect quatitative aalysis of iteratioal politics ca be problematic isofar as political scietists ofte deped o data collected by a variety of ivestigators who may be usig differet stadards of collectio ad measuremet. That is, it is sometimes

30 30 CHAPTER 2 BOX 2.4 Choosig Research Strategies i the Study of Politics Case Studies Stregth: Allows for i-depth study of people, evets, coutries, electios, or other political questios. Weakess: Iformatio may ot apply to other cases. Survey Research Stregths: Large amouts of iformatio ca be gathered ad quatitatively assessed; iformatio is more geeral i applicatio tha i case studies. Weakesses: Wordig, samplig, ad other problems with surveys may compromise results; survey does ot provide up-close, i-depth details of a case study. Experimets ad Quasi-Experimets Stregth: Experimetal coditios allow researchers to carefully test hypotheses. Weakesses: Participats may alter their behavior because of the coditios of the experimet; may questios caot be tested by experimets; i quasiexperimets, researchers lack perfect cotrol groups. Idirect Quatitative Aalysis Stregth: Researcher builds o fidigs of others ad exteds ad applies large amouts of quatitatively tested data. Weakess: It is ofte difficult to compare fidigs collected differet research projects uder differet coditios ad through studies askig differet Cegage Learig questios. difficult to compare the data whe they have bee collected uder vastly differet coditios from oe coutry to the ext ad whe the data may coote very differet political realities from oe coutry to the ext. Comparig statistical measuremets across radically differet cultures, commuities, ad atios may produce misleadig coclusios. Wilso offers the example of voter turout. If we compare 20 coutries o the issue of voter turout, we ca discover how they rak i terms of high or low turout relative to oe aother; however, low turout i oe coutry may be suggestive of somethig etirely urelated to low turout i aother coutry. Thus, merely comparig existig quatitative figures o votig levels provides a ultimately limited picture of comparative patters of votig. 58 What do each of these research approaches have i commo? Each approach from case studies to idirect quatitative aalysis proposes to use sciece to help us better uderstad politics, with its maifold chages ad its fluctuatig resources (as discussed i the itroductory chapter). However, how much ca ay of these approaches tell us? How far ca political sciece exted our uderstadig? Sciece caot trasced its ow limitatios. As a result, thikig scietifically about politics ivolves kowig the limits of sciece. It ivolves realizig how much we do ot kow.

31 POLITICAL SCIENCE AND SCIENTIFIC METHODS 31 SCIENCE: LIMITATIONS I sciece, the decade of the 1990s offers a iterestig period for reflectio ad aalysis. Durig this decade, 90 percet of the cosmos remaied uclassified ad ukow. 59 A ew life-form ulike ay other species the tiy Cycliophora was discovered. 60 A professor at Harvard Medical School came uder attack for studyig humas who claimed to have had sex with alies from outer space, 61 ad psychologists published fidigs suggestig that huma brais apparetly caot operate without bias. 62 Yet the 1990s were ot particularly strage years, as far as the history of sciece is cocered. The previously oted evets are importat ot because of their oddess value but because they poit to importat aspects of sciece itself. Sciece is sometimes routie ad sometimes amazig. What is bizarre to oe perso is a perfectly logical research questio to aother perso. Sciece has limits, both i terms of what it has produced i the way of kowledge ad i terms of the logic by which it operates. Some of these limits are more obvious i political sciece (ad the social scieces geerally) tha i the atural scieces (for example, biology, chemistry, ad physics), whereas others apply to all scieces. We ca begi thikig about these limits by cosiderig a umber of questios. Cegage Learig How Ca We Have a Sciece of Huma Behavior Whe Huma Behavior Is Ofte Uique? What if behavior does ot repeat itself? If behavior does ot repeat, it is difficult, if ot impossible, to observe empirically a sufficiet umber of istaces of a particular behavior to provide cofirmatio or falsificatio of that behavior. This would imply that a empirically based sciece of politics is limited by the essece (orepeatability, or low levels of repeatability) of the subject matter (huma behavior) uder observatio. Social scietists ad philosophers have ofte poited to this problem. 63 For example, comparative studies of democracy fid that a particular type of democracy rarely repeats itself cross-culturally, ad cosequetly our uderstadigs of the ature of democracy are ot as clear as they might be were political life less varied ad uaced. As you will see i later chapters, democracies ca have parliametary or presidetial structures, two political parties or multiple political parties, a writte costitutio or o writte costitutio, ad judicial review or the absece of judicial review. Democracy does ot repeat perfectly from oe system to the ext. This makes a sciece of democracy more tetative tha scieces of matter, which ca be studied uder laboratory coditios. A similar problem of limited repeatability plagues political sciece studies that attempt to make precise predictios of political outcomes. For example, political scietists have struggled for years to develop a meas of predictig the wiers of presidetial electios. Some have looked for correlatios with ecoomic idicators; others have labored over public opiio polls searchig for the key variable that would allow us to kow ahead of time who would be the ext presidet.

32 32 CHAPTER 2 Although umerous formulas have bee put forth (with varyig rages of error), a review of these attempts at forecastig presidetial electio wiers left its readers with this questio: Ca sciece offer better predictios tha provided by huches, readig the stars, iterpretig Tarot cards, or cosultig fortue tellers? The basic questio is reasoable, i that presidetial electios are ofte complicated by may factors specific to a sigle electio. Like democratic govermets, presidetial electios do ot perfectly repeat. By the way, the review foud that political scietists ad psychics were similarly divided o who would wi the ext presidetial electio. 64 How Do We Kow Our Fidigs Are Correct? We have see that sciece is based o empiricism, that sciece does ot accept as correct what is ot observable, ad that sciece rejects what has bee falsified. Such is the very logic of sciece itself. However, a umber of problems may complicate this logic. Specifically, observatio implies some degree of iterpretatio. Observatio is ever purely observatio. Eve as we observe ad metally record data, we are imposig meaig o it (that is, iterpretig it). Observatio rests o our ability to put facts together, to make sese of them, to iterpret them. 65 Because iterpretatio is a ievitable part of observatio, persoal bias or opiio i the process of iterpretig may be uavoidable. Thus, o matter how hard we try to be scietific, we may be viewig the world i a biased Cegage maer. As a cosequece, Learig falsificatio is a complex matter. If we fail to falsify our hypothesis, our failure may ot idicate the ultimate falsifiability of the matter i questio; it may be caused by our iterpretatio of the facts we are recordig. Our iterpretative mode may coceal the meas of falsificatio from us. 66 We may be victims of the Bacoia idols, viewig the world i terms of miscoceptios, prejudices, ad stereotypes; the meas of falsificatio may exist, but they may be outside our field of visio ad imagiatio. Cosider the Harvard scietist studyig huma alie sex cotacts. Perhaps this scietist has escaped our iterpretig biases (which, for some of us, would dey outright the existece of alies). Maybe alies do exist ad do ejoy sex with huma beigs, but our bias makes us iterpret away all the empirical evidece poitig to such facts. Or maybe it is thoroughly ludicrous to talk about alies from outer space. How do we ever kow? We retur to what has bee a recurrig theme of this chapter: the tetative ature of scietific kowledge. Does the Pursuit of Sciece Lead Us to Igore Importat Questios? If the scietific method of empirical-based data collectio ad aalysis is to be our meas of pursuig kowledge, we are limited i terms of what we ca study. What is uobservable is outside our rage of iquiry. For political scietists comfortable with the scietific method, this is ot a problem. Dye, for oe,

33 POLITICAL SCIENCE AND SCIENTIFIC METHODS 33 BOX 2.5 Sciece Redraws Its Boudaries as It Respods to Its Rivals: The Scopes ad Creatioist Cases From the 1920s to the 1980s, may scietists participated i refiig the defiitio of their practice i respose to what was perceived as a assault o sciece by religious authorities upholdig a literalist readig of the Christia Bible. A close look at this process of refiemet reveals how sciece ca redefie itself i order to better compete with alterative amig systems (as Coverse might call them) or myths (as Spece might suggest). I 1925, Teessee biology teacher Joh Scopes was brought to trial for teachig evolutioary sciece i violatio of a state law prohibitig istructio i ay doctrie cotrary to the Christia Bible. The case became a forum for discussig the ature of sciece itself. Scietists came forward i defese of Scopes ad explaied their view that sciece was a disciplie thoroughly distict from religio but etirely compatible with it; they said sciece was a disciplie dealig with the domai of here-ad-ow facts, whereas religio cosisted of faith ad spirituality. Neither should be costrued as precludig the eed for the other, accordig to the scietists givig testimoy. I 1981, court challeges to a Arkasas law madatig the teachig of creatioism i the state s public schools brought scietists forward agai to defed sciece. Iterestigly, i this case scietists emphasized that sciece ad religio were cotradictory, ot compatible. They defied sciece as a professio cofied to experts who, ulike religiously mided folk, were traied to distrust ay perspective grouded i cocepts of eteral truth. They preseted sciece as cosistig of facts prove by meticulous research methods ad put forth these facts as superior to the uteable claims of religious authorities. WhyCegage did the defiitio of sciece chage? Learig Some scholars believe it was a matter of politics. I the 1920s, religious authorities were too ifluetial to challege directly, so scietists claimed that sciece could coexist with religio. I cotrast, the 1980s scietific establishmet was more powerful tha its 1920s couterpart, so scietists did ot eed to defer to religious authority o the matter of scietific educatio. If sciece s defiitio is as cotextually iflueced as these two examples suggest, what does this imply about the logic of scietific processes? Is sciece defied by its search for empirical data, its competitio with its rivals (such as religio), or both? SOURCES: Thomas Giery et al., Professioalizatio of America Scietists: Public Sciece i the Creatio/ Evolutio Trials, America Sociological Review 50 (Jue 1985): believes that this is i fact a stregth of political sciece. 67 However, other political scietists have suggested that what is most importat to most citizes is exactly what sciece fids it difficult to measure. What about a good life, fairess, justice, dececy, political parties that serve the public good, ad politicias iterested i the welfare of all citizes? These are thigs that are difficult to operatioalize, tur ito hypotheses with idepedet ad depedet variables, test for correlatios, ad use as a basis for scietific theory costructio. Yet these questios may be more iterestig to citizes tha ay hypotheses tested i ay sigle issue of the America Political Sciece Review. If we avoid such questios preferrig others that are easier to operatioalize ad study empirically we may

34 34 CHAPTER 2 be upholdig scietific caos but removig ourselves from a discussio of what people actually fid importat. As you will recall, this worry ispired the postbehavioralist critique of pure behavioralism. 68 This worry seems to haut successive geeratios of political scietists. 69 Does Sciece Cotradict Its Ow Logic? Scholars studyig the history of sciece have sometimes raised this questio i relatio to two issues. First, does sciece really operate accordig to the scietific method? For istace, history holds may examples of scietists who were uorthodox to the poit of beig uscietific i their methods. Louis Pasteur, the developer of the rabies vaccie, apparetly failed to specify his data collectio methods (makig verificatio extremely problematic) ad made false claims about his athrax vaccie. 70 Secod, does sciece truly differ from dogmatic beliefs? Is sciece a closed system of thought? Thomas S. Kuh s work is cosidered a classic i terms of addressig the first questio. I The Structure of Scietific Revolutios, Kuh poits out that scietists have ofte violated the caos of empiricism. Scietists have ofte bee slow to accept empirical data capable of falsifyig scietific hypotheses ad theories. Rather tha rejectig a theory that some ewly discovered observable facts would disprove, scietists have bee more likely to come up with exceptios explaiig away such facts. The icoveiet facts are judged to be exceptios, ot falsificatios. Cegage I such cases, Kuh poits Learig out, scietists make judgmets havig othig to do with scietific methods of empiricism. Geerally, ot util a competig theory (what Kuh terms a paradigm) is coceptualized to make sese of such facts are the facts judged as valid (rather tha as exceptios). 71 This cosideratio leads to the secod questio. Is sciece dogmatic? That is, is sciece closed, iflexible, ad hostile to competig ways of amig reality? Paul Feyerabed has suggested that sciece does have this tedecy. Feyerabed has asked us to cosider the possibility that sciece ca be as closed to oscietific explaatios of reality as religio ca be closed to ospiritual explaatios of reality. As some religios would dey scietific arratives of what is real (for example, the origis of the earth ad what happes after death), so sciece rejects spiritual arratives. What is importat to keep i mid is that sciece is ot geerally viewed this way. Sciece is ofte see as beig more ope, less rigid, ad more progressive tha religio. Suppose, however, that a freshma college studet wet ito a astroomy class o the first day of the semester ad, whe the professor bega discussig plaetary ad galaxy formatios, he or she raised a had ad stated that Earth was created i so may days by God Almighty. Would that studet fare better i terms of beig give serious cosideratio ad itellectual respect tha a Darwiist raisig issues of evolutio i a Suday school class at a fudametalist church? Is sciece truly ope to ay possibility? 72 Would you wat to be the studet i this example? Poderig similar questios, Larry Spece has argued that social sciece is, i may cases, little differet from myth: It is closed, idiosycratic i its selectio of

35 POLITICAL SCIENCE AND SCIENTIFIC METHODS 35 facts, ad uempirical. Oly the aive ad the uiitiated really believe its tales of empiricism, careful operatioalizatio, ad falsifiability. Those close to it kow better because social sciece is replete with istaces i which it summarily dismisses what it does ot wish to admit as fact. The dismissals are ot based o empiricism but o the upholdig of Bacoia idols. It has become a idol of social sciece, Spece teaches, that hierarchy ad power are ievitable i huma society. Evidece to the cotrary (altruism, relatioships of affectio rather tha power, ad so o) is dismissed as trivial ad irrelevat. Thus, Spece charges, social sciece is ot really a arrative of observable facts but rather a set of myths profferig supports for socially held maxims ad competig with what it regards as rival myths. 73 Ca Sciece Avoid Comig ito Coflict with Ethics? Isofar as the scietific method upholds the distictio betwee ormative ad empirical issues ad calls o scietists to avoid makig judgmets about facts (prooucig that the facts are good or bad), sciece proclaims the importace of value eutrality. However, a growig umber of scholars have raised questios about this aspect of scietific iquiry. Two issues are ivolved. First, sciece ofte affects our lives; therefore, do scietists ot have a ethical obligatio to weigh the cosequeces of these effects ad determie whether the effects serve the commo good? How is the commo good to be uderstood, ad how are our coceptios of the commo good affected by our circumstaces as members of powerful or Cegage powerless costituecies? Learig Secod, sciece seeks kowledge, but what if the pursuit of kowledge causes sufferig? I such istaces, is the pursuit of kowledge uethical? 74 Political scietists caot escape these questios. It is clear to traditioalists, behavioralists, ad postbehavioralists that political sciece is a disciplie with the potetial to chage lives eve as it searches for kowledge. We ca cosider the example of survey research. As discussed previously, survey research is oe of the most popular iformatio-gatherig tools of political sciece, i part because it ca provide statistically sigificat scietific data. Surveys ca also ifluece electios. Ideed, they have the power to alter reality. Burs Roper believes that pollig results made available prior to the 1948 presidetial electio betwee Republica Thomas Dewey ad Democrat Harry Truma helped swig the electio to Truma. Why? Roper explais that pollig results showed Dewey beatig Truma; seeig these results, Republicas became overcofidet ad Democrats grew scared ad wet ito a frezy of activity to get out the vote. The surveys shaped the actual votig behavior, as Roper sees it. 75 Workig especially hard because they feared defeat, the Democrats mobilized their supporters ad eded up with the victory. More recetly, surveys have bee used to decide electios, accordig to Patrick Caddell. I 1988, Caddell was a pollig expert for Ala Crasto, Democratic seator from Califoria. Crasto was i a close race with Republica Ed Zschau. Caddell ad colleagues studied surveys of Califoria voters ad discovered a itriguig bit of data: Voters were tirig of egative campaig ads

36 36 CHAPTER 2 BOX 2.6 Should Smallpox Be Destroyed? A fasciatig example of how sciece, the pursuit of kowledge, ethics, ad the cocer for helpig humaity ca ru couter to oe aother is provided by the case of the smallpox virus. This virus is disfigurig ad potetially deadly. As recetly as the 1960s, smallpox was ifectig up to 15 millio people i approximately 30 coutries per year. As may as 2 millio of those ifected by the virus were dyig from it. A extesive vacciatio effort brought smallpox uder cotrol by the late 1970s. The World Health Orgaizatio (WHO) proouced it eradicated from the world populatio i This was cause for jubilatio ad for laudatory commets regardig the power of medical sciece to better the lives of people throughout the world. Sciece could work woders, this example proved. Disturbig questios about the ature of sciece would soo follow, however. Although smallpox, as a viral aget occurrig aturally withi huma populatios, was wiped out by 1980, the virus itself was ot destroyed. Samples of the virus remaied i scietific laboratories i the Uited States ad Russia. The obvious questio arose, Should these samples be preserved or destroyed? Scietists ad policymakers were divided. The task of weighig the cosequeces of killig or savig the laboratory samples was potetially overwhelmig to eve the most kowledgeable of decisio makers. What was there to cosider? Nobody could afford to forget how deadly this virus was. Smallpox would oce agai pose a dager to public health if it were somehow re-released ito the huma populatio. Terrorists who could access the virus would have a frighteig weapo capable of threateig millios of people. Yet destroyig smallpox was ot to be doe a cavalier maer; were it destroyed, its demise would costitute the first deliberate extictio of a species of life. Cegage Should humas cosciously ad itetioally Learig cause a etire species to die? Moreover, destroyig the virus would mea its permaet removal from the laboratory studies of scietists. Some scholars believed this virus should be saved i hopes that it could be studied as part of a process of more fully uderstadig other viruses (such as HIV). What should be doe? Could the quest for scietific kowledge be recociled with the ethical claims of protectig public health? I Jauary 1996, WHO voted to support the positio of killig the laboratory samples by Jue 30, I May 1999, WHO represetatives ad affiliates upheld the decisio i favor of evetual destructio of the stock but determied that the virus supply should be retaied util 2002 so that further research could take place. I March 2003, WHO agai determied to delay the destructio of the smallpox samples to provide additioal time for study ad aalysis. Did WHO make the correct decisio? SOURCES: WHO, Future Research o Smallpox Virus Recommeded, Press Release December 10, 1999 ( Charles Siebert, Smallpox Is Dead, Log Live Smallpox, New York Times Magazie (21 August, 1994), Sectio 6: 31 37, 44, 52, 55; Lawrece K. Altma, Stocks of Smallpox Virus Edge Nearer to Extictio, New York Times (Jauary 25, 1996): A1, A5; WHO 56th World Health Assembly, Provisioal Ageda Item 14.6, March 13, 2003, Smallpox Eradicatio: Destructio of Variola Virus Stocks. Report by the Secretariat. ad were ready to igore the electio altogether if the ads cotiued. This bit of data became the basis for devisig a successful reelectio strategy for Crasto. Crasto s team decided to ru egative ads to aoy people so much that they would become sickeed by the very thought of politics. This would have the effect of reducig the voter turout i the electio. Lower turout would help Crasto because as the icumbet seator he had higher ame recogitio tha

37 POLITICAL SCIENCE AND SCIENTIFIC METHODS 37 BOX 2.7 Sciece ad the Public Good: Who Decides What the Public Good Is? Dr. Mario Sims is geerally regarded as a scietist whose research has promoted huma bettermet ad public health. He practiced medicie i a umber of states, icludig South Carolia, Alabama, ad New York, i the ieteeth cetury. Much of his research took place i the South i the years before the Civil War. Sims developed surgical techiques that advaced the field of moder gyecological sciece. I fact, he is regarded by some as a fouder of this medical subfield. However, Sims s research ageda was carried out at the expese of the slave wome who served as his experimetal subjects. To obtai subjects, he sought out slave owers who would allow him to operate o their slaves as log as he promised ot to udertake ay procedure so dagerous as to risk a slave s life. He also etered ito fiacial agreemets with the owers to pay for the upkeep of the slave wome i his experimets, as log as the owers provided clothig ad paid all state taxes o the slave subjects. Records idicate that some slave wome were successfully treated for vagial ailmets ad retured to their owers, whereas others remaied with Dr. Sims for extesive periods. Oe slave woma amed Aarcha edured 30 surgical procedures ad umerous public displays of her body durig lectures ad surgical demostratios give by Sims. At least oe woma died from his experimets. Sims cosidered himself a scietist cotributig to the public s storehouse of kowledge. It would be istructive to have a record of Aarcha s cadid assessmet of the doctor s work. Cegage Learig SOURCES: Joh Lagoe, Tryig to Bridge the Death Gap Cofrotig Miority Groups, New York Times (December 19,2000): D7; Todd L. Savitt, The Use of Blacks for Medical Experimetatio ad Demostratio i the Old South, Joural of Souther History 48 (August 1982): Zschau. It worked. Turout dropped, ad Crasto edged out the lesser kow Zschau. 76 These uses of survey results represet possible harm to the priciples of democratic decisio makig ad fair competitio i electios. But what of actual harm to huma lives? Political scietists have also bee forced to cofrot this questio. The Tuskegee study ad the Ciciati study illustrate issues pertaiig to sciece ad ethics. Both studies deal with policies that were desiged to provide kowledge but pursued kowledge through a process ivolvig physical pai ad death. The Tuskegee study bega i the 1930s, whe medical researchers, uder the sposorship of the U.S. Public Health Service, carried out a experimet for observig the effects of utreated syphilis. Syphilis is a cotagious disease that produces very paiful ailmets, such as ski ulcers, boe deterioratio, liver failure, itestial failure, aeurysms, demetia, ad evetual death. Whe the study bega, safe ad effective treatmets for syphilis were uavailable. This study recruited syphilis-ifected me from rural areas i easter Alabama. Researchers offered the participats free meals, free trasportatio, free medical care (although the care would ot exted to treatig the syphilis itself ), ad burial fuds. The recruitmet process produced a group of 399 syphilis-ifected me who agreed

38 38 CHAPTER 2 to participate i the study. These participats were very poor, ad most were illiterate. For the most part, they had ever received medical treatmet of ay kid at ay time i their lives. They were also Africa-America. As the study progressed i the 1940s, a importat ethical issue arose: Peicilli became available as a safe ad effective treatmet for syphilis. The questio cofrotig the researchers at that poit was, Should they give the me i the study peicilli, or should they withhold the peicilli so that the study could cotiue? The researchers chose to pursue kowledge. They reasoed that give peicilli s effectiveess, syphilis would soo be eradicated, ad therefore the Tuskegee test group was likely to be the last group of kow syphilitics; to the researchers, this meat that the study was too importat to discotiue. Thus, they withheld the treatmet, the me cotiued to suffer ad die, ad the researchers studied sufferigs ad deaths empirically. Did the pursuit of sciece coflict with the values of humaity? Had the scietists bee more cocered with ethics, would they have chose to treat the me ad ed their sufferig eve at the cost of kowledge? 77 These questios prompted Presidet Clito to offer a official apology for the govermet s participatio i the Tuskegee study i May These questios reappear i the radiatio experimets coducted at the Uiversity of Ciciati durig the Cold War. Betwee 1960 ad 1971, i this study 88 cacer patiets were exposed to high doses of full-body radiatio. The Petago sposored the study to collect iformatio o the probable effects of exposig military persoel to areas cotamiated by radiatio. Cacer patiets Cegage became the test group forlearig satisfyig the Petago s curiosity. The researchers preseted full-body radiatio to these patiets as a experimetal treatmet for cotrollig their cacer. They did ot tell the patiets that the study was fuded by the Petago, that the levels of radiatio put them i dager, or that the type of radiatio they were receivig was ot geerally see as effective for treatig their forms of cacer. A 1972 study of the patiets revealed that as may as oe-fourth of the patiets died from the radiatio, ot the cacer. 79 Did the Petago ad the researchers violate basic values associated with a society s obligatio to promote public health? Did sciece cotradict ethics? Political scietists may see i these two cases the difficulties of separatig sciece ad ethics. I fact, the idividual questios we have explored i this sectio are iterrelated, highlightig similar cocers about the costs associated with sciece as a method of iquiry. Some readers may coclude that although limited, sciece is still the most reliable route to kowledge. Others may adopt a differet opiio, seeig the scietific method as isufficiet, believig that sciece ca help us gather data, but feelig, perhaps, that we eed somethig beyod sciece empathy, ethics, religio, humaism, ad so o to teach us how to use those data resposibly. As you examie some of the key cocepts i political sciece i the ext chapter, you will cotiue to see the difficulties ad challeges of aswerig these questios. You will cotiue to see the possibilities ad the limits of political sciece as you ivestigate power, atios, states, sovereigty, legitimacy, ad other vital areas of political life.

39 POLITICAL SCIENCE AND SCIENTIFIC METHODS 39 SUMMING UP Political sciece is a academic disciplie that seeks to study politics scietifically ad to address empirical (factual) ad ormative (ethical) questios about politics. Political scietists have disagreed over the years as to how to best study politics; hece, disputes amog traditioalists, behavioralists, ad postbehavioralists have divided the disciplie. Political scietists use the scietific method of empirical data collectio i a umber of ways case studies, survey research, experimets, quasi-experimets, ad idirect quatitative aalysis. Although the scietific collectio of data has eriched huma uderstadig of may aspects of politics by providig a approach to study that emphasizes hypothesis formatio, clear operatioal defiitios of idepedet ad depedet variables, careful aalyses of idicators, ad strict attetio to the differece betwee ultimate causatio ad correlatio sciece is ot without limits. Huma behavior is sometimes uique ad ot etirely susceptible to scietific classificatio. Sciece is difficult to practice i a maer that is thoroughly utouched by bias ad iterpretative assumptios. Not all questios about politics ca be aswered scietifically. Moreover, whe sciece ivestigates humas, as i the Tuskegee ad Ciciati studies, it coceptualizes humas as subjects that is, as testable objects ad, as such, rus the risk of violatig ethical priciples. Cegage After all, whe you uselearig humas as test subjects, you may well chage their lives i ways they caot imagie ad might ot choose for themselves. Should sciece (ad political scietists) have that power? STUDY QUESTIONS 1. What are the differeces separatig traditioalists, behavioralists, ad postbehavioralists? How would traditioalists, behavioralist, ad postbehavioralists differ i their assessmets of the Staford priso experimet ad Professor Zimardo s obligatios as a scietist? 2. Discuss hypothesis formatio, operatioalizatio, idepedet variables, depedet variables, ad idicators as elemets of the process of studyig politics scietifically. 3. What differetiates correlatio from causatio? 4. What are the differet idols Fracis Baco idetified, ad how ca the use of scietific procedures help free people from such idols? Do you believe idols are affectig our views of politics today? 5. What is a case study? What are the stregths ad weakesses of case studies? 6. What is survey research? What potetial problems are associated with surveys? What have surveys suggested about U.S. presidetial popularity patters?

40 40 CHAPTER 2 7. Discuss experimets ad quasi-experimets, icludig ay difficulties or limitatios. Do you believe oe could make a plausible case agaist usig humas i experimets ad quasi-experimets? 8. What is idirect quatitative aalysis? What are its stregths ad weakesses? 9. I what ways are sciece as a process of iquiry limited i terms of its cotributios to our itellectual ad civic lives? FOLLOWING UP THROUGH INTERNET SOURCES Political Sciece as a Scietific, Academic Disciplie America Political Sciece Associatio (APSA) ( A overview of the orgaizatio s activities, schedules, ad a brief selectio of historical material. Sciece as a Method of Iquiry The Natioal Sciece Foudatio ( Press releases, speeches, documets o sciece, sciece s societal applicatios, the potetial coflict betwee sciece ad ethics, ad other questios pertaiig to scietific study ad data collectio. Cegage Learig Public Opiio Polls ad the Scietific Study of Attitudes The Gallup Orgaizatio ( Provides liks to actual poll results, icludig a overview of methodological issues raised by actual polls (for example, size of samplig error ad issues raised by the wordig of questios). Huma Radiatio Experimets Departmet of Eergy Opeess, Huma Radiatio Experimets ( tis.eh.doe.gov/ohre/). Iformatio o huma radiatio experimets fuded by the U.S. govermet from the 1940s through the 1970s. The Tuskegee Study Ceters for Disease Cotrol ad Prevetio (CDC). The Tuskegee Syphilis Study: A Hard Lesso Leared. ( Overview of the Tuskegee study, what was uethical, ad what was leared from the stadpoit of the CDC. The Tuskegee Study Legacy Committee Report. A Request for Redress of the Wrogs of Tuskegee ( apology/report.html). Report of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study Legacy Committee, established i Jauary 1996, o the history of the study ad o cotemporary reactios to the study.

41 3 U Key Cocepts i Political Sciece I the seveteeth cetury, hudreds of U wa people committed suicide as a meas of resistig Spaish coloizers. Rather tha submit to occupyig powers, they threw themselves off a moutai. I the late twetieth cetury, the U wapeoplewereoceagaitalkig about suicide this Cegage time i oppositiolearig to their govermet (Colombia) ad a multiatioal oil compay (Occidetal Petroleum). I 1995, Occidetal obtaied exploratio rights from the Colombia govermet to develop petroleum resources i lad historically claimed by the U wa. The U wa regarded Occidetal as the ew occupier. They used public appeals, demostratios, pickets, blockades, ad iteratioal pressure i their efforts to oust Occidetal. Kowig their ow history, the U wa uderstood that, whe it looks as if there is othig else left to do, people ca sometimes fid a source of power more compellig tha the militaries of govermets ad the riches of private iterests. The threat of ritual mass suicide slowed Occidetal s project, ad, i May 2002, Occidetal aouced plas to termiate its operatios i U wa territory. This chapter examies how idividuals, groups, ad orgaizatios use power; how states ad atios defie themselves; ad how complex iteractios amog states, atios, cultures, ad groups ca be assessed by usig some of the scietific tools of aalysis discussed i Chapter 2. The chapter focuses o a examiatio of basic political cocepts, such as power, state, ad atio. Although o disciplie as large ad varied as political sciece exhibits uaimity i terms of defiig these cocepts, certai defiitios are widely accepted. As the U wa struggle i Colombia suggests, power struggles ofte raise ormative 41

42 42 CHAPTER 3 BOX 3.1 Power: Defiitio ad Characteristics Power is the ability to ifluece a outcome to achieve a objective or the ability to ifluece someoe to act i a way cotrary to the way he or she would choose to act. Power ivolves the exercise of volitio (will). Power over someoe else ivolves alterig his or her volitio (will). Power ca be latet or maifest. Differet types of power are geerally bleded together whe power is made maifest. ad empirical questios ad ofte ivolve multiple govermetal ad ogovermetal participats. 1 POWER Cegage Learig Power is oe of the most importat cocepts i political sciece. I fact, some political scietists see it as a defiig elemet of the disciplie. 2 Power affects how resources are distributed, how coutries iteract, whether peace or war prevails, ad how groups ad idividuals pursue their iterests; that is, power affects the myriad of topics studied by political scietists. Iroically, however, power is oe of the most difficult cocepts to defie. 3 What is power? At its most fudametal level, power is a ability to ifluece a evet or outcome that allows the aget to achieve a objective ad/or to ifluece aother aget to act i a maer i which the secod aget, o its ow, would ot choose to act. 4 I terms of the first meaig, a iterest group, for example, could be said to have power if it succeeded i reachig its fiacial goals. The iterest group, i this case, would have achieved its objective if its assets icreased to meet its stated aims. Sigificatly, this type of power may or may ot ivolve exercisig power over aother aget. Coceivably, the iterest group could use its assets wisely ad build up its reveues without eactig power over ay other iterest group, political party, politicia, ad so forth. However, i regard to the secod meaig, havig power meas havig power over aother aget. 5 For example, oe coutry ca be viewed as exercisig power over aother if it ca ifluece the secod coutry to act i a maer favored by the first coutry but ot favored by the secod coutry. These meaigs become clearer whe you recogize that the word power stems from the older Lati term potere, defied as a ability to affect somethig else. 6 Thus, for example, a perso was said to possess potere if that perso had some attribute allowig him or her to cause a effect o someoe else. The word

43 KEY CONCEPTS IN POLITICAL SCIENCE 43 power, with its preset spellig, has bee i use sice the fourteeth cetury. 7 I our two examples, oe aget (a iterest group or a coutry) has acted to brig about a effect; thus, both have wielded potere/power, with the iterest group affectig its ow fiacial well-beig ad the coutry affectig a secod coutry. A closer examiatio of power reveals that its exercise by a aget ivolves volitio (will or choice). I terms of power as the achievemet of a objective, clearly the objective attaied must be oe that the aget wills or desires; otherwise, the aget is ot said to possess power. If, for example, a iterest group obtais a beefit but has ot sought out this beefit, we would ot attribute attaiig beefit to the iterest group s power. We might attribute it to luck, chace, radomess, charity, or some other fluke. Volitio is also cetral to the secod meaig of power, as ifluece over aother aget. For istace, we would ot view a iterest group as exercisig power over a politicia if the iterest group does ot compel the politicia to act cotrary to the politicia s ow volitio or desire. Similarly, if oe coutry ordered aother coutry to perform a act the secod coutry wated to do ayway, this would ot represet a act of power because the first coutry has ot actually iflueced the secod coutry. 8 Clearly, will, desire, ad choice eter ito the exercise of power whe it is exercised by a aget or over a aget. Power ca either be held i reserve or deployed. That is, it ca be latet (iactive) or maifest (active). You ca imagie how the possessio of latet power by oe aget ca be highly effective producig chages i a secod aget. I such cases, the mere possibility that the first aget will activate power ca be feared Cegage by the secod aget ad elicit Learig chages i the secod aget s actios. Ideed, this is the idea behid military deterrece: A coutry s stockpile of weapos may be eough to preclude aggressio by its eemies, who kow that the weapos ca be chaged from a latet power to a maifest power at ay time. 9 Political scietists have ofte tried to sort out the may differet forms power ca assume. This is useful i allowig us to aalyze the implicatios of usig oe type of power rather tha aother. However, i actual political relatioships oe type of power is rarely foud i isolatio from other types. I practice, power geerally possesses a bleded quality, with oe type of power bledig ito aother. This cocept of bledig will be clearer as we begi lookig at the actual types of power. 10 Types of Power Force is the exercise of power by physical meas. 11 Force ca iclude acts of physical violece ad acts of physical obstructio. For example, oe aget ca use power over aother by restraiig, assaultig, assassiatig, impedig access to a object, or other types of physical activity. Force ca iclude physical sabotage of resources, as well as coductig war. It ca be carried out i the form of embargoes ad boycotts (which dey physical access to resources), blockades ad barricades (which dey physical access to a place), or revolutios ad riots (which physically mobilize groups i support of or oppositio to a govermet or

44 44 CHAPTER 3 BOX 3.2 Types of Power Force is power ivolvig physical meas. Persuasio is ophysical power i which the aget usig power makes its use of power clear ad kow to the aget over whom power is exercised. Maipulatio is ophysical power i which the aget usig power coceals the use of power. Exchage is the use of power through icetives. policy). It ca ivolve physically blockig access to a courthouse, votig booth, public school, or abortio facility. It ca etail physically icapacitatig a machie or, by itroducig steel spikes, physically rederig a tree too dagerous to cut dow. It ca ivolve o violece (a boycott) or extreme levels of violece (a bombig). I sum, wheever people use physical meas to pursue power, force is the term that desigates this display of power. Perhaps for may U.S. readers of this text, to read about force i relatio to politics is to fid oe s thoughts goig immediately to the war i Iraq or to recet violece i Europe liked to Osama bi Lade ad Al Qaeda, just as previous readers may have thought istataeously of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. I April Cegage 1995, Timothy McVeighLearig killed more tha 160 people i the Oklahoma City bombig as a statemet agaist the U.S. govermet. The 9/11 attacks by Al Qaeda killed thousads of people i aother political statemet agaist the U.S. govermet. I radical cotrast to the previous examples of violet force, there exist logstadig traditios affirmig that force is used most effectively as a oviolet approach to power. Marti Luther Kig, Jr., Cesar Chavez, ad Dolores Huerta have champioed such uses of force. For Kig, force was a legitimate form of power oly whe certai coditios were met. First, force was ever to be used violetly. For Kig, acceptable examples of force icluded boycotts, marches, demostratios, sit-is, ad other peaceful istaces i which people used their bodies physically to try to obtai objectives (civil rights reform) ad to make other agets act i ways they would ot, o their ow, otherwise choose to act (eact desegregatio policies). Secod, Kig upheld force as legitimate oly whe verbal egotiatios with authorities failed to ed segregatio ad discrimiatio. Third, force was acceptable oly if coducted after a process of self-scrutiy, i which the idividuals desigated to carry out the force examied their motives ad esured that their use of force would ot be motivated by ager, revege, or other self-gratifyig (as opposed to just) motives. Fially, force was acceptable oly whe employed to alter discrimiatory laws, ot laws geerally; Kig isisted that this distictio betwee discrimiatory laws ad odiscrimiatory (fair) laws was vital i maitaiig the distictio betwee force as he justified it, o the oe had, ad commo crime, o the other had. 12

45 KEY CONCEPTS IN POLITICAL SCIENCE 45 BOX 3.3 Violet Force: Assassiatio I September 1980, a small group of idividuals associated with the Argetiia Revolutioary Workers Party (PRT) assassiated Aastasio Somoza, who had reliquished the presidecy of Nicaragua i July Somoza s teure as Nicaragua presidet had bee characterized by huma rights abuses, the deial of civil liberties, political repressio, ad ecoomic corruptio. A broad-based oppositio movemet had forced him from power, ad whe the Sadiista revolutioary leaders, who had struggled agaist the Somoza regime for years, marched triumphatly ito the coutry s capital i the summer of 1979, may observers looked with hope to Nicaragua s post-somoza future. Somoza himself fled the coutry first to Miami ad later to Asucio, Paraguay. Why did PRT activists decide to assassiate Somoza? Amog their reasos was the belief that Somoza would fiace a couterrevolutio agaist the ew Nicaragua leaders as part of a pla to restore his ow power. Thus, the PRT activists bega a log, arduous process of plaig for Somoza s executio as a meas of supportig the ew Nicaragua. A examiatio of the details of their preparatio reveals a fasciatig some would say blood-chillig example of calculated, deliberate violet force as a type of political power. The assassis bega schoolig themselves o Somoza as a idividual. They had to lear his habits, his likes, ad his dislikes. They read ewspaper articles ad did research o Somoza at public libraries. The they traveled to his ew home coutry of Paraguay. Kowig his eighborhood but ot his actual house, oe of the activists devised a igeious pla to discover his address. She booked a hair/maicure appoitmet at a plush beauty parlor i the eighborhood kow to be Somoza s. Afterward Cegage she hailed a cab ad, durig the Learig ride, casually asked the driver if he kew the Somoza residece. The driver respoded with the address. The assassis proceeded to ret a house coveietly located for the executio. However, they eeded a cover story to esure that the ower did ot appear uexpectedly or reveal too much about her ew teats. So they cococted the story that they were retig the house o behalf of the siger Julio Iglesias, who would soo be visitig Paraguay. Iglesias, they explaied, eeded his privacy ad preferred that his whereabouts remai hush-hush. At the time, Julio Iglesias was a major celebrity, ad the ower was beside herself with excitemet at the thought of Iglesias stayig i her house. Yes, she assured the assassis, she would be discreet about their presece. With these steps take, the activists were ready to carry out their task. They had skilled themselves i maeuvers ivolvig secret commuicatios, explosives ad weapos use, surveillace, disguises, ad documet forgery. They were ready to defed Nicaragua s future. O September 16, 1980, they executed Nicaragua s former presidet. As you thik about this historical example, reflect o the public s demad for bi Lade dead or alive after September 11, I your estimatio, could political assassiatio ever be justified? SOURCE: Claribel Alegria ad Darwi Flakoll, Death of Somoza: The First Perso Story of the Guerrillas Who Assassiated the Nicaragua Dictator (Willimatic, CT: Curbstoe Press, 1996). Cesar Chavez ad Dolores Huerta have bee key activists i the Uited Farm Workers (UFW) movemet. The UFW has pressured agribusiess ad political leaders to improve the safety ad workig coditios surroudig farm labor; specifically, the UFW has sought higher wages, collective bargaiig rights,

46 46 CHAPTER 3 BOX 3.4 Marti Luther Kig, Jr. ( ) Civil rights activist, miister, ad political theorist. Iflueced by the civil disobediece philosophies of Hery David Thoreau ad Mohadas K. Gadhi. Leader i orgaizatios ad movemets promotig civil rights ad ecoomic justice, icludig the Motgomery Improvemet Associatio, which fought agaist segregated buses i the mid-1950s; the Souther Christia Leadership Coferece (SCLC), which advaced desegregatio ad civil rights i the 1950s ad 1960s; the oppositio to the Vietam War i the 1960s; ad the 1968 Poor People s Campaig, which advaced the iterests of the impoverished. Major writigs iclude Stride Toward Freedom (1958), Stregth to Love (1963), Letter from a Birmigham Jail (1963), Why We Ca t Wait (1964), ad Where Do We Go from Here? (1967). Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize i 1964, amed as posthumous recipiet of the Presidetial Medal of Freedom i 1977, ad had a U.S. atioal holiday proclaimed i his hoor i ad humae workig coditios (such as worker access to saitary facilities o the job), amog other demads. Like Kig, Chavez ad Huerta have isisted that usig force to achieve the UFW s objectives was legitimate oly so log as force remaied oviolet. Cegage A strategy of boycottig Learig key agricultural products fit their criteria for force with oviolece. Durig the 1970s, they called for a atioal boycott of grapes, lettuce, ad Gallo wie. The boycott sought to physically remove buyers ad dollars from the market for these products, thereby pealizig the affected idustries for failig to accede to workers demads. It was udertake as a strategy for ivolvig massive groups of people (cosumers at the atioal level) i a physical activity desiged to pressure agricultural iterests to a extet that farm workers aloe could ot. 13 The boycott was highly effective ad helped to brig about passage of the Agricultural Labor Relatios Act i 1975, a act upholdig collective bargaiig rights. Although Chavez is deceased, Huerta cotiues to serve as a leader i the UFW. 14 Kig, Chavez, ad Huerta may be thought of as heirs to a traditio of force passed alog i a especially creative maer by a ieteeth-cetury America amed Hery Brow. I the early 1800s, Hery Brow was bor a slave i Louisa Couty, Virgiia. I 1849, he mailed himself out of slavery. Literally, he eclosed himself iside a crate addressed to a locatio i Pesylvaia, a free state; the crate was the set through the mail system. By mailig himself over 300 miles ad more tha 24 hours away, he physically that is, forcefully deied his ower access to his body as property. Noviolet force was used to achieve his goal of liberatio. 15 I additio to the historical examples just oted, force has bee cetral to various other key episodes of iteratioal politics i recet decades. Amog the most familiar to readers will be the examples of the Bush admiistratio s use of violet military force agaist both, the Taliba leaders i Afghaista ad the

47 KEY CONCEPTS IN POLITICAL SCIENCE 47 BOX 3.5 Dolores Huerta, Cesar Chavez, ad the Uited Farm Workers Dolores Huerta (bor i 1930) helped establish the Commuity Service Orgaizatio (CSO) i Stockto, Califoria, i The CSO was a civil rights advocacy group that led voter registratio drives ad other commuity-based efforts o behalf of odiscrimiatio ad racial equality. Through her work with CSO, Huerta met Cesar Chavez, ad the two activists left the CSO i 1962 ad wet o to form the Natioal Farm Workers Associatio (NFWA). The NFWA merged with aother uio the Agricultural Workers Orgaizig Committee (AWOC) to form the Uited Farm Workers Orgaizig Committee (UFWOC), the foreruer of the Uited Farm Workers Uio (UFW). The UFW s Web page is foud at News alerts, orgaizig drives, ad biographical sketches of Huerta ad Chavez ca be accessed at this Web address. Saddam Hussei regime i Iraq, i a campaig Presidet Bush believes to be ecessary as a meas of reducig U.S. vulerability to terrorism after 9/11. I other cases, states have employed violet force agaist their ow citizes, as was true of Nigeria ruler Sai Abacha s measures desiged to silece the voice of Ke Saro-Wiwa. Saro-Wiwa was a activist seekig justice for Nigeria s Ogoi people. I recet years, the Ogoi lost cotrol over much of their oil-rich lads, as multiatioal corporatios, with the support of the Nigeria govermet, claimed their acestral territories. Saro-Wiwa helped orgaize the Movemet for the Survival Cegage of the Ogoi People Learig (MOSOP) to work o behalf of Ogoi rights. He was hoored with a Nobel Peace Prize omiatio for his efforts. Huma rights groups praised his courage but feared for his safety, give the govermet s oppositio to MOSOP. The fears proved well fouded. I November 1995, the govermet haged Saro-Wiwa ad other activists after prosecutig them through legal proceedigs that iteratioal huma rights groups codemed as farcical. 16 Despite the iteratioal criticism that the use of force may elicit, the exercise of this type of power is ofte attractive to groups or idividuals because it is ofte iexpesive, i compariso with other types of power. As writer Saul D. Alisky has explaied, groups with very limited fuds ca have a very big impact if they kow how to mobilize comparatively cheap, ad widely available, resources. Although it is importat to ote that Alisky himself was ot a advocate of violece, he was a astute observer who poited out that it is ofte less expesive for a group with aspiratios to power to use physical meas to make a colossal disturbace tha to employ some of the other types of power (e.g., persuasio, maipulatio, or exchage) discussed later i this chapter. As a illustratio, it cost Timothy McVeigh less moey to blow up a buildig tha it would have cost him to coduct a atioal media campaig to peacefully dissemiate his views through the power of persuasio. The disturbaces Alisky studied were oviolet examples of force (see Box 3.6), but Aliksy s teachigs also provide isight ito some of the violet political acts of recet years. Give the cheapess of force, eve violet force, it is likely to remai a viable optio i the eyes of may. 17

48 48 CHAPTER 3 BOX 3.6 Beig Creative with the Use of Force Case Study Oe: The Woodlaw eighborhood orgaizatio pressured the city of Chicago to hoor its agreemets with the orgaizatio by creatig a very difficult situatio for the city. Chicago is home to oe of the world s busiest airports, O Hare Iteratioal Airport. Woodlaw devised a strategy of havig its members go to O Hare, form groups, eter the airport s restrooms, ad the occupy all the toilet stalls. This would obviously prevet the use of such facilities by airport travelers. Such a occurrece was guarateed to attract otice, get ews coverage, ad provide a meas of publicizig the city s poor relatios with Woodlaw. The proposed strategy was leaked to the city govermet, which very quickly appeased the eighborhood orgaizatio. Threateed force physically deyig access to a importat facility worked to facilitate the group s aims. SOURCE: Saul D. Alisky, Rules for Radicals: A Practical Primer for Realistic Radicals (New York: Vitage Books, 1971), pp Case Study Two: The Army of God is a atiabortio book outliig various types of force that ca be used to thwart the operatio of abortio providers. Amog the oviolet uses of force suggested are to squirt superglue ito the locks of doors at abortio cliics, climb oto the roof of a abortio cliic ad drill holes i it so that the roof will leak ad the cliic will have to close, put a garde hose through the mail slot i the door of a cliic ad the tur o the water to flood the cliic, ad dump lots of cow maure i frot of the cliic. Each of these tactics ca be used to shut dow a cliic ad thus physically cut off access to its services. Cegage Learig SOURCE: Pro-Life Terrorism: A How-To, Harper s Magazie (Jauary 1995): Case Study Three: Ecodefese: A Field Guide to Mokeywrechig (secod editio) is a evirometalist maual. Its editors, Dave Forema ad Bill Haywood, highlight Persuasio is a ophysical type of power i which the aget usig power makes its itetios ad desires kow to the aget over whom power is exercised. Perso A persuades B by explaiig A s desires, choices, ad will ad the produces a chage i B i coformity with A s desires, choices, ad will. B is altered from his or her preferred course (that is, power has bee exercised over B), but B has ot bee acted o physically (restraied, assaulted, picketed, boycotted, ad so o). B has bee preseted with A s will ad has respoded by cosetig to follow A s will. 18 Persuasio is a major part of politics. Lobbyig, speechmakig, debatig, writig letters, issuig positio papers, makig proclamatios i the form of court decisios, executive orders, laws, ad policies are examples of persuasio. I each istace, a aget spells out its will with the itetio of producig a respose i compliace with that will from other agets. Persuasio, like other types of power, may fail, but whe it works it ca be a impetus to political ad social chage.

49 KEY CONCEPTS IN POLITICAL SCIENCE 49 several ways of usig force to disable vehicles used i loggig, roadbuildig, or other acts see as evirometally destructive. What does the maual suggest? Use superglue to destroy locks ad igitios, pour water ito the vehicle s gas tak, pour dirt or salt ito the oil lie, slash the tires, or pour miute rice ito the radiator. Each actio should disable vehicles ad thus physically eutralize them. SOURCE: Dave Forema ad Bill Haywood, eds., Ecodefese: A Field Guide to Mokeywrechig, 2d ed. (Tucso, AZ: A Ned Ludd Book, 1987), p Case Study Four: Olympics Out of Cobb formed after the Atlata Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG) aouced plas to iclude Cobb Couty as a site i the 1996 Summer Olympics i Atlata. Cobb is a local couty i the Atlata area, ad from a geographical perspective the decisio to schedule Olympic evets i Cobb made perfect sese. However, ot log before the ACOG s aoucemet to iclude Cobb, Cobb Couty commissioers had officially passed a resolutio agaist gay rights. Olympics Out of Cobb believed that the resolutio was a violatio of basic democratic values ad that Cobb should ot be rewarded with Olympic evets. So, Olympics Out of Cobb proceeded to use force creatively. To show Olympic orgaizers just how easily Olympics Out of Cobb supporters could mokeywrech the summer games, Olympics Out of Cobb supporters orgaized car caravas to drive 40 miles per hour o the city s iterstate highway system. This speed was the slowest legal speed, ad it created traffic ightmares for Olympic orgaizers, who kew that if such caravas were formed durig the games, trasportatio to ad from evets would be virtually impossible. Thus, by threateig to physically dey effective trasportatio alog the highwaycegage system, Olympics Out of Cobb succeeded Learig covicig ACOG to move the evets plaed for Cobb Couty to earby Athes, Georgia. SOURCE: Detroit News Voices. Deb Price, Gay Activists Deserve a Medal for Avertig Bias at the Olympics, The Detroit News ( accessed 14 Jue 1996). For example, betwee 1787 ad 1788, a series of articles was published i the New York press arguig i favor of the ratificatio of the U.S. Costitutio. The articles came to be kow as The Federalist Papers. The authors (James Madiso, Alexader Hamilto, ad Joh Jay) successfully exercised power through these essays, covicig New York delegates to the state ratifyig covetios to put aside their fears of the proposed Costitutio ad vote for its ratificatio. Oe hudred years later, Jacob Riis published How the Other Half Lives (1890), a study of New York s poor; the text of the book was accompaied by photographs of the dreadful livig coditios of impoverished families. Theodore Roosevelt, oe reader of Riis s book, described its author as highly ifluetial i educatig ad shapig attitudes toward poverty. Through his photographs ad text, Riis exercised power. He showed readers what may had preferred ot to see as they walked the streets: the crowded, drab, tedious, dagerous lives of the poor. 19 These historical examples illustrate the persuasive power of words ad images.

50 50 CHAPTER 3 Shiri Ebadi uderstads such power. I 2003, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her ability to use laguage i such a maer as to prompt people to rethik political ad legal boudaries. Ebadi s adult life has bee devoted to the cause of usig persuasio to work for huma rights i her home coutry of Ira. A lawyer, teacher, judge, ad writer, she has used persuasio to uphold the rights of wome, childre, ad political prisoers. She has also argued the case that Islam, huma rights, ad democracy are compatible ad reiforcig ethical perspectives. Oe ca look to her work as a attorey to discer her persuasive acume. I oe of her most famous legal cases, Ebadi represeted the mother of the late Aria Golshai. Aria was a 9-year-old girl murdered by her father ad stepbrother. Uder Iraia law, fathers caot be covicted for murder i the death of their ow childre. Udeterred by what may would have called a hopeless veture, Ebadi called upo the public to affirm justice for Aria Golshai ad to oppose the law. Go ito the streets ad toss white flowers oto the groud, she urged her fellow citizes, if you are persuaded that the law is wrog. The street i questio became white with flowers i respose to her appeal. 20 With persuasio, words matter words ca chage lives ad ca further chage, Ebadi ad her supporters hope, the Iraia legal ad political system. Whe persuasio is used successfully, the aget over whom power is exercised kows of the power. Persuasio is felt ad experieced by the recipiet of the power. Moreover, the recipiet is aware ot oly of the act of power but also of the itetioality of the act. What if Shiri Ebadi used words to try to brig about political chage Cegage but chose to do so bylearig cocealig her aims ad itetios? I this case, the power employed would have bee both similar ad dissimilar to persuasio: Like persuasio, this power would have bee ophysical, but ulike persuasio it would have bee exercised i a maer that disguised ad cloaked the motives ad will of the perso usig power. Such a power is kow as maipulatio. Maipulatio is the ophysical use of power i which the aget exercisig power over a secod aget coceals the aims ad itetios motivatig the exercise of power. 21 Whe maipulatio is successful, the aget over whom power is exercised geerally is uaware that power has eve bee used. If you are persuaded, you feel it; if you are maipulated, you do ot feel it because you do ot kow aythig has happeed. The implicatio is disturbig: How ca you resist somethig if you do ot kow it exists? Geerally, social scietists who study power relatios ote that maipulatio power is very difficult to oppose because of its cloaked quality. 22 How could a aget cloak power i this way? A historical example ca help clarify the dyamics of maipulatio. Durig Richard Nixo s admiistratio, White House staff members pursued a ogoig maipulatio campaig ivolvig public opiio pollsters from two leadig pollig firms (the Gallup ad the Harris firms). Presidet Nixo was coviced that public opiio poll results affected public attitudes of both voters ad rival politicias. If his staff could devise a way to maage what the major pollig firms published as poll results, this could allow the presidet to shape the polls, which shaped public attitudes. The strategy could work, however, oly if the public remaied uaware that the pollig results were

51 KEY CONCEPTS IN POLITICAL SCIENCE 51 beig shaped by the Nixo White House. If voters kew the results were doctored, the results would be dismissed as useless. As a cosequece, a detailed strategy of maagig the Gallup ad Harris pollig results esued: Pollsters iformed the White House of pollig results prior to publicatio (givig the Nixo staff time to issue press releases highlightig certai items i the poll ad playig dow less attractive oes), pollsters used questios writte by White House staff (allowig the Nixo people to ask questios they kew would be flatterig to the presidet ad damagig to rivals), pollsters coseted to White House requests to bury uflatterig poll results (publishig the bad results at the very ed of a log press release), ad pollsters held back from publishig altogether some results perceived as harmful to Nixo. Maaged by meas of these tactics, polls would have a pro-nixo effect o public attitudes, the White House hoped. 23 Keep i mid that citizes readig these pollig results had o idea ay of this was happeig. The pollig results were preseted to readers as eutral, objective, ad empirically reliable. The readers were the objects over whom the White House was attemptig to exercise power, but they did ot kow it. Had someoe goe up to a radomly selected reader of these polls at some poit durig the Nixo admiistratio ad said, Power is beig exercised over you, the reader most probably would have regarded the accuser as mad. The power was thoroughly ivisible to the agets o the receivig ed of the power play. Has this happeed agai? To take oe example, Bill Clito s pollster, Sta Greeberg, deied that the Clito admiistratio tried to maipulate the public through poll maagemet; however, Greeberg did admit that he met regularly with pollsters Cegage ad eve tried to ifluece Learig the wordig of their questios. 24 Is this a eutral actio, or is it a power-seekig edeavor? The Nixo case illustrates how oe politicia ca try to gai a advatage over aother by maipulatig the public. Maipulatio also came ito play durig the admiistratio of Roald Reaga. The Reaga White House pressured fellow Republica Pete Domeici to support the admiistratio s budget. As chair of the Seate Budget Committee, Domeici was a potetial rival of the Reaga staff. Domeici commaded respect for his authoritative positio ad his kowledge of budgetary matters. Whe preseted with the admiistratio s proposed budget early i Reaga s first term, Domeici thought Reaga s budget would geerate uacceptable deficits. The Reaga admiistratio kew that if Domeici campaiged agaist the White House budget, it could be disastrous. Whe persuasio failed to quiet Domeici, the White House staff tured to aother strategy. They coviced jouralists to publish articles critical of Domeici; ideed, oe such piece appeared i the highly ifluetial ad respected Wall Street Joural. Domeici withdrew his oppositio to the budget. This icidet ca be read as a classic display of maipulatio: Through these articles attackig Domeici, the White House gave the appearace to the public of simply presetig iformatio to serve the public iterest, but i reality the Reaga admiistratio had a covert ageda of defeatig a budgetary rival ad wiig a executive-legislative coflict. The readers of these articles were preseted with laguage suggestig the articles were about ecoomic processes, ot about a

52 52 CHAPTER 3 idividual (Domeici); cocealed from the public was the apparet power motivatio behid the laguage. Because maipulatio by its very ature has a hidde quality, it ca be difficult to pipoit ad prove. Whe the perso exercisig it is tryig to be oblique ad the people over whom it is exercised are uaware of it, people have difficulty beig certai that maipulatio has occurred. Was James Baker usig maipulatio whe he tried to kill fellow Republica Da Quayle s omiatio for vice presidet i 1988 by leakig ews of Quayle s impedig omiatio, hopig that, whe word got out, a backlash agaist Quayle would sik his chaces of beig George Bush s ruig mate? 25 The fact that Baker used a idirect, hidde method (a leak to the press) rather tha simply tryig to go public ad opely persuade people to oppose Quayle suggests maipulatio. Was Clito usig maipulatio i the 1992 electio whe, o the advice of his campaig staff, he started emphasizig the merits of hard work i his speeches? His staff told him that such a message played well with the voters ad could boost his popularity, but Clito did ot begi his subsequet speeches by sayig, I m goig to talk about workig hard because I m told by the experts that doig so may make you wat to vote for me. Ideed, listeers heard the laguage of the work ethic, ot the laguage of power politics. 26 The existece of two layers of laguage ad the suggestio of motives beyod those revealed to his audieces implies idirectio ad cloaked motives. Politicias are so adept at this power that members of some professios, most otably jouralism, have outlied steps for tryig to idetify maipulatio efforts whe they are occurrig to prevet beig overpowered Cegage by them. Learig 27 A umber of U.S. coservatives believe that maipulatio is eve more widespread tha these examples imply. What if maipulatio is operatig at the level of popular culture ad beig exercised through the istitutios of public educatio, they ask? The Coalitio of Cocered Citizes of Clay Couty (Florida) ad Citizes for Excellece i Educatio (Califoria) have argued that such maipulatio has bee exercised through school systems assigig Pumsy the Drago books. These books depict Pumsy, a youg drago with self-esteem problems rooted i her iability to breathe fire i great doses. Accordig to these iterest groups, the surface message coceals the fact that the books actually teach New Age occultism ad disrespect for traditioal authority. Pumsy does ot solve her problems by lookig to God ad her ow family but, rather, by lookig iside herself. Isofar as these books have bee used i umerous public school districts, they represet a effort to maipulate childre by meas of schoolsactioed propagada agaist traditioal values, accordig to critics. 28 The childre may like the books, but that would ot surprise studets of maipulatio, because maipulatio is somethig ot felt as such. Other groups have also see maipulatio operatig at the level of popular culture ad exercised through maistream U.S. istitutios. Such groups iclude gay rights advocates who may see socially eforced heterosexuality as imposed eve o those who would, of their ow accord, be lesbia, gay, or bisexual were it ot for maipulative efforts demoizig aythig other tha strict heterosexuality. Similarly, Marxists may see socially eforced capitalist

53 KEY CONCEPTS IN POLITICAL SCIENCE 53 ideology imposed eve o those who would choose to be socialists were socialists ot dismissed as irrelevat or traitorous. Also, multiculturalists may assert that miority cultures are subject to maipulatio through cultural messages deyig equal legitimacy to owhite Europea cultures. 29 Advocates of these positios have claimed that idividuals ca be iflueced away from positios they might freely choose for themselves by the power of society s istitutios. If your will has bee altered by a istitutio seekig its ow goal (promotig Pumsy s occultism over God, heterosexuality over homosexuality, capitalism over socialism, or ethocetrism over multiculturalism), the power has bee exercised over you. If the power is cloaked, it is maipulatio. Thus, depedig o the merits of the iterest groups just oted, likig Pumsy, ot idetifyig as gay, ot advocatig socialism, ad ot respectig multiculturalism may be related pheomea. Exchage is a type of power ivolvig icetives, i which oe aget gives aother aget a item i retur for aother item. Oe aget ca obtai a objective or exercise power over aother aget by givig the secod aget the icetive to cocur with the first aget s will; if the secod aget kows that such a cocurrece will be rewarded (for example, the secod aget will be give a desired item), the secod aget has a icetive to cocur. Power has bee exercised, isofar as the secod aget cocurred with the first aget s wishes oly after beig iflueced to do so by the icetive. 30 A bribe is a example of exchage power, but so is a legally sactioed trasmissio of moey or other objects or outcomes retur for a secod desired item/outcome/object. As we will see icegage Chapter 10, log-rollig is a Learig example of exchage. The term logrollig refers to a practice i a legislative body i which oe perso agrees to vote for a secod perso s favored bill if the secod perso, i exchage, will vote for the first perso s favored bill. I log-rollig, votes are exchaged as a meas of pursuig desired objectives ad alterig the behavior of others. I iteratioal politics, oe fids umerous istaces of exchage as a preferred meas of power. The U.S. govermet s policy of extedig ecoomic assistace to Colombia cocoa growers who agree to make a differet crop choice is a otable example, as is a recet Uited Natios policy to give cash to Afgha poppy farmers who avow to substitute poppy with aother o drugrelated crop. I both the Colombia ad Afgha cases, it is clear that the iteratioal war o drugs has icluded exchage as part of its arseal of weapos. After 9/11, exchage was part of Presidet Bush s strategy for buildig iteratioal oppositio to Afghaista s rulig Taliba, isofar as Presidet Bush ad his admiistratio held the Taliba resposible for ot immediately turig over bi Lade ad Al Qaeda. U.S. ecoomic assistace was quickly offered to various members of the so-called Six Plus Two Group. The Six Plus Two Group icluded the Uited States, Russia, ad the six states borderig Afghaista (Chia, Ira, Pakista, Tajikista, Turkmeista, ad Uzbekista). For example, the Uited States pledged to Pakista $600 millio i foreig aid ad $73 millio to secure the coutry s borders; $300 millio i ivestmet credits was also offered. I additio, Russia was promised profitable trade deals. As of May 2007, the U.S. was maitaiig a program of providig approximately $1

54 54 CHAPTER 3 billio i aual paymets to Pakista i exchage for Pakistai couterterrorism efforts. 31 Exchage power is cetral to may key developmets i recet U.S. politics. Exchage, for example, helps explai some of the reasos for historical ad more recet populatio shifts, as well as some of the itricacies of cotemporary urba politics. Boom tows (with perceived ecoomic opportuities just waitig for people to migrate ad take advatage of them) arose i the America West i the ieteeth cetury as populatios shifted west i hopes of gettig cheap lad, gold, or other resources. I recet years, boom tows have emerged i places such as Braso, Missouri, as populatios leave older cities i hopes of fidig jobs i ewer cities with expadig service sectors. May of the ew jobs i these boom tows pay miimum wage or slightly above, ad the boom tows ofte lack expasive social service agecies (such as public day care facilities), so migratig populatios ofte fid themselves experiecig life as the workig poor. The strai placed o local govermets i these tows is eormous; city officials fid that the demad for social support exceeds the supply of such services that ca be fuded by the boom tow s tax base. Urba politics becomes a area i which eeds are may ad the meas of meetig them are ofte few. I such istaces, exchage has fostered political ad ecoomic chage: The icetive represeted by a perceived pletiful supply of jobs has iduced migratio by populatios experiecig limited job opportuities i their preset markets. People have bee iduced to move to a boom tow, a move they would ot have cosidered without the exchage power represeted by the perceived jobs. 32 The cocept Cegage of exchage provides isight Learig ot oly o recet populatio dyamics but also o a umber of coflicts i the area of evirometal politics. What if a poor commuity eeds to fid a job-creatig idustry to recruit ito its midst? How ca a poor commuity lure a idustry away from more affluet, promisig eviromets? A poor commuity has a chace of doig so if it seeks out a idustry that more fiacially secure commuities do ot wat. For example, it ca ivite a toxic dump. I such a sceario, the commuity ca gai jobs ad the idustry ca gai support for its operatios. Would such a exchage be a positive relatioship, with both the commuity ad the idustry gaiig power ad thus beefitig from the exchage? Or would the idustry be takig advatage of the desperate eediess of the commuity ad be reapig all the beefits from the exchage? These questios arose i Noxubee Couty, Mississippi. Noxubee Couty is poor, ad jobs are scarce. Sevety percet of the couty s populatio is Africa- America. The local chapter of the Natioal Associatio for the Advacemet of Colored People (NAACP) supported the creatio of a toxic waste facility i the couty; the NAACP saw the facility as a meas of creatig jobs ad workig for the bettermet of Noxubee s ecoomic future. Africa Americas for Evirometal Justice orgaized oppositio to the facility, viewig it as dagerous to the public health of Noxubee residets. Africa Americas for Evirometal Justice was joied by aother evirometalist group, Protect the Eviromet of Noxubee, i fightig the facility. The NAACP respoded with severe criticisms ad poited out that oppositio to a job-creatig idustry i a primarily Africa-

55 KEY CONCEPTS IN POLITICAL SCIENCE 55 America couty raised the possibility of racism give that, for the most part, the beeficiaries of the jobs would be Africa-America. Iroically, a umber of the evirometalists saw racism behid the idustry s proposed move to Noxubee, isofar as most of those who would be placed at risk from toxis would also be Africa-America. 33 The issues i this dispute are very complex, ad exchage is at the core of the complexity. Noxubee has the optio of pursuig power by meas of exchage: recruitig a idustry to a regio where few idustries have chose to locate. The idustry also has the optio of pursuig power through exchage: givig the couty the icetive to support its establishmet, with full kowledge that may other couties would deem it udesirable. Exchage ca be Noxubee s route to jobs ad ecoomic growth, if the NAACP is correct. Exchage ca tur out to be Noxubee s path to evirometal ad health disaster, if the idustry critics are correct. Exchage is similar to maipulatio i that it ofte baffles the people studyig it to a degree that the other types of power do ot. Although maipulatio ca be difficult to aalyze because it operates by veilig its ow use, exchage ca be puzzlig to assess because of the apparet reciprocity of gais it offers. I exchage, eve the aget over whom power is exercised is gaiig somethig. Ideed, it is the icetive to attai a desired object o this aget s part that makes exchage work. Because of this reciprocity, some writers have see exchage as coducive to freedom i ways that other forms of power are ot. Yet at the same time, isofar idividuals, groups, or commuities may be very eedy of what is held out ascegage a icetive, other aalystslearig have coteded that exchage is fully as coercive as other forms of power. 34 Thik of Noxubee. Is exchage a more mellow ad less heavy-haded form of power tha force, maipulatio, or persuasio because it offers beefits to those o the receivig ed of power? Debates i the Study of Power Are Some Forms of Power Uethical? Is violece a acceptable meas of force? Does the violece of 9/11 differ from less lethal uses of violece, or is all violece to be viewed similarly? Is violece ethical if udertake by a state s military but ot by a ostate orgaizatio? Shiftig oe s focus from violet force, oe might also cosider the followig: Is maipulatio uethical isofar as the power ivolved is disguised? Is exchage more ethical tha other forms of power because it offers desired items to those havig power exercised over them? These questios have divided studets of politics for ceturies ad have, to some extet, polarized states, atios, ad idividuals i the aftermath of 9/11. If Power Is So Complicated, How Ca We Idetify It Clearly Eough to Study It Scietifically? As previously oted, empirical maifestatios of power are ofte bleded. A iterest group ca use a combiatio of force ad persuasio over its members; a public official ca bled maipulatio ad persuasio i his or her campaig. This complicates the study of power because it makes it very difficult to operatioalize exactly which type of power is i use at ay give time

56 56 CHAPTER 3 durig which power types are bleded. I additio, power is difficult to study because amouts of power are difficult to measure with the precisio of sciece. If oe coutry chages the will of a secod coutry usig exchage ad persuasio, how much power was represeted by exchage ad how much by persuasio? What if coutry A has a large military (high reserves of force) but a weak ecoomy (low reserves of exchage), whereas coutry B has the opposite? Which coutry is more powerful? Such measuremets are ofte very difficult to determie. Is Power Escapable? Imagie all the ways i which power ca be exercised over you. Force, persuasio, maipulatio, ad exchage are ever-preset optios for idividuals, groups, ad the govermet to use over you. Have you ever bee free of power? Such questios have prompted some social scietists ad philosophers to assert that power may be so pervasive that it is virtually iescapable. Other scholars have argued that power is escapable, i that we ca select how we respod to differet power relatios. We ca choose resistace or compliace. This possibility of choice makes us free, it is argued; if ot free of ecouterig power, at least, free i takig resposibility for how we relate to power. 35 Ideed, you could argue that the pervasiveess of power cotributes to freedom i that each power type ca be used for liberatio as well as coercio. Force, persuasio, maipulatio, ad exchage ca be used by the strog to overcome the weak, but each oe ca also be used by the weak to fed off the strog. Cegage Learig STATES Two days after the 9/11 attacks o the Uited States, Presidet Bush vowed to ed states that support terrorist acts. 36 Exactly what was Presidet Bush makig referece to? While political scietists ote that states vary i size, structure, ad resources, political scietists have traditioally uderstood all states to have certai defiig characteristics. A state is a orgaizatio that has a umber of political fuctios ad tasks, icludig providig security, extractig reveues, ad formig rules for resolvig disputes ad allocatig resources withi the boudaries of the territory i which it exercises jurisdictio. That is, states cosist of govermet offices, which have the tasks of providig the ultimate, or primary, security, extractio processes, ad rule makig withi a territory. I providig security, states may create large military establishmets or small oes, seek membership i iteratioal treaty orgaizatios, or pursue isolatioism. I fudig their operatios through extractio, states may create tax structures to fud expasive or limited social welfare programs. I settig the ultimate rules of coflict resolutio, states may create court systems with judicial review or may reject judicial review; states may allow for or ba gu owership by private citizes, just as states may legalize or prohibit the orgaizatio of private security forces (such as militias). I settig the rules for resource allocatio, states may create distributio systems that are capitalist, socialist, or a

57 KEY CONCEPTS IN POLITICAL SCIENCE 57 BOX 3.7 States: Defiitio ad Characteristics States are orgaizatios claimig ultimate rule-settig ad rule-eforcig authority withi their borders. States may be orgaized as uitary, federal, or cofederal systems. Sovereigty is the actual ability of states to act as ultimate rule-makig ad ruleeforcig orgaizatios. Legitimacy is the belief by citizes that the state operatig over them is proper. combiatio of the two. I eforcig its rules over the territory withi its borders, a state may rely primarily o force (physical aggressio agaist its ow populatio), persuasio (the issuace of decrees or laws), maipulatio (propagada), or exchage (fosterig a growig ecoomy with a high stadard of livig i order to buy acquiescece from its citizes). States possess characteristics both similar ad dissimilar to other types of orgaizatios. For example, families ad volutary associatios may also make rules, collect extractios ad cotributios (such as chores or dues), ad offer secure eviromets for their members. What makes a state uique relative to other orgaizatios are the ultimate primary claims a state makes relative to its rules, its Cegage processes of extractio, adlearig its procedures for security. Although a volutary associatio may impose rules of membership o its members, the rules must coform to the rules (laws ad policies) of the state; if ot, the state ca pealize the associatio with violet force. 37 States may be orgaized i a variety of ways. Uitary states cocetrate power at the cetral, or atioal, level. The Uited Kigdom, Frace, Chia, ad Japa are examples of uitary states. Federal states create differet divisios ad levels of govermet ad divide power amog those divisios ad levels. The Uited States is a federal state, with power accorded to offices at three levels: atioal or federal offices, state offices, ad local offices. Germay, Idia, Caada, Brazil, ad Mexico also have federal systems. I additio to federal ad uitary arragemets, states also have the optio of a cofederal type of orgaizatio, with power decetralized ad held primarily or exclusively by local offices. This type of state existed briefly i the Uited States prior to the ratificatio of the U.S. Costitutio. I 1781, the Articles of Cofederatio established a cofederatio i which states had supreme power ad a cetral goverig power was virtually oexistet, i that there was o cetral executive, o cetral judiciary, ad oly a weak cetral legislature. Cofederalism was replaced by federalism whe the U.S. Costitutio was ratified i Today, cofederalism is a orgaizatioal mode foud i some iteratioal orgaizatios i which idividual states are members, but it has ot prove a very popular ad durable meas of orgaizig states themselves. 38

58 58 CHAPTER 3 However states orgaize themselves, they profoudly ifluece the lives of citizes. Whether travel is ope or restricted, certai drugs are legal or illegal, military service is required or optioal, public prayer i schools is sactioed or disallowed, ad race ad ethicity are relevat or irrelevat i uiversity admissios, these ad similarly importat questios are decided by the rules admiistered through uitary, federal, or cofederal states i the form of laws, policies, regulatios, ad orders. Moreover, whether you favor or oppose the preset level of state power, that power has most likely affected practically every aspect of your life. If you live i the Uited States, for example, that power has bee used to subsidize your educatio if you have ever atteded a public school or used the resources i a public library. It has bee used to subsidize your ability to travel iside the coutry if you have ever used public highways with public traffic lights ad kept passable by public maiteace crews ad public police officers. It has bee used to subsidize your health ad well-beig if you have ever used the services of a doctor traied at a public medical school or purchased domestically produced goods ad services made i coformity with cosumer safety laws, or if you have ever traveled o domestic airlies subject to aviatio safety guidelies. It has bee used to subsidize your family s budget if you have a paret who was educated with the help of the G.I. Bill, or if your family has bee compesated through farm subsidy programs or social welfare policies. Extractio, rule makig, ad security are ot, o reflectio, merely abstractios, but are, rather, ways i which states touch our lives persoally ad cotiuously. Cegage Learig STATES: STATE FORMATION, DEVELOPMENT, AND CHANGE The Uited States ad more tha 190 other states comprise the iteratioal commuity. May of the world s existig states are ew. I fact, fewer tha 30 states ow i existece were idepedet states possessig their ow goverig systems over a uified territory i Argetia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, ad may other Lati America coutries established self-goverig states i the ieteeth cetury after gaiig idepedece from Spai ad Portugal. After World War II, may ew states (whose populatios ad territories were previously uder the jurisdictio of separate coloial states) were created i Africa ad Asia. For example, Madagascar, a log-time coloy of Frace, became a idepedet state i 1960, the same year i which Nigeria gaied idepedece from Britai. The disitegratio of the Soviet Uio, Czechoslovakia, ad Yugoslavia resulted i the formatio of more tha 20 ew states withi the regios previously occupied by oly three. 39 As you ca see from these examples, states come ad go. I additio, eve the oldest of existig states evolve ad udergo remarkable chages. Turkey, for example, was previously kow as the Ottoma Empire ad govered a vast regio, icludig the territories ow occupied by Syria, Lebao, Iraq, Jorda,

59 KEY CONCEPTS IN POLITICAL SCIENCE 59 Israel, ad Saudi Arabia. After defeat i World War I, its territory shrak ad its state orgaizatio was trasformed from a sultaate to a republic. Japa s state has evolved through trasformatios from admiistratio by shogus (military elites), rule by a divie emperor, ad, sice 1947, govermet through costitutioal democracy. Germay, established as a idepedet ad uified state i 1871, has bee a empire, a democracy, a Nazi totalitaria regime, a territory divided ito rival states of democracy ad commuism, ad a uified democratic state agai all i slightly more tha 100 years. The history of U.S. developmet as a state has bee, similarly, a arrative of dramatic chages i orgaizatio ad jurisdictio. Sice its establishmet as a idepedet state i the late eighteeth cetury, the U.S. state has bee cofroted by a civil war i which much of the populatio rejected the power of the U.S. state altogether, i which approximately oe-third of all free adult males were mobilized to fight, ad i which more tha 600,000 people died. The U.S. state has experieced violet oppositio maifest i the assassiatios of four heads of state sice 1865 ad the attempted assassiatios of others, icludig Presidets Truma, Ford, Reaga, ad Clito. I additio, the Uited States has radically elarged its origial territory of 13 states to iclude 50 states plus the District of Columbia. It has also evolved from a relatively limited state apparatus with meager fuds ito a state that by the time of the admiistratio of Frakli D. Roosevelt i the 1930s had grow so much that it was spedig $1 millio per hour. 40 All this has happeed just over 200 years of state developmet. As oted i the Itroductio, chage seems to be the essece ofcegage politics. Learig DEBATES IN THE STUDY OF STATES Are States the Most Importat Agets of Political Decisio Makig? Although states claim ultimate power to make rules ad provide security i a territory, they have major ostate rivals with which to coted. The attack of 9/11 demostrated the ability of a terrorist etwork to violate state security, ad the iteratioal drug trade reveals the capacity of crimial groups to establish illicit markets that crisscross state boudaries. Beyod these examples, state power may be limited by the actios of ostate orgaizatios, such as multiatioal corporatios (MNCs), ogovermetal orgaizatios (NGOs), ad itergovermetal orgaizatios (IGOs). Although MNCs, NGOs, ad IGOs have ot replaced states or take away the power of states to gover their territories, these etities have emerged as orgaizatios affectig the cotext i which states pursue power. I some cases, these orgaizatios have limited the ability of states to be the sole decisio makers o matters pertaiig to their ow territories. Multiatioal corporatios are iteratioal busiesses with operatios, trasactios, ad assets i the territories of differet states. Some MNCs are richer tha some coutries, as oted i the Itroductio. This gives MNCs the

60 60 CHAPTER 3 ª Courtesy of Elle Grigsby A moumet to victims of violece outside the headquarters of the Iteratioal Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) i Geeva Switzerlad. Fouded 1863, the ICRC is a ogovermetal orgaizatio that describes itself as a eutral etity egaged i Cegage Learig providig humaitaria aid to victims of coflict. I recet years, the ICRC has provided aid i Gaza, Afghaista, Sri Laka, Lebao, the Democratic Republic of the Cogo, ad umerous other states. However, the largest ICRC humaitaria project of late has bee that i Suda. After becomig a idepedet state i 1956, Suda experieced civil wars betwee ihabitats of the orth ad south. A peace agreemet betwee orth ad south was reached i 2005; however, as this coflict eased, violece esued i Suda s wester regio of Darfur ad, accordig to CIA estimates, resulted i betwee 200,000 ad 400,000 deaths ad perhaps 2 millio displaced persos. The ICRC has bee providig assistace i Suda sice The ICRC has distributed food, medical supplies, water pumps, waste maagemet assistace, ad materials ad persoel to help idetify ad track missig persos i Darfur ad i eighborig Chad. See ICRC at eg ad also CIA, The World Factbook at potetial to amass eormous resources i support of their objectives. Ideed, the key markets of some MNCs costitute a larger geographic territory tha the territories of history s greatest empires. 41 MNCs also have the ability to trasport moey, jobs, persoel, research expertise, ad corporate products from oe coutry to aother. This mobility gives MNCs the power to leave the territory of a state whose taxatio or labor policies, for example, it fids uattractive ad relocate its operatios to aother state. Wal-Mart ad Sears ca move (ad have moved) shirt-makig jobs to Bagladesh, where employees work 60-hour weeks for less tha $30 per moth. 42 Soy has trasferred