The Evolution of Political Knowledge: Theory and Inquiry in American Politics - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0814251129 ISBN 13: 9780814251126

Publisher: Ohio State Univ Pr, 2004

Synopsis

Over the course of the last century, political scientists have been moved by two principal purposes. First, they have sought to understand and explain political phenomena in a way that is both theoretically and empirically grounded. Second, they have analyzed matters of enduring public interest, whether in terms of public policy and political action, fidelity between principle and practice in the organization and conduct of government, or the conditions of freedom, whether of citizens or of states. Many of the central advances made in the field have been prompted by a desire to improve both the quality and our understanding of political life. Nowhere is this tendency more apparent than in research on American politics, a field in which concerns for the public interest have stimulated various important insights. This volume systematically analyzes the major developments within the broad field of American politics over the past three decades. Each chapter is composed of a core paper that addresses the major puzzles, conversations, and debates that have attended major areas of concern and inquiry within the discipline. These papers examine and evaluate the intellectual evolution and "natural history" of major areas of political inquiry and chart particularly promising trajectories, puzzles, and concerns for future work Each core paper is accompanied by a set of shorter commentaries that engage the issues it takes up, thus contributing to an ongoing and lively dialogue among key figures in the field.

About this title

About the Author

Mansfield is Associate Professor of Political Science at Columbia University.

Sisson is Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Edition details

• Publisher: Ohio State Univ Pr
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0814251129
• ISBN 13: 9780814251126
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 369
• Editor: Mansfield Edward D., Sisson Richard