Essays
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Intervention and Regime Change - Owen IV, John M.
Regime promotion constitutes a distinct category of foreign intervention that includes any effort by an intervening state or coalition to create, preserve, or alter political institutions or governments within a target state. Although a common tool of statecraft, regime promotion has received relatively little scholarly attention. We discuss foundational and cutting‐edge research that addresses three questions: What causes states or governments to try to change or preserve domestic institutions of other sovereign states? What modes or tools of statecraft do they employ? What are the consequences for the intervening power, the target state, or the international system? We conclude with six recommendations for advancing regime promotion research: (i) expand research beyond its United States and great‐power focus to consider how regional actors and small states employ regime promotion; (ii) conduct comparative studies of forcible regime promotions with non‐forcible and covert means; (iii) isolate the fundamental motivations—domestic and/or systemic—that propel states to attempt regime promotion despite significant costs and risks; (iv) examine further the role of regime‐type in regime promotion; (v) increase research into the consequences of regime promotion by emphasizing long‐term efficacy as well as the comparative success of non‐democratic interveners and democracy promoters; and (vi) focus additional attention on the relation of regime promotion to international hegemony or hierarchy. -
Introduction to the Corporate Governance of Religion - Rost, Katja
Stationed at the border between the past and the present, the corporate governance of religion is concerned with the governance mechanisms by which religious organizations are controlled and directed. Building on similarities between contemporary organizations and their predecessors in Roman Catholic monasticism, this essay illustrates that studying the past can be of enormous benefit. It allows us to see familiar problems in a new light: for example, bureaucratic rules—nowadays no longer linked to efficiency—that emerged in Catholic orders and enabled organizational learning, innovations, and survival in uncertain environments. The study of the past is also an appreciation for the kind of governance mechanisms that have staying power: Catholic orders can be viewed as pioneers of corporate governance and show what kind of governance is suitable to reduce agency problems. Finally, when abstract organizational theories are presented in a historical context, it makes them more palatable, more understandable, and more interesting: the theory of the optimal colocation of decision rights within the specific knowledge framework of organizations is supported in Catholic orders. They decentralize their local communities the higher the ratio of credence goods produced, and centralize their local communities the higher the ratio of search/experience goods produced. -
Judicial Independence - Clark, Tom S.
For analytic clarity, judicial independence is best thought of as a concept that captures a variety of features of a judicial system. One common, and useful, approach is to associate judicial independence with the ability of judges to, in practice, make decisions the outcomes of which are not dictated by extrajudicial pressures. In this spirit, research on judicial independence has examined a number of topics, two of which are (i) the origins and determinants of political support for the judiciary and (ii) the consequences of maintaining judicial independence for economic performance. Original research on political support for the judiciary focused on how a system of separation of powers can constrain judicial independence. Current research is turning the question around, examining the role courts play as a component of a system in which policy is made collectively by political institutions. Research on the relationship between judicial independence and economic performance originally examined whether greater judicial independence is associated with higher levels of economic growth. Current research is expanding the focus to evaluate the conditions under which independent courts reinforce the stability of democratic government. As research on judicial independence moves forward, it should focus on further conceptual clarification, the study of independent courts as complements to other parts of a system of governance (rather than competitors to policy makers), and leveraging current advances for theoretically driven measurement of these concepts. -
Labor Market Instability, Labor Market Entry, and Early Career Development - Gebel, Michael
Many young people experience episodes of unemployment and precarious employment such as insecure temporary jobs and skill‐inadequate jobs during their school‐to‐work transition period. This essay summarizes key theoretical ideas and main previous empirical findings on the determinants and career consequences of having such a nonoptimal start into the working life. Then, this essay highlights cutting‐edge research that has advanced our knowledge by providing more detailed insights into the individual‐level career dynamics as well as the macro‐level institutional and structural determinants of cross‐country differences. This article concludes with a discussion of five key issues for future research. First, there is need for a better understanding of the institutional and structural influences on the career consequences of having a nonoptimal labor market entry. Second, the experiences during the economic crisis of 2008/2009 and its aftermath ask for a better understanding of why some countries performed better than other countries in protecting youths from that severe crisis. Third, a more detailed analysis of different forms of nonemployment and precarious employment is required in order to account for the strong variation of labor market experiences of youths. Fourth, to fully assess not only the risks but also the chances of taking up temporary jobs and skill‐inadequate jobs at labor market entry, we have to complement the standard “upward comparison” to regular employment with a “downward comparison” to the alternative of nonemployment. Finally, this entry calls for an interdisciplinary and integrative approach analysing not only the work career consequences of bad labor market starts but also the social, economic, psychological, health, and familial consequences. -
Lawmaking - Carson, Jamie L.
The goal of this essay is to present foundational and cutting‐edge research that has influenced how researchers study the lawmaking process within American politics. By assessing the most influential research on legislative politics to date, we are able to highlight the research that is moving the discipline forward. Specifically, we focus not only on the outcomes produced by the lawmaking process but also the institutional influences that shape what ultimately becomes law. Our discussion outlines how institutional rules and procedural context are important considerations in determining how legislative chambers and the executive interact to govern and create new laws. This is especially important as the polarization among the public and political elites continues to grow and reflects fluctuations in party divisions during the past century. These changes in the political context of each institution have created challenges in the lawmaking process, necessitating new and unorthodox procedures to deal with these difficulties as they arise. We also provide guidance in discussing new questions, which have not yet been fully addressed by scholars to date, as well as where to look for new sources of data that will help researchers begin to find answers to those questions. We believe that expanding upon existing research agendas will provide greater opportunities to learn more about the important role of both chambers and the executive in designing and implementing legislation. -
Lived Religion - Ammerman, Nancy T.
Research on “lived religion” focuses on the everyday practices of ordinary people, in contrast to the study of official texts, organizations, and experts. It includes attention to rituals and stories and spiritual experiences that may draw on official religious traditions, but may also extend beyond them. Lived religion is closely related to “popular religion”, but is a more encompassing category. As with the study of popular religion, the focus is on ordinary people and often includes festivals and shrines and healing practices that may happen without the approval of religious authorities. Lived religion research pays special attention to the lives of women, of populations of color, and of people in the Global South. Both approved traditional practices and new innovations may be “lived”. -
Macroeconomic Effects on Mortality: Issues, Controversies, and Directions for Research - Granados, José A. Tapia
This essay examines the development of ideas on the macroeconomic effects on mortality. It surveys some nineteenth century views, the early twentieth century contributions of Ogburn and Thomas, the 1970s–1980s debates of Brenner and Eyer, and the modern views, contributions, and controversies involving Ruhm and other authors who have tried to demonstrate the empirical support—or the lack of it—for the contentious hypothesis of the procyclical oscillation of mortality. That is the pattern, now clearly established for many, but unproved for more than a few skeptics, that once long‐term trends are taken away, mortality oscillates with the business cycle, rising in expansions and declining in recessions. Potential sources of discrepancies, hypothesized or proven mechanisms for procyclical mortality, and related policy issues are discussed, and the essay concludes by suggesting five questions that future research should aim to answer. To the memory of Joe Eyer, 1944–2017 -
Maternal and Paternal Employment across the Life Course - Kreyenfeld, Michaela
This essay provides a condensed summary of major findings in trends in maternal and paternal employment patterns. Key theoretical concepts (such as cultural approaches, welfare state approaches, preference theory, economic approaches, and life course theory) are briefly summarized. The increase in maternal employment rates in most European countries, and the extent to which this increase has been related to growth in part‐time and marginal employment, are also discussed. In studying the dynamics of the employment behavior of mothers, empirical researchers have mainly looked at the amount of time it takes for women to return to work after childbirth. While these studies often capture only a snapshot of the life course—namely, the period between childbirth and labor market reentry—new approaches (so‐called sequence analyses) that map the lifetime employment patterns of women have been developed. The analysis of the employment patterns of fathers is an emerging field of research as well. However, little is known so far about how fatherhood affects men's lifetime employment patterns, and how paternal employment varies in different cultural and social policy contexts. -
Media Neuroscience - Mangus, J. Michael
Media neuroscience offers a unique window into how the complexities of human behavior emerge from the dynamic interaction of adaptive brain structures in response to environmental inputs. Rather than treating these dynamics as a black box or measuring them only indirectly through self‐report or behavioral observation, neuroimaging studies are uniquely able to provide theoretical insight into underlying brain processes and their evolutionary basis. This essay provides an overview of foundational research in the area of media neuroscience, evaluates key critiques of that research, and provides an outlook for how emerging trends may develop in the near future. -
Modeling Coal and Natural Gas Markets - Holz, Franziska
Coal and natural gas market modeling has seen an impressive upsurge in the last decade. After a long period with a focus on optimization models, complementarity models have been developed since the 1980s and seen a renaissance after 2000. Such models are also called equilibrium models as they allow representing a market game and its equilibrium solution. First versions of complementarity models of the coal and natural gas markets were used to analyze the market structure of the international commodity trade. While they confirmed an oligopolistic market structure in the European natural gas market, the global coal market has been found to be competitive. Moreover, infrastructure analyses are carried out with such models that allow detecting bottlenecks and, in multiperiod models, computing cost‐efficient capacity expansions. Other recent advances besides multiperiod modeling are the modeling of multilevel games and stochastic models. Emerging topics are related to computational methods and a better understanding of both energy sectors. Among the challenges to the modeling community are the ongoing shortcomings of publicly available data and an improved understanding of the mathematical modeling and solution approaches by economists. Finally, both sectors are subject to a climate policy constraint which may well lead to a considerable shift in the importance as well as in regional consumption patterns of coal and natural gas and, hence, require improved modeling analysis. -
Money in Politics - Milyo, Jeffrey
There is a disconnect between the popular understanding of the role of money in American politics and the lessons from social science research. The foundational research in this field finds that campaign spending has at best negligible impacts on election outcomes. Similarly, decades of research reveal very little evidence that campaign contributions or even lobbying has significant effects on the content of public policy. These findings are corroborated by cutting edge research on the effects of campaign finance reforms both at the federal level and in the states. -
Museum Anthropology - Greene, Candace S.
Museum anthropology is a vigorous and growing perspective within anthropology. It applies insights from cultural anthropology to the assessment of how museums represent cultures, and increasingly looks to museum collections as the material record of cultures over time. It is a theoretical approach, distinct from technical aspects of museum operation, such as collections care and exhibit production, although in best practice, each informs the other. Degree programs in Museum Studies may include training in either theoretical museum anthropology or operational aspects, although more programs focus on the later aspect and are not specific to the discipline of anthropology. -
Mysticism - Markovsky, Barry
Mysticism and related concepts have appeared in a variety of academic and nonacademic contexts. We begin by narrowing our focus to several general definitions that emphasize properties that have proved to be of interest to social and behavioral scientists. In such contexts, mystical knowledge typically refers to a special kind of positive, life‐changing sense of comprehending the universe, and a mystical experience is the physical and psychological state in which such knowledge is acquired, and during which the experiencer feels “at one” with the universe and/or a higher power. We review some of the earliest work on mysticism in psychology and sociology, primarily attributable to William James and Max Weber, respectively. More recent work in psychology has focused mainly on the development of mysticism scales, and research in neuropsychology is focusing on, among other topics, how structures and processes in the human brain produce mystical experiences. Sociological research has been relatively meager; however, we do note the potential contributions that sociological perspectives might offer. We close with a discussion of some methodological and theoretical issues that seem to hinder progress in the area, and note several promising lines for future research. -
Neoliberalism - Centeno, Miguel Angel
What is neoliberalism and how do we account for its policy dominance over three decades? We analyze the rise and power of neoliberalism from three different perspectives: economic, political, and cultural. We argue that cultural analysis of policy preferences and success is critical to understanding the appeal and staying power of neoliberalism. -
News Framing Effects and Emotions - Schuck, Andreas R. T.
Framing research is thriving and has become ever more popular among researchers and students alike. This essay reviews some of the latest trends and developments in the field, explains key terms and concepts, identifies likely future research lines, and zooms in on one of these in particular, that is, the role of emotions in explaining news framing effects. We distinguish different theories on emotions and how they have been and can be used in the context of framing research. Furthermore, we present a basic model of how to investigate the role of emotions in framing effects research. Finally, we discuss some of the most promising future research lines with the potential for students or scholars to make their own contribution and present results of a small‐scale expert survey indicating what some prominent scholars consider to be the most important challenges and promising future trends in the field right now. -
Organizational Economics - Gibbons, Robert
Organizational economics applies the theoretical and empirical methods of economics to study the nature, roles and performance of organizations, especially managed ones like business firms. In this essay we trace the development of this field, survey the questions it addresses, point to recent work that we find especially germane and offer suggestions for promising future directions. -
Organizational Populations and Fields - Haveman, Heather A.
This essay examines two major perspectives on organizations that have been prominent since the 1970s: ecology and institutionalism, both of which emerged as reactions against rationalist approaches to the study of organizations. Both take as their primary units of analysis collections of organizations, rather than individual organizations: “populations” for ecologists (groups of organizations with the same form) and “fields” for institutionalists (groups of organizations of different forms that interact with each other in some social sector). Ecologists seek to explain the changing distribution of organizations (rates of founding, failure, growth, and change) in terms of the features of organizations' environments. Institutionalists seek to explain organizational legitimacy, variety, and change by reference to cultural norms, values, and expectations about what is the “right” or “normal” way to organize. While ecologists seek general explanations that apply to all populations, institutionalists seek explanations that are sensitive to the peculiarities of the field under study. Ecological and institutional studies of organizations have converged in the past decade, which has yielded studies that minimize the weaknesses of each perspective and maximize their strengths. Ecologists have examined many explanatory factors, such as pressures to imitate legitimate organizational forms, which were originally highlighted by institutionalists. In the same vein, institutionalists have turned their attention to founding and failure, outcomes that were ecologists' original focus, and have used factors such as the number of organizations, much studied by ecologists, to explain these outcomes. We conclude by suggesting potential fruitful avenues for further integration between these perspectives. -
Organizations and the Production of Systemic Risk - Perrow, Charles
Organizations and Systemic Risks Systemic risks are those threatening multiple parts of an organizations, or other organizations and systems in its environment. Interdependencies abound in our highly technological world and can be unexpected, and in the case of global warming—largely an organizational failure—dire. An 80% reduction in the assets of oil, gas, and coal companies is required to reduce warming but is not anticipated. So‐called “natural” disasters are shown to be enhanced or even caused by organizations. The organizational roots of the 2008 economic meltdown, Fukushima, and chemical plant accidents are examined with regard to regulations, profits, and system interdependencies. With economic systems favoring short‐run concerns, and shareholder rather than stakeholder values, there is little evidence of emerging long‐run visions that could protect future generations. -
Participatory Governance - McNulty, Stephanie L.
Efforts to engage new actors in political decision‐making through innovative participatory programs have exploded around the world in the past 25 years. This trend, called participatory governance, involves state‐sanctioned institutional processes that allow citizens to exercise voice and vote in public policy decisions that produce real changes in citizens' lives. Billions of dollars are spent supporting these efforts around the world. The concept, which harks back to theorists such as Jean‐Jacques Rousseau and John Stuart Mill, has only recently become prominent in theories about democracy. After presenting the foundational research on participatory governance, the essay notes that newer research on this issues falls into three areas: (i) the broader impact of these experiments; (ii) new forms of engagement, with a focus on representation, deliberation, and intermediation; and (iii) scaling up and diffusion. The essay concludes with a research agenda for future work on this topic. -
Partisan News: A Perspective from Economics - Stone, Daniel F.
I briefly summarize the economics literature on ideologically slanted political media (which I call, for short, partisan news), and discuss directions for future research. In the literature review, I take a history of thought approach, describing how theory and empirical work have fed off one another and real‐world events. I also note ways in which the work of economists differs from comparable work from other disciplines. In the discussion of future research, I identify open questions and policy options, and assess the relationship between research from economics and other disciplines. -
Party Organizations' Electioneering Arms Race - Aldrich, John H.
Party organizations are the electioneering arms of political parties. In the United States, the Democratic and Republican organizations are constantly changing as they try to one‐up each other in a political arms race set against an ever‐evolving institutional and technological context. In this essay, we discuss the history of political parties over the past century to illustrate how changes to party organizations set the groundwork for new, cutting‐edge contributions to political science with an eye toward teaching young researchers where we think the next big thing might come from. We go on to discuss more recent changes to the environment in which today's party organizations operate and speculate about the kinds of questions that young researchers may want to consider asking. -
Political Advertising - Fowler, Erika Franklin
Political advertising provides a key link between the politician and the public. The concern over massive manipulation through political propaganda that drove early empirical research on the subject has subsided; however, newer research concludes that advertising can have nontrivial but short‐lived influence on voter preferences. Furthermore, increasing levels of negativity and concerns over the consequences of such negativity spawned a heated debate in the literature over whether negative ads stimulate or depress turnout at the polls with the most recent evidence suggesting that it is the timing of negativity that determines its effect. Although advertising is intended to persuade, research suggests the medium yields important informational benefits, especially for citizens who do not pay a lot of attention to politics, and there is little to suggest that negativity has large negative effects on the health of democracy. Although the 2012 election was a record‐shattering year for political advertising, campaigns are shifting to multi‐platform communication strategies, which will bring new challenges for researchers. -
Political Science: Political Ideologies - Carmines, Edward G.
The past 50 years of research into political ideology has left scholars with a contested paradigm. One side, founded on the research of Philip Converse, argues that the mass public is distinctly nonideological in their thinking. The other side argues that ideological thinking is not, in fact, beyond the public and can be found in forms similar to that of political elites. The way forward for research in political ideology does not lie in rehashing this debate but in moving forward in two new areas of work. The first considers the role that values and principles play in determining the political and ideological thinking of individuals. The second questions the current measurement standards of political ideology. Rather than considering ideology as occurring along a single spectrum, ideology among the mass public is formed by positions along two separate spectrums. In this essay, we summarize the major arguments of Converse, his supporters, and his critics. Then, we discuss recent research on principles and values and the measurement of ideology. -
Politics of Criminal Justice - Barker, Vanessa
The apparent disjuncture between the reality of crime and government responses suggests that criminal justice is not simply a technical response to crime. If criminal justice were guided by technical choices, gun death would equal gun control, gun violence would be considered a public health crisis replete with public resources, and the political will to solve it. Instead what we know from the social sciences is that criminal justice tends to be caught up in morality plays about human nature and political competition over the distribution of public goods, including, but perhaps especially, security, where special interests rather than the public interest tend to hold sway. The significance of studying the politics of criminal justice lies in its capacity to account for and explain the disjuncture. Key issues for future research will be scholars' ability to close this gap. -
Popular Protest, Nationalism, and Domestic‐International Linkages in Chinese Politics - Weiss, Jessica Chen
The study of Chinese politics has become increasingly specialized, reflecting broader trends in social science that favor islands of knowledge that can be defended with rigor. Yet many phenomena of interest in Chinese politics are located at the intersection of comparative politics and international relations, where the two levels are connected and strategically linked. Nationalist, anti‐foreign protest is a good example, as Chinese officials must choose whether to repress or tolerate nationalist demonstrations based on domestic and international considerations. In turn, the decision to allow or stifle street demonstrations affects the degree of popular influence on Chinese foreign policy, constraining the government's diplomatic options or enhancing its flexibility. Ongoing research into the subnational patterns of Chinese nationalism and popular protest offers a promising avenue of inquiry. Combined with close qualitative assessments to identify mechanisms and processes, meso‐level investigations can provide additional leverage in the study of Chinese nationalism. Future research should aim to bring nationalism back into the mainstream study of state‐society relations in China, bridging the gap between nationalism and other varieties of social mobilization and political contestation.