The Dynamics of American Politics

by Dodd, Lawrence C.; Jillson, Calvin

• ISBN13: 9780813317113
• ISBN10: 0813317118
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1994-01-01
• Publisher: Westview Pr

Summary

This book offers a comprehensive assessment of the major theoretical approaches to the study of American politics. Written by leading scholars in the field, the book's essays focus particularly on the contributions that competing macro- and microanalytic approaches make to our understanding of political change in America.The essays include systematic overviews of the patterns of constancy and change that characterize American political history as well as comparative discussions of theoretical traditions in the study of American political change. The volume concludes with four provocative essays proposing new and integrated interpretations of American politics.This is a path-breaking book that all scholars concerned with American politics will want to read and that all serious students of American politics will need to study. The Dynamics of American Politicsis appropriate for graduate core seminars on American politics, undergraduate capstone courses on American politics, courses on political theory and approaches to political analysis, and rigorous lower-division courses on American politics.

Author Biography

Lawrence C. Dodd is professor of political science at the University of Florida. He is the co-author of The Dynamics of American Politics, and is series editor for the Westview Press series Transforming American Politics.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. ix
Notes	p. xvii
Conversations on the Study Of American Politics: an Introduction	p. 1
Patterns of Political Change And Inquiry	p. 23
Patterns and Periodicity In American National Politics	p. 24
Pattern Recognition And "Doing" Political History Art, Science, or Bootless Enterprise?	p. 59
Notes	p. 80
Common Ground: History And Theories of American Politics	p. 83
Notes	p. 104
Macroanalysis	p. 105
American Exceptionalism Reconsidered Culture or Institutions?	p. 106
Liberalism and the Course Of American Social Welfare Policy	p. 132
Notes	p. 158
Macroeconomic Change And: Political Transformation in the United States	p. 160
Notes	p. 180
The Origins of Social Policy In the United States A Polity-Centered Analysis	p. 182
Microanalysis	p. 207
Rational Choice Theory And the Study of American Politics	p. 208
The Social Psychology of Politics	p. 234
Contexts, Intermediaries And Political Behaviour	p. 252
Notes	p. 276
Group Politics Reexamined From Pluralism to Political Economy	p. 277
Notes	p. 296
Linkage Processes	p. 297
Politics as Persuasion	p. 298
Notes	p. 309
Beyond the Iconography of Order Notes for a "New Institutionalism"	p. 311
Notes	p. 330
Political Learning And Political Change: Understanding Development Across Time	p. 331
Notes	p. 362
Conclusion	p. 365
Ideas, Interests, and Institutions	p. 366
Note	p. 391
References	p. 393
About the Book and Editors	p. 433
About the Contributors	p. 434
Index	p. 437
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