Month: August 2014

Method-driven versus problem-driven

It is our impression, however, that much rational choice theory is method driven rather than problem driven, and that this is partly responsible for its defects. Empirical science is problem driven when the elaboration of theories is designed to explain phenomena that arise in the world. Method-driven research occurs when a theory is elaborated without reference to what phenomena are to be explained, and the theorist subsequently searches for phenomena to which the theory in question can be applied.

Green, Doland and Ian Shapiro. Pathologies of Rational Choice Theory: A Critique of Applications in Political Science. 1994. p. 194 (hardcover)

Comp sources, thematically listed

This is an evolving thematic outline of the major sources for my comprehensive exam on the 22nd (Excel).

It’s a matter of remembering what these authors had to say (both in terms of their own ideas and criticism of others), remembering when they said it, and being able to sufficiently regurgitate it within the context of some kind of original argument during the exam.

The future and the limits of prediction

It’s inevitable, perhaps, that whatever sort of academic or professional training you get tends to be backward-looking. The people doing the teaching have succeeded under a particular set of conditions, and it’s perfectly well-meaning for them to provide the kind of advice, assignments, and requirements that were involved in their own development.

At the same time, the last 250 years of human history have been characterized by change so profound, constant, and multi-dimensional that we cannot expect the decades ahead to be governed by the same rules as the ones people have just experienced. For one thing, we have about 15 years to collectively decide if we’re going to have a future of wild climatic destabilization, with all the political, economic, and social consequences that would involve.

The prospect of trying to prepare yourself for a future that nobody can guess is daunting. Since nobody can single-handedly establish the conditions of their own future, we all need to be prepared for a range of possibilities. We can’t know what’s going be be essential, even in what remains of our own lives.

Stone on political ideas

This model of policy making as rational problem solving can’t explain why sometimes policy solutions go looking for problems. It can’t tell us why solutions such as deregulation turn into problems for the very groups they were meant to help. Most important, the production model fails to capture what I see as the essence of policy making in political communities: the struggle over ideas. Ideas are a medium of exchange and a mode of influence even more powerful than money and votes and guns. Shared meanings motivate people to action and meld individual striving into collective action. All political conflict revolves around ideas. Policy making, in turn, is a constant struggle over the criteria for classification, the boundaries of categories, and the definition of ideals that guide the way people behave.

Stone, Deborah. Policy Paradox: The Art of Political Decision Making: Third Edition. 2012. p. 13 (paperback)