The Oxford Handbook of Political Science

Citation

Goodin, R. E. (Ed.). (2011). The Oxford Handbook of Political Science. Oxford University Press.

Chapter Summary

This single volume of about 1,300 pages distills the ten-volume series of Oxford Handbooks of Political Science. Sixty-seven political scientists survey recent developments in ten branches of the discipline, and each branch opens with an overview chapter before narrower chapters on selected topics. A short introductory chapter by the editor comes first. The book has 52 chapters in all, grouped into eleven parts and listed here by part.

Part I: Introduction (Chapter 1)

Goodin's "The State of the Discipline, the Discipline of the State" discusses political science as a discipline with a mission. It defines politics as the constrained use of social power, reviews the periodic "great debates" and "revolutions" in the field, considers the core canon that practitioners need, and looks at candidates for the next big thing.

Part II: Political Theory (Chapters 2–6)

Dryzek, Honig and Phillips provide the overview of political theory, which discusses literature that framed debate in recent decades, work on the history of political thought and the global perspective. The other chapters are Russell Hardin on "Normative Methodology", J. G. A. Pocock on "Theory in History: Problems of Context and Narrative", Richard Arneson on "Justice After Rawls" and Jane Bennett on "Modernity and its Critics".

Part III: Political Institutions (Chapters 7–11)

The part opens with R. A. W. Rhodes's overview of "Old Institutionalisms", which describes four traditions in the study of institutions, followed by March and Olsen on "Elaborating the 'New Institutionalism'". It continues with Josep Colomer on "Comparative Constitutions", John Aldrich on "Political Parties in and Out of Legislatures" and John Braithwaite on "The Regulatory State?".

Part IV: Law and Politics (Chapters 12–16)

After an overview by Whittington, Kelemen and Caldeira, which reviews judicial behavior, strategic action and historical institutionalism, the chapters are Ran Hirschl on "The Judicialization of Politics", Jeffrey Segal on "Judicial Behavior", Lynn Mather on "Law and Society" and Judith Baer on "Feminist Theory and the Law".

Part V: Political Behavior (Chapters 17–21)

Dalton and Klingemann's overview covers mass belief systems, political culture, participation and public opinion. The chapters that follow are Diana Mutz on "Political Psychology and Choice", Wren and McElwain on "Voters and Parties", Uslaner and Zittel on "Comparative Legislative Behavior" and James Gibson on "Political Intolerance in the Context of Democratic Theory".

Part VI: Contextual Political Analysis (Chapters 22–26)

Tilly and Goodin's overview ("It Depends") analyzes three kinds of contextual effect. The part continues with Colin Hay on "Political Ontology", March and Olsen on "The Logic of Appropriateness", Göran Therborn on "Why and How Place Matters" and Charles Tilly on "Why and How History Matters".

Part VII: Comparative Politics (Chapters 27–31)

Boix and Stokes introduce the main questions of the field, including theory and methods, states, regimes and political conflict. The chapters are Hendrik Spruyt on "War, Trade, and State Formation", Barbara Geddes on "What Causes Democratization", Herbert Kitschelt on "Party Systems" and Susan Stokes on "Political Clientelism".

Part VIII: International Relations (Chapters 32–37)

Reus-Smit and Snidal's overview considers the nature of theory in international relations. It is followed by Andrew Moravcsik on "The New Liberalism", Tim Dunne on "The English School", Barnett and Sikkink on "From International Relations to Global Society", Robert Keohane on "Big Questions in the Study of World Politics" and Steve Smith on "Six Wishes for a More Relevant Discipline of International Relations".

Part IX: Political Economy (Chapters 38–42)

Weingast and Wittman's overview is followed by Austen-Smith on "Economic Methods in Positive Political Theory", Torben Iversen on "Capitalism and Democracy", Huber and Shipan on "Politics, Delegation, and Bureaucracy" and Bowles and Gintis on "The Evolutionary Basis of Collective Action".

Part X: Public Policy (Chapters 43–47)

Goodin, Rein and Moran's overview begins from the limits of high ambition in policy making. The part continues with Bobrow on "Social and Cultural Factors", Bardach on "Policy Dynamics", Rein on "Reframing Problematic Policies" and Klein and Marmor on "Reflections on Policy Analysis".

Part XI: Political Methodology (Chapters 48–52)

Brady, Collier and Box-Steffensmeier's overview describes the methods of the field. The chapters are Brady on "Causation and Explanation in Social Science", Gerber and Green on "Field Experiments and Natural Experiments", Gerring on "The Case Study" and Fearon and Laitin on "Integrating Qualitative and Quantitative Methods".

Key Concepts

Parts I–III: The Discipline, Theory and Institutions

• Politics as the constrained use of social power: Goodin's definition in the opening chapter.
• Justice after Rawls: the debates over egalitarian theories of justice that Chapter 5 traces.
• Old and new institutionalism: the traditions in the study of institutions reviewed in Chapters 7 and 8.

Parts IV–VI: Law, Behavior and Context

• Judicialization of politics: reliance on courts to settle moral and policy questions, the subject of Chapter 13.
• Logic of appropriateness: rule-driven behavior as a way of thinking about political life, in Chapter 24.
• Contextual analysis: attention to how place, history and ontology shape political analysis.

Parts VII–XI: Comparison, Economy, Policy and Methods

• State formation and democratization: two central questions of comparative politics.
• Positive political theory: the economic methods of collective preference theory and game theory.
• Policy dynamics: change in policy understood through feedback processes.
• Causal inference: the approaches to causation and the experimental and case-study designs in Part XI.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Range with expertise. The ten branches of the discipline are each treated by leading specialists. Arend Lijphart called it a superb volume that assesses what political science has accomplished and where it should go, and the CHOICE review recommended it as a concise introduction to the discipline and its ten subfields.
• Consistent structure. Each part starts with an overview, so a reader can get a map of a subfield before moving to detailed chapters.
• A roadmap to the literature. CHOICE noted that the entries are heavily cited and give a roadmap to key scholars, theories and developments.
• Self-reflection. The opening chapter and several others, such as those on the English School and on the future of international relations, ask what the discipline is for and how it should develop.

Limitations

• Coverage is selective. Each subfield part includes only five or six chapters, so the book does not describe the whole of any subfield.
• Some chapters are position pieces. Several chapters argue for a particular agenda rather than summarizing the state of research.
• Not a first textbook. The chapters are state-of-the-field surveys written by and for scholars, as Lijphart's remark that political scientists in all fields will welcome the book suggests, rather than step-by-step teaching of concepts.

Where It Fits in the Course

This is the reference-level book in the introductory politics group. Heywood and Laing's Politics, Garner, Ferdinand and Lawson's Introduction to Politics and Rom, Hidaka and Walker's open-access Introduction to Political Science are the textbooks for a first course, and should be read before it. Lowndes, Marsh and Stoker's Theory and Methods in Political Science is an edited textbook on the main approaches and methods, and is the closest in style.

The Handbook is best used after a first course, as a way of exploring a subfield in more depth and preparing for a literature review or comprehensive examination.

How to Use This Book

The book suits graduate students and advanced undergraduates who have completed an introductory course in politics, and any reader who wants a map of the discipline's subfields.

A practical plan:

• Start with Chapter 1: Goodin's essay is the best orientation to the discipline and its debates.
• Choose a subfield: Read the overview of the subfield you are interested in, then two or three of its chapters. Treat the chapters as entry points to the literature they cite.
• Cross-read: Compare chapters across parts that share a topic, such as institutions, parties and legislatures in Parts III and V, or methods in Parts II and XI.
• Do not read straight through. At more than 1,300 pages, the volume is a reference.