Comparative Perspectives on American Political Development

IN THIS ISSUE... Volume 19 Number 2 Spring/Summer 2009 Comparative Perspectives on American Political Development Richard Franklin Bensel Department of Government, Cornell University I write to you as the 19th president of the section, a section now mature enough to have spanned a generation. We, as the Jefferson Airplane once sang, “are no longer young.” But we are also not old. We are somewhere in between, neither idling at a crossroads nor hurtling down a freeway. The section has its share of challenges but seems to be in good shape. But this is not a “state of the section” essay. Instead, I write as one who, along with the rest of you, have watched Politics and History develop over the years. We have, as I will describe below, become a bit of a tribe but our tribalism has always been less developed than most of our peer sections. And this is all to the good. A tension lurks at the center of most In In this Issue academicIN life, a tension between the sociological imperative of a profession and the individualizing, creative spirit of scholarship. The sociological imperativeTHIS implacably demands that we belong to an identifiable intellectual community. These communities,ISSUE... in turn, come to have boundaries From the President ...............................................1 Editor’s Note.........................................................2 marked out by the analytical assumptions the 2009 APSA Officer Nominees.........................2 members share, the subject matter of their Nichols on Realignment.....................................3 investigations, and the texts they regard as 2009 APSA Panels ..............................................4 foundational statements of their mission. In this they 2009 Midwest PSA Abstracts............................12 are much like tribes: the shared assumptions morph 2009 Western PSA Titles..............................21 Journalscan..........................................22 into a customary culture (replete with code words, Booknotes................................................33 shared recognition of sites of engagement, and Bookscan..................................................35 common journals that disseminate news and events); the subject matter delineates the territory the tribe inhabits; and the texts become the canon that initiates must master. These are not original observations continued on page 53 1 OLITICS ISTORY P & H Editor’s Note an organized section of the American Political Science Association We’d like to recognize and acknowledge the Website: http://www.h-net.msu.edu/~apsaph/ outstanding job that Jessica Curtis has done Founders Amy Bridges & David Brady as Managing Editor this past year. Jessica had to exert a lot of initiative in this election year, Past Presidents and she did a fine job. We all thank her for Jeffrey Tulis Walter Dean Burnham her efforts. We also than the Department of Theda Skocpol Stephen Skowronek Political Science at the University of Missouri Ira Katznelson Karen Orren Martin Shefter Margaret Weir for its continuing support. Ian Lustick James Morone Anne Norton Rogers Smith Eileen McDonagh Paul Pierson Elizabeth Sanders Sidney Milkis Victoria Hattam Kathleen Thelen Politics and History Nominations for Current Officers President Richard Franklin Bensel Section Officers, 2009-2010 President - Elect Sven Steinmo Secretary/Treasurer Dave Robertson The Nominating Committee for sction officers for 2009 APSA Panel Organization Kimberly Morgan 2009-2010 was chaired by Richard Bensel and Julian Zelizer included Sven Steinmo, Jytte Klausen, Julie Council 2007-2009 2008-2010 Novkov, and Eric Patashnik. Professor Steinmo Joseph Lowndes Richard John was chosen last year as President-Elect, and under Andreas Kalyvas Margaret Keck the section bylaws, he automatically assumes the Joseph Lowndes Julie Lynch presidency at the 2009 section Business Meeting. Douglas Reed Evan Lieberman President-Elect: Newsletter Editor Dave Robertson Suzanne Mettler, Cornell University Managing Editor Jessica Curtis New Council Members, full 2-year term: Pamela Brandwein, We welcome and encourage letters and submissions, espe- University of Michigan cially for Book Notes and Work in Progress. Victoria Tin-bor Hui, The deadline for Spring/Summer issue submissions is March University of Notre Dame 1. The deadline for submissions for the Fall/Winter issue is October 15. Please send all correspondence to: Ken Kersch, Boston College Dave Robertson Department of Political Science Kimberly Morgan, University of Missouri - St. Louis George Washington University One University Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63121-4499 Clio is published twice a year. Politics & History section fees The Program Chairs for the Politics and History are $10.00 for APSA members. The APSA membership form is available online at http://www.apsanet.org/ and by regular section at the 2009 American Political Science post addressed to: Association Meetings are: APSA Membership Office 1527 New Hampshire Ave. N.W. Washington, D.C. 20036 Kimberly Morgan, Telephone: (202) 483-2512 George Washington University ©2009, American Political Science Association. For continuous Julian Zelizer, receipt, section membership must be renewed yearly in addition to the annual membership required by the APSA. Princeton University (History) 2 Reconsidering Realignment from a Systemic Perspective Curt Nichols, Univeristy of Texas at Austin (Curt Nichols was co-recipient of the Presidency theory can be given its best reading in light of its own Research section’s 2008 Founder’s Award in foundations and advances in American political Honor of David Neveh for the best paper by a development research. graduate student. He received the award If the best way to make a bold transition is [along with Adam Myers] for: “The Good, The simply to make it, then the way for me to begin is by Bad, and The Ugly: Exploiting the Opportunity suggesting that we must abandon the misconception for Reconstructive Leadership.” He will begin that the best reading of realignment theory holds that teaching as an Assistant Professor at Baylor University in the Spring of 2010.) it is primarily about mass electoral behavior. While this proposition may seem to destroy the premise on which the realignment edifice is constructed (e.g., There can be little doubt that critics gained Key 1955; Burnham 1970; Schattschneider 1960; the upper hand in debates about the realignment Sundquist 1983), it does not end up doing so upon synthesis over the past quarter-century (McCormick further inspection. The proposition does, however, 1982, Shafer 1991, Gerring 1998). Indeed, many acknowledge the main thrust of the realignment argue that David Mayhew issued the theory its final critique, which has long based its attack in an coup de grâce in 2002 with his fifteen-pronged electoral record strewn with irregularities, attack against what he calls the once “vibrant source discrepancies, alternate patterns, and missing of ideas” that had become “an impediment to evidence. Yet, it suggests that this avenue of assault understanding” (5). However, the recent (as well as defense) has been focused at the wrong concurrence of dramatic events — including the level of analysis and on the wrong causal collapse of the Republican party brand, the onset of mechanisms. If my starting proposition is correct, a financial crisis, President Obama’s historic victory, and realignment isn’t fundamentally about critical the strengthening of Democratic majorities in elections, then much from past debates need not be Congress, and the apparent willingness of partisan rehashed and we can get to the heart of the leaders to use their newfound authority to pursue phenomenon by turning to examine its path altering legislation — have suggested to many underexplored foundations. that a realigning moment has again come to As is so often overlooked in narrowly- American politics. If this is the case, and I would focused electoral debates (by both champions and argue that it is, political science has the chance to critics), Burnham rooted the “mainsprings” of observe the phenomenon while it happens and to realignment in a broad systemic perspective (1970). learn from it. Indeed, as was suggested in the From this view, the American polity combines a prompt calling for thoughts on this topic, “if this is a stasis-tending political system with a dynamic socio- realigning moment for American politics, it is likely to economic one. Realignments are then “tension- be a realigning moment for the study of American management” mechanisms, periodically allowing the political development as well.” former system to come into line with the later. As a In answering the call for renewed debate, let result of this macro view, Burnham adopted what me first clarify that my aim is not to lavish uncritical evolutionary paleontology would later call a praise on the canonical version of realignment theory punctuated equilibrium model of change to describe but rather to prevent the best aspects of it from the general contours of American political being buried. I thus propose to outline how the continued on page 50 3 Politics and History Panels at the 2009 American Political Science Association Meetings Co-Chairs: Kimberly Morgan, George Washington University Julian Zelizer, Princeton University (History) Business Meeting: Friday, September 4 6:15-7:15 pm, Convention Centre 713B Reception: Friday, September 4 7:30-9:00 pm, Convention Centre 711 Thursday, September 3, 8:00 AM Panel 7-6 Standardizing the American State: Historical

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