Product Description

How can we best understand the major debates and recent movements in contemporary empirical political theory? Is there a human nature on which we can construct scientific theories of political life? What is the role of culture in shaping any such nature? How objective and value-free can political theories be? These are only a few of the issues addressed by this collection of essays from a disparate group of contributors .

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1832085 in Books
• Published on: 1997-10-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 364 pages

From the Inside Flap
"A formidable accomplishment. . . . A comprehensive representation of most of social theory and its vicissitudes in the second half of the twentieth century as they have fused and invigorated the discipline."--Neil Smelser, Director, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences

"This is an enlightening and highly readable guide to the turf wars in political science. It gives us insights on what our field is all about and how and what its leaders think."--Nancy Bermeo, Dept. of Politics, Princeton University

"The editor has done a magnificent job in of getting a baker's dozen of knowledgeable top scholars to discuss the development of empirical political theory. . . I learned something from virtually every essay, and I think other social and political scientists concerned with the status and character of empirical theory in their field, whatever their specialty and whatever their familiarity with its problems, will too. Reading and learning from this work is made even more enjoyable by the editor's and author's relaxed, lucid, literate, and often witty presentation of their concepts and thoughts, however complex."--John C. Wahlke, University of Arizona

"In the early 1950's David Easton made a plea and an argument for an empirical political science not simply cognizant of political theory but informed and shaped by it. Since then that plea has been more often acknowledged in lip-service than in practice. The essays collected in this volume give some hope that both the gulf between political science and political theory has begun to narrow--to the profit of both groups."--Tracy B. Strong, UCSD

From the Back Cover
"A formidable accomplishment. . . . A comprehensive representation of most of social theory and its vicissitudes in the second half of the twentieth century as they have fused and invigorated the discipline." (Neil Smelser, Director, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences)

About the Author
Kristen Renwick Monroe is Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Irvine. Her most recent books are The Heart of Altruism, nominated for a Pulitzer Prize (1996), and the edited volume, The Economic Approach to Politics (1991).

Customer Reviews

reveiw of contemporary empirical political theory
A formidable achievement, one of value for everyone interested in recent trends in social science