Networks of Political Actors

14 Nov 2009 08:47

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One of the things I'm interested in is understanding how network forms of organization emerge among political actors, how they affect decision-making, and how they interact with other social networks and institutions. I have a ridiculously over-ambitious research project, about networks of cronyism, that I'd like to do, but in the meanwhile I;m settling for small steps. Presumably, like other social networks, they serve as platforms for information exchange, deliberation, and other forms of collective cognition. Formal political organizations can also serve these functions, but it seems easier to make organizations democratically accountable than it is networks --- is this a problem? How does their structure compare to that of other networks?

Recommended:
• James Fowler
  • "Legislative Cosponsorship Networks in the U.S. House and Senate," Social Networks forthcoming [Short version of the conference paper "Who is the Best Connected Congressperson?" PDF]
  • "Who is the Best Connected Congressperson? A Study of Legislative Cosponsorship Networks" [Long version of the journal paper. PDF]
• Mason A. Porter, Peter J. Mucha, M. E. J. Newman and Casey M. Warmbrand, "A network analysis of committees in the U.S. House of Representatives", Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) 102 (2005): 7057--7062 [PDF reprint via Mark]

To read:
• Mariam Abou Zahab and Olivier Roy, Islamist Networks: The Afghan-Pakistan Connection
• Daniel P. Carpenter, The Forging of Bureaucratic Autonomy: Reputations, Networks, and Policy Innovation in Executive Agencies, 1862--1928 [Blurb]
• Gerald M. Easter, Reconstructing the State: Personal Networks and Elite Identity in Soviet Russia [Review from H-Russia]
• Maarten A. Hajer and Hendrik Wagenaar (eds.), Deliberative Policy Analysis: Understanding Governance in the Network Society [blurb]
• Michael T. Heaney
  • Identity, Coalitions, and Influence: The Politics of Interest Group Networks in Health Policy [PDF, 2.8Mb]
  • "Issue Networks, Information, and Interest Group Alliances: The Case of Wisconsin Welfare Politics, 1993--99", State Politics and Policy Quarterly, 4:3 (Fall 2004): 237--270 [PDF reprint]
• Michael T. Heaney and Scott D. McClurg (eds.), Social Networks and American Politics, special issue (vol. 37, no. 5 = September 2009) of American Politics Research
• Margaret E. Keck and Kathryn Sikkink, Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics ["Examines the networks of activists that operate across national borders, including such alliances as anti-slavery movements and woman suffrage campaigns in the past and today's transnational activism in human rights and environmental politics."]
• David Knoke, Political Networks: The Structural Perspective
• Anne-Marie Slaughter, A New World Order [Blurb, with link to full text of introduction]
• Jasmien Van Daele, "Engineering Social Peace: Networks, Ideas, and the Founding of the International Labour Organization", International Review of Social History 50 (2005): 435--466 [From the abstract: "In 1919 a pioneering generation of scholars, social policy experts, and politicians designed an unprecedented international organizational framework for labour politics. The majority of the founding fathers of this new institution, the International Labour Organization (ILO), had made great strides in social thought and action before 1919. The core members all knew one another from earlier private professional and ideological networks, where they exchanged knowledge, experiences, and ideas on social policy. In this study, one key question is the extent to which prewar 'epistemic communities' ... and political networks, such as the Second International, were a decisive factor in the institutionalization of international labour politics. In the postwar euphoria, the idea of a 'makeable society' was an important catalyst behind the social engineering of the ILO architects. ... This article also deals with how the utopian idea(l)s of the founding fathers --- social justice and the right to decent work --- were changed by diplomatic and political compromises made at the Paris Peace Conference...."]
• Andrew Scott Waugh, Liuyi Pei, James H. Fowler, Peter J. Mucha, Mason Alexander Porter, "Party Polarization in Congress: A Social Networks Approach", SSRN/1437055