- The Oxford Handbook of American Political Development
- Dedication
- Acknowledgments
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- List of Contributors
- Introduction: The Distinctiveness and Necessity of American Political Development
- Pathways to the Present: Political Development in America
- Analyzing American Political Development as It Happens
- Political Economy and American Political Development
- Liberalism and American Political Development
- Gender and the American State
- Political Culture: Consensus, Conflict, and Culture War
- APD and Rational Choice
- Comparative Politics and American Political Development
- American Political Development and Political History
- Qualitative Methods and American Political Development
- The American State
- Congress and American Political Development
- The Presidency and American Political Development: The Advent—and Illusion—of an Executive-Centered Democracy
- Law and the Courts
- Bureaucracy and the Administrative State
- Federalism and American Political Development
- The States and American Political Development
- Cities and Urbanization in American Political Development
- Representation
- Patterns in American Elections
- How Suffrage Politics Made—and Makes—America
- Political Parties in American Political Development
- Polarization and American Political Development
- Public Opinion
- Interest Groups and American Political Development
- Social Movements and the Institutionalization of Dissent in America
- The Color Line and the State: Race and American Political Development
- The Welfare State
- The Carceral State and American Political Development
- Identity and Law in American Political Development
- Seeing Sexuality: State Development and the Fragmented Status of LGBTQ Citizenship
- The Family
- The Political Development of the Regulatory State
- Index
Abstract and Keywords
Rational choice and American political development (APD) both emerged as responses to (perceived) limitations with the dominant behavioral tradition. While their critiques were based on very different research traditions, similarities were also present; in particular, both rational choice and APD approaches focused on the importance of institutions for studying political outcomes. Over time, rational choice and APD research has converged to a significant degree, as scholars in both traditions have increasingly been exposed to different theoretical and methodological perspectives and thus become consumers of each other’s work. This chapter documents how and why rational choice research has moved in an APD direction.
Keywords: rational choice, historical institutionalism, anti-behavioralism, equilibrium institutions, structures, rules, procedures, processes, defining American political development, methodological pluralism
Jeffery A. Jenkins is professor of politics at the University of Virginia.
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- The Oxford Handbook of American Political Development
- Dedication
- Acknowledgments
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- List of Contributors
- Introduction: The Distinctiveness and Necessity of American Political Development
- Pathways to the Present: Political Development in America
- Analyzing American Political Development as It Happens
- Political Economy and American Political Development
- Liberalism and American Political Development
- Gender and the American State
- Political Culture: Consensus, Conflict, and Culture War
- APD and Rational Choice
- Comparative Politics and American Political Development
- American Political Development and Political History
- Qualitative Methods and American Political Development
- The American State
- Congress and American Political Development
- The Presidency and American Political Development: The Advent—and Illusion—of an Executive-Centered Democracy
- Law and the Courts
- Bureaucracy and the Administrative State
- Federalism and American Political Development
- The States and American Political Development
- Cities and Urbanization in American Political Development
- Representation
- Patterns in American Elections
- How Suffrage Politics Made—and Makes—America
- Political Parties in American Political Development
- Polarization and American Political Development
- Public Opinion
- Interest Groups and American Political Development
- Social Movements and the Institutionalization of Dissent in America
- The Color Line and the State: Race and American Political Development
- The Welfare State
- The Carceral State and American Political Development
- Identity and Law in American Political Development
- Seeing Sexuality: State Development and the Fragmented Status of LGBTQ Citizenship
- The Family
- The Political Development of the Regulatory State
- Index
