- 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
The literature on American political development has generated a rich array of tools and concepts for thinking about the dynamics of state formation. More often than not, however, these devices appear as alternatives, with analysts prompted to choose among them. Seldom are the dynamics described brought to bear on one another. This chapter examines three of these dynamics—displacement, path dependence, and creative syncretism—and considers how each informs state formation in America. It then introduces the concept of a “policy state,” a concept which, among other things, can bring these three dynamics more directly into alignment, pull forward their respective insights, and recast the analytic choices they offer. Proposing a “policy state” as the emergent form, identifies more precisely what has been “displaced” along the “path” of American state development and also the openings for “creative syncretism” which have proliferated along the way.
Keywords: Constitution, creative syncretism, displacement, entrepreneurship, jurisdiction, path dependence, policy, policy state, pragmatism, rights, structure
Karen Orren, UCLA
Stephen Skowronek, Pelatiah Perit Professor of Political and Social Science, Yale University.
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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
