基本説明
Argues that placing politics in time - constructing "moving pictures" rather than snapshots - can castly enrich our understanding of complex social dynamics.
Full Description
This groundbreaking book represents the most systematic examination to date of the often-invoked but rarely examined declaration that "history matters." Most contemporary social scientists unconsciously take a "snapshot" view of the social world. Yet the meaning of social events or processes is frequently distorted when they are ripped from their temporal context. Paul Pierson argues that placing politics in time--constructing "moving pictures" rather than snapshots--can vastly enrich our understanding of complex social dynamics, and greatly improve the theories and methods that we use to explain them. Politics in Time opens a new window on the temporal aspects of the social world. It explores a range of important features and implications of evolving social processes: the variety of processes that unfold over significant periods of time, the circumstances under which such different processes are likely to occur, and above all, the significance of these temporal dimensions of social life for our understanding of important political and social outcomes.
Ranging widely across the social sciences, Pierson's analysis reveals the high price social science pays when it becomes ahistorical. And it provides a wealth of ideas for restoring our sense of historical process. By placing politics back in time, Pierson's book is destined to have a resounding and enduring impact on the work of scholars and students in fields from political science, history, and sociology to economics and policy analysis.
Contents
List of Figures and Tables ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction: Placing Politics in Time 1 Chapter One Positive Feedback and Path Dependence 17 Chapter Two Timing and Sequence 54 Chapter Three Long-Term Processes 79 Chapter Four The Limits of Institutional Design 103 Chapter Five Institutional Development 133 Conclusion Temporal Context in Social Science Inquiry 167 Bibliography 179 Index 195
