Abstracts

• DOI: 10.1177/106591298103400302
• Date: 01 September 1981
• Published date: 01 September 1981
• Subject Matter: Articles

ABSTRACTS

POLITICAL

THEORY

AND

THE

THEORY

OF

ACTION.

By John

G.

Gunnell.

Substantive

theoretical

claims

in

political

science

have

been

inhibited

by

a

dependence

of

the

concept

and

practice

of

theory

on

philosophical

arguments

about

the

character

of

social

scientific

inquiry.

Despite

the

importance

of

social

action

as

an

object

of

political

inquiry,

there

has

been

little

explicit

analysis

of

this

phenomenon

that

would

yield

criteria

for

specifying

and

explaining

it.

Epistemological

claims

about

the

explanation

of

action

must

be

distinguished

from

the

theory

of

action,

and

a

theory

of

the

structure

and

individuation

of

action

is

essential

to,

yet

must

be

distinguished

from,

the

explanation,

description,

and

evaluation

of

actions.

The

impli-

cations

of

the

theory

advanced

here

include

the

necessity

for

a

mode

of

inquiry

which

may

be

termed

symbolic

analysis,

the

conclusion

that

there

is

no

such

thing

as

a

specifically

political

theory,

and

the

absence

of

anything

more

than

a

pragmatic

distinction

between

individual

and

group

action.

UNDERSTANDING

THE

GENERAL

WILL.

By

Richard

K.

Dagger.

Few

concepts

in

the

history

of

political

thought

have

proved

so

troublesome

as

Rousseau’s

notion

of

the

general

will.

One

reason

for

this,

I

argue,

is

that

Rousseau

used

&dquo;the

general

will&dquo;

in

two

closely

related

but

different

ways

without

ever

explicitly

distinguishing

one

from

the

other.

There

is,

in

other

words,

an

implicit

and

unmarked

distinction

between

the

general

will

and

a

general

will

in

the

Social

Contract.

With

the

aid

of

this

distinction,

I

develop

an

interpreta-

tion

of

the

general

will

which

solves

some

of

the

mysteries

which

have

perplexed

readers

of

the

Social

Contract.

I

also

consider,

in

conclusion,

the

adequacy

of

Rousseau’s

notion

of

the

general

will

and

its

utility

for

political

philosophy.

THE

GAG

ORDER:

ASPHYXIATING

THE

FIRST

AMENDMENT.

By

Robert

T.

Roper.

The

manuscript

first

discusses

the

historical

development

of

a

U.S.

Supreme

Court

decision

which

prohibits

the

enforcement

of

Gag

Orders,

except

as

a

last

resort.

The

research

then

tests

some

of

the

Court’s

assumptions

in

that

decision

through

a

quasi-experimental

research

design.

After

considering

and

rejecting

various

research

approaches

used

by

others

to

study

jury

decision-making,

jury-simulation

-

a

simulation

which

addressed

some

of

the

approach’s

more

important

problems

(i.e.,

structural

and

functional

verisimilitude)

was

determined

to

be

the

most

effective

way

to

test

these

hypotheses.

The

article

spends

a

good

deal

of

time

discussing

the

operationalizing

of

the

simulation

to

avoid

the

stereotyped

classification.

The

sample

con-

sisted

of

110

juries

composed

of

almost

1000

potential

jurors

in

Fayette

County,

Ky.

The

findings

indicate

that

where

conventional

safeguards

(e.g.,

a

meaningful

voir

dire,

a

change

of

venue,

etc.)

are

ineffective

at

precluding

any

impact

of

pre-trial

publicity,

the

prejudicial

effect

that

most

people

anticipate

of

low-level

pre-trial

publicity

does

not

materialize.

THE

BENEVOLENT

BUREAUCRAT:

POLITICAL

AUTHORITY

IN

CHILDREN’S

LITERATURE

AND

TELEVISION.

By

Thomas

R.

Marshall.

Political

scientists

have

only

recently

begun

to

explore

the

mass

media’s

role

in

preadult

political

socialization.

Few,

if

any,

studies

measure

the

image

of

government

which

non-

newscast,

child-oriented

mass

media

present.

To

measure

the

image

which

children’s

books

and

non-newscast

television

present,

a

sample

of

such

books

and

programs

was

content

analyzed.

Results

suggest

that

government

symbols,

programs,

and

officials

appear

with

a

surprisingly

high

frequency

on

&dquo;normal&dquo;

(non-newscast)

television

and

in

children’s

books.

When

they

do

appear,

government

officials

are

typically

presented

as

both

benevolent

and

competent -

at

least

compared

to

those

private

sector

figures

with

whom

a

child

would

be

familiar.

The

image

of government

presented

by

the

child-oriented

mass

media

corresponds

strikingly

to

young

children’s

reported

views

of

government.

Implications

for

the

impact

of the

mass

media

toward

preadult

political

socialization

are

offered.

THE

POLITICAL

INCORPORATION

OF

THE

NEWLY

ENFRANCHISED

VOTER:

ORGANIZATIONAL

EN-

CAPSULATION

AND

SOCIALIST

LABOR

PARTY

DEVELOPMENT.

By

E.

Spencer

Wellhofer.

The

effectiveness

of

party

organization

is

modeled

by

a

modified

Cobb-Douglas

production

function-

where

inputs

are

the

characteristics

of

party

organization

and

output

is

the

popular

vote

of

the

party.

The

mathematical

properties

of the

function

suggest

the

dynamics

of

party

organizational

efforts

to

voter

mobilization.

The

findings

of

the

model

have

implications

for