A New Social Ontology of Government: Consent, Coordination, and Authority (Foundations of Government and Public Administration)

This book provides a better understanding of some of the central puzzles of empirical political science: how does "government" express will and purpose? How do political institutions come to have effective causal powers in the administration of policy and regulation? What accounts for both plasticity and perseverance of political institutions and practices? And how are we to formulate a better understanding of the persistence of dysfunctions in government and public administration - failures to achieve public goods, the persistence of self-dealing behavior by the actors of the state, and the apparent ubiquity of corruption even within otherwise high-functioning governments? Daniel Little is Professor of Sociology and Public Policy at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, USA, and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. His research focuses on the philosophy of social science.-- Provided by publisher Front Matter ....Pages i-xi Ontology and Government (Daniel Little)....Pages 1-15 Scientific Realism and the Study of Government (Daniel Little)....Pages 17-34 The Ontology of Composition (Daniel Little)....Pages 35-52 Intellectual Tools for Understanding Government (Daniel Little)....Pages 53-70 Institutions, Norms, and Networks (Daniel Little)....Pages 71-90 Sources of Organizational Failure (Daniel Little)....Pages 91-109 Electoral Democracy (Daniel Little)....Pages 111-123 What Does Government Do? (Daniel Little)....Pages 125-144 Governments as Regulators (Daniel Little)....Pages 145-160 Concluding Observations (Daniel Little)....Pages 161-164 Back Matter ....Pages 165-178