Networks of Political Actors

08 Oct 2024 15:53

---

One of the things I'm interested in is understanding how network forms of organization emerge among political actors, how they affect decision-making, and how they interact with other social networks and institutions. I have a ridiculously over-ambitious research project, about networks of cronyism, that I'd like to do, but in the meanwhile I'm settling for small steps. Presumably, like other social networks, they serve as platforms for information exchange, deliberation, and other forms of collective cognition. Formal political organizations can also serve these functions, but it seems easier to make organizations democratically accountable than it is networks --- is this a problem? How does their structure compare to that of other networks?

Recommended (very misc.):
• James Fowler
  • "Legislative Cosponsorship Networks in the U.S. House and Senate," Social Networks forthcoming [Short version of the conference paper "Who is the Best Connected Congressperson?" PDF]
  • "Who is the Best Connected Congressperson? A Study of Legislative Cosponsorship Networks" [Long version of the journal paper. PDF]
• John Levi Martin, Social Structures [Particularly the stuff about patron-client networks]
• Mason A. Porter, Peter J. Mucha, M. E. J. Newman and Casey M. Warmbrand, "A network analysis of committees in the U.S. House of Representatives", Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) 102 (2005): 7057--7062 [PDF reprint via Mark]
• Nicolas Tackett, The Destruction of the Medieval Chinese Aristocracy
• Zeynep Tufekci, Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest
• Andrew Scott Waugh, Liuyi Pei, James H. Fowler, Peter J. Mucha, Mason Alexander Porter, "Party Polarization in Congress: A Social Networks Approach", SSRN/1437055

Pride compels me to recommend:
• Justin H. Gross, Cues and Heuristics on Capitol Hill: Relational Models of Decision-making in the United States Senate [Ph.D. thesis, Carnegie Mellon University, 2010]

Modesty forbids me to recommend:
• Justin H. Gross, Justin H. Kirkland and CRS, "Cosponsorship in the U.S. Senate: A Multilevel Two-Mode Approach to Detecting Subtle Social Predictors of Legislative Support" [Unpublished MS.; PDF preprint via Prof. Gross]

To read:
• Mariam Abou Zahab and Olivier Roy, Islamist Networks: The Afghan-Pakistan Connection
• Charli Carpenter, "Lost" Causes: Agenda Vetting in Global Issue Networks and the Shaping of Human Security
• Daniel P. Carpenter, The Forging of Bureaucratic Autonomy: Reputations, Networks, and Policy Innovation in Executive Agencies, 1862--1928
• Hilde De Weerdt, Information, Territory, and Networks: The Crisis and Maintenance of Empire in Song China
• Gerald M. Easter, Reconstructing the State: Personal Networks and Elite Identity in Soviet Russia [Review from H-Russia]
• Maarten A. Hajer and Hendrik Wagenaar (eds.), Deliberative Policy Analysis: Understanding Governance in the Network Society
• Michael T. Heaney
  • Identity, Coalitions, and Influence: The Politics of Interest Group Networks in Health Policy
  • "Issue Networks, Information, and Interest Group Alliances: The Case of Wisconsin Welfare Politics, 1993--99", State Politics and Policy Quarterly, 4:3 (Fall 2004): 237--270
• Michael T. Heaney and Scott D. McClurg (eds.), Social Networks and American Politics, special issue (vol. 37, no. 5 = September 2009) of American Politics Research
• Ben Hillman, Patronage and Power: Local State Networks and Party-State Resilience in Rural China
• Margaret E. Keck and Kathryn Sikkink, Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics
• David Knoke, Political Networks: The Structural Perspective
• Ann Mische, Partisan Publics: Communication and Contention across Brazilian Youth Activist Networks
• Derek O'Callaghan, Derek Greene, Maura Conway, Joe Carthy, Pádraig Cunningham, "Uncovering the Wider Structure of Extreme Right Communities Spanning Popular Online Networks", arxiv:1302.1726
• John M. Owen IV, The Clash of Ideas in World Politics: Transnational Networks, States, and Regime Change, 1510-2010
• Anne-Marie Slaughter, A New World Order
• Brandon Michael Stewart and Yuri M. Zhukov, "Choosing Your Neighbors: Networks of Diffusion in International Relations" [Preprint]
• Jasmien Van Daele, "Engineering Social Peace: Networks, Ideas, and the Founding of the International Labour Organization", International Review of Social History 50 (2005): 435--466
• Michael D. Ward, Katherine Stovel and Audrey Sacks, "Network Analysis and Political Science", Annual Review of Political Science 14 (2011): 245--264