Volume 118 - Number 3 - Fall 2003

Understanding the Bush Doctrine
Robert Jervis argues that the Bush doctrine presents a highly ambitious conception of U.S. foreign policy. Based on the premise that this is a period of great threat and great opportunity, the doctrine calls for the assertion and expansion of American power in service of hegemony. He concludes that this assertion and expansion is not likely to succeed.

Volume 2 - Number 2 - June 1887

The Study of Administration
Woodrow Wilson

Volume 118 - Number 4 - Winter 2003-04

Misperceptions, the Media, and the Iraq War
STEVEN KULL, CLAY RAMSAY, and EVAN LEWIS examine the prevalence of misperceptions related to the Iraq war among the American public: that weapons of mass destruction and evidence of close links between Iraq and al Qaeda had been found and that world public opinion approved of the United States going to war with Iraq. Such misperceptions were powerful predictors of support for the war, and their prevalence varied dramatically according to respondents’ primary source of news.

Volume 99 - Number 2 - Summer 1984

Will More Countries Become Democratic?
Samuel P. Huntington analyzes the preconditions for, and the processes of, democratization to evaluate the prospects for the emergence of additional democratic regimes in the world. He does not find those prospects very bright.

Volume 120 - Number 2 - Summer 2005

What Political Institutions Does Large-Scale Democracy Require?
Robert A. Dahl examines the political institutions necessary for a democratic country. He argues that a large-scale democracy requires the following political institutions: elected officials; free, fair, and frequent elections; freedom of expression; alternative sources of information; associational autonomy; and inclusive citizenship.

Volume 125 - Number 4 - Winter 2010-11

Policy and Politics in the United Kingdom and the United States: A Review Essay
Robert Jervis examines policy and politics in the United Kingdom and the United States. He offers a review and assessment of the recently published autobiography, A Journey: My Political Life by Tony Blair and Bob Woodward's Obama's Wars.

Volume 116 - Number 2 - Summer 2001

What Went Wrong? The Collapse of the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process
Jerome Slater examines the collapse of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process in 2000 and argues provocatively that contrary to the prevailing view, it is Israel rather than the Palestinians that bears the primary responsibility, not only for the latest breakdown but for the entire course of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since 1948.

Volume 116 - Number 4 - Winter 2001-02

Ending Welfare As We Know It: A Reform Still in Progress
Demetrios James Caraley summarizes the political and social dynamics that brought about the repeal of Aid to Families of Dependent Children (AFDC) and analyzes the effects of the new Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program over its first four years. He considers possibilities for further changes in cash assistance for poor families during the program’s necessary reauthorization in 2002.

Volume 94 - Number 4 - Winter 1979-80

Backward Mapping: Implementation Research and Policy Decisions
Richard F. Elmore describes an approach to designing policy implementation that takes as its point of departure the ultimate outcome of the policy and then "maps backward" to establish what intervening steps are necessary to bring it about. He argues that "backward mapping" is a superior strategy to "forward mapping," which begins planing implementation from the top down.

Volume 90 - Number 1 - Spring 1975

Roosevelt, Truman, and the Atomic Bomb, 1941-1945
Barton J. Bernstein explains the Roosevelt and Truman policies on the construction and use of the atomic bomb.

Volume 113 - Number 3 - Fall 1998

Jimmy Carter's Public Policy Ex-Presidency
John Whiteclay Chambers II analyzes Jimmy Carter's post-presidential career. He concludes that Carter's most important post-White House legacy may be his creation of a Public Policy Ex-Presidency.

Volume 126 - Number 3 - Fall 2011

Illicit Globalization: Myths, Misconceptions, and Historical Lessons
Peter Andreas challenges common myths and misconceptions about the illicit side of globalization and emphasizes the ways in which states shape and even exploit the illicit global economy. He argues that illicit globalization is not new, and its relationship to the state is not only antagonistic but also in some respects mutually profitable.

Volume 124 - Number 2 - Summer 2009

What the New Deal Did
David M. Kennedy revisits the New Deal’s relevance to our own time. He concludes that the stubborn persistence of the Great Depression through the decade of the 1930s opened the political space for the New Deal’s greatest accomplishments, all of which were aimed at reducing risk in key sectors of the economy and imparting a measure of security to American life for generations thereafter.

Volume 140 - Number 3 - Fall 2025

The 2024 Presidential and Congressional Elections: Small Wave, Seismic Effects
Gary C. Jacobson analyzes the 2024 presidential and congressional elections. He argues that Donald Trump’s return to the White House resulted primarily from the unwavering support from the majority of ordinary Republicans and from swing voters unhappy with the economy and illegal immigration.

Volume 133 - Number 1 - Spring 2018

Understanding White Polarization in the 2016 Vote for President: The Sobering Role of Racism and Sexism
BRIAN F. SCHAFFNER, MATTHEW MACWILLIAMS, and Tatishe Nteta examine the extent to which economic insecurity, racism, and sexism were important factors in determining vote choices in the 2016 American presidential election. They find that racism and sexism were particularly strong predictors of vote choice in 2016, while economic insecurity was much less important.

Volume 139 - Number 3 - Fall 2024

How Far-Right Extremism Changed American Body Politic
BRIGITTE NACOS AND YAELIBLOCH-ELKON examine the rise of far-right extremism and violence in the United States. They argue that Donald Trump played a starring role in bringing hate speech, threats, and political violence into the political mainstream.

Volume 104 - Number 2 - Summer 1989

Causal Stories and the Formation of Policy Agendas
Deborah A. Stone builds a theory of problem definition to explain how social conditions are transformed into problems on a community's policy agenda. She shows how causal stories are central to this process and examines political strategies for manipulating the stories.

Volume 72 - Number 3 - September 1957

Notes on Roosevelt's "Quarantine" Speech
Dorothy Borg

Volume 105 - Number 2 - Summer 1990

The Changing Nature of World Power
JOSEPH S. NYE discusses theories about the decline of the United States that recently have become popular. He argues that these theories are based on arbitrary schematizations and that in order to correctly understand possible hegemonic decline, basic distinctions among the terms "power," "balance of power," and "hegemony" must be recognized.

Volume 140 - Number 3 - Fall 2025

Democracy and Climate Change for Realists: An Integrated Empirical and Normative Assessment
J.S. MALOY assesses empirical and normative theories on democracy, autocracy, and climate change and argues that democracy’s superiority is less compellingly supported than regime-neutrality.