Duncan MacRae

The Relation Between Roll Call Votes and Constituencies in the Massachusetts House of Representatives.

A major concern of political theorists has been the definition of the proper role of legislators in relation to their constituencies. Yet relatively little analysis has been made of the uniformities of behavior that actually prevail in these relations. Such uniformities, if they could be found, would bear directly on the theory of the party system, on speculation about the nature of representative government, and on the feasibility of proposals for a reordering of party practices. It has been shown that the tendencies of Congressmen to vote with their party or to cross party lines are associated with the similarity or dissimilarity between party policy and presumed interest of constituency. One aim of this study is to test the applicability of this proposition to the Massachusetts House of Representatives, by examination of the relation between roll-call votes and constituency characteristics. The evidence indicates that a similar relation exists in this body, and has been present consistently throughout the last two decades.

Game Theory and Cumulative Voting in Illinois: 1902–1954.

Since the theory of games was first made widely available, with application to economic behavior, its use has been suggested in many other areas, from the global to the individual. Several correspondences between game theory and certain aspects of political process have been noted. The contribution of game theory to substantive knowledge in the empirical sciences, however, has been modest; Luce and Raiffa judge that its impact has been greater in applied mathematics. The area of political behavior—despite the apparent applicability of the notion of conflict of interest—is similarly lacking in studies, although a few notable exceptions exist.

Scientific Communication, Ethical Argument, and Public Policy *

The paper argues that ethical discourse is intimately involved in the research literature of social science, and especially of political science, but is relegated to a subsidiary position. It therefore shares some of the vagueness, flexibility, and potential self-contradiction of the discourse of everyday life, rather than being sharpened by rational criticism. The norms governing scientific discourse provide not only for empirical testing, but also for rational criticism in the formulation of theories; an analogous type of criticism is shared by legal discourse. Some of the norms of scientific communication may be transferred to ethics by the specification of rules for ethical argument, requiring that arguments derive from previously specified, clear and consistent “ethical hypotheses.” Within such rules, ethical systems formulated by social scientists and philosophers may be compared critically. Systems amenable to such comparison include those of welfare economics, cost-benefit analysis, and formal democratic theory. The discourse embodying this argument and criticism is particularly appropriate within the normative tradition of political science. Its possible benefits include clarity about our valuations; communication among disciplines that enlarges the perspectives of each discipline; and a more independent, self-conscious examination within the university of the criteria for policy formation.

Book Reviews : Scandinavian Political Studies, vol. 5. Edited by Olof Ruin. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1970. 366 pp. NKr. 56.00

The institutions contacted by those in need of assistance are divided into &dquo;proper institutions for social assistance&dquo; (e.g. public assistance offices, health and unemployment insurance funds, maternal care agencies, rehabilitation centres, family guidance services) and &dquo;other social institutions&dquo; (general practitioners, hospitals, tax authorities, lawyers etc.). It is shown that the mean number of institutions contacted by those involved in the study was 4.7, about half of these being of each type. After having described the number of contacts and the duration of the long-term cases, the author tries to describe the clients’ need for guidance and counselling. Such a need is said to exist if the client has expressed confusion, explicitly stated that he needs guidance, if he lacks elementary knowledge of his social rights or if it could otherwise be assumed that he