The political practice of genetic epistemology

Genetic epistemology is sometimes taken by those unfamiliar with it as a justification for a meritocracy of moral reasoning and the continued oppression of people employing reasoning at lower stages than those who seek to perpetuate the oppression. Whether this interpretation is praised or reviled, it remains erroneous. In particular, this misunderstanding is applied to attempts by genetic epistemologists to apply its insights to the construction of the larger social world. However, a genetic-epistemological politics is really characterized by a concern for maintaining systems permitting free discourse among moral agents. This article outlines the nature of the erroneous interpretations and discusses genetic epistemology's proper application to politics. Stephen chilton is assistant professor of political science at the University of Minnesota at Duluth, where he specializes in conceptual analysis in the fields of comparative politics and political psychology. He is the author ofDefining Political Development (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1988);Grounding Political Development (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1991); and (with Shawn Rosenberg and Dana Ward) ofPolitical Reasoning and Cognition: A Piagetian View (Duke University Press, 1988).     

Do Constitutional Rights Make a Difference?

Although the question of whether constitutional rights matter is of great theoretical and practical importance, little is known about whether constitutional rights impact government behavior. In this article, we test the effectiveness of six political rights. We hypothesize that a difference exists between organizational rights—most notably, the rights to unionize and form political parties—and individual rights. Specifically, we suggest that organizational rights increase de facto rights protection because they create organizations with the incentives and means to protect the underlying right, which renders these rights self‐enforcing. Such organizations are not necessarily present to protect individual rights, which could make individual rights less effective. We test our theory using a variety of statistical methods on a data set of constitutional rights for 186 countries. The results support our theory: Organizational rights are associated with increased de facto rights protection, while individual rights are not.     

Development of an Index of Subsidized Housing Availability and its Relationship to Housing Insecurity

Housing insecurity is a known threat to child health understanding predictors of housing insecurity can help inform policies to protect the health of young children in low-income households. This study sheds light on the relationship between housing insecurity and availability of housing that is affordable to low-income households.

We developed a county-level index of availability of subsidized housing needed to meet the demand of low-income households. Our results estimate that if subsidized units are made available to an additional 5% of the eligible population, the odds of overcrowding decrease by 26% and the odds of families making multiple moves decrease by 31%. Both of these are known predictors of poor child health outcomes. Thus, these results suggest that state and federal investments in expanding the stock of subsidized housing could reduce housing insecurity and thereby also improve the health and well-being of young children, including their families' food security status.     

Strategic poll responses when elections create mandates

Larger margins of victory impart mandates that pull government policy toward a winner's platform. Voters with centrist preferences then may find pre-election polls useful. Centrists wish to moderate mandates and may abstain rather than vote for the nearest candidate. If polls are known to elicit voting intentions, then races will tend to be closer than predicted, and turnout will be highest in races predicted to be tight. However, voters at the extremes will respond to polls with guile – indeed all voters will. As a result, centrists cannot rely on pre-election polls, and poll results have no effect on voting.     

Public resource allocation,strategic behavior,and status quo bias in choice experiments

Public Choice - Choice experiments, a survey methodology in which consumers face a series of choice tasks requiring them to indicate their most preferred option from a choice set containing two or...     

Armed Struggle,Peace Process and Parliamentarism: James Connolly and the Changing Politics of Provisional Republicanism

Since 1998 Sinn Féin has moved from supporting an armed campaign to full participation in the electoral politics of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. In so doing they have had to moderate much of their rhetoric in regard to revolution and armed struggle. They have not, however, jettisoned the attachment to one of their key iconic figures, James Connolly. The retention of Connolly as a central figure in the Provisionals’ political discourse presents an opportunity to use him to examine both continuity and change in the doctrine of Ireland's most prominent republican faction.     

Searchers vs surveyors in estimating the monetary value of a QALY: resolving a nasty dilemma for NICE

Recently, for many health economics researchers, empirical estimation of the monetary valuation of a quality-adjusted life year (QALY) has become an important endeavour. Different philosophical and practical approaches to this have emerged. On the one hand, there is a view that, with health-care budgets set centrally, decision-making bodies within the system can iterate, from observation of a series of previous decisions, towards the value of a QALY, thus searching for such a value. Alternatively, and more consistent with the approach taken in other public sectors, individual members of the public are surveyed with the aim of directly eliciting a preference-based - also known as a willingness-to-pay-based (WTP-based) - value of a QALY. While the former is based on supply-side factors and the latter on demand, both in fact suffer from informational deficiencies. Sole reliance on either would necessitate an acceptance or accommodation of chronic inefficiencies in health-care resource allocation. On the basis of this observation, this paper makes the case that in order to approach optimal decision making in health-care provision, a framework incorporating and thus, to a degree, reconciling these two approaches is to be preferred.