The Search for American Political Development

Karen Orren is Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her areas of expertise are American Political History and Institutional Development. Stephen Skowronek is the Pelatiah Perit Professor of Political and Social Science at Yale University. He is the author of Building A New American State, The Expansion of National Administrative Capacities, 1877-1920, and The Politics Presidents Make: Leadership from John Adams to Bill Clinton. He is also, with Karen Orren, the managing Editor of Studies In American Political Development. He has been a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and has held the French-American Foundation Chair in American Civilization at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociale in Paris.

"A brilliant, disquieting, and demandingly dense analysis of current and future American Political Development (APD) research. An instant classic among political scientists, historians, and economists. Essential." E.C. Dreyer, emeritus, University of Tulsa, CHOICE

• 1. The historical construction of politics; 2. Unraveling the premise: the cultural critique; 3. The institutional turn: rethinking order and change in time: 4. Political development: the definition; 5. Political development: the issue.