Uncertainty in American Politics; Ed. by Barry C. Burden

"This book represents an exciting intellectual meeting of researchers from diverse subfields to analyze how and why uncertainty affects American politics. It seeks to bridge research traditions that have seldom spoken to one another. Although used by formal theorists, empiricists, and historians in a parallel fashion for a number of years, the notion of uncertainty often has been introduced only to explain away anomalies, provide backing for a large argument, or justify a particular methodology. Uncertainty rarely has been considered in its own right or as a concept that might connect researchers from different subfields. The authors demonstrate some of the many substantive effects that uncertainty has on the bureaucracy, voters, and elected officials. They also reveal the origins and consequences of uncertainty to remind researchers across the discipline how central the idea should be to any serious study of U.S. politics."--Jacket.