Product Description
Game theory is the mathematical analysis of strategic interaction. In the fifty years since the appearance of von Neumann and Morgenstern's classic Theory of Games and Economic Behavior (Princeton, 1944), game theory has been widely applied to problems in economics. Until recently, however, its usefulness in political science has been underappreciated, in part because of the technical difficulty of the methods developed by economists. James Morrow's book is the first to provide a standard text adapting contemporary game theory to political analysis. It uses a minimum of mathematics to teach the essentials of game theory and contains problems and their solutions suitable for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in all branches of political science.

Morrow begins with classical utility and game theory and ends with current research on repeated games and games of incomplete information. The book focuses on noncooperative game theory and its application to international relations, political economy, and American and comparative politics. Special attention is given to models of four topics: bargaining, legislative voting rules, voting in mass elections, and deterrence. An appendix reviews relevant mathematical techniques. Brief bibliographic essays at the end of each chapter suggest further readings, graded according to difficulty. This rigorous but accessible introduction to game theory will be of use not only to political scientists but also to psychologists, sociologists, and others in the social sciences. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Great for the Novice
If you have never heard of Game Theory before and want to know how it can be applied to many real life situations in easy non-technical vernacular, this book is for you. It recognizes that highly technical definitions are only important for the high theorist and instead relates information on Game Theory almost as a story that can be understood by anyone interested in the topic. It's a great read and has definitely sparked my interest in the field.

Good concepts, bad writing
I am currently using this book as a text for a graduate level game theory course for political scientists.Although Morrow does a good job covering the important concepts, the writing is wordy, awkward, and confusing.It makes it difficult to follow some of the more complicated problems, especially when learning the ideas for the first time.I would only recommend this book for people who already have a grasp of the ideas and want to learn more and see examples -- not so useful for first-time game theorists.

Answer keys are a little bit questionable.
There are apparently two versions floating around (from the same edition and same printing) with different answer keys in the back for some of the more difficult problems.

Otherwise, this is the standard textbook for game theory for political science.I'm inspired to read Schelling!

Excellent graduate level textbook
This book is an excellent introduction to game theory for the politicalscience graduate student.Although some prior knowledge of economics andgame theory would certainly help, the early chapters in the book areexcellent in familiarizing the reader with basic formal concepts.

A fewcomments by the previous reviewer may be misunderstood by some readers. This is NOT a "general concepts" book - in other words this isNOT game theory for poets - not that I hold anything against poets.Thisbook does require some undergraduate level mathematics, mainly differentialand integral calculus.Those looking for rigorous formal proofs of alltheorems will be disappointed, but this is a technical book with anemphasis on demonstrating the application of formal tools to commonproblems in political science.Some of the material such as the chapter onperfect and sequential equilibria can be quite challenging.

If you merelywish to get a sense of what formal political science is all about and donot intend to actually fire up the old calculator, I suggest RobertAxelrod's excellent book "The Evolution of Cooperation".

Excellent introductory text: it's as technical as you want
One of the nice things about this book is it can be as technical or mathematical as you want.If you just want the concepts, you won't be jarred by lots of equations.But if you like the technical aspects,they're all there, especially in the appendix.

Great simple treatment ofeverything from basic Nash Equilibrium to more sophisticated concepts suchas Bayesian information analysis.

The only potential disappointment ofthis book is if you know game theory well and are looking for somethingvery sophisticated, this is not the book for you -- not because there'sanything wrong with this book, but because it wasn't designed for thatlevel. ... Read more

Product Description
Drawing on the rich resources of the ten-volume series of The Oxford Handbooks of Political Science, this one-volume distillation provides a comprehensive overview of all the main branches of contemporary political science:political theory; political institutions; political behavior; comparative politics; international relations; political economy; law and politics; public policy; contextual political analysis; and political methodology.Sixty-seven of the top political scientists worldwide survey recent developments in those fields and provide penetrating introductions to exciting new fields of study.Following in the footsteps of the New Handbook of Political Science edited by Robert Goodin and Hans-Dieter Klingemann a decade before, this Oxford Handbook of Political Science will become an indispensable guide to the scope and methods of political science as a whole.It will serve as the reference book of record for political scientists and for those following their work for years to come. ... Read more

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Fifteen years in the making, Hyperpolitics is an interactive dictionary offering a wholly original approach for understanding and working with the most central concepts in political science. Designed and authored by two of the discipline’s most distinguished scholars, its purpose is to provide its readers with fresh critical insights about what informs these political concepts, as well as a method by which readers—and especially students—can unpack and reconstruct them on their own.

            International in scope, Hyperpolitics draws upon a global vocabulary in order to turn complex ideas into an innovative teaching aid. Its companion open access website (www.hyperpolitics.net) has already been widely acknowledged in the fields of education and political science and will continue to serve as a formidable hub for the book’s audience. Much more than a dictionary and enhanced by dynamic graphics, Hyperpolitics introduces an ingenious means of understanding complicated concepts that will be an invaluable tool for scholars and students alike.

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Customer Reviews (1)

A much needed corrective to Southeast Asian Studies
This is a much needed corrective to the Southeast Asian Studies literature. As the authors argue, Southeast Asia has much to offer the political science discipline. The region's natural diversity makes it a great laboratory for testing theories. However, Southeast Asia has been markedly absent in the political science debates over "big question" theories. Much of the Southeast Asia literature stands accused of focusing on individual countries in-depth, but not engaging the theoretical debates or utilization of cross-country comparative studies.

Southeast Asia in Political Science: Theory, Region, and Qualitative Analysis (Contemporary Issues in Asia and Pacific) serves both as a defense of the field and a clarion call for a more active engagement between Southeast Asia and political science. The articles, written by some of the brightest young minds in the field, review the literature and highlight its contributions to political theory - as well as where it falls short. They generally take an unabashedly qualitative approach, but also stress the need for this approach to engage more explicitly in hypothesis elaboration or testing.

I hope I don't sound too immodest in saying this, but this book preaches exactly what I have said privately to colleagues for years, and I'm glad to see so many prominent Southeast Asianists recognizing the problems. As much as I love Southeast Asia, it has certainly been punching below its weight. If political science actually is to be a "science," questions of methodology are going to keep coming up.

The individual articles are all well-written and the authors know their fields. The one critique I have with the book comes rather from what it fails to address. As anybody who works with Southeast Asia knows, comparative studies are particularly difficult in this region. Unlike Latin America, Western Europe, and the Middle East, etc., there is no lingua franca or common history. It is a huge investment to learn enough even about one country, much less two or three. The same diversity that makes it an ideal laboratory for comparative research, as the authors allege, also makes it difficult to control variables. Moreover, data is often hard to come by and inaccessible. I would like to have seen more explicit discussion of these challenges and how to overcome them. For the young Southeast Asia scholars like myself, that might mean addressing whether it is worth investing in one, two, or any languages? How many countries can researchers can reasonably expertise in before spreading oneself too thin? In addition to the theoretical questions, these questions need to be addressed in order to situate Southeast Asia scholars more firmly within political science. ... Read more

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GREAT JOBS SERIES ANSWERS THE QUESTION, "WHAT CAN I DO WITH A MAJOR IN . . . ?"

Every college major gives students valuable skills and training, perfect for a wide range of careers. The Great Jobs series helps students:

• Assess talents and skills for a job
• Explore a wide range of career options
• Target the perfect career
• Present college majors as workplace assets
• Perfect their job search

And much more! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Informative but...
This review is for the Kindle verison.
One of the first problems that I noticed with this on my Kindle is that it is very slow each time I need to go to the next page. And no the memory is not full nor do I have music files on my Kindle. Compared to the other ebooks that I have this one is slow.
Second, there are at least five pages or locations if you will on the Kindle that the text is small but when you go to the next page the text is back to normal; or whatever setting you have selected as your font size. For example location 76-83; 255-60, 335 are just a few that the text is small but text returns to normal on the next page.
Third the way it has been copied to ebook format needs to be inproved; there are pages where there is a large gap between words; copying from the way it is on the Kindle to here as an example of what I am talking about "Others involvea general understanding of politics....."See there should not be a gap like that.

OK for the material itself; some of it is as another reviewer has stated something that is already known. The resume and cover letter section; although common knowledge per-say; for me it was nice to refresh the memory about writing a resume and cover letter.

Overall if this book is available at a library better of checking it out rather than buying it or simply borrow it from someone that has it.

Tell Me Something I Didn't Know
This book may be somethat interesting for polisci majors when they are first starting out, but once a person has their degree and their resume, it is not worth the time to read it.

Great if you are still an undergraduate!
This book is really insightful to those who are still earning theirundergrad degrees.It offers many tips on resume writing, networking, andassessing ones own skills.If I were a junior in college this would havebeen a great source of information and inspiration.However, for someonewho has been out of school for a short period of time, it doesn't offermuch in the way of career guidance.It does offer good tips on graduateschool and how to find the program that is right for you depending on whattype of job you are interested in after.It also lists all theprofessional associations for a political scientist. ... Read more

Product Description
This text covers the basics of political science. Linking fundamental concepts with contemporary political events and controversies, Grigsby discusses all major topics and illustrates the ways in which these topics impact their lives. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Excellent Introduction to Political Science
This book was used in my Introduction to Political Science course. The book is incredibly easy to read and explains the essential basics of political science quite well. The historical examples and analysis within the text provide superb contextual support for the theories explained by Grigsby. While the book is riddled with leftist overtones, it manages to not misconstrue right-wing viewpoints and values. The beliefs of the author, however, are clearly defined. Additionally, the section regarding International Relations is a bit barebones.

Correcting "A Student"
I haven't used this book, but need to correct the review by "A Student."

The roots of the Republican Party are classical liberalism.I.e., the liberalism of John Locke; the liberalism that believes in individual property rights and free markets.We call Republicans conservatives, but the classical conservatives believed in a more rigid class system and distrusted free markets because they disrupt social orders.

Perhaps "A Student" should have spent more time listening and less time complaining.He might have learned something.

And that, in a nutshell, is the great difficulty in teaching political science.When teaching chemistry, students don't assume they already know everything.When teaching political science, some students are unable to learn because they are convinced they already know.It only happens with strong conservatives and strong liberals.God bless the moderates--they're the only ones with open minds.

extremely liberally biased view of politics
I used this book for PoliSci 101 and although I found it easy to read, I was bothered throughout by the assumptions that every person shares Grigsby's liberal political views on abortion, homosexual issues, etc. I felt as if this book was trying to convert all students into democrats, as if it were THE WAY. The message throughout was, democrat=good, republican=bad. The text even misconstrued the Republican party roots by calling it quote, classical liberalism, unquote. I would rather a textbook to be more unbiased and present information without a liberal agenda attached. However, this may be why it appeals to university professors in the first place.

Excellent, Comprehensive-- A Great Intro
You couldn't ask for more in an intro to Political Science text. Grigsby, as fabulous a writer as she is a professor, does a commendable job of raising questions and stating facts about the field of politics and society in general while keeping a detached tone. She applies abstract concepts to real life situations. This is a wonderful book from a great teacher. A must read for 101-variety polisci classes. ... Read more

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As assistant secretary in the United States Department of Labor, Daniel Patrick Moynihan wrote his report “The Negro Family: The Case for National Action” in 1965 as an internal document within the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson. It described alarming trends in black employment, poverty, and education and argued that they were exacerbated by black family instability. While Moynihan called for a jobs program to employ black men and stabilize families, the report was attacked as an attempt to blame blacks rather than the injustices in American society and widely vilified as sexist and racist in liberal circles.

Now more than 40 years later, this issue of The ANNALS reviews this controversial yet “prophetic report” through a new lens, bringing together some of the country’s foremost social scientists to consider how its arguments and predictions have fared in subsequent years and how the controversy surrounding it influenced social science in the late 20^th century.

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Political Science Fiction examines the close relationship between politics and science fiction and shows how much of the former is grounded in the latter. Sixteen science fiction writers and critics join forces to offer an anthology that explores a diversity of futuristic literature, from the novels of H. G. Wells to Star Trek: The Next Generation, and a spectrum of ideas, from the libertarianism of Robert A. Heinlein to the feminism of Ursula K. LeGuin and Sheri S. Tepper. As Frederik Pohl observes in the lead essay, the contributors collectively find science fiction to be either implicitly or explicitly political by its very nature.

Equally divided between essays that analyze science fiction texts as literature and essays that discuss them as models of political science theory and practice, the collection reveals the propensity of fiction writers to center their works on particular governmental structures. Many of the essays explore the frequent portrayal of the U.S. government's response to a catastrophe or an intergalactic issue. Others reveal the ways in which science fiction speaks to the study of international relations, such as the support for realist ideology found in the enormous genre of interspecies war novels and stories. ... Read more

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Culture has returned to the poverty research agenda.

Over the past decade, sociologists, demographers, and even economists have begun asking questions about the role of cul­ture in many aspects of poverty, at times even explaining the behavior of low-income populations in reference to cultural factors. Unlike their predecessors, contemporary researchers rarely claim that culture will sustain itself for multiple generations regardless of structural changes, and they almost never use the term “pathology,” which implied in an earlier era that people would cease to be poor if they changed their culture. The new generation of scholars conceives of culture in substantially different ways.

In this latest issue of the ANNALS, readers are treated to thought-provoking articles that attempt to bridge the gap between poverty and culture scholarship, highlighting new trends in poverty research.

This volume is vital reading, not only for sociologists but also for researchers across the social sciences as a whole.

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What do we know about the possible poisons that industrial technologies leave in our air and water? How reliable is the science that federal regulators and legislators use to protect the public from dangerous products? As this disturbing book shows, ideological or economic attacks on research are part of an extensive pattern of abuse.

Thomas O. McGarity and Wendy Wagner reveal the range of sophisticated legal and financial tactics political and corporate advocates use to discredit or suppress research on potential human health hazards. Scientists can find their research blocked, or find themselves threatened with financial ruin. Corporations, plaintiff attorneys, think tanks, even government agencies have been caught suppressing or distorting research on the safety of chemical products.

With alarming stories drawn from the public record, McGarity and Wagner describe how advocates attempt to bend science or “spin” findings. They reveal an immense range of tools available to shrewd partisans determined to manipulate research.

Bending Science exposes an astonishing pattern of corruption and makes a compelling case for reforms to safeguard both the integrity of science and the public health.

Customer Reviews (3)

A Serious Problem -
This book argues that science institutions are under attack - dozens of sophisticated strategies from outcome-oriented interests (seeking a specific result favoring their product, process, etc.) are used to co-opt the science that informs public health and environmental policy. Further, policy-makers can no longer expect the scientific community to detect and filter out the distortions without assistance from the legal system. The bulk of the book is then taken up with specific examples of the abuses it is concerned about.

The first meaningful evidence of bending science in the legal world comes from the early 1900s when asbestos, tobacco, pharmaceutical, and pesticide manufacturers tried to control the bad news about their products. Suppression of industry-sponsored research and occasional harassment of independent scientists were the primary methods; in other settings manufacturers simply avoided research regarding hazards, leaving the burden to individual victims. The eventual results were new regulatory agencies (FDA and EPA) and requirements.

Outcome-oriented proponents then manufactured uncertainty about implications of well-conducted scientific studies via attacks on every minute aspect of every cited study used by experts - aimed at undermining the scientific reliability of their overall conclusions and often allowing their exclusion from court trials. Next outcome advocates than moved on to obtain legislation from 2000 - 2004 giving similar advantages dealing with regulatory agencies.

Estimates of the cumulative costs of regulatory requirementsare often at least somewhat based on production lost due to particular products or wastes being banned (overstated). Regulatory agencies react slower than courts - eg. asbestos production had largely halted due to lawsuits prior to regulatory action.

Plaintiff attorneys are also guilty at times - eg. biased assembly-line diagnoses of silicosis and fen-phen diet pill users. Claims of saccharin carcinogenicity originally halted its approval - twenty years later researchers showed the problem was limited to laboratory rats. Government agencies (AEC/DOE, USDA, NOAA, and FDA) have also been found to bend science for their own purposes.

Policy-relevant research is not that interesting to most scientists - the topics are frequently unoriginal and usually contested by advocates. The result is a lack of professional oversight in some areas. Absent clear evidence of fraud, the law does little to penalize parties producing unreliable science for use in regulation and litigation.

Methods used to bias tests include manipulating the control dosage for medications (keep low), the length of time that negative observations are tested for (keep short), doing a poor job of counting the number 'exposed' (eg. include unexposed office workers to lower any negative impact findings), forged data, misinterpreting results (eg. 'seeing' that naproxen lowered the risk of heart attacks vs. Vioxx, instead of the fact that Vioxx raised the risk of heart attacks vs. placebos), selective reporting of only favorable results. Attacks on results not liked include allegations of wrong statistical tests (obscures and delays), and other contentions of inappropriate procedure. Other approaches include filing charges of scientific misconduct against those presenting disliked material, and blocking future funding for their work, and selective assembling of expert panels (example cited involving former Secretary Thompson). Finally, impressive-sounding think tanks have also been funded to oppose studies disliked by industry, often with former politicians as leaders and public-interest-sounding names (eg. 'Citizens for . . .).

The authors contend that correcting these problems requires forcing bad behavior out in the open. Many scientific journals already require disclosures of conflicts of interest and data sharing to allow others to verify results published. Regulators and courts should do likewise. Congress should also limit the discretion used in reporting adverse outcomes. Probably the most likely-to-succeed suggestion is to emphasize science-blind actions (eg. reduce pollution X%, without attempting to scientifically justify the specific level). The authors also believe the media should address more attention to exposing the extent bent science exists and the damage caused.

Bottom Line: "Bent Science" highlights an important problem in today's efforts at policy-making and litigation. Unfortunately, the problem is not limited to the 'hard sciences' - economic and social policies and litigation are also impacted in the same manner.

Not sleeping anymore
When I took Professor McGarity's administrative law class at the University of Texas many, many years ago, the lectures were notable chiefly as brief intermissions where I could doze off in the semi-comfortable chairs of the law school. The fault was hardly his. An excellent lecturer and acknowledged expert in administrative law, my narcolepsy had more to do with juggling school, work, a young marriage and a younger child.

Professor McGarity has teamed up with Wendy Wagner, another UT law prof who may one day wrest away the mantle of regulatory guru from McGarity himself. These two brilliant writers have unleashed a tour de force that exposes, in the powerfully understated title "Bent Science," how industry has corrupted the science upon which public health policy is based.

They could have titled it "Rape of Science," "Scruples be Damned," or "Money Can Buy You Science," but no title would equal the impact of this balanced, thoughtful, footnoted, politic, and academic sledgehammer of a book. Though the authors go out of their way to avoid using the word corrupt, no possible reading of their extensive survey can lead to any other conclusion. Industry has purchased the governmental regulatory process by vitiating the very process of science itself. This has had tremendous implications for people poisoned by toxic substances like asbestos, resulting terminal illnesses like mesothelioma.

From their careful introduction, where they lay out the problem and explain exactly what bent science means, to the final chapters where they provide practical (and a few idealistic) solutions in tandem with exhortations to optimism, this hard hitting book covers every sleazy corporate trick in the book.

Corporations are free to subvert the scientific process without fear of penalty, they have endless resources to fabricate research that always draws the right conclusions, they hide unfavorable science, pervert good research into "junk" by sophisticated namecalling, they bully and intimidate honest scientists, they convene sham groups to tout dishonest results, they manipulate public perceptions through PR campaigns, and--the one thing these two fine lawyers neglected to say--they blame it all on trial lawyers.

This book is a fine complement to "Doubt is Their Product: How Industry's Assault on Science Threatens Your Health" by David Michaels. Professors McGarity and Wagner have made a meaningful and readable contribution to the mountain of evidence that corporate behavior has ceased running roughshod over the public and is now simply running amok. Over everything. The authors' message that change is needed, badly, comes at an opportune time. What we need is change, let's see, change we can, hmmm, believe in? Change we can believe in!

Might not be a bad idea for a political slogan.

The Truth Can Be Depressing
It's an incredibly thorough report of a depressing reality and I think I understand why no one has written a review yet. Whoever has read this may feel dejected about its revelation that people with the power to hide or distort scientific findings that would probably turn consumers against their money-making products are willing and able to destroy the most honest scientists and subvert the least honest ones. People with this power may be corporate policy setters of dangerous products, their lawyers, the scientists they are able to subvert into science-bending endeavors, and many others ... including personnel in government agencies, which further includes one I've long suspected ... the National Institute of Health. That agency appears to have made efforts to correct the problem that I call the "we gotta do what will satisfy the pharmaceutical guys" but I'm not sure such efforts will work permanently there ... or anywhere else. Obsessive drive for materialistic acquisition has blotted out concern for other humans' welfare in so many of our powerful people, whether they be entrepreneurs, scientists, legal wizards, politicians, or whatever. I'm finding myself doubting the likelihood of behavioral reform among the corruptible people described in this book. ... Read more

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This work challenges both the widely accepted view thatThe Dispossessed represents a new kind of literary utopia and the place of Ursula K. Le Guin's novel in the histories of utopian/dystopian literature and science fiction. ... Read more

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What does the future hold for America’s cities and metropolitan areas? This special volume of The ANNALS analyzes demographic trends, housing preferences, crime patterns, economic indicators, and infrastructure investments to examine emerging patterns in the nation’s cities. Drawing on research by leading scholars, the volume points toward a growing metropolitan centrality and a slowing-down of the sprawling suburban growth of the last half century. In particular, contributors agree that cities with dense, walkable downtowns that agglomerate economic activity are poised for resurgence.

This volume is a must-have for policymakers, scholars, and students to gain a deeper understanding of the current shape of the “New American City” and its overall effects on American culture and economics.

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This carefully selected compilation of the significant writings of the great political philosophers, scientists, and thinkers has long been an invaluable guide to the general reader as well as to the serious student of history, political science, and government. Such essential forces as Revolution, Idealism, and Nationalism are examined in detail and expounded by their leading exponents. Professor Curtis has written running commentary that places the extracts and their authors in the sequence of modern history.

Customer Reviews (2)

Almost great, but fell short..
The book includes anthology from very inportant thinkers but had serious admissions such as not including HANNAH ARENDT, a major thinker in the 20th century in relationship to an important phenomenon of that century, totalitarianism and the other is ISAIAH BERLIN. Are what I consider serious omissions.

A very important contribution
A beautiful collection of essays by the world's most influential thinkers.Makes a nice companion with the first volume, Great Political Theories V.1: A Comprehensive Selection of the Crucial Ideas in Political Philosophy from the Greeks to the Enlightenment.This presents all the important thinkers such as Marx and Foucault and Derrida.It includes passages from the most famous works of each. This is a wonderful introuction for someone or a nice collection for a scholar or reader who is already familiar with the material.Because of the diversity of selection and the fact that many the important thinkers are here it makes a great contribution to any bookshelf, especially for someone who doesn't want to wade through these heavy classics.

Seth J. Frantzman ... Read more

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Urgent political writings of the major twentieth-century sociologist.

Pierre Bourdieu, one of the most influential critical social theorists ofthe second half of the twentieth century, once described sociology as "acombat sport." This comprehensive collection of his writings on politicsand social science, from early 1960s articles on the Algerian War ofIndependence to the last text he published before his death, proves that thisvision was enduring throughout his life – as well as a serious scholar Bourdieuwas always an outspoken public intellectual.

Political Interventions includes many texts hitherto unavailable inEnglish and, placing them in their historical context, reconstructs Bourdieu'svision of academic study and political activism as two sides of the sameprocess: the decoding and critique of social reality in order to transform it.

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In today’s service economy, many jobs require that applicants have a smiling face, helpful disposition and the ability to interact in a friendly manner with others. Or in the case of law enforcement or bill collecting, an employee can be required to be less friendly and more harsh in his or her interaction with customers or criminals.

Jobs that require emotional labor typically necessitate contact with other people external to or within the organization, usually involving face-to-face or voice-to-voice contact, especially in service work. Emotional labor requires employees to give something of themselves to others with whom they have no ongoing personal relationship.

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Bringing together the most essential laws, theories, generalizations and basic structures of thinking in the field of political science,Theory and Methods in Political Science serves as both an introduction into basic theory, as well as, an exploration of various sub-disciplines. The most well know laws, such as Duverger's law, are discussed demonstrating their durability and relevance across the last century. Comprised of 31 chapters contributed by 17 authors, this book seeks to inspire the world community of political scientists to begin rethinking the theoretical "stand" of their discipline.