Linkage politics: essays on the convergence of national and international systems
- New York Free Press. 1969
- 354p.
Linkage Politics is a vital experiment in political research and an essential supplement to political science theory. It is the first systematic, sustained, and comparative exploration of the linkages between national and international political systems. As such, the twelve original essays constitute a pioneering effort to assist political scientists in understanding a shrinking world in which the structure and functioning of sovereign states can be the direct result of events in remote parts of the world. Included in this volume is the work of J. David Singer, Douglas A. Chalmers, William G. Fleming, Bernard C. Cohen, Ole R. Holsti, John D. Sullivan, Robert T. Holt, John E. Turner, Richard L. Merritt, R. V. Burks, Lloyd Jensen, Michael O'Leary, and Professor Rosenau. To facilitate their study of how external situations are transformed into issues of domestic policy, the contributors have utilized various aspects of the linkage framework presented by Professor Rosenau in Chapter Three, Toward the Study of National-International Linkages. Consequently, a wide range of connections is explored: in polities that occupy the same region, that occupy comparable roles in the international system, that exist under similar geographic conditions, and that have transitional structures of author ity. In addition, to encourage a common perspective, the book contains a provocative essay analyzing the members of the international system and the problems of investigation posed by the structure of that system. As technology shrinks the world and heightens the inter dependence of nations, linkage phenomena are too plentiful and too influential to be ignored. This volume is the first close look at the reasons for the blurring of the boundaries between national and international systems. It will be required reading for all future research in this important area.