Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Easiest Thesis

My PhD on the Vice Presidency and national security may make use of the bureaucratic politics paradigm. The nutshell version of this model of governmental behavior is that policies are the result of bargaining between the players on an issue. Good stuff...

The Graham Allison classic political science classic, Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis launched this model into prominence when it came out in 1971.

Discussing how to develop an analytical framework my advisor helpfully observed, "You could build a time machine and go back to the 1970s when bureaucratic politics was the big thing."

Considering the challenges that have been raised against the bureaucratic politics model (it has been called a veritable kitchen sink) this might be the easier path.

Fortunately, I work in a building full of electrical engineers. Of course they are pretty busy working on the artificial gravity device asked for a few weeks ago when huffing up the stairs to my office. (How is it that a building full of high-tech wizards that may even be home to a component of the Internet's backbone has inconsistently working elevators?)

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