Political Networks

Section supported by the ECPR Standing Group on Political Networks. Since the publication of David Knoke’s Political Networks (1990), systematic research on social networks has grown dramatically in both political science and political sociology. APSA has established a very active Political Networks section and a very successful annual Political Networks Conference has now been running for four years in the USA; the ECPR has launched a Political Networks Standing Group, which we currently convene, and which held a well-attended inaugural meeting at the 2010 Joint Sessions in Munster. The section aims at bringing together scholars that, while holding diverse research interests, share nonetheless an analytic approach to network processes in political life, coupled with a strong attention to the integration of theory and empirical data. We conceive of political networks in a broad sense. We include among network nodes all actors with decisional capacity, be they individuals (members of the public as well as elites) or organisations (voluntary/public bureaucracies/business/states). We also take into account events (protest events, political events in general, as well as events, relevant to the political biographies of individuals) that nest the macro-micro elements of social interaction. Our view of ties is similarly inclusive, looking at exchanges of resources, information, and symbols with varying degrees of legitimacy and authority, with particular attention to boundary spanning mechanisms, and the tension between offline and online types of networks. Panels fall under three major themes: the basic mechanisms through which network properties affect individual political action; the different ways in which network approaches have contributed to our understanding of collective action dynamics; the relationship between networks and policy making.