Mini book review: I'm re-reading Ashutosh Varshney's "Ethnic Conflict and Civic Life". It is political science at its very best. amzn.to/2lNAAqD
On the surface it's a niche topic -- Hindu-Muslim conflict in India. But it's much more important and deeper than that...
On the surface it's a niche topic -- Hindu-Muslim conflict in India. But it's much more important and deeper than that...
First it's as clear an introduction to Indian politics as I've ever read, and gives me a whole new understanding of today's Hindu nationalist government. Not to mention how Gandhi's early social movement shapes politics a century later. All things I did not know.
Second, this is really a book about civil society and social capital. Its about how ties across groups and civic interaction not only stop violence but also shape politics in cities, states and the nation. And it's about where those ties come from. "Bowling Alone" for India.
Maybe most of all it's an amazing example of how to write a great book in comparative politics. Every chapter is worth reading, not just the intro. It keeps on delivering. So sad that fewer of these books are written every year.
Instead the trend is towards stretching an survey or an experiment into a book rather than an article. I partly blame outmoded tenure standards that demand a book even from the subset of paper-oriented political scientists.
I'm hopeful this is a passing phase, and that we'll reach a point where paper projects don't need to get stretched into books, and political scientists can take many paths to tenure. There will be fewer big books, but the old equilibrium always seemed unbalanced.
I do hope some of the best political scientists try to write big books. To me the interesting question is whether the generation of paper-writers transition to big books now that they are getting tenure.
