Overview

This series is aimed at converting the vast statistical yield of the 1980 census into independent, authoritative analyses of major changes and trends in American life. The politics of numbers resembles the other volumes in that its point of departure is the US census, however, it differs from them by going far beyond census data to an examination of the compilation and analysis of other offical data as well. It is the only volume in this series devoted to the governmental data system itself, rather than to the information contained in that data. It is the first major study of the social and political forces behind America's offical statistics. In fourteen essays its editors and authors look at the controversies and choices embedded in key decisions about how the American political establishment counts - in measuring the economy, comparing Soviet and American military budgets or enumerating ethnic groups. It has become just as important to study the intricate political processes involved in defining collecting, analysing and managing official statistics as it is to examine the statistics themselves.

Full Product Details

Author:   William Alonso ,  Paul Starr
Publisher:   Russell Sage Foundation
Imprint:   Russell Sage Foundation
Weight:   0.780kg
ISBN:  

9780871540164

ISBN 10:   0871540169
Pages:   480
Publication Date:   18 May 1989
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Available To Order  
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Table of Contents

Part 1 The politics of economic measurement: the politics of comparative economic statistics - three cultures and three cases, Raymond Vernon; the politics of income measurement, Christopher Jencks; political purpose and the national accounts, Mark Perlman. Part 2 The politics of population measurement: the 1980 census in historical perspecitve, Margo A.Conk; politics and measurement of ethnicity, William Petersen; the social and political context of population forecasting, Nathan Keyfitz. Part 3 Statistics and democratic politics: public statistics and democratic politics, Kenneth Prewitt; the political foundations of American statistical policy, Steven Kelman; statistics and politics of minority representation - the evolution of the voting rights act since 1965, Abigail Thernstrom. Part 4 Statistics and American federalism: the politics of printouts - the use of offical numbers to allocate federal grants-in-aid, Richard P.Nathan; federal statistics in local governments, Judith de Neufville; the managed irrelevance of federal education statistics, Janet A.Weiss and Judith E.Gruber. Part 5 The new political economy of statistics: technology, costs, and the new economics of statistics, Joseph W.Duncan; who will have the numbers? the rise of the statistical services industry and the politics of public data, Paul Starr and Ross Corson.

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Author Information

WILLIAM ALONSO is at Harvard University. PAUL STARR is at Princeton University.

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