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Political scientists use diverse methods to study important topics. The findings they reach and conclusions they draw can have significant social implications and are sometimes controversial. As a result, audiences can be skeptical about the rigor and relevance of the knowledge claims that political scientists produce. For these reasons, being a political scientist means facing myriad questions about how we know what we claim to know. Transparency can help political scientists address these questions. An emerging literature and set of practices suggest that sharing more data and providing more information about our analytic and interpretive choices can help others understand the rigor and relevance of our claims. At the same time, increasing transparency can be costly and has been contentious. This review describes opportunities created by, and difficulties posed by, attempts to increase transparency. We conclude that, despite the challenges, consensus about the value and practice of transparency is emerging within and across political science's diverse and dynamic research communities.

Do the media matter for public policy making? Based on the literature on the conditionality of the effect of mass media attention on political attention and theories of public policy making, this article argues that it depends on prior political attention. If the media focus on a case related to an issue to which politicians already pay attention, and the media attention is sustained, this can initiate a political decision-making process that leads to public policy change. The article illustrates this logic using two Danish examples and discusses how this argument can be investigated more broadly.

Reforms started by Vietnam in 1986 are far from complete. As a result of a slowdown in economic growth, growing unemployment, and social unrest, Vietnam faces renewed challenges for further reform. With doi moi (renovation) there has been greater openness and mounting pressure for more open discussions within the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV). The country faces two options: to continue with the same pace of change and risk falling economically behind neighbouring countries, or to undertake more radical economic reform and risk losing control. This article explores the economic decision-making process in Vietnam. It argues that gradualism in reform is due to internal strife, to a trial-and-error approach, and to the lack of capable human resources. Evidence suggests that prescription for economic reforms cannot be carried out effectively without modernizing the CPV's political decision-making process. (ISEAS/DÜI)

Examines the territorial dimension of political analysis and the relationship between politics and territory; 10 articles.

With his two recent books, Liberal Democracy and Political Science (1990) & Reconstructing America: The Symbol of America in Modern Thought (1997), James Ceaser has attempted to reverse the decline of political science in the US. Ceaser's analysis of the relationship between the "assault on the autonomy of politics & the assault on America" is noteworthy. Unfortunately, neither of Ceaser's books gives religion its necessary consideration. Though Ceaser has done a great work in revitalizing political science, he has failed to consider two concepts: that his own theories are dependent on the strength of civil society & that civil society itself is dependent more on those who teach religion than on those who teach political science. K. A. Larsen