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GURR'S “PERSISTENCE AND CHANGE” REVISITED: SOME CONSEQUENCES OF USING DIFFERENT OPERATIONALIZATIONS OF “CHANGE OF POLITY”
Author(s) -
HARMEL ROBERT
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
european journal of political research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.267
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1475-6765
pISSN - 0304-4130
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-6765.1980.tb00570.x
Subject(s) - polity , operationalization , persistence (discontinuity) , politics , sociology , psychology , political science , social psychology , epistemology , law , philosophy , geotechnical engineering , engineering
T.R. Gurr's article, which appeared in the December 1974, issue of the American Political Science Review , reported several important findings from analysis of the authority characteristics of 336 polities that functioned between 1800 and 1971. While other methodological points are addressed throughout, this study is primarily a comparison of the findings of Gurr's analysis with those of two reanalyses based upon less‐inclusive conceptual and operational definitions of what constitutes system‐transforming change. Among other departures from Gurr's findings is substantially less consistent support for the hypothesis that polity durability is enhanced by coherence among authority traits. Analysis of a dynamic version of Eckstein's consonance theory reveals that incoherent historical polities which adapted in any direction were more long‐living than their non‐changing counterparts, and equally long‐living as polities with coherent authority patterns. Thus, the study revealed not only that some of Gurr's findings were dependent upon his operationalization of “end of polity”, but also the need for further examination of the data in light of discrepant findings among the three analyses.