The Politics of Numbers is the first major study of the social and political forces behind the nation's statistics. In more than a dozen essays, its editors and authors look at the controversies and choices embodied in key decisions about how we count—in measuring the state of the economy, for example, or enumerating ethnic groups. They also examine the implications of an expanding system of official data collection, of new computer technology, and of the shift of information resources into the private sector.
Author(s): William Alonso; Paul Starr
Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation
Year: 1987
Language: English
Pages: 474
Introduction
William Alonso, Paul Starr pp. 1-6
The Sociology of Official Statistics
Paul Starr pp. 7-58
Part I. The Politics of Economic Measurement
Chapter 1. The Politics of Comparative Economic Statistics: Three Cultures and Three Cases
Raymond Vernon pp. 61-82
Chapter 2. The Politics of Income Measurement
Christopher Jencks pp. 83-132
Chapter 3. Political Purpose and the National Accounts
Mark Perlman pp. 133-152
Part II. The Politics of Population Measurement
Chapter 4. The 1980 Census in Historical Perspective
Margo A. Conk pp. 155-186
Chapter 5. Politics and the Measurement of Ethnicity
William Petersen pp. 187-234
Chapter 6. The Social and Political Context of Population Forecasting
Nathan Keyfitz pp. 235-258
Part III. Statistics and Democratic Politics
Chapter 7. Public Statistics and Democractic Politics
Kenneth Prewitt pp. 261-274
Chapter 8. The Political Foundations of American Statistical Policy
Steven Kelman pp. 275-302
Chapter 9. Statistics and the Politics of Minority Representation: The Evolution of the Voting Rights Act Since 1965
Abigail Thernstrom pp. 303-328
Part IV. Statistics and American Federalism
Chapter 10. The Politics of Printouts: The Use of Official Numbers to Allocate Federal Grants-in-Aid
Richard P. Nathan pp. 331-342
Chapter 11. Federal Statistics in Local Governments
Judith de Neufville pp. 343-362
Chapter 12. The Managed Irrelevance of Federal Education Statistics
Janet A. Weiss, Judith E. Gruber pp. 363-392
Part V. The New Political Economy of Statistics
Chapter 13. Technology, Costs, and the New Economics of Statistics
Joseph W. Duncan pp. 395-414
Chapter 14. Who Will Have the Numbers? The Rise of the Statistical Services Industry and the Politics of Public Data
Paul Starr, Ross Corson pp. 415-448
Name Index pp. 449-460
Subject Index pp. 461-474
