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Palgrave Macmillan

Human Nature and Public Policy

An Evolutionary Approach

  • Book
  • © 2003

Overview

Editors:
  1. Albert Somit

    1. Southern Illinois University, USA

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    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

  2. Steven A. Peterson

    1. Penn State Harrisburg, USA

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    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

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Table of contents (14 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-ix
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  2. The Evolutionary Approach and the Standard Social Science Model (SSSM) Understanding of Human Nature and Human Behavior: Policy Relevance

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
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    2. From Human Nature to Public Policy: Evolutionary Theory Challenges the “Standard Model”

      • Albert Somit, Steven A. Peterson
      Pages 3-18

    3. From Theory to Practice: Caveat Emptor

      • Lionel Tiger
      Pages 19-26

  3. Implications for Domestic Policy

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 27-27
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    2. Prostitution—An Evolutionary Perspective

      • Michael McGuire, Margaret Gruter
      Pages 29-40

    3. Relating to the Environment: Legacy and Learning

      • Lynton Keith Caldwell
      Pages 41-54

    4. Neuroscience, Free Will, and Individual Responsibility: Implications for Addictive Behavior

      • Robert H. Blank
      Pages 55-76

    5. The Cultural Evolution of Dying: Euthanasia in the Netherlands

      • Vincent S. E. Falger, Eugene L. F. Falger
      Pages 77-96

    6. Biosocial Theorizing and Criminal Justice Policy

      • Lee Ellis
      Pages 97-120

    7. Evolution and Political Marketing

      • Gad Saad
      Pages 121-138

    8. Explore and Exploit: An Evolutionary Analysis of Institutional Dynamics

      • Arthur T. Denzau, Paul J. Zak
      Pages 139-160

    9. Maclean’s Evolutionary Neuroscience and the Conflict Systems Neurobehavioral Model: Some Clinical and Social Policy Implications

      • Gerald A. Cory Jr.
      Pages 161-180

    10. Altruism and Good Samaritan Law

      • John Strate
      Pages 181-201

  4. Implications for International Policy

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 203-203
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    2. An Ecological Approach to Agricultural Biotechnology Policy

      • Hiram Caton
      Pages 205-224

    3. Ethnic Conflict and State Building

      • Bradley A. Thayer
      Pages 225-242

    4. Genetic and Cultural Evolution: Implications for International Security Policies

      • J. David Singer
      Pages 243-261

  5. Back Matter

    Pages 263-266
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Keywords

About this book

Arguing for an evolutionary perspective, this book directly challenges the Standard Social Science Model (SSSM) on which public policy has often been based. The SSSM maintains that human behavior is solely the product of culture and learning. In sharp contrast, the Evolutionary Model (EM) holds that our behavior flows from the interaction between learning and culture, on the one hand, and biological factors-especially our evolutionary legacy-on the other. These different approaches to human behavior understandably lead to divergent conceptions of sound domestic and foreign policy. The SSSM views human behavior as essentially plastic and thus readily changed by governmental action. Disagreeing, the Evolutionary Model sees that malleability as seriously limited by our species' evolved propensity for aggression, status seeking, xenophobia, ethnocentrism, and hierarchical social structures.

Reviews

'This book proposal looks good. A book that would show how evolutionary theory illuminates many areas of public policy would be a great advance in the social sciences. Such a book could become a standard textbook in public policy courses as representing a newly emerging biological stance on the social sciences'. - Larry Arnhart, Northern Illinois University

Editors and Affiliations

  • Southern Illinois University, USA

    Albert Somit

  • Penn State Harrisburg, USA

    Steven A. Peterson

About the editors

ALBERT SOMIT is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Southern Illinois University. He has been Executive Vice-President of the State University of New York at Buffalo and President of Southern Illinois University. One of the earliest pioneers in the field of biology and politics, he is the founder of the International Political Science Association's Research Committee on Biology and Politics.

STEVEN A. PETERSON is Director of the School of Public Affairs and Professor of Politics and Public Affairs at Penn State Harrisburg. His areas of research interest include American Politics, Public Policy, and the relationship of biology to politics. He is on the Council of the Association for Politics and the Life Sciences and serves as Vice-President and Secretary of the International Political Science Association Research Committee on Biology and Politics.

DRS. SOMIT and PETERSON have co-authored or co-edited such volumes as Evolutionary Theory and the Social and Behavioral Sciences (2001), Research in Biopolitics (1996), The Dynamics of Evolution: The Punctuated Equilibrium Debate in the Natural and Social Sciences (1992), and, of course, their highly controversial Darwinism, Dominance, and Democracy (1997).

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