"DROPPING THE BALL": The Understudied Nexus of Sports and Politics. (March 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Gift, Thomas; Miner, Andrew
• Is Part Of: World affairs. Volume 180:Number 1(2017)
• Page Start: 127
• Page End: 161
• Publication Date: 2017-03
• Subjects: Sport and Politics -- Sports and Policy -- Political Science Research -- Political Studies Subfields -- Review Article -- Sport and Media -- Sport and International Affairs; Deporte y Política -- Deportes y Política Pública -- Investigación en Ciencias Políticas -- Subcampos de la Ciencia Política -- Revisión de Literatura -- Artículo de Revisión -- Deporte y Medios de Comunicación -- Deportes y Asuntos Internacionales; 体育和政治 -- 体育与政策 -- 政治科学研究 -- 政治研究分支领域 -- 文献评论 -- 评论文章 -- 体育与媒体 -- 体育与国际事务; International relations -- Periodicals; Peace -- Periodicals; Arbitration (International law) -- Periodicals; United States -- Foreign relations -- Periodicals; Arbitration (International law); International relations; Peace; United states; Foreign relations; Internationale politiek; Periodicals; 327.05
• DOI: 10.1177/0043820017715569
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0043-8200

Abstract

From the Roman Colosseum to the Yankee Stadium, the Olympics to the Super Bowl, sports have always played a central role in societies. With so much at stake—money, pride, power (and occasionally even fun)—sports are undeniably political. Yet despite this recognition, political scientists and policy scholars devote little attention to the study of sports, especially compared with other disciplines like business, law, and economics. We offer reasons for this void and suggest how political scientists can begin to fill it. In our view, the nexus between sports and politics is not only a vital topic of study on its own, but it can also provide a lens through which to examine—and test—broader questions in the discipline. We propose how scholars can think more systematically about the interaction of politics and sports and leverage the distinctive qualities of sports to improve causal identification across a range of issue areas and subfields in political science and policy studies.