Useful applications of international event analysis

Computing came into political science at an uneven pace and piecemeal. Early applications in the nineteen fifties centered on political phenomena with obvious quantitative characteristics, voting results above all. Thus, computing served early in the studies of the data of national and state elections, of legislative decisions, judicial behavior, and United Nations voting records. Another conjunction occurred in the work of public opinion polling, spreading from the home ground of pre-election surveys to many other aspects of public affairs.