If the automobile business had developed like the computer business, a Rolls Royce would cost $2.75 and run for 3 million miles on one gallon of gas.

Forrester, Hight-Tech SocietyTom Forrester, High-Tech Society (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1987), p. 18.

The computer power available to political scientists has increased at least one thousandfold since 1970. We can now make millions of calculations in a few seconds, generate beautiful and meaningful graphics, and communicate instantly around the world, all at virtually no cost. But in what ways has this computer power helped us make more accurate statements about political phenomena? Beyond simply doing faster and more cheaply that which we had done previously, this computer revolution has made possible a qualitative leap in our analysis of political behaviour.