Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-995ml Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T14:25:45.145Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

What Good Can Political Science Do? From Pluralism to Partnerships

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2020

Abstract

At a time when authoritarian regimes are on the rise around the world, higher education in general and political science in particular are facing declining support and sharper political pressures in many places. Political scientists have long promised that their discipline can add to knowledge about politics and educate citizens. However, doubts have grown about whether our increasingly pluralistic discipline collectively generates useful knowledge and communicates it effectively in teaching and in broader public communications. Political scientists need to do more to place their particular studies within big pictures of how politics and the world work, and to synthesize their results. They must focus more on the politics of identity formation that has generated resurgent nationalisms and deep social divisions. They must strengthen their understanding and their community contributions through civically engaged research. They must also place greater emphasis on improving teaching. In these ways, modern scholars can show there is much good that political science can do.

Type
Presidential Address
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2020 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

He thanks Benjamin Banker and Zachary Koslowski for invaluable research assistance, and Margaret Brownell Anderson, Taylor Carlson, Thad Dunning, Donald Green, Guy Grossman, Peter Hall, Nancy Hirschmann, Jennifer Hochschild, Ira Katznelson, Robert Keohane, Desmond King, Paula McClain, Arthur Melzer, Anne Norton, Robert Putnam, Adolph Reed, Mary Summers, Kathleen Thelen, Adam Zelizer, and Richard Zinman for comments on parts or all of earlier drafts. All responsibility for the views expressed here is emphatically his alone.

References

Achen, Christopher H. and Bartels, Larry M.. 2016. Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Adams, John. 1780. “Letter to Abigail Adams.” May 12. Retrieved October 17, 2019 (https://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/archive/doc?id=L17800512jasecond).Google Scholar
Almond, Gabriel A. 1966. “Political Theory and Political Science.” American Political Science Review 60(4): 869–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
APSA Centennial Center. 2019. “APSA Task Force on New Partnerships Launches Six New Initiatives.” August 22. Retrieved September 23, 2019 (https://connect.apsanet.org/centennialcenter/2019/08/22/apsa-task-force-on-new-partnerships-launches-six-new-initiatives/).Google Scholar
APSA Section for Qualitative and Multi-Methods Research. 2019. “Quality Transparency Deliberations.” January. Retrieved September 23, 2019 (https://www.qualtd.net/).Google Scholar
APSA Staff. 2019. “APSA Strategic Plan: Mission.” Retrieved September 23, 2019 (https://www.apsanet.org/strategicplan).Google Scholar
Aristotle. 1999 [350 B.C.]. Nicomachean Ethics, trans. Terence Irwin, 2d ed. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing Co.Google Scholar
Barker, Lucius J. 1994. “Limits of Political Strategy: A Systemic View of the African American Experience.” American Political Science Review 88(1): 113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bartels, Larry. 2008. Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Beardsley, Scott C. 2018. “Shaking Up the Leadership Model in Higher Education.” McKinsey Quarterly. Retrieved September 19, 2019 (https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/shaking-up-the-leadership-model-in-higher-education).Google Scholar
Beauchamp, Zack. 2019. “Data Shows a Surprising Campus Free-Speech Problem: Left-Wingers Being Fired for Their Opinions.” Vox, August 3. Retrieved September 19, 2019 (https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/8/3/17644180/political-correctness-free-speech-liberal-data-georgetown).Google Scholar
Blatt, Jessica. 2018. Race and the Making of American Political Science. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brint, Steven. 2018. Two Cheers for Higher Education: Why American Universities Are Stronger Than Ever—and How to Meet the Challenges They Face. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Brubaker, Rogers. 2006. Ethnicity without Groups. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Bunche, Ralph J. 1954. “Presidential Address.” American Political Science Review 48(4): 961–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, Peter and Desch, Michael. 2018. “Ranking Relevance.” New America, November 27. Retrieved September 23, 2019 (https://www.newamerica.org/international-security/reports/ranking-relevance/).Google Scholar
Cardinali, Emily. 2018. “What Your State Is Doing to Beef Up Civic Education.” NPREd, July 21. Retrieved September 19, 2019 (https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2018/07/21/624267576/what-your-state-is-doing-to-beef-up-civics-education).Google Scholar
Carlson, Taylor N. 2019. “Through the Grapevine: Informational Consequences of Interpersonal Communication.” American Political Science Review 113(2): 325–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
CERN. 2019. “A Short History of the Web.” Retrieved September 22, 2019 (https://home.cern/science/computing/birth-web/short-history-web).Google Scholar
DataUSA: Political Science & Government. N.d. Retrieved September 29, 2019 (https://datausa.io/profile/cip/political-science-government#institutions).Google Scholar
Delaney, Ryan and Pratt, Wayne. 2018. “UMSL Spares 3Pprograms in Process to Trim Degree Offerings.” St. Louis Public Radio, May 8. Retrieved September 20, 2019 (https://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/umsl-spares-3-programs-process-trim-degree-offerings#stream/0).Google Scholar
Deutsch, Karl W. 1971. “On Political Theory and Political Action.” American Political Science Review 65(1): 1127.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunning, Thad, Grossman, Guy, Humphreys, Macartan, Hyde, Susan D., McIntosh, Craig, and Nellis, Gareth. 2019. Information, Accountability, and Cumulative Learning: Lessons from Metaketa. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dykstra, Clarence A. 1939. “The Quest for Responsibility.” American Political Science Review 33(1): 125.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Easton, David. 1969. “The New Revolution in Political Science.” American Political Science Review 63(4): 1051–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fenno, Richard F. 1986. “Observation, Context, and Sequence in the Study of Politics.” American Political Science Review 90(1): 315.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flaherty, Colleen. 2018. “A Very Controversial Idea.” Inside Higher Ed, November 13. Retrieved September 23, 2019 (https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/11/13/philosophers-will-launch-interdisciplinary-journal-allows-authors-publish-under).Google Scholar
Flaherty, Colleen. 2019. “Cuts Reversed at Stevens Point.” Inside Higher Ed, April 11. Retrieved September 20, 2019 (https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/04/11/stevens-point-abandons-controversial-plan-cut-liberal-arts-majors-including-history).Google Scholar
Gaus, John. 1946. “A Job Analysis of Political Science.” American Political Science Review 40(2): 217–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilens, Martin. 2012. Affluence and Influence: Economic Inequality and Political Power in America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Global ARC. N.d.Civically Engaged Research.” Global Action Research Center. Retrieved September 23, 2019 (http://www.theglobalarc.org/what-we-do/civically-engaged-research).Google Scholar
Greensboro News and Record Staff. 2017. “N.C. A&T Plans to Combine History, Political Science Departments.” Greensboro News and Record, November 10. Retrieved September 20, 2019 (https://www.greensboro.com/news/education/n-c-a-t-plans-to-combine-history-political-science/article_c2a17554-3709-533a-84d7-de337896bd04.html).Google Scholar
Hann, Chris. 2006. “The Gift and Reciprocity: Perspectives from Economic Anthropology.” In Handbook of the Economics of Giving, Reciprocity, and Altruism, Vol. 1, ed. Christoph-Kolm, Serge and Ythier, Jean Mercier, 2017–223. Amsterdam: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Hero, Rodney E. 2016. “American Politics and Political Science in an Era of Growing Racial Diversity and Economic Disparity.” Perspectives on Politics 14(1): 720.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herring, Pendleton. 1953. “On the Study of Government.” American Political Science Review 47(4): 961–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hinkle, Joshua C. and Weisburd, David. 2008. “The Irony of Broken-Windows Policing: A Micro-place Study of the Relationship between Disorder, Focused Police Crackdowns, and Fear of Crime.” Journal of Criminal Justice 36: 503–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hochschild, Jennifer L. 1984. The New American Dilemma: Liberal Democracy and School Desegregation . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Holden, Matthew Jr. 2000. “The Competence of Political Science: ‘Progress in Political Research’ Revisited.” American Political Science Review 94(1): 119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Human Rights Watch. 2019. “China: Government Threats to Academic Freedom Abroad.” March 21. Retrieved September 19, 2019 (https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/03/21/china-government-threats-academic-freedom-abroad#).Google Scholar
Huntington, Samuel P. 1987. “One Soul at a Time: Political Science and Political Reform.” American Political Science Review 82(1): 310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jaschik, Scott. 2018. “Poll: Most Americans See Higher Ed Headed in the Wrong Direction.” Inside Higher Ed, July 27. Retrieved September 19, 2019 (https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/07/27/survey-most-americans-think-higher-ed-headed-wrong-direction).Google Scholar
Jaschik, Scott. 2019. “Trump Vows Executive Order on Campus Free Speech.” Inside Higher Ed, March 4. Retrieved September 29, 2019 (https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/03/04/president-trump-vows-issue-executive-order-barring-research-funds-colleges-dont).Google Scholar
Jervis, Robert. 2002. “Theories of War in an Era of Leading-Power Peace.” American Political Science Review 96(1): 114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Katzenstein, Peter. 2010. “‘Walls’ between ‘Those People’? Contrasting Perspectives on World Politics.” Perspectives on Politics 8(1): 1125.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Katznelson, Ira. 2007. “At the Court of Chaos: Political Science in an Age of Perpetual Fear.” Perspectives on Politics 5(1): 315.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keohane, Robert O. 2001. “Governance in a Partially Globalized World,” American Political Science Review 95(1): 113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Key, V. O. Jr. 1958. “The State of the Discipline.” American Political Science Review 52(4): 961–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lafer, Gordon. 2017. The One Percent Solution: How Corporations Are Remaking America One State at a Time. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Leiserson, Avery. 1975. “Charles Merriam, Max Weber, and the Search for Synthesis in Political Science.” American Political Science Review 69: 175–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levesque, Elizabeth Mann. 2018. “What Does Civics Education Look Like in America?” Brookings Brown Center Chalkboard, July 23. Retrieved September 19, 2019 (https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2018/07/23/what-does-civics-education-look-like-in-america/).Google Scholar
Levit, Janet K. 2019. “Reprioritizing and Reallocating Our Resources.” University of Tulsa, April 11. Retrieved September 20, 2019 (https://utulsa.edu/truecommitment/reprioritizing-reallocating-resources/).Google Scholar
Lindblom, Charles E. 1982. “Another State of Mind.” American Political Science Review 76(1): 921.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lindblom, Charles E. 1990. Inquiry and Change: The Troubled Attempt to Understand Society. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Loeb, Isidor. 1934. “Fact and Fiction in Government.” American Political Science Review 28(1): 110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lowell, A. Lawrence. 1910. “The Physiology of Politics.” American Political Science Review 4(1): 115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lowi, Theodore J. 1992. “The State in Political Science: How We Become What We Study.” American Political Science Review 86(1): 17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lupia, Arthur and Elman, Colin, eds. 2014. “Symposium: Openness in Political Science: Data Access and Research Transparency.” PS: Political Science and Politics 47(1): 1983.Google Scholar
Mansbridge, Jane. 2014. “What Is Political Science For?Perspectives on Politics 12(1): 817.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKinley, Charles. 1955. “The Constitution and the Tasks Ahead.” American Political Science Review 49(4): 961–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Melzer, Arthur J. 2014. Philosophy Between the Lines: The Lost History of Esoteric Writing. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Merriam, Charles E. 1926. “Progress in Political Research.” American Political Science Review 20(1): 1112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meyer, Michelle N. and Chabris, Christopher. 2014. “Why Psychologists’ Food Fight Matters.” Slate, July 31. Retrieved September 23, 2019 (https://slate.com/technology/2014/07/replication-controversy-in-psychology-bullying-file-drawer-effect-blog-posts-repligate.html).Google Scholar
Miller, Warren. 1981. “The Role of Research in the Unification of a Discipline.” American Political Science Review 75(1): 916.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
National Center for Education Statistics. N.d.Digest of Education Statistics.” Retrieved September 19, 2019 (https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d17/tables/dt17_301.10.asp?current=yes).Google Scholar
National Science Foundation. 2019. “Programs: Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE).” Retrieved September 20, 2019 (https://www.nsf.gov/funding/programs.jsp?org=SBE).Google Scholar
O’Grady, Cathleen. 2018. “Social Science Has a Complicated, Infinitely Tricky Replication Crisis.” ArsTechnica, August 28. Retrieved September 23, 2019 (https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/08/why-do-only-two-thirds-of-famous-social-science-results-replicate-its-complicated/).Google Scholar
Ostrom, Elinor. 1998. “A Behavioral Approach to the Rational Choice Theory of Collective Action.” American Political Science Review 92(1): 122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peress, Michael. 2019. “Measuring the Research Productivity of Political Science Departments Using Google Scholar .PS: Political Science and Politics 52(2): 312–17.Google Scholar
Piattoni, Simona. 2017. “The Impact of Research Assessment on the Profession and the Discipline of Political Science.” Italian Political Science 12(1): 13.Google Scholar
Pinderhughes, Dianne. 2009. “The Challenge of Democracy: Explorations in American Racial Politics.” Perspectives on Politics 7(1): 311.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pollock, James K. 1951. “The Primacy of Politics.” American Political Science Review 45(1): 117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Putnam, Robert D. 2003. “APSA Presidential Address: The Public Role of Political Science.” Perspectives on Politics 1(2): 249–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Putnam, Robert D. 2007. “E Pluribus Unum: Diversity and Community in the Twenty First Century.” Scandinavian Political Studies 30(2): 137–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pye, Lucian W. 1990. “Political Science and the Crisis of Authoritarianism.” American Political Science Review 84(1): 319.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quine, W. V. and Ullian, J. S.. 1970. The Web of Belief. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Redden, Elizabeth. 2019. “ In Brazil, a Hostility to Academe.” Inside Higher Ed, May 6. Retrieved September 19, 2019 (https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/05/06/far-right-government-brazil-slashes-university-funding-threatens-cuts-philosophy-and).Google Scholar
Redford, Emmette S. 1961. “Reflections on a Discipline.” American Political Science Review 55(4): 755–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rudolph, Susanne Hoeber. 2005. “The Imperialism of Categories: Situating Knowledge in a Globalizing World.” Perspectives on Politics 3(1): 514.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sachs, Jeffrey Adams. 2018. “There Is No Campus Free Speech Crisis: A Close Look at the Evidence.” Niskanen Center, April 27. Retrieved September 29, 2019 (https://niskanencenter.org/blog/there-is-no-campus-free-speech-crisis-a-close-look-at-the-evidence/).Google Scholar
Selingo, Jeffrey, Chheng, Sonny, and Clark, Cole. 2017. “Pathways to the University Presidency: The Future of Higher Education Leadership.” Deloitte Insights, April 18. Retrieved September 19, 2019 (https://www2.deloitte.com/insights/us/en/industry/public-sector/college-presidency-higher-education-leadership.html).Google Scholar
Skocpol, Theda. 2004. “Voice and Inequality: The Transformation of American Civic Democracy.” Perspectives on Politics 2(1): 118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Rogers M. 1997. “Still Blowing in the Wind: The American Quest for a Democratic, Scientific Political Science.” Daedalus 126(1): 253–87.Google Scholar
Smith, Rogers M. 2015. Political Peoplehood: The Roles of Values, Interests, and Identities. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spencer, Henry Russell. 1949. “Pathological Problems in Politics.” American Political Science Review 43(1): 116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stevens, Sean and Haidt, Jonathan. 2018. “The Skeptics Are Wrong Part 1: Attitudes about Free Speech on Campus are Changing.” Heterodox Academy, March 18. Retrieved September 19, 2019 (https://heterodoxacademy.org/skeptics-are-wrong-about-campus-speech/).Google Scholar
Teele, Dawn Langan, ed. 2014. Field Experiments and Their Critics: Essays on the Uses and Abuses of Experimentation in the Social Sciences. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
The Web. N.d.The Web: A Very Brief History.” Theweb.juude.info. Retrieved September 22, 2019 (http://theweb.juude.info/web.htm).Google Scholar
Truman, David B. 1965. “Disillusion and Regeneration: The Quest for a Discipline.” American Political Science Review 59(4): 865–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turnage, Clara. 2017. “Most Republicans Think Colleges Are Bad for the Country. Why?Chronicle of Higher Education, July 10. Retrieved September 19, 2019 (https://www.chronicle.com/article/Most-Republicans-Think/240587).Google Scholar
Wilson, John K. 2019. “Turkey’s Ongoing Attack on Academic Freedom.” Academe Blog, January 24. Retrieved September 19, 2019 (https://academeblog.org/2019/01/24/turkeys-ongoing-attack-on-academic-freedom/).Google Scholar
Wilson, Woodrow. 1911. “The Law and the Facts.” American Political Science Review 5(1): 111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woesner, Matthew, Maranto, Robert, and Thompson, Amanda. 2019. “Is Collegiate Political Correctness Fake News? Relationships Between Grades and Ideology.” EDRE Working Paper 2019-15, University of Arkansas Department of Education Reform, April 8. Retrieved September 19, 2019 (https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3383704).Google Scholar
Wright, Quincy. 1950. “Political Science and World Stabilization.” American Political Science Review 44(1): 113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zelizer, Adam. 2019. “Is Position-Taking Contagious? Evidence of Cue-Taking from Two Field Experiments in a State Legislature.” American Political Science Review 113(2): 340–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zubaşcu, Florin. 2019. “Government Continues Crackdown on Academic Freedom in Hungary.” Science/Business, January 22. Retrieved September 19, 2019 (https://sciencebusiness.net/news/government-continues-crackdown-academic-freedom-hungary).Google Scholar