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Rational Choice and Biopolitics: A (Darwinian) Tale of Two Theories

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

Albert Somit  and
Steven A. Peterson
Albert Somit
Affiliation:
Southern Illinois University
Steven A. Peterson
Affiliation:
Pennsylvania State University, Harrisburg
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Extract

In a recent paper (Somit and Peterson 1998), we discussed the relative successes and failures of “biopolitics” since it emerged as an identifiable subfield within political science during the mid-1960s (see also Degler 1991). Toward that end, we addressed two questions. First, we assessed the extent to which biopolitics has established itself organizationally as a field within the parent discipline. Second, and substantively surely more important, we measured the extent to which evolutionary concepts and the methods and research questions of the biological sciences have been incorporated within mainstream political science.

Although obviously interrelated, these are clearly quite distinct issues. The resulting balance sheet, we reluctantly concluded, makes at best bittersweet reading.

Type
Research Article
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 32 , Issue 1 , March 1999 , pp. 39 - 44
Copyright
Copyright © The American Political Science Association 1999

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