A Government of Men: Presidential Address, The Ninth Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, December 28, 1912

1913 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Albert Bushnell Hart
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Annual Meeting ◽  
Presidential Address ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
The People ◽  
Fundamental Law ◽  
The Government ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Science Association ◽  
Town Meetings

“In the government of this commonwealth, the legislative department shall never exercise the executive and judicial powers, or either of them: the executive shall never exercise the legislative and judicial powers, or either of them: the judicial shall never exercise the legislative and executive powers, or either of them: to the end, it may be a government of laws, and not of men.”So runs the thirtieth article of the constitution adopted by the people of Massachusetts in their town meetings in the year 1780; and still a part of the fundamental law of this Commonwealth. The fine and sonorous phrase states two important principles: that in every proper government there should be three balanced departments; and that a government of laws must control not only the people but those charged with government—that is, that the rule is stronger than the rulers.

The Relations of Political Science to History and to Practice: Presidential Address, Fifth Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association

1909 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Bryce
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Annual Meeting ◽  
Presidential Address ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future ◽  
Mathematical Sciences ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Science Association ◽  
Universal Application

Whether or no it be true, as someone has said, that with words we govern men, it is at least certain that when a name has once passed into common speech it becomes a fact and a power. The term Political Science seems now generally accepted and your Association has by its very title expressed the opinion that Politics is a science. Nevertheless, to prevent misconception, we may properly ask “What sort of a science is it?” The mathematical sciences are described as exact sciences: and so too are such departments of knowledge as mechanics and physics. The laws and conclusions of these sciences can be expressed in precise terms. They can be stated in numbers. As the facts which these sciences deal with are the same everywhere and at all times, so the relations of those facts which we call Laws are of universal application. That being so we can predict their action and rely upon them to be the same in the future as they have been in the past.

The Law and the Facts: Presidential Address, Seventh Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association

1911 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Woodrow Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Annual Meeting ◽  
Actual World ◽  
Presidential Address ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
Life Changes ◽  
The Face ◽  
Life Itself ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Science Association

The life of society is a struggle for law. Where life is fixed in unalterable grooves, where it moves from day to day without change or thought of change, law is also, of course, stationary, permanent, graven upon the face of affairs as if upon tables of stone. But where life changes law changes, changes under the impulse and fingering of life itself. For it records life; it does not contain it; it does not originate it. It is subsequent to fact; it takes its origin and energy from the actual circumstances of social experience. Law is an effort to fix in definite practice what has been found to be convenient, expedient, adapted to the circumstances of the actual world. Law in a moving, vital society grows old, obsolete, impossible, item by item. It is not necessary to repeal it or to set it formally aside. It will die of itself,—for lack of breath,—because it is no longer sustained by the facts or by the moral or practical judgments of the community whose life it has attempted to embody.

scholarly journals The Progressive Unfolding of the Powers of the United States: Presidential Address, Eighth Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association

1912 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Simeon E. Baldwin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Annual Meeting ◽  
Presidential Address ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
The Future ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
General Tone ◽  
Science Association

When the Constitution of the United States was pending for ratification, its supporters, in their public utterances, were disposed to minimize the powers which it conferred. This was the general tone of the Federalist. How far they might reach, indeed, was a question that only the future could fully answer. A set of traditions and usages and precedents must first grow up, under the Constitution, but outside of it.Every one saw that much would depend on the views of Washington. Every one looked forward with confidence to his unanimous election as the first President. Every one saw that it would be left to him to decide whether he should be reelected. His refusal to stand for a third term founded a usage that has become as controlling as an express constitutional provision.Washington took care that the judiciary should be composed of men who believed that Congress was not confined to the exercise of the powers expressly granted to it.

The Citizen as Respondent: Sample Surveys and American Democracy Presidential Address, American Political Science Association, 1995

1996 ◽  
Vol 90 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sidney Verba
Keyword(s):  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Presidential Address ◽  
Sample Survey ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
Sample Surveys ◽  
American Democracy ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Government ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Science Association

Citizen participation is the main way in which the public communicates its needs and preferences to the government and induces the government to be responsive. Since participation depends on resources and resources are unequally distributed, the resulting communication is a biased representation of the public. Thus, the democratic ideal of equal consideration is violated. Sample surveys provide the closest approximation to an unbiased representation of the public because participation in a survey requires no resources and because surveys eliminate the selection bias inherent in the fact that participants in politics are self-selected. The contrast between the participatory process and the sample survey is used to highlight the nature of the bias in the former. Surveys, however, are not seen as a practical way of providing more equal representation.

(Not) Getting Religion: Has Political Science Lost Sight of Islam?

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sultan Tepe ◽  
Betul Demirkaya
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Annual Meeting ◽  
North Africa ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
Area Studies ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Middle East Studies ◽  
Science Association

AbstractIn this analysis, we expand the debate on the place of religion in political science by using the predictions of Wald and Wilcox as our starting point. Following in their footsteps, we ask how political scientists have studied Islam since 2002 and identify the studies on Islam and Muslims at the flagship conference of the discipline, the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association. We evaluate not only the quantity but also the approaches employed by these studies. In order to gauge the balancing of roles (or lack thereof) between the discipline and area studies, we also take a closer look at the Middle East Studies Association, the largest association focused on the Middle East, North Africa and the Islamic world and its annual meetings during the same period. Our findings suggest that, unless carefully addressed, the prevailing patterns are likely to result in a crippling knowledge gap among political scientists.

Civil Liberty After the War

1946 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-79
Author(s):  
Linden A. Mander
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Civil Liberty ◽  
Presidential Address ◽  
Gain Control ◽  
Freedom Of Speech ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
Internal Reaction ◽  
The World ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Science Association

In his presidential address delivered before the American Political Science Association in January, 1944, Professor Robert E. Cushman set forth clearly and convincingly the dilemma which confronts contemporary democratic nations. If they suppress discussion out of fear of fifth column and other subversive elements, democracy may perish from within, since constructive critical forces will in all probability be suppressed along with the elements of danger and dissatisfaction. If they permit freedom of discussion and propaganda, those hostile to democracy may use freedom of speech to gain control of the democratic processes for the purpose of suppressing the very democracy which has permitted them to ride to power.The world has seen this process at work both in Spain and in Germany, where the abuse of parliamentary immunity helped to hasten the overthrow of free peoples. And this type of danger will face the democracies after the present war at a time when emotional attitudes will be marked by greater intolerance. The danger may possibly come from those who desire internal reaction, from those who are members of fifth column groups, or possibly from a combination of both; for in an age of confused purposes national groups willing to link themselves with foreign elements for the forcible suppression of parties and groups of which they disapprove have come to be not uncommon.

The Political Science Curriculum in War-Time: Report of the Committee of the American Political Science Association on War-Time Changes in the Political Science Curriculum

1942 ◽  
Vol 36 (6) ◽  
pp. 1142-1146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ethan P. Allen ◽  
Rodney L. Mott ◽  
Kenneth O. Warner ◽  
Francis O. Wilcox ◽  
E. M. Kirkpatrick
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Science Curriculum ◽  
Educational Leaders ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
The Political ◽  
The People ◽  
The Common ◽  
Time Changes ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Science Association

In these days of war, with democracy facing the greatest challenge in its history, it would be a sad mistake for anyone to assume an attitude of smug complacency. Such would be disastrous if not literally treasonable. Educators, therefore, along with labor and industry, business and agriculture, need to re-examine and revaluate their contribution to the common welfare of the community. Engaged in a war that threatens the very existence of freedom of thought, scholarship, and teaching, educational leaders have an obligation to see that the best possible use is made of one of democracy's outstanding institutions—a free educational system. If the democratic nations fail to train men in good moral and intellectual habits, fail to produce men of keen insight and critical judgment, fail to give us free minds that can join in our struggle toward a better life for all the people of the world, they will have failed in one of their most important obligations to the human race, no matter how the struggle upon the field of battle may end.

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