The competing meanings of “biopolitics” in political science: Biological and postmodern approaches to politics

2012 ◽  
Vol 31 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 2-15
Author(s):  
Laurette T. Liesen ◽  
Mary Barbara Walsh
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Annual Meeting ◽  
Michel Foucault ◽  
Political Behavior ◽  
Life Sciences ◽  
The United States ◽  
The State ◽  
American Political Science

The term “biopolitics” carries multiple, sometimes competing, meanings in political science. When the term was first used in the United States in the late 1970s, it referred to an emerging subdiscipline that incorporated the theories and data of the life sciences into the study of political behavior and public policy. But by the mid-1990s, biopolitics was adopted by postmodernist scholars at the American Political Science Association's annual meeting who followed Foucault's work in examining the power of the state on individuals. Michel Foucault first used the term biopolitics in the 1970s to denote social and political power over life. Since then, two groups of political scientists have been using this term in very different ways. This paper examines the parallel developments of the term “biopolitics,” how two subdisciplines gained (and one lost) control of the term, and what the future holds for its meaning in political science.

The competing meanings of “biopolitics” in political science: Biological and postmodern approaches to politics

2012 ◽  
Vol 31 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 2-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurette T. Liesen ◽  
Mary Barbara Walsh
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Annual Meeting ◽  
Michel Foucault ◽  
Political Behavior ◽  
Life Sciences ◽  
The United States ◽  
The State ◽  
American Political Science

The term “biopolitics” carries multiple, sometimes competing, meanings in political science. When the term was first used in the United States in the late 1970s, it referred to an emerging subdiscipline that incorporated the theories and data of the life sciences into the study of political behavior and public policy. But by the mid-1990s, biopolitics was adopted by postmodernist scholars at the American Political Science Association's annual meeting who followed Foucault's work in examining the power of the state on individuals. Michel Foucault first used the term biopolitics in the 1970s to denote social and political power over life. Since then, two groups of political scientists have been using this term in very different ways. This paper examines the parallel developments of the term “biopolitics,” how two subdisciplines gained (and one lost) control of the term, and what the future holds for its meaning in political science.

scholarly journals Woodrow Wilson como Administrador

2020 ◽  
Vol 75 (02) ◽  
pp. 134-147
Author(s):  
Henry A. Turner ◽  
Raimundo Xavier de Menezes
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Science ◽  
The United States ◽  
The State ◽  
American People ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
Woodrow Wilson ◽  
Constitutional Government ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Science Association

Vinte e oito de dezembro de 1956 assinalou o centenário do nascimento deWoodrow Wilson , um dos presidentes mais complexos que até hoje nos governaram.Poucos contribuíram tão significativamente em campos tão variados,e apresentaram tal número de interessantes facetas em sua personalidade.W i l s o n , o sexto presidente da American Political Science Association, é conhecidocomo ilustre cientista político, em virtude de suas obras CongressionalGovernment, The State e Constitutional Government in the United States,além de numerosos ensaios sôbre o mesmo assunto. É tido como historiadorem atenção aos seus trabalhos History oí the American People e Division andReunion. Sua ação como Presidente da Universidade de Princeton bem comoas manifestações literárias sôbre temas educacionais granjearam-lhe fama deeducador. As reformas promovidas sob sua orientação, quando Governador deNew Jersey, distinguem-no como um dos Chefes de Executivo estaduais maisnotáveis, dentre os de sua geração.

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.

In His Day: Awareness of Wilson’s Duplicity

2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 762-763 ◽  
Author(s):  
Desmond Jagmohan
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Science ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Scientist ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
Woodrow Wilson ◽  
Princeton University ◽  
History Of ◽  
Complex Landscape ◽  
American Political Science

Woodrow Wilson is the only American political scientist to have served as President of the United States. In the time between his political science Ph.D. (from Johns Hopkins, in 1886) and his tenure as president (1913–21), he also served as president of Princeton University (1902–10) and president of the American Political Science Association (1909–10). Wilson is one of the most revered figures in American political thought and in American political science. The Woodrow Wilson Award is perhaps APSA’s most distinguished award, given annually for the best book on government, politics, or international affairs published in the previous year, and sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson Foundation at Princeton University.Wilson has also recently become the subject of controversy, on the campus of Princeton University, and in the political culture more generally, in connection with racist statements that he made and the segregationist practices of his administration. A group of Princeton students associated with the “Black Lives Matter” movement has demanded that Wilson’s name be removed from two campus buildings, one of which is the famous Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs (see Martha A. Sandweiss, “Woodrow Wilson, Princeton, and the Complex Landscape of Race,” http://www.thenation.com/article/woodrow-wilson-princeton-and-the-complex-landscape-of-race/). Many others have resisted this idea, noting that Wilson is indeed an important figure in the history of twentieth-century liberalism and Progressivism in the United States.A number of colleagues have contacted me suggesting that Perspectives ought to organize a symposium on the Wilson controversy. Although we do not regularly organize symposia around current events, given the valence of the controversy and its connection to issues we have featured in our journal (see especially the September 2015 issue on “The American Politics of Policing and Incarceration”), and given Wilson's importance in the history of our discipline, we have decided to make an exception in this case. We have thus invited a wide range of colleagues whose views on this issue will interest our readers to comment on this controversy. —Jeffrey C. Isaac, Editor.

How International Is Political Science? Patterns of Submission and Publication in the American Political Science Review

2018 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 789-798 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marijke Breuning ◽  
Ayal Feinberg ◽  
Benjamin Isaak Gross ◽  
Melissa Martinez ◽  
Ramesh Sharma ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Review Process ◽  
American Political Science Review ◽  
Geographic Location ◽  
The United States ◽  
Science Review ◽  
Global North ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
The Impact

ABSTRACTHow international in scope is publishing in political science? Previous studies have shown that the top journals primarily publish work by scholars from the United States and, to a lesser extent, other global-north countries. However, these studies used published content and could not evaluate the impact of the review process on the relative absence of international scholars in journals. This article evaluates patterns of submission and publication by US and international scholars for the American Political Science Review—one of the most selective peer-reviewed journals in the discipline. We found that scholars from the United States and other global-north countries are published approximately in proportion to submissions but that global-south scholars fare less well. We also found that scholars affiliated with prestigious universities are overrepresented, irrespective of geographic location. The article concludes with observations about the implications of these findings for efforts to internationalize the discipline.

A Discussion of Jessica Blatt's Race and the Making of American Political Science

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 808-809
Author(s):  
James Farr
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Racial Difference ◽  
The United States ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Racial Hierarchy ◽  
Civic Discourse ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
American Political Science

In Race and the Making of American Political Science, Jessica Blatt argues that the professionalization of the discipline was deeply entwined with ideas about racial difference, and the concomitant attempt by leading scholars to define and defend a system of racial hierarchy in the United States and beyond. Although it focuses on the period from the late nineteenth century through the 1930s, the book also raises fundamental questions about the historical legacy of racialist arguments for professional political science, the extent of their continuing resonance, and contemporary implications for both academic and broader civic discourse. We have asked a range of leading political scientists to consider and respond to Professor Blatt’s important call for scholarly self-reflexivity.

Untangling the Concept of Adversarial Legalism

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 473-487
Author(s):  
Jeb Barnes ◽  
Thomas F. Burke
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Dispute Resolution ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
The United States ◽  
Law And Society ◽  
Everyday Practice

The concept of adversarial legalism has been widely used by scholars of law, public administration, public policy, political science, sociology, and Law and Society, but the varying ways in which the concept has been employed raise concerns that it has become stretched to the point of incoherence. We argue that adversarial legalism entails both a style, an everyday practice of dispute resolution and policy making with distinct attributes, and a structure of governance that can be compared to other structures of authority. Untangling these aspects of adversarial legalism allows us to make sense of its different uses and identify future avenues of inquiry. Despite its wide application, adversarial legalism is in fact underutilized, especially in studies aimed at understanding consequences of judicialization, legalization, and juridification in the United States and abroad.

Findings and Recommendations of the Special Committee on Service Voting

1952 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 512-523 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
Special Committee ◽  
Recent Letter ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Science Association

The review is republishing below the findings and recommendations included in the Report recently prepared by the Special Committee on Service Voting of the American Political Science Association and presented to the President of the United States, who submitted it to Congress. The Committee was composed of the following members: Paul T. David, chairman, Robert Cutler, Samuel J. Eldersveld, Bertram M. Gross, Alexander Heard, Edward H. Litchfield, ex officio, Kathryn H. Stone, and William B. Prendergast, secretary.In a letter of April 7, 1952, to Luther Gulick, President of the Association, President Truman expressed his appreciation for the work of the Committee and of the Association in the following words:I wish to thank you, and the members of the Special Committee on Service Voting of the American Political Science Association, for the outstanding report on “Voting in the Armed Forces” which you sent me with your recent letter. This report more than fulfills my request to the American Political Science Association for an analysis of the progress made on soldier voting, and recommendations for steps to be taken to see that a maximum number of servicemen vote this year.

Education and Transparency: Changes in Campus Iconography

2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 766-767 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dianne Pinderhughes
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Science ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Scientist ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
Woodrow Wilson ◽  
Princeton University ◽  
History Of ◽  
Complex Landscape ◽  
American Political Science

Woodrow Wilson is the only American political scientist to have served as President of the United States. In the time between his political science Ph.D. (from Johns Hopkins, in 1886) and his tenure as president (1913–21), he also served as president of Princeton University (1902–10) and president of the American Political Science Association (1909–10). Wilson is one of the most revered figures in American political thought and in American political science. The Woodrow Wilson Award is perhaps APSA’s most distinguished award, given annually for the best book on government, politics, or international affairs published in the previous year, and sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson Foundation at Princeton University.Wilson has also recently become the subject of controversy, on the campus of Princeton University, and in the political culture more generally, in connection with racist statements that he made and the segregationist practices of his administration. A group of Princeton students associated with the “Black Lives Matter” movement has demanded that Wilson’s name be removed from two campus buildings, one of which is the famous Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs (see Martha A. Sandweiss, “Woodrow Wilson, Princeton, and the Complex Landscape of Race,” http://www.thenation.com/article/woodrow-wilson-princeton-and-the-complex-landscape-of-race/). Many others have resisted this idea, noting that Wilson is indeed an important figure in the history of twentieth-century liberalism and Progressivism in the United States.A number of colleagues have contacted me suggesting that Perspectives ought to organize a symposium on the Wilson controversy. Although we do not regularly organize symposia around current events, given the valence of the controversy and its connection to issues we have featured in our journal (see especially the September 2015 issue on “The American Politics of Policing and Incarceration”), and given Wilson's importance in the history of our discipline, we have decided to make an exception in this case. We have thus invited a wide range of colleagues whose views on this issue will interest our readers to comment on this controversy. —Jeffrey C. Isaac, Editor.

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