The Glory and the Burden: Teaching a Course on Politics and the Media

1978 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-23
Author(s):  
David L Paletz
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Task Force ◽  
Television News ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
Public Officials ◽  
Benign Neglect ◽  
The Media ◽  
The One ◽  
American Political Science

The article describes the genesis, purposes and construction of an innovative course relating politics and the media of communication. Focusing on authority, the course (the glory) is designed to assist students to understand, on the one hand, how and why the media depict authority systems, structures, positions, individual authority wielders, and sanctioned policies in particular ways; and, on the other hand, to understand how public officials in the United States and other nations try to use the mass media to enhance their authority. Feature and “documentary” film, videotapes of television news and political campaign commercials are analyzed for their structures, codes, and possible effects. The success of the course is indicated by the range of quality of original, media-using, student projects. The teacher of such a course encounters a heavy “burden”. It includes administrative difficulties, technical obstacles, and the unavailability of visual material. Facing such problems directly, the Task Force on Audio-Visual Instruction in Political Science of the American Political Science Association (of which the author was a member) issued a series of sweeping recommendations in the areas of information and evaluation of technological resources and media material production, exhibition, distribution, circulation, and preservation. Most of these recommendations have thus far encountered benign neglect.

Political Science and Federal Employment

1941 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 304-310
Author(s):  
Frederick M. Davenport ◽  
Lewis B. Sims ◽  
Leonard D. White ◽  
G. Lyle Belsley ◽  
Frances R. Fussell
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Civil Service ◽  
The United States ◽  
Federal Agencies ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
Political Scientist ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Federal Employment ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Science Association

Only since 1939 have political scientists, as such, had much chance to gain entrance into the permanent federal civil service. This opportunity came as the result of two well-timed phenomena: (1) the demand of a number of federal agencies for young men and women educated in certain branches of political science, and (2) the United States Civil Service Commission's announcement of the Junior Professional Assistant examination, which included an optional called “Junior Administrative Technician.” This combination of happy circumstances, however, did not solve all the problems of the young political scientist or clarify all the requirements for federal employment; so, at the 1939 meeting of the American Political Science Association a committee was appointed to study the question.

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.

Presidential Papers as a Political Science Concern

1975 ◽  
Vol 8 (01) ◽  
pp. 8-18
Author(s):  
Clement E. Vose
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
Bottom Line ◽  
White House ◽  
Legal Documents ◽  
Societal Problems ◽  
Key Events ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Science Association

Among the modest number of widely-accepted generalizations about American history is the proposition that many subjects that were once ignored altogether or dealt with privately here, over the decades, come to be regarded as societal problems regulated best, or at least inevitably, by the national government in Washington. Whatever its applications otherwise, this description appears to fit the handling of the papers of Presidents of the United States from 1789 onwards. A backward step in this trend seemed to be signified on Pardon Day, September 8, 1974, when Philip W. Buchen, Counsel to the President, released two legal documents that expressed President Ford's conclusions about the Presidential materials of Richard Nixon. The bottom line was that the papers and other records, including tapes, retained during the Administration of former President Nixon in the White House offices “are the present property of Mr. Nixon.”Beginning with these documents, this report will describe each of the key events from September, 1974 to the end of January, 1975 concerning the wise handling of Presidential materials. The chief focus will be on the litigation challenging Nixon's ownership, especially the participation as a party by The American Political Science Association. We will examine the initial judicial phase of this controversy including the ruling of Judge Charles R. Richey on January 31, 1975 favorable to the Association and its allies.

What Did They Wish For? Party Government, Polarization and the American Political Science Association

2020 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
MARK WICKHAM-JONES
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Party System ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
Party Government ◽  
Core Issue ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Responsible Party

In tracing the development of increased polarization in the United States, numerous scholars have noted the apparent importance of the American Political Science Association's (APSA's) Committee on Political Parties. The committee's influential (and often criticized) report, Toward a More Responsible Two-Party System, called for a wholesale transformation of political parties in the United States. On its publication in October 1950, political scientists quickly concluded that, taken together, the committee's recommendations represented a reworking of a distinct approach, usually known as “party government” or “responsible party government.” (The origins of responsible parties dated back to Woodrow Wilson's classic 1885 text Congressional Government.) Since then, the notion of party government has become a core issue in the study of American political parties, albeit a contentious one. A recent survey ranked the APSA document at seventh as a canonical text in graduate syllabi concerning parties.

Recent Political Science Research in American Universities

1952 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 470-485 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claude E. Hawley ◽  
Lewis A. Dexter
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
United States ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Science Research ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
American Universities ◽  
Science Departments ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Science Association

This report is based upon a survey of research in progress in political science departments of American universities in the spring of 1950. Undertaken jointly by the Committee on Research of the American Political Science Association and the Division of Higher Education of the United States Office of Education, the survey was essentially an analysis of questionnaires sent to the chairmen of 112 departments of political science believed to be in a position that would enable them particularly to emphasize research. Seventy-five of the 112 chairmen replied to the questionnaire, fourteen merely to state that no research was being conducted in their departments. Although several leading institutions did not reply, it is a fair guess that at least seventy-five per cent of the research being conducted by or in departments of political science was reported and subsequently analyzed.

scholarly journals Editor's Introduction

2010 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 733-736 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey C. Isaac
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Science ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Global Organization ◽  
The Us ◽  
National Citizenship ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Science Association

The American Political Science Association is a global organization, and currently counts among its almost 15,000 members nearly 3000 individuals who are citizens of nation-states other than the US. And only half of its 1600 institutional subscribers are North American. At the same time, the contemporary political science discipline that it represents, however cosmopolitan, is deeply rooted in the distinctive historical experiences of the United States. As Ira Katznelson and Helen V. Milner observed in their 2002 Centennial edition of Political Science: State of the Discipline, the professional association responsible for publishing the words you are now reading was born in the United States during the Progressive Era, as an effort to more scientifically and thus more usefully understand the evolving American state and its national citizenship: “American political science has specialized in developing particular kinds of social knowledge. The modifier American has to be taken seriously” (3–4).

Income, Preferences, and the Dynamics of Policy Responsiveness

2008 ◽  
Vol 41 (04) ◽  
pp. 785-794 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Daniel Ura ◽  
Christopher R. Ellis
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Task Force ◽  
The United States ◽  
National Government ◽  
American Democracy ◽  
Policy Responsiveness ◽  
Political Candidates ◽  
American Political Science

A variety of measures indicate that income inequality has grown significantly in the United States during the last three decades (APSA 2004; Brandolini and Smeeding 2006). In a flurry of recent research, scholars have attributed this trend to the failure of the national government to represent the preferences of ordinary citizens in general and less wealthy citizens in particular (APSA 2004; Bartels 2004; 2006; Gilens 2005), who participate in politics less consistently and contribute fewer resources to political candidates than their wealthier peers (Verba, Schlozman, and Brady 1995). The American Political Science Association's (APSA) Task Force on Inequality and American Democracy summarizes thisrepresentative failure hypothesis: “disparities in participation ensure that ordinary Americans speak in a whisper while the most advantaged roar” (2004, 2).

The Relations of Political Scientists with Public Officials: Report of a Committee to the American Political Science Association

1941 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 333-343
Author(s):  
Joseph P. Harris ◽  
Frank Bane ◽  
Rowland A. Egger ◽  
J. A. C. Grant ◽  
Pendleton Herring ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
Political Scientist ◽  
Public Officials ◽  
Large Measure ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Set Up ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Effective Contribution

In the summer of 1939, President Charles G. Haines set up this committee and instructed it to study broadly the contribution which political scientists are making to government, their relations with public officials, and how these relations might be made closer and more effective. The problem assigned to the committee is one of great importance to the future of political science. The challenge to political scientists to make an effective contribution to the improvement of government processes and institutions was never so real and so great as it is today. The preservation of democratic institutions, in the long run, will depend in large measure upon scientific study and research, and intelligent, imaginative, and constructive consideration of governmental problems. If political scientists are not making their full contribution to the development and improvement of government—and we believe they are not—it is time to stop and take stock, and to set about purposefully to attune political science to the needs of modern society. We are not unmindful of the very great contribution which all social sciences may make, but we believe that the responsibility of the political scientist is especially great.

2008 APSA Teaching and Learning Track Summaries—Track Eight: Civic Engagement I

2008 ◽  
Vol 41 (03) ◽  
pp. 622-623
Author(s):  
Timothy S. Meinke
Keyword(s):  
Civic Engagement ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Civic Education ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Task Force ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
Founding Fathers ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Collaborative Efforts ◽  
Science Association

Political science has always pondered questions of civic engagement. Socrates described and defended his intimate engagement with Athens in theApologyand Aristotle argued in thePoliticsthat it was only through engagement with the polis that humans could set forth and discuss notions of justice. Stephen Leonard (1999) and Hindy Schachter (1998) pointed out in earlier volumes of this journal that at the end of the nineteenth century the “founding fathers” of modern academic political science were motivated by ideas of improving citizens through civic education. And this has continued to be a focus for the American Political Science Association (APSA) through collaborative efforts such as the 1996 Task Force on Civic Education for the Next Century or, more recently, tracks during the association's Teaching and Learning Conference.

On the Study of Government

1953 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 961-974 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pendleton Herring
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
The United States ◽  
Professional Group ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Successful Operation ◽  
The Core ◽  
Systematic Inquiry ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Science Association

As the American Political Science Association nears the half century mark of its existence it seems appropriate to consider the broad significance of a professional group devoted to the study of government. Political science as a subject of systematic inquiry started with Aristotle but as a profession it has won its greatest recognition in the United States and within our generation. One fact is clear: no other country in the world today has so large, so well-trained, so competent a profession dedicated to the teaching and analysis of government.Whatever the current climate of opinion may be, these are the men and women who, from day to day in classroom and study, must explain in lectures and in writing the nature of political systems, foreign and domestic. This profession, which has flourished so greatly in the last fifty years, is now a part of our national strength: it is the core of that broad and continuing study of government and thoughtful concern with politics vital to the successful operation of free institutions. I want to tell you why I think the study of governmental matters and a wider understanding of political problems has a fresh urgency for us as a nation and the bearing this in turn has on the development of political science as a discipline.

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