Trends in American Political Science: Some Analytical Notes

1963 ◽  
Vol 57 (4) ◽  
pp. 933-947 ◽  
Author(s):  
Albert Somit ◽  
Joseph Tanenhaus
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
The State ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
Personal Beliefs ◽  
Reliable Knowledge ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Science Association

The following notes deal with three aspects of American political science in which the trends, we believe, will be of particular interest to members of the profession. The findings presented here have been taken from a much broader study of the discipline currently in process. Given the present spatial exigencies, we have made some arbitrary decisions in selecting the topics to be dealt with here. It may be desirable, therefore, to indicate the scope of the larger investigation and the relationship of this paper to the parent study.We had originally planned to base our analysis of trends in American political science primarily upon the biographical and professional data contained in the 1948, 1953 and 1961 editions of the Directory of the American Political Science Association. While the data in these volumes were both useful and suggestive, we soon realized that this information alone was not sufficient for our purposes. We became increasingly convinced that any meaningful discussion of the state of the discipline required a reliable knowledge of the attitudes and views of the profession on a number of current issues and problems. Lacking this type of information, the authors of recent studies of American political science have been forced to treat their personal beliefs as reasonably representative of the membership at large; to speculate, however shrewdly, as to divisions of opinions in the discipline; or simply to ignore the topic altogether.

Present Tendencies in American Politics

1920 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Henry Jones Ford
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Annual Meeting ◽  
The State ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
The Road ◽  
Standard Work ◽  
Running Away ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
First Time ◽  
Science Association

For the first time since its sessions began in 1904, the American Political Science Association was last year unable to hold its regular annual meeting. For fourteen years, in unbroken series, the association had brought its members together for conference and discussion; but last year, with more matter in its field engaging thought and provoking study than ever before, the association had to suspend its activities. This was due to circumstances so well known that the matter would be scarcely worth mentioning were it not that it exhibits a plight in which political science is apt to find itself whenever the ordinary course of events is interrupted by some great catastrophe.In President Lowell's standard work on Governments and Parties in Continental Europe, he remarks that to him “the State sometimes presents itself under the figure of a stage-coach with the horses running away. On the front a number of eager men are urging the most contrary advice on the driver, whose chief object is to keep his seat; while at the back a couple of old gentlemen with spy-glasses are carefully surveying the road already traversed.”

Crisis, Choice, and Change in Retrospect

1992 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 345-367 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriel A. Almond ◽  
Scott C. Flanagan ◽  
Robert J. Mundt
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
New Institutionalism ◽  
American Political Science Review ◽  
Program Committee ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Life ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
The Political ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Science Association

THE ‘NEW INSTITUTIONALISM’ HAS BEEN THE MOST VISIBLE movement in American political science during the last decade. It is a recoil from reductionism that is said to have dominated the political science of the previous decades. During the American Political Science Association presidency of Charles E. Lindblom in 1981, with Theodore Lowi and Sidney Tarrow as co-chairs of the Program Committee, it was decided that all titles of panels and round tables at the annual meeting were to have ‘and the state’ tacked on. The implication was that the behavioural revolution had resulted in the neglect of the power and autonomy of the state. But this adding on ‘and the state’ had very little effect on the content of the papers, and seemed primarily to have ‘buzzword’ significance. A second manifestation of this discomfort was an article in the American Political Science Review of 1984 by James March and Johan Olsen, entitled ‘The New Institutionalism; The Organizational Factor in Political Life’, followed by a book by the same two authors called Rediscovering Institutions: The Organizational Basis of Politics.

Politics and the Life Sciences: Current Research Questions and Teaching Biopolitics

1989 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 17-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Albert Somit ◽  
Steven A. Peterson
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Life Sciences ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
Contributing Factors ◽  
Professional Journals ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Dramatic Growth ◽  
Science Association ◽  
Formal Recognition

Biopolitics is the study of the relationship between our biological makeup and our political behavior. While this line of inquiry can be traced back to Plato and Aristotle, the contemporary surge of interest dates from the middle 1960s. Among the major contributing factors then were—take your pick—James C. Davies' Human Nature in Politics (1963), a 1964 essay by Lynton K. Caldwell, and a panel chaired by Albert Somit at the Southern Political Science Association (1967). Over the past two decades, there has been a dramatic growth of interest in “biopolitics,” as the area came to be known, to the point where some 900 works have now appeared (Peterson and Somit, in press).A variety of indicators testify to the acceptance that biopolitics has since achieved within the discipline: formal recognition by the International Political Science Association (1972); biopolitical articles in our leading professional journals; books bearing the imprint of leading publishers; the regular inclusion of panels on biology and politics at regional, national, and international conferences; support from major foundations, such as the Rockefeller and Lilly Foundations; awards by NSF and NIA for biopolitical research; the establishment of the Association for Politics and the Life Sciences (1981) and its journal, Politics and the Life Sciences (1982) and, most recently, recognition by the American Political Science Association of biopolitics as an “organized subfield.”

scholarly journals APSA Executive Director's Report, 2009

2010 ◽  
Vol 43 (01) ◽  
pp. 172-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Brintnall
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Annual Report ◽  
The State ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
The Past ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Science Association

The Executive Director's Report is an annual report on the state and activities of the association, and for 2009 it is hard not to reach outside the literal bounds of the association to reflect on the discipline, the academy, and the economy as a whole. Simply put, the American Political Science Association has weathered the financial storms of the past year well, though we know as well that reverberations from the economic downtown will continue for some time, with the potential for a sustained period of change.

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.

Are the Nation's Leading Political Science Programs Practicing the Egalitarian Values Espoused in American Democracy in an Age of Rising Inequality, And if Not, How Can They?

2008 ◽  
Vol 41 (03) ◽  
pp. 567-573 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth Oldfield
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Task Force ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
Participation Rates ◽  
American Democracy ◽  
University Of Illinois ◽  
The University ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Science Association

The American Political Science Association (APSA) has roughly 14,000 members. In fall 2002, APSA appointed a “Task Force on Inequality and American Democracy” (TFIAD). The group's 15 members represented various prestigious American universities, including, for example, Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. TFIAD was tasked with assessing the relationship between economic inequality in America and changes in political participation rates in our representative democracy.

Report on a Survey of the Membership of the American Political Science Association

1974 ◽  
Vol 7 (04) ◽  
pp. 382-385 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas E. Mann
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Executive Director ◽  
Response Rate ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
Full Time ◽  
National Office ◽  
Final Questionnaire ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Number Of Individuals ◽  
Science Association

In conjunction with a discussion of the FY 1974–75 Budget at its April, 1974, meeting, the Council of the American Political Science Association instructed the Executive Director to survey the membership of the Association as to their attitudes toward the usefulness ofPSin form and content. In order to take full advantage of the resources needed to conduct this survey, the National Office conceived a broader study of membership attitudes toward Association activities. The final questionnaire was approved by the Council.On June 7, 1974, the questionnaire was mailed to 1,000 individuals selected randomly from the membership files of the Association. A second mailing was sent to those who had not responded on July 9. A total of 530 completed questionnaires were received for a response rate of 53 percent.The demographic characteristics of the membership, as reflected in the sample, are portrayed in Table 1.The small number of students in the sample is surprising, given the fact that a third of all Association members pay student dues. This discrepancy cannot be attributed to differential response rates; a check of our numbering system confirms the fact that “student” members returned their questionnaires at the same rate as “annual” members. Clearly, a substantial number of individuals paying student dues are employed full-time.

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