Political Science in History: Research Programs and Political Traditions

Description

The guiding theme of this volume is that contemporary political science owes much of its present character to its past. In twelve previously unpublished essays, the contributors - all practising political scientists - explore the emergence and transformation of political traditions and research programmes that have helped make political science what it is today. Included are histories of political themes and ideals (democracy, race, political education), conceptual and philosophical frameworks (the state and pluralism, behaviouralism, policy analysis, public opinion, biology and politics), and theoretical projects and programmes (realism in international relations, spatial theory of elections, rational choice and historical approaches to institutional analysis). Each essay provides special insight and a distinct approach to particular episodes, moments, trends, and aspects of the history of academic political science; the volume as a whole provides a general overview of the history of the discipline and the variety of ways disciplinary history can illuminate the present.

"...this book should be read by anyone interested in the history--present and future--of the social sciences generally. It exemplifies new maturity and sophistication in the telling and mining of the discipline's own checkered history. Furthering the promise of a reasoned discourse about the social sciences in America, it reflects the many dilemmas inherent in contemporary social and political inquiry." Journal of Interdisciplinary History