Political Science in History Research Programs and Political Traditions

This is a book on American political science. The various essays cover an expansive set of research programs, political traditions, methodological agendas, and intellectual debates. The book is intended to invite reflection on the history of American political science.

The guiding theme of this volume is that contemporary political science owes much of its present character to its past. In twelve 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.

Editor's introduction; 1. The declination of the state and the origins of American pluralism John G. Gunnell; 2. An ambivalent alliance: political science and American democracy Terence Ball; 3. The pedagogical purposes of a political science Stephen T. Leonard; 4. Public opinion in modern political science J. A. W. Gunn; 5. Disciplining Darwin: biology in the history of political science John S. Dryzek and David Schlosberg; 6. Race and political science: the dual traditions of race relations politics and African-American politics Hanes Walton, Jr., Cheryl M. Miller, and Joseph P. McCormick, II; 7. Realism in international relations Jack Donnelly; 8. Remembering the revolution: behavioralism in American political science James Farr; 9. Policy analysis and public life: the restoration of phronesis? Douglas Torgerson; 10. The development of the spatial theory of elections John Ferejohn; 11. Studying institutions: some lessons from the rational choice approach Kenneth A. Shepsle; 12. Order and time in institutional study: a brief for the historical approach Karen Orren and Stephen Skowronek; Bibliography.

In the social disciplines there is a growing interest in disciplinary history as a means of accounting for the present status and possible futures of various modes of social and political inquiry. In this 1995 collection of essays, scholars take up the challenge of disciplinary history by exploring the themes and movements that have shaped political science today.