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Political Science in the United States: The Discipline and the Profession

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2014

Extract

WRITINGS ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE FREquently deal with either the discipline or the profession. There is also a tendency not to relate political science to national and international political, intellectual and educational developments. In this article political science is treated as a discipline and a profession and viewed to a more significant degree than is usually the case as the dependent variable rather than as an independent one. Although political science in the United States is being dealt with, and the emphasis is upon the post- 1945 period, it is worth remembering that the ‘content and style of political science in any country is no less international in character than it is national. At the very least differences in national styles (as well as content) are a function of international styles as the latter are mediated by national factors’. There is in the United States neither a single school of political science nor a unitary style or content.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Government and Opposition Ltd 1983

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References

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27 Ibid., p. 74.

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50 Everett C. Ladd, Jr and Seymour M. Lipset, ‘Us: Characteristics of the American Political Science Community’, Paper presented at the 1973 annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, New Orleans, 4–8 September 1973, p. 88.

51 Ibid., p. 89.

52 Eulau and March, Op. cit., p. 83.

53 Ibid..

54 Ibid., p. 79.

55 Ladd and Lipset, ‘Us Revisited: A Survey Portait of the American Political Science Community’, Paper presented at the 1978 annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, New York, 30 August‐3 September 1978, p. 24.

56 Report of the Committe for the Advancement of Teaching, American Political Science Association, Goals for Political Science, New York, William Sloane Associates, 1951, p. 255.

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61 Ibid., p. 81; Ladd and Lipset, ‘Us Revisited’, p. 37. The percentages for all disciplines were 25 and 16, respectively.

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86 Ibid., p. 10.

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88 Roettger, op. cit., p. 10.

89 Ibid., p. 12.

90 Ibid., p. 14.

91 Ibid., p. 15.

92 Ladd and Lipset, ‘Us Revisited’, p. 39.

93 Roettger, op. cit., p. 10.

94 Easton, ‘The International Character of National Political Science’, p. 5.

95 See O’Brien, Donal C., ‘Modernization, Order, and the Erosion of a Democratic Ideal: American Political Science, 1960–1970’, Journal of Development Studies, Vol. 8, No. 4, 07 1972, pp. 351–78CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

96 The literature on the academic labour market problems is vast. Among the best works are Cartter, Allan M., PhD.’s and the Academic Labor Market, New York, McGraw‐Hill Book Co., 1976 Google Scholar, and Freeman, Richard B., The Overeducated American, New York and London, Academic Press, 1976 Google Scholar.

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98 Hirsch, Fred, Social Limits to Growth, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1978, p. 3 Google Scholar. See also Dore, Ronald, The Diploma Disease: Education, Qualification and Development, London, George Allen & Unwin, 1976, especially pp. 8497 Google Scholar.

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100 National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences, Summary Reports 1970 and 1981: Doctorate Recipients from United States Universities, Washington, DC, 1971 and 1981, pp. 11, 31, respectively.

101 Ibid..

102 Mann, Sheilah K., ‘Placement of Political Scientists, 1978–79’, P. S., Vol. XIII, No. 1, Winter 1980, p. 11 Google Scholar; Mann, , ‘Placement of Political Scientists, 1980–1981’, P. S., Vol. XV, No. 1, Winter 1982, p. 86 Google Scholar.

103 National Research Council, op. cit., pp. 7, 33.

104 Calculated by the author from data provided in Hugh G. Thorburn, ‘Graduate Studies in Political Science in Canada: Their Relationship to the Development of the Discipline and the Profession’, paper presented at the 1976 annual meeting of the Canadian Political Science Association, Université Laval, 30 May‐2 June 1976, Table 20.

105 For a discussion of this, see Cairns, Alan C., ‘Political Science in Canada and the Americanization Issue’, Canadian Journal of Political Science, Vol. VIII, No. 2, 06 1975, pp. 191234 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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108 Ibid..

109 Bureau of Labor Statistics, Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 1982–1983 Edition, Bulletin 2200, Washington, DC, US Government Printing Office, 1982, p. 110. The percentage estimate was provided to the author by the International Political Science Association in a letter dated 29 March 1982.

110 Roettger, op. cit., p. 30.

111 Ladd and Lipset, ‘US Revisited’, p. 44.

112 Ibid., p. 56.

113 Ibid., p. 30.

114 Ibid., p. 52.

115 ‘Political Science Faculty and Student Data’, p. 334; ‘Political Science Degrees Awarded and Graduate Students Enrolled: 1982 Update’, P. S., Vol. XV, No. 3, Summer 1982, p. 459.

116 Calculated by the author from data provided in the American Political Science Association’s Guide to Graduate Study in Political Science 1974 and 1982, Washington, DC, 1974 and 1982, pp. 3–16 and 347–50, respectively.

117 Mann, Thomas E., ‘Placement of Political Scientists in 1977’, P. S., Vol. XI, No. 1, Winter 1978, p. 27 Google Scholar.

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120 Lane, John C., ‘The Slow Graying of Our Professoriate’, P. S., Vol. XV, No. 1, Winter 1982, p. 52 Google Scholar.

121 Walker, op. cit., p. 488.

122 Lane, ‘To Nurture a Discipline’, pp. 164–65.

123 Walker, op. cit., p. 487.

124 Waldo, ‘Political Science’, p. 58. See also pp. 118–22 for a discussion as to whether or not political science is a profession.

125 Walker, op. cit., p. 489.

126 Ladd and Lipset, ‘Us Revisited’, pp. 44–6.

127 Sheilah K. Mann, ‘Placement of Political Scientists, 1980–1981’, p. 89.

128 Somit and Tanenhaus, The Development of American Political Science, p. 220.