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Challenges of Professional Development for Political Science in the Next Decade and Beyond

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2022

Jack L. Walker
Jack L. Walker*
Affiliation:
Institute of Public Policy Studies, The University of Michigan
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Extract

Political scientists have been experiencing a 30-year boom in students, resources, opportunities and salaries unlike none other in the history of the profession, but there is little doubt that trends in all these areas are now turning downward. Some lingering skepticism remains about the magnitude of the coming troubles, but most members of our profession are aware not only that the boom is over, but that something ranging from a recession to a thumping depression is almost upon us.

The Committee on Professional Development has been formed in response to the gathering difficulties faced by political scientists. The Committee's task is to identify and precisely describe the problems being encountered by the profession and to suggest solutions. We begin by communicating with members of the National Association through its committees and publications, but hope that our reports and proposals might also stimulate debate and action within political science departments across the country. The profession still is in the early stages of what surely will be an extremely trying period of its history. If foresight is exercised, however, and we are flexible enough to adapt to changing social needs, it is possible that some of our problems can be transformed into opportunities. Our Committee is intended to aid in this important process of adaptation by encouraging the entire profession to discover new bases for intellectual growth.

Type
Research Article
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 11 , Issue 4 , Fall 1978 , pp. 484 - 491
Copyright
Copyright © The American Political Science Association 1978

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Footnotes

*

Report of the APSA Committee on Professional Development. This paper is a summary of the conversations held at two meetings of the Committee on Professional Development during 1977 and 1978. Those involved in the meeting included: Donald Haider (Northwestern University), Erwin Hargrove (Vanderbilt University), John Ellwood (The Congressional Budget Office), Thomas Mann (American Political Science Association), Allen Schick (The Urban Institute), Susan Tolchin (George Washington University), and Louise White (American University). The paper is my own summary of the sense of our discussions and was not passed among the other committee members for their approval. I do not believe it would provoke any major objections from any of those participants, but they are hereby freed from direct responsibility for its contents.

References

1 This and all other calculations about graduates in political science were made by Thomas E. Mann of the APSA staff. His annual reports in PS are the best source of data available on placement by political science graduate programs.

2 Goldstein, Tom, “Job Prospects for Young Lawyers Dim as Field Grows Overcrowded,” The New York Times, May 17, 1977, p. 1.Google Scholar

3 Norman E. Bowie, “Graduate Education and Non-academic Careers” (paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Colleges, February 11, 1977, p. 4).

4 Adkins, Douglas A., “The Filtering of Thinking Men and Women: The Buyer's Market for Professional Manpower in the United States, 1975–2000: The Case of Sociology and Anthropology,” Working Paper No. 73–21 (Schools of Business Series), New York University, October, 1973, p. 32.Google Scholar

5 The following section was originally drafted by Thomas E. Mann of the APSA staff.