A Dynamic Labor Market: How Political Science is Opening Up to Methodologists, and How Methodologists are Opening Up Political Science

In: PS: political science & politics, Band 40, Heft 1, S. 125-127

Abstract

If disciplines can be likened to living things, then perhaps political
science is best characterized not by familiar symbols—e.g., the
elephant, the donkey, or the eagle—but by a small sea creature: the
hermit crab. Rather than generating its own protective cover, the hermit
crab adopts the foreign shells that it comes across; it makes a home for
itself by utilizing the previous works of other crustaceans. For many
years, the discipline of political science—like other areas within
the social and behavioral sciences—built its own frameworks using
the analytical tools found in outside disciplines. Borrowing heavily from
econometrics, psychometrics, and biometrics, political scientists examined
empirical data as they tested theories about individual behavior,
organizational dynamics, and governmental processes. The substantive ends
were of primary interest, and therefore less attention was paid to the
means of inquiry. The authors wish to thank
Michael Brintnall for sharing the American Political Science
Association's data on job postings, and David Campbell, Tom Carsey,
Suzanna DeBoef, Jeff Gill, John Jackson, Jonathan Nagler, Herb Weisberg,
and Sarah Wilson for helpful comments and suggestions on previous versions
of this article.