Suchergebnisse

The scientific study of politics requires an environment which accepts free inquiry and discussion. Scholars must be permitted to ask questions of their own choosing, gather data without hindrance, and communicate freely with one another about their findings. To be sure, freedom to investigate sensitive policy matters is limited by all governments. Moreover, political scientists themselves inevitably introduce some measure of their own values or ideological predispositions into their works. But it is obvious that without the guarantee of certain minimum freedoms, political science as we know it in the West could never exist.Communist regimes traditionally have made independent inquiry or objective discussion of political phenomena impossible. In the Stalinist period, scholarly analyses of politics—or, for that matter, of aesthetic, literary, moral or economic questions—amounted to little more than doctrinal exegesis or the elaboration of practical measures to implement the Party's demands. An autonomous social science in Stalin's Russia or Eastern Europe was simply unthinkable.Since the dictator's death, however, Communist governments have modified their hostility toward the social sciences in general, and toward political science in particular. A decade of de-Stalinization has been accompanied by steps to encourage the scientific study of politics. In several East European countries, political science now enjoys recognition as a discipline in its own right.This does not mean that political science in Communist countries has freed itself of political controls, or that what is presented as political science is always of scholarly merit.

"A short, lively and innovative text, this book addresses the question of what constitutes good practice in a variety of political science methods and examines the philosophy that underpins them. It argues for a pluralistic approach that will deliver effective analysis and an in-depth understanding of political events"--

Excerpts from their forthcoming book entitled, "American political science: the anatomy of a discipline.".

Comparative method in political science is currently going through a critical time, particularly after the failure of developmentalism, and of the classical paradigm of comparative government. This crisis stems from questioning universalism, mono-determinism and the compartmentalism between political science and history. New paradigms are conceived in order to overcome this. (Abstract amended)

This article examines how Progressive-Era political scientists worked to promote public service training. It gives evidence that the Progressive-Era political science community had a broad view of its mission that included preparing civil servants. Since World War II, tension has permeated relations between mainstream political science and professional public administration programs. Participants in current debates on relations between the two fields can gain from knowing something about the broad interests that engrossed the American Political Science Association at its start.

Among the modest number of widely-accepted generalizations about American history is the proposition that many subjects that were once ignored altogether or dealt with privately here, over the decades, come to be regarded as societal problems regulated best, or at least inevitably, by the national government in Washington. Whatever its applications otherwise, this description appears to fit the handling of the papers of Presidents of the United States from 1789 onwards. A backward step in this trend seemed to be signified on Pardon Day, September 8, 1974, when Philip W. Buchen, Counsel to the President, released two legal documents that expressed President Ford's conclusions about the Presidential materials of Richard Nixon. The bottom line was that the papers and other records, including tapes, retained during the Administration of former President Nixon in the White House offices "are the present property of Mr. Nixon."Beginning with these documents, this report will describe each of the key events from September, 1974 to the end of January, 1975 concerning the wise handling of Presidential materials. The chief focus will be on the litigation challenging Nixon's ownership, especially the participation as a party by The American Political Science Association. We will examine the initial judicial phase of this controversy including the ruling of Judge Charles R. Richey on January 31, 1975 favorable to the Association and its allies.