Suchergebnisse

Looks at the state of political science in France where the discipline is being strangled by budget cuts & deleterious measures like the deliberate non-replacement of retiring professors. Three key factors explain this downward trend. First, political science is a relatively young discipline that has traditionally been marginal in French universities & still lacks needed institutional recognition. Second, competition between law & political science departments has added to the scarcity of jobs & led to an unfair selection process that fails to live up to the French meritocratic ideal. Third, divisions within the profession have hindered its ability to apply political pressure on the government. Unlike its European counterparts, French political science does not have a strong labor union tradition. Not only does the isolation of most political scientists make mobilization for collective action difficult but French professors rarely lobby for additional job creation in provincial universities because they are intent on getting to Paris to enhance their own careers. Future prospects are discussed. References. J. Lindroth

This contribution is based on four assumptions: 1) the social and political sciences should rebuild a systematic relationship with history, 2) this is urgent if we want to give depth to the analysis of new phenomena on a global scale that have characterized this long decade following the Great Recession, 3) sociology and political science need to build research of a comparative nature that will stand the test of time, 4) the crisis of democracies is the unifying topic that today requires a comparison between the crisis of American democracy with the crises of European democracies. This, however, can be done realistically only by understanding the historical uniqueness that characterizes each political system.

Review.

Review.