Introduces a symposium on the present state & future direction of US political science. Here, some remarks are offered on what kind of science can & should political science be. Problems with modeling political science after economics are noted, asserting that, ultimately, its an unsuitable model that has left political science without its own distinctive methodology. US political science's identity is delineated & subject to critique, focusing on the disciplines failure to confront the theory-practice nexus &, as such, is useless. This is illustrated with the example of how political science would confront the question, "What is democracy?". J. Zendejas
This is an Accepted Manuscript version of the following article, accepted for publication in Behavioral & Social Sciences Librarian: Hendley M. (2012) Citation Behavior of Undergraduate Students: A Study of History, Political Science, and Sociology Papers. Behavioral & Social Sciences Librarian, 31(2), 96–111. https://doi.org/10.1080/01639269.2012.679884 It is deposited under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. ; The goal of this analysis was to obtain local citation behavior data on undergraduates researching history, political science, and sociology papers. The study found that students cited books and journals even with the availability of web sources; however, usage varied by subject. References to specific websites' domains also varied across subject area. Most of the top journal titles that students referenced were online and locally owned. Students cited a broader range of journal titles than predicted by the Law of Scattering and cited titles across a wide array of subject areas. This data helped identify potential gaps in the library's collection and services. ; AM ; SUNY Oneonta ; Library ; N/A
Confusion reigns almost supreme in the field of political science, particularly when the meaning of terms is involved. Some of our most commonly used words have so many meanings, shades of meaning, and connotations that hearers and readers are frequently at a loss as to the meaning and significance of terms used unless the speaker or writer defines them as he uses them. A cursory examination of the term "state" brought to light no fewer than one hundred forty-five different definitions, even though only a few writers were included who might be classed as radical. Less than half of the definitions were in general agreement. Even this statement is based on the assumption that when the same words were used by two writers they were used to mean the same thing; and I doubt whether the assumption is entirely justifiable. Furthermore, "state" is not the only term in political science which is defined in multifold ways. A similar situation was found when others, especially "law," "government," "political," "administration," were investigated.The process of communication between political scientists, as well as between these scientists and laymen or between laymen and laymen, comes to be a guessing game. Consciously or unconsciously, it is suggested, we are spending much of our time guessing what the sender means when he uses even technical words.
The article shows the weakness of mainstream Polish political science. Its main weakness, according to the author, is omitting the industrial and corporate power conflict among the factors determining the contemporary politics. As a result, the relations between political science and political economy have become weak. Its place as a source of inspiration for political scientists has been taken by social philosophy. It seeks the various non-economic sources of politics. The postulated critical political science puts in the spotlight the main processes of the global capitalist economy located in a phase of stagnation and closing in on the natural limits of its duration. In particular, closer attention should be focused on tracking a new, already the fifth configuration of the market society. It will be the several partial processes weave; the recovery process of autonomy by the state to corporations and the financial sector (deglobalisation); the process of recovering control of the state by the old and new social movements (democracy participatory), and the process of transformation of the energy economy, coupled with the process of changing lifestyles: from consumerism to paideia as a human community responsive to its activity on the development, openness and creativity in shaping new rules for civilization. ; Artykuł ukazuje słabości mainstreamowej polskiej politologii. Główną jej słabością według autora jest pomijanie wśród czynników determinujących współczesną politykę konfliktu przemysłowego i władzy korporacji. W efekcie osłabły związki nauki o polityce z ekonomią polityczną. Jej miejsce jako źródło inspiracji dla politologów zajęła filozofia społeczna. Poszukuje ona różnych pozaekonomicznych źródeł polityczności. Postulowana politologia krytyczna umieszcza w centrum uwagi główne procesy globalnej gospodarki kapitalistycznej, znajdującej się w fazie stagnacji i zbliżającj się do przyrodniczych granic swego trwania. W szczególności bliższej uwagi wymaga śledzenie nowej, już piątej konfiguracji społeczeństwa rynkowego. Będzie to spolot kilku procesów cząstkowych; procesu odzyskiwania autonomii przez państwa wobec korporacji i sektora finansowego (deglobalizacja); proces odzyskiwania kontroli nad państwem przez stare i nowe ruchy społeczne (demokracja partycypacyjna), a także proces transformacji energetycznej gospodarki, sprzężony z procesem zmiany stylu życia: od konsumpcjonizmu do paidei jako wspólnoty ludzkiej ukierunkowującej swoją aktywność na potrzeby rozwojowe, na otwartość i kreatywność w kształtowaniu nowych zasad funkcjonowania cywilizacji ogólnoludzkiej.
Political science is In same time old and young science. Old, if we have in mind politics as subject of research, and young if we think about institutions in which politics is only subject of research or education. Having in mind religion as subject of political science,s research, we can easily conclude that all books in early history of mankind, which were dedicated to political topics, had for the first subject religion. That is clear if we remember that firsts form of politicals organisations in old Babylon, Egypt and Israel... were inseparable connected with gods. Gods gave legitimacy to those states. But so political sciences institutions in generally so Politology of religion, or politologie des religions in French, was born late. The firsts subjects of research in politicals sciences institutions were: state, political regimes, political parties, theory of politics, political systems, etc. Religion was studied very rarely. Modern political science was born under influence of french intellectuals: Dederot, Rousseau, Voltaire etc. They considered that religion will disappear with education and development. Their compatriot Alexis de Tocqueville thought contrary to their prognosis. The time gave right to Tocqueville. In the second part of XX century when the world develompent was highest, religion maintained its position in big part of globe and became stronger in a lot of states. That created big challenge for political science. Many of politicals scientis started with research concerning influence of religion into politics. That create, as the first step, centers for research of relations among religion and politics as is "labaratoire RELIGION ET POLITIQUE at "Institute d'etudes politiques" in Paris or "L'Observatoire du Religieux" at "Institut d'etudes politique" in Aix en provence en France, and finally that created special scientific discipline among political sciencies which name is "Politology of religion" or "Politologie des religions" in french.
Political science engages similar types of identity on different terms. There are extensive literatures describing phenomena related to national, ethnic, class, and gender identity; however, these literatures in isolation give us little insight into broader political mechanics of identity itself. Furthermore, many of the theoretical approaches to identity in political science tend to proceed from the macro-level, without conceptualizing its building blocks. How should we conceptualize and operationalize identity in political science? In this article, we examine the existing literature on identity in ethnic politics, nationalism studies, and gender politics to show this disconnect in conceptualizing identity across research agendas. We then provide an integrated model of identity, focusing on how gradations of visibility, conceptualization, and recognition form the basis of claims and conflicts about the politics of identity. We conclude by elucidating a path to overcoming these issues by opening space for a rethinking of identity in political science.
1. Development of State -- 2. Theory of the Origin of the State -- 3. New Political Science -- 4. Challenges to State Sovereignty -- 5. Forms of Government -- 6. Judiciary -- 7. Indian Government and Politics -- 8. Organisation of State Government - Tamilnadu -- 9. Local Self Government in Tamil Nadu -- 10. India in the 21st Century
In: PS: political science & politics, Band 45, Heft 1, S. 124-126
The Political Science Program at the National Science Foundation (NSF) announces it awards for basic research support and dissertation improvement grants for fiscal year 2011. The Program funded 25 new projects and 44 doctoral dissertation improvement proposals. The Political Science Program spent $5,234,470 on these research, training and workshop projects and $483,822 on dissertation training grants for political science students. The program holds two grant competitions annually —Regular Research, August and January 15; Dissertation Improvement, September 16 and January 15— and constitutes a major source of political science research funding as part of fulfilling NSF's mission to encourage theoretically focused empirical investigations aimed at improving the explanation of fundamental social and political processes and structures.
