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Abstract

Alexander L. George was one of the most productive and respected political scientists of the late twentieth century. He and his wife, Juliette George, wrote one of the first psychobiographies, and Professor George went on to write seminal articles and books focusing on political psychology, the operational code, foreign policy decisionmaking, case study methodology, deterrence, coercive diplomacy, policy legitimacy, and bridging the gap between the academic and policymaking communities. This book is the first and only one to contain examples of the works across these fields written by Alexander George and several of his collaborators." This is a collection of Alexander L. George's works from the major fields to which he contributed." There are biographical essays by his wife and co-author (Juliette L. George), daughter (Mary George Douglass), former student (Dan Caldwell), and professional colleague (Janice Gross Stein)." There are 25 photographs of Alexander L. George and his family which have not previously been published

Abstract:Rawls ignited a debate in political theory when he introduced a division between the ideal and nonideal parts of a theory of justice. In the ideal part of the theory, one presents a positive conception of justice in a setting that assumes perfect compliance with the rules of justice. In the nonideal part, one addresses the question of what happens under departures from compliance. Critics of Rawls have attacked his focus on ideal theory as a form of utopianism, and have argued that political theory should be focused instead on providing solutions to the manifest injustices of the real world. In this essay, I offer a defense of the ideal/nonideal theory distinction according to which it amounts to nothing more than a division of labor, and explore some scientific analogies. Rawls's own focus on the ideal part of the theory, I argue, stems from a felt need to clarify the foundations of justice, rather than a utopian neglect of real world problems.

The article reveals the place of the poetry of medieval Kazakh storytellers-zhyrau in the system of world heroic poetry, which glorified the knightly ethos and glorified real and mythical heroes. It is shown that, in contrast to the ideal of the European knight, in the ethos of the steppe warrior-batyr, as he appears in the poetry of zhyrau, a harmonious combination of cultures of rivalry and coopera­tion, striving for personal superiority and free cooperation to achieve common goals is achieved. In the very origins of the oral mythopoetic culture of the Kaza­khs, in proverbs and sayings, legends and epics, there is a reflective and ideolog­ical beginning, which predetermines its free character, open to the world and other cultures, and at the same time self-depth, creative self-appeal. This distinc­tive feature of the traditional culture of the Kazakh people and its spiritual, moral, intellectual development, the formation of national identity is clearly manifested both in oral folk art and in the philosophical reflections of outstand­ing Kazakh thinkers throughout the centuries-old cultural history of the Great Steppe. The heroic epic becomes a moral-forming factor of life since it sets so­cially and spiritually sanctioned normative personality patterns, produces worthy of imitation integral models of behavior and lifestyle.

Political theology is a broad and diverse series of investigations into the structural relationship between theology and politics – particularly the way that theological categories come to underpin modern political concepts, practices and institutions, such as sovereignty, the nation state and democracy. In this chapter I suggest that political theology is fundamentally concerned with the problem of legitimacy and that it refers to the absent place of the sacred in modern secular societies. As a mode of enquiry, it provides us with an alternative framework in which to understand modes of political experience that cannot be adequately grasped by conventional political theory. The chapter explores the origins of the concept, then turns to Carl Schmitt's influential interpretation of political theology as a secular translation of theological concepts into modern ideas of the sovereign state. It is argued that Schmitt's political theology is a justification for an authoritarian notion of sovereignty defined through the unilateral state of exception. The chapter then turns to alternative post-Schmittian approaches, including more radical interpretations of political or public theology that can inform social and racial justice struggles and climate action. Recent interventions in eco-political theology and economic theology are also considered.

AbstractThere are many ways of quantifying the success of political science departments, all of which have advantages and disadvantages. The most relevant international rankings consider factors such as research quality, research quantity, or academic reputation. None of the established rankings consider how frequently departments place their alumni into the academic job market. As this criterion should arguably be among the most important ones for prospective graduate students, this paper analyzes original data on the educational background of faculty members (N = 3548) at highly reputable political science departments in North America and Europe to create an up-to-date ranking based on academic placement records. The insights from this article provide guidance to undergraduate and graduate students when considering different options for the pursuit of a Ph.D., and hopefully also motivate departments to place greater significance on their placement records through increased transparency. In addition, the data highlights the large gender gap in placement success across all departments.

Roundtable participants Susan E. Clarke, Pat Hutchings, Scott Keeter, Grant Reeher, Yvette Alex-Assensoh, & Frank Boyd discuss ways to promote a synthesis of pedagogical & scholarly education in political science. K. Coddon

AbstractWe provide advice to presenters at political science conferences. Our
advice is based on the idea that the goal of a professional
presentation is to provide an audience with information it can
understand, discuss, and remember. We argue that current
presentational norms in our discipline are counterproductive, and we
encourage presenters to make their presentations more constrained,
less technical, and more connected to the political world outside of
political science.

AbstractLatecomer political science communities have faced multiple challenges in the past decades, including the very establishment of their professional identities. Based on the case study of Hungary, this article argues that publication performance is a substantial component of the identity of the political science profession. Hungary is a notable example among Central and East European (CEE) political science academia in the sense that both the initial take-off of the profession and then its increasing challenges are typical to the CEE region. In an inclusive approach, which encompasses all authors published in the field between 1990 and 2018, as well as their publication record, the analysis demonstrates that political science has undergone major expansion, quality growth and internationalisation but these performance qualities are unevenly spread. These reflect important aspects of the profession's identity. This agency and performance-based approach to identity formation might well be used to build up identity features elsewhere and also in a comparative manner.

The aim of this article is to demonstrate that comparative theory testing is necessary if political scientists wish to make positive statements regarding the confirmation of their theories. Using the tools of formal logic, the author first establishes that theory confirmation is not possible when a theory is tested in isolation, regardless of the statistical approach—falsificationism, confirmationism, or Bayesian confirmationism—employed by the researcher. The author then establishes a necessary and sufficient condition for positive theory confirmation and shows that this condition is met only when two rival theories are tested against one another. Finally, the author discusses two methods of comparative theory testing demonstrating that being comparative, besides being necessary, is also straightforward and practical.