Suchergebnisse

This week we are looking at the place of courage in politics. What is it? And what role does it play – in times both of conflict and of peace?

This week we are looking at taking offence. What is it? Can it be a good thing? And can it also go too far?

Is more information for voters always unambiguously a good thing?

Political Science Research Methods helps students to understand the logic behind research design by guiding them through a step-by-step process that explains when and why a researcher would pursue different kinds of methods. The highly anticipated Ninth Edition of this trusted resource provides more international examples, an increased focus on the role ethics play in the research process, increased attention to qualitative research methods, and expanded coverage on the role of the internet in research and analysis.

From its very beginnings political science has been a complex discipline torn in conflicting directions. Consider Aristotle's Politics, the first book that looks like a contemporary political science monograph. In the book, Aristotle presented two opposing strands of argument that he managed with tolerable success to hold together. On the one hand, Aristotle treated the study of politics as a branch of practical knowledge, its aim being action (praxis), not theory. Political action is always contextual or circumstantial, the action of particular agents faced with a particular set of circumstances. Therefore, the student of politics needs to be concerned above all with learning the art of political judgment, with how to think and deliberate well under specific circumstances. Aristotle wrote the Politics for men situated in popular assemblies, courts of law, and councils of war. He presented politics as inseparable from rhetoric, the art of public persuasion. Aristotle believed that the perspective of the political theorist should not depart too far from that of the citizen or statesman.Yet, at the same time, Aristotle acknowledged that politics is a form of knowledge with its own distinctive subject matter and set of truth claims. Good student of Plato's that he was, Aristotle saw himself as turning the study of politics into a science (episteme) inasmuch as it constituted the search for a comprehensive or general explanation of some particular branch of knowledge.

This week we are looking at secular political institutions. Why do they matter? And what explains whether they emerge?

This week we ask which is better: a bureaucracy staffed by neutral civil servants; or one filled by political appointees?

Jewel Limar Prestage recently retired from academia after five decades of a professional
career as a political scientist. Through teaching, mentoring, research, and service, she has
had a profound influence in the political science discipline and on the lives of thousands
of students.

The relationship between political science and the 'real world' of public policy and politics has long been a complicated one. Current calls for more relevance in political science research echo back to the discipline's early days. This essay traces the intertwined history of practice and ivory tower, with specific attention to the rise of economics as a policy-engaged social science. A mini-case study of political scientists' involvement in contemporary health policymaking provides a concrete focus. Adapted from the source document.