Suchergebnisse

The new interest in ideas behind foreign policy and in different constructions of the international has neglected to consider the varied sources of such new ideas. Generally attributed to 'policy intellectuals' much of the radical new direction in foreign policy thinking that marked the 20th century came in fact from public intellectuals, increasingly recognised as a critical source of new thinking in liberal political orders. Building on the new research in public intellectuals and their contribution to public debate and policy evolution, this book provides a comprehensive treatment of the thought of the major public intellectuals who made critical contributions to the thought behind and the practice of foreign policy and international relations during the 20th century. The result is a fresh look at some familiar figures, new studies of some less recognised personalities, and new evaluations of some contested thinkers.

The potential of political science to contribute to debates over public issues has long been hindered by tensions in the discipline's goals of achieving scientific rigor while also serving America's democracy. Those tensions have been exacerbated by recent trends in American higher education working to separate research and teaching activities and to rely more on external donors to finance both. Collectively these trends suggest that political science faces growing pressures to steer away from unpopular topics in both research and teaching, and to abandon the traditional teacher/scholar model of academic careers. It is advisable for the discipline both to seek more actively to promote engagement between different forms of political science scholarship in order to achieve cumulative knowledge that is pertinent to important political issues, and to preserve and strengthen its commitments to effective teaching about politics.

Public administration writers have placed considerable faith in the power of social science to improve the practice of public administration. This article argues that such faith derives from their vision of the state as a purposive association. However, because we live in what is essentially a civil association rather than a purposive association, there are severe limits on the knowledge that social science can provide for practice. Public administration inquiry, it is concluded, needs to devote more attention to the nature of the civil association in which it operates, particularly in regard to our constitutional system of governance.

Describes condition of political science in the two decades, and why rational choice, in which the tools of economics are applied to politics, was ignored while the behavioral movement, using psychology and sociology, was successful.