A Challenge to Political Scientists

1943 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 692-697 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Foote Whyte
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Scientist ◽  
Political Ethics ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Form Of Government ◽  
American Form

When the American form of government and our democratic way of life hang in the balance of armed conflict, the political scientist feels impelled more than ever to rally to the defense of these values. He Writes volumes to defend our system and to attack the systems of our enemies. He writes political philosophy and political ethics—just plain politics is forgotten.The uninformed layman might expect from his title that the political scientist would be an expert in the analysis of political processes in his own community. He would be disappointed. The following comment made by Aristotle centuries ago applies with equal validity to the problem of political science today: “Must we not admit that the political science plainly does not stand on a similar footing to that of other sciences and faculties? I mean that while in all other cases those who impart the faculties and themselves exert them are identical (physicians and painters, for instance), matters of Statesmanship the Sophists profess to teach, but not one of them practices it, that being left to those actually engaged in it: and these might really very well be thought to do it by some singular knack and by mere practice rather than by any intellectual process; for they neither write nor speak on these matters (though it might do more to their credit than composing speeches for the courts or the assembly)….” Since the politician of today remains inarticulate when it comes to discussing his methods for publication, the responsibility of building a science of politics, if there is to be such a science, continues to rest with the political scientists.

Towards a Democratic Theory

1945 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Herman Finer
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Democratic Theory ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Scientist ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Form Of Government ◽  
Soviet Communism

The principal, indeed the desperate, task of democracy is to maintain itself; its second, to improve and refine itself. It is well to conceive our problem in practical terms, as it tends to sharpen and limit the inquiry; and, in a sense, part of the answer, at least, lies in the terms in which the question is posed. The problem is not an exercise in theory, but is urgently practical. So is the answer. But as all political science teaches, though it may come in institutional and psychological devices, in the background, promising and perhaps mocking, there is also the metaphysical element. And the last is inescapable. For this question needs solution: What Marxism is to Soviet Communism, and what Racialism is to the Nazi State, is X to Democracy. What is X?For we cannot assume that uncultivated men and women, unshaped by their institutions that already exist, or without a doctrine, can operate the democratic form of government. If that were so, nobody would have thought of education. If the instinctive response of mankind to its social problems were democracy, or ineluctably something else, the political scientist could happily surrender his Ph.D. and close his college doors.

scholarly journals The 2011 National Science Foundation Political Science Awards

2012 ◽  
Vol 45 (01) ◽  
pp. 124-126
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
National Science Foundation ◽  
Research Training ◽  
Basic Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Fiscal Year ◽  
The Political ◽  
Science Program ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
National Science

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.

scholarly journals Sociological institutionalism as a direction of the new institutionalism of political science: methodology and its implementation in Ukrainian political science research

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (9) ◽  
pp. 5-14
Author(s):  
Oksana Bashtannyk
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
New Institutionalism ◽  
Institutional Analysis ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Research Strategy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Research Strategies ◽  
Sociological Institutionalism ◽  
Political Processes

The relevance of this study is explained by the need to find out the heuristic parameters of one of the segments of the institutional analysis of Ukrainian political science - sociological institutionalism. At the present stage of world development of institutional research in politics, it is no longer enough to turn to the formalized aspects of the essence of political institutions, which is still a fairly common approach - in contrast to the general theory of the new institutionalism. Also, there is a widespread view that the latest models of research strategies can be offered only by foreign political science and it is among its developments that the necessary analytical tools should be sought. Due to certain historical aspects of the political development of our country, political science research has not been able to develop synchronously with global trends for a long time, but it is possible to assume that today this situation is gradually changing. Therefore, the purpose of our study was to concretize in domestic political science the analytical field of such research areas of the new institutionalism as sociological institutionalism and systematize the main parameters of its research strategy. As a result of the study, it was found that the provisions of sociological institutionalism of political science are based on more normative-formalized approaches compared to other types of institutionalism because its formation was significantly influenced by the theory of organizations. Most Ukrainian scholars use the methodological tools of this area of institutionalism for a comprehensive analysis of the nature of the political institution as a research unit, which is close in its characteristics to the latest world examples and requires an appropriate research methodology. The group of specific issues considered by domestic scholars on the basis of the provisions of sociological institutionalism is opened by the normative aspects of the functioning of international politics (for example, humanization), which in this dimension is in the center of attention of foreign scholars as well. A more interesting area of research is the peculiarities of the process of European integration, the analysis of which also begins in the works of foreign scholars, but we are interested in this question given Ukraine's European ambitions - whether its regulatory Europeanization will have appropriate prospects. Another important aspect of research using the methodology of this area of institutional analysis, and again - important for our country, are the socio-political processes in transition societies, where democratization has begun, but the achievements in this way are difficult to call sustainable.

scholarly journals SĄMOKSLAS KAIP POLITIKOS MOKSLO IR LIBERALIOS VISUOMENĖS PROBLEMA

Problemos ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alvydas Jokubaitis
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Conspiracy Theory ◽  
The Political ◽  
Karl Popper ◽  
Liberal Society

Straipsnis skirtas šiuolaikinės politinės filosofijos nuošalyje likusiai sąmokslo problemai. Sąmokslas yra didelis iššūkis pozityvistinei mokslo sampratai. Karlo R. Popperio sąmokslo teorijos kritika prieštarauja pagrindinėms šio autoriaus metodologinėms nuostatoms. Popperio požiūris į sąmokslo teoriją gali būti apibūdintas kaip nenuoseklus ir vienpusiškas. Sąmokslas yra didelis iššūkis liberalizmo politinei filosofijai. Daugelis autorių mano, kad sąmokslas yra mažai reikšmingas liberalios visuomenės gyvenimo elementas. Tai menkai pagrįstas požiūris. Net pačioje liberaliausioje visuomenėje veikia daugybė slaptų susitarimų, viešai nematomų politinio gyvenimo subjektų ir manipuliacijų viešąja nuomone. Kai kurie dabartinių liberalių visuomenių politinio gyvenimo reiškiniai verčia naujai pažvelgti į sąmokslo fenomeną.Reikšminiai žodžiai: sąmokslas, sąmokslo teorija, pozityvizmas, liberalizmas. CONSPIRACY AS A PROBLEM OF POLITICAL SCIENCE AND LIBERAL SOCIETYAlvydas Jokubaitis Summary The article discusses the concept of political conspiracy. This concept is a great challenge to a positivistic understanding of political science. The criticism of conspiracy theory proposed by Karl Popper contradicts the main methodological ideas maintained by the author. His view on conspiracy theory may be described as incoherent and one-sided. Conspiracy is an ambitious challenge to contemporary liberal political philosophy. It is widely asserted that conspiracy is an insignificant element in the political life of a liberal society. This view is hardly substantiated. Even in the most liberal society there are a lot of clandestine agreements, undercover subjects of political life and manipulations of public opinion. Many phenomena of contemporary liberal society encourage us to regard conspiracy from a different perspective.Keywords: conspiracy, conspiracy theory, positivism, liberalism.

A Reply to A.G. Hopkins

2000 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 321-325 ◽  
Author(s):  
CAROLYN M. WARNER
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Political Science ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Scientist

The political scientist who relies upon historiographic sources to propose and test hypotheses runs the risk of riling up not only her peers in the discipline, but also the historians upon whose work she must rely to provide the materials for these hypotheses. It was intellectually satisfying and stimulating to learn that my work has been read not only by scholars in ‘my’ discipline, but also by those in the discipline which made my own analysis possible, and I am grateful for Professor Hopkins' extensive comments. As Hopkins notes, there are differences in the orientation of the two disciplines: political science has as one of its central concerns ‘the state’, while historians are more interested ‘in charting changing relativities in international relations’. As a political scientist, I am indeed interested in identifying the factors which lead to such changes.

scholarly journals THE RIO DOCE MINING DISASTER IN BRAZIL: BETWEEN POLICIES OF REPARATION AND THE POLITICS OF AFFECTATIONS

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andréa Zhouri ◽  
Raquel Oliveira ◽  
Marcos Zucarelli ◽  
Max Vasconcelos
Keyword(s):  
Iron Ore ◽  
The Political ◽  
Corporate Management ◽  
Tailings Dam ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Anthropological Perspective ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Iron Ore Tailings ◽  
Affected Person ◽  
Doce River

Abstract This article analyses the policies of affectations in the context of the disaster which occurred in late 2015, when an iron ore tailings dam ruptured, affecting thousands of families in the Rio Doce River Valley, in the southeast of Brazil. The paper discusses the challenges faced by victims of the disaster, given that the ‘affected person’ as a social subject goes through a dramatic process of forced sociability, forged in political processes and bureaucratic demands which are alien to her/his world. As a consequence, the claims of victims are transmuted by the rationalities and techniques of corporate management, therefore disabled and re-codified by taxonomies which define forms of damage reparations, as well as modes of reconstruction of their way of life. From an anthropological perspective, we examine the struggle between the objectification imposed by the policy of affectation and the political subjectivation of actors compulsorily brought to contentious settings over the control of their own destiny.

scholarly journals Complicating the Political Scientist as Blogger

2013 ◽  
Vol 46 (02) ◽  
pp. 383-386
Author(s):  
Robert Farley
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Academic Career ◽  
The Political ◽  
Multiple Models ◽  
Political Scientist ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Public Sphere

AbstractIn our efforts to make blogging an acceptable component of an academic career in political science, we ought not tame the practice of blogging beyond recognition. Multiple models exist under which blogging can contribute to the discipline of political science and through which political scientists can contribute to the public sphere.

A Political Scientist Looks at Military Government in the European Theater of Operations

1946 ◽  
Vol 40 (6) ◽  
pp. 1097-1112
Author(s):  
Harold Zink
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Pacific Islands ◽  
State Level ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Scientist ◽  
Military Government ◽  
European Theater Of Operations ◽  
General Record ◽  
Civilian Defense

The political scientist found various aspects of World War II of professional interest. Perhaps there were no fields as intimately related to political science as radar and atomic energy in the case of the physical sciences, though such agencies as the War Production Board, the Office of Price Administration, and the Office of Civilian Defense presented many problems of vital concern. Of the strictly military programs, it is probable that none involved so many aspects of political science as military government. Military government programs of some elaborateness were drafted for North Africa, Sicily and Italy, the Pacific Islands, Japan, Korea, and Germany and the countries which had been occupied by Germany. The military government activities in the European Theater of Operations surpassed all others in scope in that they involved both combat and post-hostility operations of great magnitude, necessitated dealings with both conquered and liberated peoples, required the establishment of a system of government from the bottom up through the state level in Germany, and were participated in by all four of the major Allied Powers. The European Theater of Operations also saw the widest use of officers who had been assigned on the basis of their specialist knowledge of various aspects of military-government activities. It may therefore be of some interest to the political science profession to comment on the general record of military government in the ETO.

Geography and Foreign Policy, I

1938 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas J. Spykman
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Ethnic Composition ◽  
Simultaneous Action ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Scientist ◽  
The People ◽  
Geographic Factor ◽  
Form Of Government ◽  
Foreign Ministers ◽  
Human Destiny

“La politique de toutes les puissances est dans leur géographie,” conceded the man whose famous retort, “Circonstances? Moi, je fais les circonstances,” indicates his contempt for any agency but the human will as the arbiter of human destiny. But since the Red Sea parted for Moses and the sun obligingly paused for Joshua, the human will has been unable to recapture the control over topography and climate exhibited by those forceful gentlemen, and it is probably safe to say that it was by Russian geography rather than by men that the diminutive Corsican was finally defeated. If he is still living, there is at Waterloo even today a loyal guide who asserts with unshakable conviction that neither genius nor skill but a swampy ditch gave that victory to Wellington.Unfortunately for the political scientist with a fondness for simplification, but fortunately for the statesman striving to overcome the geographic handicaps of his country, neither does the entire foreign policy of a country lie in geography, nor does any part of that policy lie entirely in geography. The factors that condition the policy of states are many; they are permanent and temporary, obvious and hidden; they include, apart from the geographic factor, population density, the economic structure of the country, the ethnic composition of the people, the form of government, and the complexes and pet prejudices of foreign ministers; and it is their simultaneous action and interaction that create the complex phenomenon known as “foreign policy.”

scholarly journals METHODOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF THE STUDY OF POLITICAL PROCESSES IN THE COUNTRIES OF CENTRAL ASIA

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 373-380
Author(s):  
Irlan Zh Iskakov
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Science Studies ◽  
The Political ◽  
Interstate Cooperation ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Political Reality ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Legislative Framework

Studies of political systems and political processes in the post-Soviet states of the Central Asian region are based, as a rule, on institutional and neo-institutional concepts. Attempts to mechanically apply certain ready-made western description schemes and even the corresponding conceptual apparatus to the Central Asian material rarely lead to convincing results. Many important factors affecting the political development of the region remain beyond research. By the beginning of the 2010s institutionalization and pluralization of the political space outside state control also included the development of the necessary legislative framework. Such a framework implies the consolidation of the legal basis for the creation and effective functioning of public associations and organizations, and the formation of legitimate and viable representation institutions. Russian authors are much more familiar with the material of the political reality of the CAR, therefore they give more balanced and accurate assessments. The disadvantage of Russian studies is the fact that, methodologically, they follow the approaches developed by Western political science. This encourages one to concentrate on some aspects of the political development of the Central Asian states and to underestimate or even completely ignore other, no less, and sometimes much more significant ones. In recent years, this deficiency is gradually being replenished. The findings of the researchers are becoming more objective, which helps to overcome erroneous political decisions and strengthen interstate cooperation. Over time, such studies will have the results of the development of new systematic and well-reflected approaches, adequate to the subject of political science studies.

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