Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-gr6zb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-22T17:33:41.393Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Competence of Political Science: “Progress in Political Research” Revisited Presidential Address, American Political Science Association, 1999

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2000

Matthew Holden Jr.
Matthew Holden Jr.*
Affiliation:
University of Virginia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Political science is two realms, the intellectual and the organizational, and the task is to consider how the organizational realm might be adapted to the highest improvement of the intellectual realm. Political science has a certain competence (domain) in the study of politics as the organization of power. It also seeks to expand competence as capability. Charles Merriam provides a point of departure Merriam's most successful idea has been that of enhancing competence through improvements in “the field of method.” Competence, however, now demands methodological flexibility, so as to probe more into the exercise of power. Four fields are strategic: public administration, political interests, urbanization, and the interpenetration of politics and economics. Competence also leads into unorthodox subjects, such as force and foolish, irrational, and pathological decision making (or “the Oxenstierna-Mullins Effect”). Finally, competence demands (and is enhanced by) the reach of political science into serious practical problems of human affairs.

Type
Articles
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 94 , Issue 1 , March 2000 , pp. 1 - 19
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2000

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Almond, Gabriel. 1998. Plutocracy and Politics in New York City. Boulder, CO: Westview.Google Scholar
Alt, James E., and Shepsle, Kenneth A.. 1990. Perspectives on Positive Political Economy. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baer, Michael A., Jewell, Malcolm E., and Sigelman, Lee, eds. 1991. Political Science in America: Oral Histories of a Discipline. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky.Google Scholar
Banfleld, Edward. 1960. Political Influence. Glencoe, IL: Free Press.Google Scholar
Barboza, David. 1999. “Monsanto Faces Growing Skepticism on Two Fronts.” New York Times, 08 5, 1999, C1.Google Scholar
Baumgartner, Frank R., and Leech, Beth L.. 1996. “The Multiple Ambiguities of ‘Counteractive Lobbying.’” American Journal of Political Science 40 (05): 521–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beck, Nathaniel. 1983. “Time-Varying Parameter Regression Models.” American Journal of Political Science 27 (08): 557–600.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bentley, Arthur F. 1908. The Process of Government. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Buchanan, James M. 1987. Public Finance in Democratic Process: Fiscal Institutions and Individual Choice. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Buchanan, James M. 1992. Better Than Plowing and Other Personal Essays. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Childs, Harwood L. 1930. Labor and Capital in National Politics. Columbus: Ohio State University Press.Google Scholar
Clark, John Maurice. 1957. Economic Institutions and Human Welfare. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
Coase, R. H. 1988. The Firm, the Market, and the Law. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Crandall, Reuben. 1836. The Trial of Reuben Crandall. New York: H. R. Piercy.Google Scholar
Cyert, Richard M., and March, James G.. 1963. The Behavioral Theory of the Firm. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Cyert, Richard M., Simon, Herbert A., and Trow, Donald B.. 1956. “Observation of a Business Decision.” Journal of Business 29 (10): 237–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dahl, Robert A. 1962. Who Governs? New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Dahl, Robert A. 1967. “The City in the Future of Democracy.” American Political Science Review 64 (12): 953–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Delaplaine, Edward S. 1837. Francis Scott Key, Life and Times. New York.Google Scholar
Dennison, Henry S. 1932. “The Need for the Development of Political Science Engineering.” American Political Science Review 26 (04): 241–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deutsch, Karl W. 1953. Nationalism and Social Communication. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, and New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Deutsch, Karl W., et al. 1957. Political Community and the North Atlantic Area. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Dimock, Marshall E. 1929. Congressional Investigating Committees. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Press.Google Scholar
Dodd, Walter F. 1904. “The Organization of the American Political Science Association.” Proceedings of the American Political Science Association.Google Scholar
Douglas, Mary. 1962. “Lele Economy Compared with the Bushong.” In Markets in Tropical Africa, ed. Bohannon, Paul and Dalton, George. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press. Pp. 211–33.Google Scholar
Drucker, Peter. 1978. The Adventures of a Bystander. New York: Harper Colophon.Google Scholar
Eberling, Ernest J. 1928. Congressional Investigations: A Study of the Origin and Development of the Power of Congress to Investigate and Punish for Contempt. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Fenno, Richard F. Jr. 1990. Watching Politicians: Essays on Participant Observation. Berkeley, CA: IGS Press.Google Scholar
Ferejohn, John A., and Kuklinski, James H., eds. 1990. Information and Democratic Processes. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Filler, Louis. 1963. The Crusade Against Slavery, 1830–1860. New York: Harper Torchbooks.Google Scholar
Fiorina, Morris. 1996. “Rational Choice, Empirical Contributions, and the Scientific Enterprise.” In The Rational Choice Controversy, ed. Friedman, Jeffrey. New Haven: Yale University Press. Pp. 85–94.Google Scholar
Fitzpatrick, Edward A. 1944. McCarthy of Wisconsin. New York: Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freidel, Frank. 1947. Francis Lieber: Nineteenth Century Liberal. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.Google Scholar
Friedman, Jeffrey, ed. 1996. The Rational Choice Controversy: Economic Models of Politics Reconsidered. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Garner, Bryan A. ed. 1999. Black's Law Dictionary. St. Paul, MN: West Group.Google Scholar
Goodell, William. [1852] 1970. Slavery and Anti-Slavery. New York: A. M. Kelley.Google Scholar
Gosnell, Harold F. 1937. Machine Politics: Chicago Model. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Gottfried, Alex. 1962. Boss Cermak of Chicago: A Study of Political Leadership. Seattle: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Green, Donald, and Shapiro, Ian, 1995. Pathologies of Rational Choice. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Haddow, Anna. 1939. Political Science in American Colleges and Universities, 1636–1900. New York: D. Appleton-Century.Google Scholar
Hamilton, Walton H. 1957. The Politics of Industry. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
Harris, Seymour E., ed. 1947. The New Economics: Keynes Influence on Theory and Public Policy. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
Hasler, A. D., and Scholz, A. T.. 1983. Olfactory Imprinting and Homing in Salmon. Berlin and New York: Springer-Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herring, E. Pendleton. 1929. Group Representation Before Congress. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Herson, Lawrence J. R. 1957. “The Lost World of Municipal Government.” American Political Science Review 51 (06): 330–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hirschman, Albert O. 1977. The Passions and the Interests: Political Arguments for Capitalism before Its Triumph. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hobbes, Thomas. [1651] 1991. The Leviathan, ed. Tuck, Richard W.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Holden, Matthew Jr. 1995. “The Electric Utility Industry: Regulation, Competition, and Restructuring.” Lecture, School of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Virginia. Typescript.Google Scholar
Holden, Matthew Jr. 1996. Continuity and Disruption: Essays in Public Administration. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.Google Scholar
Holden, Matthew Jr. 1999. “Toward a Political Science of American History.” Political Chronicle 11 (11): 32–48.Google Scholar
Hunter, Floyd. 1953. Community Power Structure. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Johnson, Loch K. 1988. A Season of Inquiry: Congress and Intelligence. Chicago: Dorsey Press.Google Scholar
Johnson, Loch K. 1995. “Investigations.” In Encyclopedia of the United States Congress, Vol. 3, ed. Bacon, Donald C., Davidson, Roger H., and Keller, Morton. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995. Pp. 1147–53.Google Scholar
Karl, Barry Dean. 1974. Charles Merriam and the Study of Politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Key, V. O. 1961. Public Opinion and American Democracy. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
Levin, Martin, and Ferman, Barbara, 1985. The Political Hand: Policy Implementation and Youth Employment Programs. New York: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Lieber, Francis. [1853] 1877. “A Paper on Elections, Election Statistics, and General Votes or Yes or No.” In On Civil Liberty and Self-Government, 3d ed., rev., ed. Woolsey, Theodore. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott. Pp. 413–30.Google Scholar
Lieber, Francis. 1993. “History and Political Science: Necessary Studies in Free Countries.” In Discipline and History: Political Science in the United States, ed. Farr, James and Seidelman, Raymond. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Pp. 21–32.Google Scholar
Lipsky, Michael. 1982. Street-Level Bureaucracy. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Long, Norton. 1962. The Polity. Chicago: Rand McNally.Google Scholar
Lowell, A. Lawrence. 1910. “The Physiology of Politics.” American Political Science Review 4 (02): 1–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lowi, Theodore J. 1969. The End of Liberalism: Ideology, Policy, and the Crisis of Public Authority. New York: W. W. Norton.Google Scholar
Lupia, Arthur, and McCubbins, Mathew. 1998. The Democratic Dilemma: How Citizens Can Learn What They Need to Know. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Marshall, Alfred. [1890] 1997. Principles of Economics. Amherst, NY: Promethus Books.Google Scholar
Maruyama, Masao. 1969. Thought and Behavior in Japanese Politics. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Mayhew, David R. 1991. Divided We Govern: Party Control, Lawmaking, and Investigations, 1946–1990. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
McCarthy, Charles. 1912. The Wisconsin Idea. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
McGeary, M. Nelson. 1940. The Developments of Congressional Investigative Power. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
McKean, Dayton D. 1940. Boss: The Hague Machine in Action. Boston: Houghton Miffin.Google Scholar
Merriam, Charles E. [1903] 1969. A History of American Political Theories. New York: A. M. Kelley.Google Scholar
Merriam, Charles E. 1926. “Progress in Political Research.” American Political Science Review 20 (02): 1–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Millar, Fergus. 1992. The Emperor in the Roman World: 31 BC–332 AD. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Miller, Geoffrey. 1998. “Political Structure and Corporate Governance: Some Points of Contrast Between the United States and England.” In Corporate Governance Today: Venture Capital, Hierarchies and Boundaries, the Board, Employees, the Contractarian Paradigm, Europe and Japan, the Social Setting. New York: Sloan Project on Corporate Governance at Columbia Law School. Pp. 629–47.Google Scholar
Myrdal, Gunnar. 1944. An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and American Democracy. New York: Harper & Brothers.Google Scholar
Myrdal, Gunnar. 1965. “With What Little Wisdom This World Is Ruled.” New York Times Magazine, 07 18, 1965.Google Scholar
Neale, John Sir. 1953. Elizabeth I and Her Parliaments. London: Cape.Google Scholar
Nevins, Allan, and Thomas, Milton Halsey, eds. 1952. The Diary of George Templeton Strong. Vols., 2, 3, and 4. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Newman, J. Wilson. 1996. For What Do We Labor? Charlottesville: Whetstone Ventures.Google Scholar
Nys, Ernest. 1947. “Francis Lieber—His Life and Work.” American Journal of International Law 5 (04): 355–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ordeshook, Peter C. 1996. “Engineering or Science: What Is the Study of Politics?” In The Rational Choice Controversy: Economic Models of Politics Reconsidered, ed. Friedman, Jeffrey. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Pp. 175–88.Google Scholar
Ostrom, Elinor. 1998. “A Behavioral Approach to the Rational Choice Theory of Collective Action.” American Political Science Review 92 (03): 1–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pennock, J. Roland, and Chapman, John W., eds. 1972. Coercion. Chicago: Aldine.Google Scholar
Powell, G. Bingham Jr. 1982. Contemporary Democracies: Participation, Stability, and Violence. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Read, Conyers. 1960. Lord Burghley and Queen Elizabeth. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
Read, Conyers. 1961. Mr. Secretary Cecil and Queen Elizabeth. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
Relyea, Harold C. 1995. “Investigations, Senate Permanent Subcommittee.” In Encyclopedia of the United States Congress, vol. 3, ed. Bacon, Donald C., Davidson, Roger H., and Keller, Morton. New York: Simon and Schuster. Pp. 1153–4.Google Scholar
Rogers, Lindsay. 1968. “Introduction.” In Essays on Government, ed. Lowell, A. Lawrence. New York: Johnson Reprint Corporation. Pp. v–xl.Google Scholar
Ross, Jennie-Keith, and Ross, Marc Howard. 1974. “Participant Observation in Political Research.” Political Methodology 1 (Winter): 61–86.Google Scholar
Sayre, Wallace S., and Kaufman, Herbert. 1960. Governing New York City. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Schattschneider, Elmer E. 1935. Politics, Pressures, and the Tariff: A Study of Free Private Enterprise in Pressure Politics, as Shown in the 1929–30 Revision of the Tariff. New York: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Schwartzman, Helen. 1993. Ethnography in Organizations. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shepsle, Kenneth. 1996. “Statistical Political Philosophy and Positive Political Theory.” In The Rational Choice Controversy: Economic Models of Politics Reconsidered, ed. Friedman, Jeffrey. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Pp. 213–22.Google Scholar
Simon, Herbert A. 1996. Models of My Life. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Skidelsky, Robert. 1994. John Maynard Keynes: The Economist as Savior, 1920–1937. New York: Penguin.Google Scholar
Stephanopoulos, George. 1999. All Too Human: A Political Education. Boston: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
Stone, Clarence. 1989. Regime Politics: Governing Atlanta, 1946–1988. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.Google Scholar
Strane, Susan. 1990. All Whole-Souled Woman: Prudence Crandall and the Education of Black Women. New York: W. W. Norton.Google Scholar
Tiefer, Charles. 1995. “Investigative Power.” In Encyclopedia of the United States Congress, vol. 3, ed. Bacon, Donald C., Davidson, Roger H., and Keller, Morton. New York: Simon and Schuster. Pp. 1154–8.Google Scholar
Truman, David B. 1951. The Governmental Process. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
Vertzberger, Yaacov. 1998. Foreign Military Interventions. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Viti de Marco, Antonio de. 1936. First Principles of Public Finance. New York: Harcourt, Brace.Google Scholar
Volkan, Vamik, Salman Akhtar, Robert Dorn, John Kafka, Otto Kerberg, Peter Olsson, Rita Rogers, and Shanfield, Stephen. 1998. “The Pyschodynamics of Leaders and Decision-Making. Mind & Human Interaction 9 (3): 129–81.Google Scholar
Wedgwood, C. V. 1961. The Thirty Years' War. Garden City, NY: Doubleday Anchor.Google Scholar
Williamson, Oliver. 1996. The Mechanisms of Governance. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Wood, Robert C., with Almendinger, Vladimir V.. 1964. 1400 Governments: The Political Economy of New York Metropolitan Region. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Zink, Harold F. 1930. City Bosses in the United States. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.