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What Good Can Political Science Do? From Pluralism to Partnerships

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2020

Rogers M. Smith Open the ORCID record for Rogers M. Smith [Opens in a new window]
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Abstract

At a time when authoritarian regimes are on the rise around the world, higher education in general and political science in particular are facing declining support and sharper political pressures in many places. Political scientists have long promised that their discipline can add to knowledge about politics and educate citizens. However, doubts have grown about whether our increasingly pluralistic discipline collectively generates useful knowledge and communicates it effectively in teaching and in broader public communications. Political scientists need to do more to place their particular studies within big pictures of how politics and the world work, and to synthesize their results. They must focus more on the politics of identity formation that has generated resurgent nationalisms and deep social divisions. They must strengthen their understanding and their community contributions through civically engaged research. They must also place greater emphasis on improving teaching. In these ways, modern scholars can show there is much good that political science can do.

Type
Presidential Address
Information
Perspectives on Politics , Volume 18 , Issue 1 , March 2020 , pp. 10 - 26
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2020 

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Footnotes

He thanks Benjamin Banker and Zachary Koslowski for invaluable research assistance, and Margaret Brownell Anderson, Taylor Carlson, Thad Dunning, Donald Green, Guy Grossman, Peter Hall, Nancy Hirschmann, Jennifer Hochschild, Ira Katznelson, Robert Keohane, Desmond King, Paula McClain, Arthur Melzer, Anne Norton, Robert Putnam, Adolph Reed, Mary Summers, Kathleen Thelen, Adam Zelizer, and Richard Zinman for comments on parts or all of earlier drafts. All responsibility for the views expressed here is emphatically his alone.

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