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Political Science and Political Practice: The Pursuit of Grounded Inquiry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 August 2003

Micke Edwards
Micke Edwards
Affiliation:
Mickey Edwards is the John Quincy Adams Lecturer in Legislative Politics at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, where he has been a member of the faculty for the past 10 years ([email protected]). Before joining the Kennedy School faculty, Edwards served as a member of Congress from Oklahoma for 16 years. He is the author of The American Congress, a college-level textbook forthcoming from W. W. Norton
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Extract

I recognize, as will my readers, that I'm in a fairly strange—but hopefully not untenable—position in attempting to assess the studyand teaching of politics. Having been a member of Congress, and in various positions of congressional leadership, for 16 years, and having been more recently a teacher for 10 years, I am, for this purpose, both the student and the studied, the bug and the entomologist. I do understand that it is difficult for me to view this relationship between scholar and subject in a completely objective manner; I hope to do justice to both sides of this exchange, but I recognize that I am much more likely to bring to this discussion a bug's-eye view, gazing up at the scientist as he squints through his microscope and shaking my head in wonderment as he purports to find great complexity in my most simple movements, and great simplicity in my most complex undertakings. Nonetheless, as one who occupies a position on the inner periphery of the academic circle, I am pleased to have been asked by the editors of this journal to share a few thoughts on the relationship—and on the present and potential value of the relationship—between the two distinct worlds of political science and political practice.

Type
Perspectives
Information
Perspectives on Politics , Volume 1 , Issue 2 , June 2003 , pp. 349 - 354
Copyright
© 2003 by the American Political Science Association

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