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What Divides Us? The Image and Organization of Political Science

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2005

J. Tobin Grant
J. Tobin Grant
Affiliation:
Southern Illinois University
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Extract

The question “What is political science?” is nearly as old as the discipline itself. Political science continually self-examines the discipline to evaluate who we are and how we have changed. In addition, there are numerous studies of groups within political science, including political science in the U.S. South and women in political science. There are also reviews of the development and state of subfields, e.g., urban politics , international relations, comparative politics, and political theory. Each of these histories provides an image of what political science is or what it should be. These self-reviews provide images of the discipline that shape our identities as political scientists and advance the progress of political science. Even if the images do not affect future directions in political science, they are “an important dimension of identity and critical reflection on the theory and practice of political science”. Developing and critiquing these images are important academic exercises.J. Tobin Grant is assistant professor, department of political science, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. He is coauthor (with Thomas Rudolph) of Expression vs. Equality: The Politics of Campaign Finance Reform (Ohio State University Press, 2004).I thank Badredine Arfi, Gregory Kasza, Scott McClurg, Thomas Rudolph, Edward Schatz, and Herbert Weisberg for their comments and suggestions on this article.

Type
THE PROFESSION
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 38 , Issue 3 , July 2005 , pp. 379 - 386
Copyright
© 2005 The American Political Science Association

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