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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 October 2007
Acentral problem in the development of political science has long been how to emulate the objectivity and rigor of natural science while simultaneously retaining relevance for conducting public affairs. For some observers, however, the very notion of a natural-scientific orientation to the study of politics is antithetical to its relevance to practical politics. Woodrow Wilson (1911, 10) struck at the heart of the matter when he proclaimed that “I do not like the term political science” in his 1910 APSA Presidential Address. “Human relationships … are not in any proper sense the subject matter of science. They are the stuff of insight and sympathy and spiritual comprehension” (10–1; see also Ubertaccio and Cook 2006).This research received financial support from the Institution for Social and Policy Studies at Yale University and the department of political science at the University of Florida. For helpful suggestions, I am grateful to Michael Bloom, John Mark Hansen, Daniel Meyer, and Stephen Yoder.