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Reflections on Political Internships

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2022

Ronald D. Hedlund
Ronald D. Hedlund*
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee
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Extract

Despite widespread and growing interest among students and faculty in using practical political involvement as an adjunct to formal classroom teaching, professional academic literature offers little guidance regarding such programs. As Professors Hirschfield and Adler point out, political science literature has largely ignored questions regarding the scope, structure and strategies of internship programs. Anyone concerned with how students respond in these settings or with what can be done to maximize student learning during internships would find little assistance in the journals, books and monographs of political science. Indeed, no central source even has access to the number of national, state and local political internship programs sponsored by institutions of higher education, public or private agencies, and professional organizations. Consequently, communication regarding internships is fragmented and haphazard. Interested persons must rely on informal channels of communication (e.g., correspondence, mimeographed evaluations and reports circulated among program directors), infrequent conferences (e.g., the 1971 Kentucky Conference on Students in Government and the 1972 APSA Conference on Political Science and State and Local Government), and prior experience with other internship programs (45 per cent of the past academic participants in the APSA Congressional Fellowship Program reported some type of subsequent involvement in other internships, with 91 per cent of these indicating that this later involvement was administrative or advisory). Such a communications network is hardly an adequate substitute for systematic exchange and rigorous analysis. The anomaly in this state of affairs is that any exchange of information and sharing of experiences has taken place. Hopefully, these two reports in PS, the scheduled publication of a book, Government Management Internships and Executive Development, and a new journal, Teaching Political Science, plus the formation of a center for disseminating internship information, the National Center for Public Service Internship Programs with their “Public Service Internship Newsletter,” Indicate a new stage in the evolution of political science concern with internships.

Type
A Brief Look at Internships
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , Winter 1973 , pp. 19 - 25
Copyright
Copyright © The American Political Science Association 1973

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References

1 Notable exceptions would Include Hennessy, Bernard C., Political Internships: Theory, Practice, Evaluation, Penn. State Studies, Vol. 23 (University Park, Penn.: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1970)Google Scholar: Robinson, James A., “Participant Observation, Political Internships, and Research,” in Political Science Annual: Volume Two, 1969–1970, Robinson, James A., ed. (Indianapolis, Indiana: Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., 1970), pp. 71–110 Google Scholar; and Snow, R. J., “Participant Observer Analysis,” in An Introduction to the Science of Politics, Freeman, Donald M., ed. (New York: The Free Press, forthcoming).Google Scholar

2 Information regarding the exact number of political internship programs affiliated with colleges, universities, governmental agencies and professional associations is not available: however, Alan H. Magazine, Executive Director of the National Center for Public Service Internship Programs, estimates that as many as 1000 such programs may exist. A nation-wide survey to provide basic information about such programs is being planned by the National Center.

3 Hedlund, Ronald D., “Participant Observation in Studying Congress: The Congressional Fellowship Program,” a report submitted to the Congressional Fellowship Program Advisory Committee (Washington, D.C.: The American Political Science Association, 1971), p. 37.Google Scholar

4 A great deal of the credit for introducing internships to many colleges and universities and for fostering communication regarding their structure must go to the Citizenship Clearing House and its successor, the National Center for Education in Politics.

5 Murphy, Thomas A., ed. Government Management Internships and Executive Development (Boston: D. C. Heath and Co., 1973).Google Scholar

6 For more information, contact Mr. Alan H. Magazine, Executive Director, National Center for Public Service Internship Programs, 1140 Connecticut Ave., N.W., Suite 201, Washington, D.C. 20036.

7 Robinson, loc. cit.

8 Hennessy, loc. cit.

9 Robinson, op. cit., p. 77.

10 Wann, A. J., “State and Local Government Internships: Some Observations and Conclusions,” a paper read at the American Political Science Association Conference on Political Science and State and Local Government (Biloxi, Miss., October 26–29, 1972), p. 4.Google Scholar

11 In Utah, Wann, ibid., p. 3, reports that five of fourteen interns entered public service; among academic Congressional Fellows, about 16% remained in Washington after their fellowships in non-academic positions, Hedlund, op. cit., p. 26.

12 Haider, Donald H., “The Columbia University Experience with the APSA State and Local Government Intership Program,” a paper read at the American Political Science Association Conference on Political Science and State and Local Government (Biloxi, Miss., October 26–29, 1972), p. 5.Google Scholar

13 Their comments regarding access were contained in “Letters to the Editor,” PS, (Summer, 1970), pp. 451 and 453.

14 At least two states, California and Wisconsin, used internship programs as the initial means for providing significant staff support to legislatures; such positions subsequently became full-time ones. Also the Utah experience, an APSA State and Local Internship Program, seems to indicate that based upon successful interns, state agencies established full-time positions, some of which were filled by former interns; i.e., certain positions once held by interns became permanent positions with the termination of that program. Wann, op. cit., p. 5.

15 Special Commission on the Social Sciences of the National Science Board, Knowledge into Action: Improving the Nation's Use of the Social Sciences (Washington, D.C.: National Science Foundation, 1969), p. xl.Google Scholar

16 Wann, loc. cit.

17 At least three exceptions exist to this generalization: Hennessy, loc. cit.; Cataldo, Everett, “An Appraisal of the Congressional Fellowship Program,” a paper delivered for the American Political Science Association Conference on Political Internships. (Las Croabas, Puerto Rico: April, 1965)Google Scholar; and Hedlund, op. cit.

18 This list of observations relies heavily on four prior studies: Wise, Sidney, “The Administration of an Internship Program,” a paper read for the American Political Science Association conference on Political Internship (Las Croabas, Puerto Rico, April, 1965)Google Scholar; Robinson, loc. cit.; Hennessy, loc. cit.; and Ronald D. Hedlund, “The Congressional Fellowship Program: Maximizing Participant Observation in Studying Politics,” in Murphy, loc. cit.; however, the list included here differs somewhat from any previous list.

19 Wise, op. cit., pp. 14–16.

20 Hennessy, op. cit., pp. 20–21.

21 Haider, loc. cit.

22 Hirschfield, Robert S. and Adler, Norman M., “Internships in Politics: The CUNY Experience,” PS, (Winter), 1973, pp. 13–18 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Wise, op. cit., pp. 13–14.

23 Wise, op. cit., p. 14.

24 Ibid., p. 13.

25 Hennessy, op. cit., p. 111.

26 Hedlund, , “Participant Observation,” p. 50.Google Scholar

27 Hennessy, op. cit., pp. 111–112.

28 Ibid., p. 112.

29 Hedlund, , “The Congressional Fellowship Program,”; (manuscript copy of book chapter), p. 24.Google Scholar

30 Temple, David G., “The APSA State and Local Government Internship Program and the State Legislative Services Project — The West Virginia Experience,” a paper read at the American Political Science Association Conference on Political Science and State and Local Government (Biloxi, Miss., October 26–29, 1972), p. 5.Google Scholar

31 Hennessy, op. cit., pp. 21–22.

32 One program that makes use of such pre-program orientation sessions is the CFP. Given that participants are drawn from three distinct backgrounds — academia, journalism and public service — a great potential for conflict exists. The orientation sessions are used by the program sponsors to minimize such differences.

33 Wise, op. cit., p. 15, and Hennessy, op. cit., pp. 31–33 and 116, describe typical features of these assignments.

34 Hennessy, op. cit., p. 115.