POLITICAL DISCIPLINE

The extent to which exchange between UK and American political scientists analysts have shaped the theoretical and methodological concerns of these disciplines

The extent to which exchange between UK and American political scientists analysts have shaped the theoretical and methodological concerns of these disciplines

Introduction

Contemporary political science has its ancient roots in the legislation, teachings, and writings of Greek and Roman statesmen, travelers, historians, and philosophers. The issues that concerned them, their reflections, and their advice dominated European thinking on politics to the Enlightenment, enriched by medieval, Renaissance, and early modern authors. They are still considered relevant by a substantial number of political scientists—not, quite clearly, by a majority. Political science began to be recognized as a legitimate academic discipline, on the same plane as history and economics, and later sociology and psychology, in the second half of the 19th century, in Europe and the United States, and with surprising speed in the latter country. This formal recognition is considered first. The second part of this entry deals with the birth, programs, and impact of the international institutions, communication media, and exchanges that have shaped the present political science community since the end of World War II.

Recognition of Political Science

The recognition of political science as a discipline outside of the United States was a gradual process. It depended very much on the strength of contrary literary traditions, on the sympathy or hostility of scholars in other fields of learning, and on the institutional setting. It was more difficult to educational systems, where decisions concerning the curricula and recruitment procedures made at the ministerial level than in those where universities enjoyed substantial autonomy. This was more rapid in the United Kingdom and in countries where the knowledge of English made for easier and more intense exchanges and access to the relevant political science works. The UK itself, however, was for many years a hotbed of such resistance.

Thus, even in countries where political science topics commonly analyzed and taught, the obstacles to recognition proved difficult to overcome. In the UK, with its long and glorious tradition of political inquiry and reflection, there was thus still no political science department at the close of the 1940s (Smith 2000, pp. 374 - 402). It is significant that the discipline's academic association, founded in 1950, still called the Political Studies Association of the UK and its official journal, Political Studies (1953); the rival British Journal of Political Science was launched only in 1971. Political topics were long taught by historians, sociologists, and sometimes very eminent constitutional lawyers and political philosophers, even at the London School of Economics and Political Science, rather than by political scientists.

Collaborations between UK and US Political Analysts

In Europe, with few exceptions, political science topics were investigated, analyzed, and taught in the 1920s and 1930s by journalists and civil servants and academics from disciplines such as history, public and constitutional law, sociology, geography, and philosophy. Politics were meant to provide flesh to the theoretical approaches; thus, the study of political parties and elections added ...