Political Science: State of the Discipline

By: American Political Science Association

Book Overview

Editors Ira Katznelson and Helen V. Milner of Columbia University sought to "reflect the vibrant, often contested, diversity of political science while chronicling the past decade's scholarship and prompting thought about future directions."

Breaking away from a traditional organization around the four major fields of political science, the editors chose to create a framework that focuses first on the state, followed by democracy, then agency, and concluding with means of inquiry.

This handsome, clothbound volume is an important resource for all scholars interested in reading across fields and includes an essential unified bibliography.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393051420
• ISBN13: 9780393051421
• Release Date: August 2002
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 1040 Pages
• Weight: 2.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 6.1" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

The state of political science at the turn of the century

The editors were empowered to use the 2000 American Political Science Association meeting as the occasion to develop a volume on the state of the discipline. In their preface, Ira Katznelson and Helen Milner state (Page xiii): "Our goal from the outset was to reflect the vibrant, often contested, diversity of political science while chronicling the past decade's scholarship and prompting thought about future directions." The editors begin this edited volume with an Introduction, aptly titled "American Political Science: The Discipline's State and the State of the Discipline." Candidly, they note that political science is not a clearly defined discipline. The book itself is divided into four parts, not by subfields within the discipline--but by themes. The four: The State in an Era of Globalization; Democracy, Justice, and Their Institutions; Citizenship, Identity, and Political Participation; Studying Politics. The first part contains seven chapters, each authored by a well know political scientist. The entries examine, for instance, the nature of the state and how it operates in a global era, including the impact of international political economy, conflict and democracy, the continuing relevance of the realist tradition, and how we study the state. Part 2 examines aspects of democracy and justice. There is included here six chapters, focusing on such areas as the nature of democratic theory today, the nature of justice, the relevance of critical theory and postmodernism for democracy, and the like. Part 3? Citizenship, identity, and political participation. This part includes an array of approaches and perspectives on the subject. The work concludes, in Part 4, with a consideration of varying means by which we study politics. Rational choice theory, game theory, historical institutionalism, formal theory, and even experimentation are among the approaches discussed. As a perspective on political science at the outset of the 21st century, this book serves nicely. The general public is not likely to find this book to their taste (it assumes that one has a sense of the discipline and concepts widely used in political science). But for those who wish to get a sense of the, as the authors note at one point, "cacophony" within the field, this would be useful.

You have to read this book

For everyone interested in the actual state of Political Science (especially in the US), this is a must. The most important topics of Political Science are discussed, starting with an historical overview of the main subjects and then discussing the actual situation in that part of the discipline. An overwheming source of information. This book deserves to be recommended to every professional and to everyone interested in Political Science.