Disenchanted Realists, Second Edition

Disenchanted Realists, Second Edition PDF Author: Raymond Seidelman
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438455755
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
When it first appeared three decades ago, Raymond Seidelman's provocative study of the history of political science both attracted a great deal of attention and generated vibrant controversy. Where prior studies of the history of political science had concentrated on the evolution of the scientific study of politics, Seidelman placed his focus on the tenuous relationship between the scientific study of politics and the real world of American democracy. Examining paired sets of political science luminaries over a century, he finds recurrent hopes that a "science of politics" can be a "science for politics," and recurrent frustrations that neither elites nor democratic publics respond to the findings of political science or defer to its claims of scientific authority. Analyzing the reasons for political science's limited impact on democratic reform, Seidelman raises the prospect that the progressive dreams of American political science, rising and falling over the course of a century, may finally be exhausted. For this new edition, Bruce Miroff and Stephen Skowronek have written a foreword that relates the genesis of the book and the career of the late Ray Seidelman, while James Farr, a distinguished scholar of political science history, has contributed an extensive afterword. Whether readers concur with or dispute Seidelman's conclusions about the practical significance of political science, they will be challenged by the scope and power of Disenchanted Realists. The book invites a new generation of political scientists to examine the problematic development of the discipline they practice and to reflect on the public meanings of what they do in their own careers.

Disenchanted Realists, Second Edition

Disenchanted Realists, Second Edition PDF Author: Raymond Seidelman
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438455755
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 338

Get Book Here

Book Description
When it first appeared three decades ago, Raymond Seidelman's provocative study of the history of political science both attracted a great deal of attention and generated vibrant controversy. Where prior studies of the history of political science had concentrated on the evolution of the scientific study of politics, Seidelman placed his focus on the tenuous relationship between the scientific study of politics and the real world of American democracy. Examining paired sets of political science luminaries over a century, he finds recurrent hopes that a "science of politics" can be a "science for politics," and recurrent frustrations that neither elites nor democratic publics respond to the findings of political science or defer to its claims of scientific authority. Analyzing the reasons for political science's limited impact on democratic reform, Seidelman raises the prospect that the progressive dreams of American political science, rising and falling over the course of a century, may finally be exhausted. For this new edition, Bruce Miroff and Stephen Skowronek have written a foreword that relates the genesis of the book and the career of the late Ray Seidelman, while James Farr, a distinguished scholar of political science history, has contributed an extensive afterword. Whether readers concur with or dispute Seidelman's conclusions about the practical significance of political science, they will be challenged by the scope and power of Disenchanted Realists. The book invites a new generation of political scientists to examine the problematic development of the discipline they practice and to reflect on the public meanings of what they do in their own careers.

Imagining the American Polity, Second Edition

Imagining the American Polity, Second Edition PDF Author: John G. Gunnell
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438495900
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 421

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Book Description
Americans have long prided themselves on living in a country that serves as a beacon of democracy to the world, but from the time of the founding they have also engaged in debates over what the criteria for democracy are as they seek to validate their faith in the United States as a democratic regime. In this book John Gunnell shows how the academic discipline of political science has contributed in a major way to this ongoing dialogue, thereby playing a significant role in political education and the formulation of popular conceptions of American democracy. Gunnell traces the dynamics of conceptual change and continuity as American political science evolved from a focus in the nineteenth century on the idea of the state, through the emergence of a pluralist theory of democracy in the 1920s and its transfiguration into liberalism in the mid- 1930s, up to the rearticulation of pluralist theory in the 1950s and its resurgence, yet again, in the 1990s. Along the way he explores how political scientists have grappled with a fundamental question about popular sovereignty: Does democracy require a people and a national democratic community, or can the requisites of democracy be achieved through fortuitous social configurations coupled with the design of certain institutional mechanisms?

The Economic Basis of Politics

The Economic Basis of Politics PDF Author: Charles Beard
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351304666
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 160

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Book Description
Economic interpretations of history are irrevocably identified with the name of Charles A. Beard. This is mainly due to his early book An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States (1913). Yet, in Beard's later work, The Economic Basis of Politics (1922), he articulates the main principles of his method and argues for its applicability to understanding of current events. In this brief survey of Western political philosophy and contemporary constitutional arrangements, Beard concludes that it is well established doctrine that "there is a vital relation between the forms of state and the distribution of property, revolutions in the state being usually the results of contests over property." In advancing this axiom, Beard responds to charges that he was a "Marxist" by constructing an interpretation of Western political philosophy and history that draws a firm distinction between his economic interpretation of history and Marx's historical materialism. Beard traces the origins of his own method to the works of Aristotle, Machiavelli, Harrington, Locke, and Montesquieu. This view of political theory and political theorists stands in sharp contrast to the view prevailing among many contemporary political philosophers, who insist that political theory must somehow transcend history and rise above ordinary politics to count as theory. Beard's observations on the nature and tradition of Western political philosophy provide an entrue into New World political thought, which many academic political philosophers have long regarded as something less than "political theory." In contrast, Beard regards the development and application of the method of economic interpretation to be the greatest contribution of American political thought to the tradition of Western political theory. In his surveys of thinkers such as Madison, Webster, and Calhoun, Beard links American political thought to the Western tradition of economic interpretation, which undergirds both "liberalism" and "republicanism." The present-day relevance of this important volume will be evident to all social scientists.

More than a Historian

More than a Historian PDF Author: Clyde Barrow
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351326708
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 448

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Book Description
Charles A. Beard (1874-1948) was one of America's most influential historians and political scientists. He played a major role in founding the disciplines of history and political science, helped shape the teaching of social studies in the nation's public schools, and was one the nation's most popular public intellectuals. Yet in the second half of the twentieth century, Beard's reputation has been eroded by relentless criticism. Clyde W. Barrow argues that Beard's work has renewed relevance in light of recent theoretical debates about the new institutionalism, the crisis of the welfare state, and American foreign policy messianism. Barrow's takes Beard seriously as a political theorist, while challenging many misconceptions. For example, Beard's method of economic interpretation has been dismissed as Marxist, but Barrow carefully reconstructs the sources of Beard's thinking to demonstrate that his method owes more to historical and institutional economics and that his concept of state-society relations was in fact derived from Madison's Tenth Federalist. Barrow reconstructs Beard's theory of American political development using his concept of realistic dialectics, which viewed the clash between democracy (Jeffersonianism) and capitalism (Hamiltonianism) as the engine of American political development. During the 1930s, Beard suggested that the United States was making the transition to a higher form of social and industrial democracy that would supersede the contradiction of American political development. Notably, Beard was a critic of the New Deal and the liberal welfare state, because they failed to reconstruct the economic relations that reproduce inequalities of income, status, and power.Beard went on to voice his concern that at crucial junctures in American history, class struggle is diverted into international conflicts as popular leaders back down from a direct confrontation with the dominant capitalist elite. He analyzes American foreign policy as an extension of domestic economic policy and, in particular, a result of the failures of domestic economic policy. Beard's conception of American history plays itself out in a tragic cycle of imperialism and diversion that left him a disenchanted realist. This incisive study will be of interest to those intrested in the evolution of historical thinking.

Why America Needs a Left

Why America Needs a Left PDF Author: Eli Zaretsky
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0745656560
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 183

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Book Description
The United States today cries out for a robust, self-respecting, intellectually sophisticated left, yet the very idea of a left appears to have been discredited. In this brilliant new book, Eli Zaretsky rethinks the idea by examining three key moments in American history: the Civil War, the New Deal and the range of New Left movements in the 1960s and after including the civil rights movement, the women's movement and gay liberation.In each period, he argues, the active involvement of the left - especially its critical interaction with mainstream liberalism - proved indispensable. American liberalism, as represented by the Democratic Party, is necessarily spineless and ineffective without a left. Correspondingly, without a strong liberal center, the left becomes sectarian, authoritarian, and worse. Written in an accessible way for the general reader and the undergraduate student, this book provides a fresh perspective on American politics and political history. It has often been said that the idea of a left originated in the French Revolution and is distinctively European; Zaretsky argues, by contrast, that America has always had a vibrant and powerful left. And he shows that in those critical moments when the country returns to itself, it is on its left/liberal bases that it comes to feel most at home.

Handbook of Organization Theory and Management

Handbook of Organization Theory and Management PDF Author: Thomas D. Lynch
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1420026437
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 905

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Book Description
Few subjects are more influenced by philosophy than the form of governance that guides and administers public affairs, yet much of the literature about public administration remains silent about this connection. Handbook of Organization Theory and Management: The Philosophical Approach, Second Edition identifies and discusses many of the mos

Political Science in History

Political Science in History PDF Author: James F. Farr
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521479554
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 386

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Book Description
In this volume, scholars take up the challenge of disciplinary history by exploring the themes and movements that have shaped political science today.

Political Science Pedagogy

Political Science Pedagogy PDF Author: William W. Sokoloff
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030238318
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 183

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Book Description
The field of political science has not given sufficient attention to pedagogy. This book outlines why this is a problem and promotes a more reflective and self-critical form of political science pedagogy. To this end, the author examines innovative work on radical pedagogy such as critical race theory and feminist theory as well as more traditional perspectives on political science pedagogy. Bridging the divide between this research and scholarship on both teaching and learning opens the prospect of a critical, radical and utopian form of political science pedagogy. With chapters on Socrates, Frantz Fanon, Paulo Freire, Leo Strauss, Sheldon S. Wolin, e-learning, and a prison field trip, this book outlines a new path for political science pedagogy.

Disputed Subjects (RLE Feminist Theory)

Disputed Subjects (RLE Feminist Theory) PDF Author: Jane Flax
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136194126
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description
Incorporating autobiography as well as reflections on relations between mothers and daughters, psychoanalysis, feminist theorizing, race, and modernist political theories and philosophies, renowned feminist theorist Jane Flax brings together eight of her most recent essays in Disputed Subjects. ‘Indisputably required reading ... Lively, sophisticated, and challenging discussions at the crucial intersection of feminist, psychoanalytic, and political ideas. Jane Flax allows her own multiple and conflicting identities into open dialogue, and the result is a promontory on the postmodern landscape.’ – Kenneth J. Gergen ‘Jane Flax is one of the most challenging women writing today ... It is the well-informed voice of sanity, balance and courage.’ – Phyllis Grosskurth ‘Jane Flax’s bold new book challenges orthodoxies in feminism, psychoanalysis, and postmodernism. By questioning the questions that have been taken to define these fields, she demonstrates once again the originality of her thinking.’ – Alison M. Jaggar

The Practical Import of Political Inquiry

The Practical Import of Political Inquiry PDF Author: Brian Caterino
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319324438
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 127

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Book Description
This book examines a basic problem in critical approaches to political and social inquiry: in what way is social inquiry animated by a practical intent? This practical intent is not external to inquiry as an add-on or a choice by the inquirer, but is inherent to the process of inquiry. The practical intent in inquiry derives from the connection between social inquiry and the participant’s perspective. The social inquirer, in order to grasp the sense of those who are the subject of inquiry, has to adopt the perspective of the participant in the social world. Caterino opposes the view that research is an autonomous activity distinct from or superior to a participant’s perspective. He argues that since the inquirer is on the same level as the participant, all inquiry should be considered mutual critique in which those who are addressed by inquiry have an equal right and an equal capacity to criticize addressors.