The Future of Political Science

by Harold D. Lasswell

Overview

Harold D. Lasswell is arguably the quintessential face of political science to the larger public of the past century. However, there is a side to Lasswell less well known, but of special importance in this day and age: the place of the profession of politics as an academic activity. This book, written at the start of the culture wars thirty years ago, outlines the basic core position of political science practitioners. It helps to explain why the field kept its collective cool, when other social science professionals veered to more extreme activist positions.The Future of Political Science grew out of the phenomenally rapid expansion of the study of government in the United States and elsewhere. The study of professionalism among physical scientists, lawyers, engineers, etc. was not matched by such internal examination within the social sciences until much later. Lasswell's overview centered on developments in the United States. There unfettered study of government reached unprecedented heights in the final stage of the twentieth century. The key concept of this volume, one that continues to inform discourse, is the relationship of political science as a mechanism for the study and teaching of the political system to the field as a tool of the Establishment. This concern grew in the wake of a variety of scandals and secret support sponsored by both government and non-government organizations alike.The Future of Political Science covers areas ranging from membership size and disparities, intervention scenarios in world events, the nature of creativity in political research collaboration in projects with the other social sciences, and the location of scientific centers of gravity in the study of politics. Because of Lasswell's works we have a field of the political science of knowledge as well as the sociology of knowledge.Harold D. Lasswell served as Ford Foundation Professor of the Social Sciences at Yale University, Distinguished Professor of Policy Sciences at John Jay College of the City University of New York, and as professor of political science at the University of Chicago. He was a past president of the American Political Science Association and author of many books covering the full range of political and policy research. Jay Stanley is professor emeritus of sociology at Towson State University. He is former editor of Armed Forces & Society, and co-author of Challenges in Military Health Care.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780202308296
Publisher:	Transaction Publishers
Publication date:	08/31/2005
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	278
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Lexile:	1390L (what's this?)

About the Author

Harold D. Lasswell (1902-1978) served as Ford Foundation Professor of the Social Sciences at Yale University, Distinguished Professor of Policy Sciences at John Jay College of the City University of New York, and as professor of political science at the University of Chicago. He was a past president of the American Political Science Association and author of many books covering the full range of political and policy research.

Jay Stanley, professor of sociology at Towson University, is a member of the advisory council of the Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society, and on the board of editors of its journal Armed Forces & Society. He is the editor of Essays on the Garrison State, and co-editor of Challenges in Military Health Care, both published by Transaction.

Table of Contents

1: Political Science Today; 2: Growth and Ambiguity; 3: The Basic Data Survey (I); 4: The Basic DataSurvey (II)Invoking, Applying, Appraising, Terminating; 4: Appendix to Chapter 4; 5: Experimentation, Prototyping, Intervention; 6: Micromodeling; 7: Cultivation of Creativity (I); 8: Cultivation of Creativity (II); 9: Collaboration with Allied Professions; 10: Centers for Advanced Political Science; Conclusion

Editorial Reviews

This book should help to dispose of those tedious “Streit-um-théorie” discussions, which consist primarily of long-range bombardment of “scientists” and “scientism” from carefully-selected positions, personalistic arguments over whether the findings of science are relevant to public policy, and assertions that a science of politics would be either impossible, useless or harmful.” —Avery Leiserson, The Journal of Politics “The book is rooted in Lasswell’s connection with political science as student, teacher, researcher, and sometime president of the American Political Science Association. It is ‘directed mainly to those who are seriously concerned with the study of government’ and is addressed to ‘the future of political science from the viewpoints of scope, method, and impact.’ Obviously it is a book of special relevance to the guild. At the same time, Lasswell’s universe is the Universe, and the book is relevant to the interests of all social scientists.” —Dwight Waldo, Administrative Science Quarterly “Members of the political science profession have long debated among themselves its future course; these discussions sometimes have generated considerable heat without achieving corresponding results. In this book Professor Lasswell, recognizing the existence of these disputes, has avoided as much antagonism as possible as he surveys the present and future of the profession. His evaluations are indeed important and challenging.” —John A. Schutz, The Western Political Quarterly “This review article is adapted from comments made at a book symposium atr the Nineteenth Annual Conference of AAPOR, Excelsior Springs, Missouri, May 8, 1964. . . . We need not pause long to praise this book; only significant volumes are honored by symposia. That this is not the first occasion for this book (another was held at the 1963 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association) is a further mark of the respect Harold Lasswell’s work has received from his colleagues. . . . Lasswell’s book, and its references to the study and role of public opinion in the social process, is not confined to outlining ideas for research. It includes also a critique of the organizations principally concerned with shaping and sharing enlightenment.” —James A. Robinson, The Public Opinion Quarterly

From the Publisher