A Critique of Political Science: A History of the Caucus for a New Political Science

The Caucus for a New Political Science (CNPS) was created in 1967, when several hundred dissident political scientists walked out of the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association (APSA) to protest the Association’s refusal to take an official position against the Vietnam War. The CNPS soon expanded its mission to challenge the APSA’s behavioral and pluralist orthodoxy, protest a lack of democratic procedure and transparency in the organization, and oppose ties between the leadership and government agencies involved in covert activities. It remains unique among the more than 50 Organized Sections of APSA as the only section that defines itself ideologically and politically, rather than by research topic, methodology, subfield, or identity status.

A Critique of Political Science distinguishes between the discipline of political science (methods and concepts) and the profession of political science (persons and institutions) to move disciplinary history beyond its current form as intellectual history toward a politics of political science. The book argues that understanding the development of a discipline requires the same type of theoretical analysis that political scientists apply to other political institutions. By examining universities and professional associations as political institutions, this approach puts political struggles and ideological conflict at the very core of disciplinary history. In reviewing 50 years of debate, controversy, and in-fighting in the political science profession, the book serves as a critique of the profession and the discipline of political science, which remains woefully disengaged from the concerns of ordinary citizens, particularly the working class and the poor throughout the world.

Clyde W. Barrow is Professor of Political Science at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.