Patricians, Professionals, and Political Science
Author(s): Michael Parenti
Source: The American Political Science Review, Vol. 100, No. 4, Thematic Issue on the Evolution
of Political Science, in Recognition of the Centennial of the Review (Nov., 2006), pp. 499-505
Published by: American Political Science Association
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Political Science Review
American
PARENTI
to modern
teurs
science
JL
the strictures put on political
academic
that
some
although
some
Nevertheless
scholarship
degree
of
democratic
given
was
variety
diversity. Political
modest
to the
issues that developed
ethno-class
have
emergence
within
eventually
of political
that discipline.
in academia
made
been
It is
in academia,
achieved
often has been discouraged
heterodoxy
advances
ama
the early days of patrician
from
attention
special
and ideological
there has been a lag in ideological
pressed.
with
professionals,
and the methodological
herein
argued
2006
Berkeley, California
r M ihis essay sketches
m
November
and Political Science
Professionals,
Patricians,
MICHAEL
100, No. 4
Vol.
in
and sup
the
last
half
century.
For
centuries,
about
writing
events
political
was
largely the avocation of clergy and persons of pri
vate fortune. There were church scribes and court
chroniclers
recorded
who
to their overlords.
amateur
scholars
there were
And
wrote
who
in a manner
developments
pleasing
for
a
orator.
gentlemen
like-minded
among
audi
ence of gentlemen
readers. The accounts they produced
were of a patrician
literary genre, much like epic and
deeds of great
tragedy, concerned with the monumental
a
lower classes
in
which
the
world
personages, depicting
troublesome
played no role other than an occasionally
one.
us
gave
Antiquity
niclers?Homer,
and
Tacitus,
Josephus,
numerous
Herodotus,
others,
chro
upper-class
Thucydides,
none
Polybius,
of whom
thought
to
very highly of the common people, if they bothered
senator
think about them at all.1 The wealthy Roman
aristocratic
Cicero was part of an already established
the plebs urbana as the
tradition when he described
"city dirt and filth," "the unruly and inferior." When
ever the Roman people agitated for land redistribution,
debt
easement,
rent
bread
cancellation,
subsidies,
and
work projects, they became in Cicero's mind that most
odious of all creatures, the umob." (Cicero 1967: 1.16,
is remarkable
11 and 1.19,4; Cicero 1989: XI.7.1) What
is that this view of the Roman poor has been embraced
by most classicists down through the ages even into the
era (Parenti 2003).
modern
the noted
chronicler
after Cicero,
A
century
a man of high lineage, blamed
the rebel
Josephus,
lion in Judea not on the boundless
rapacity of the
on
base emotions
but
the
Roman
imperialists
ruling
of
the
rebels
"the mob,"
were
"by
themselves,
whom
and
"mischief-makers"
temperament
he
addicted
to
as
characterized
"factious
change
folk"
and
own privileged
down-and-out,
of
ample
who
de
led the first
actually
lighting in sedition." Josephus
in A.D. 67. Surviving
Jewish rebellion against Rome
that
that, he showed little sympathy for the uprisings
to the Roman
he switched
followed. As a Pharisee,
to his
it as less threatening
imperial cause, recognizing
1935 Stuart Street, Berkeley,
Michael
California,
Parenti,
Berkeley,
94703 ([email protected]).
California
1
and actual identity
like Homer, whose
social antecedents
Ancients
cast
in the ideological
remain cloudy, reveal their elitist sympathies
as the
to them. On Homer
texts that are ascribed
of the surviving
sort of antidemocratic
the worst
bard" who displays
"aristocratic
class bias in The Iliad, see Stone 1988, 28-38.
priestly
that was
caste
Jews.
a
As
a rebellion
is an
He
class-leveling
lukewarm
patriot-cum-comprador
with
remains
Cicero,
Josephus
classics
his
scholars,
repeated
of
early
collab
a
ex
favorite
of
expressions
evoking little critical notice (Josephus
1960: II., IV, VI,
87-88; and Josephus
class supremacy
1966: 28, 39-41,
passim).
was
Edward
scholar
A
patrician
prototypical
Gibbon. Born in 1737, as heir to a considerable
estate,
"the luxury and
in his own words, enjoyed
Gibbon,
freedom of a wealthy house." While
attending Oxford
he wore the velvet cap and silk gown of a gentleman
which enabled him to hobnob with students of noble
Serving later as an officer in the militia, he
genealogy.
soured in the company of rustic fellow officers whom he
of schol
described as "alike deficient in the knowledge
ars
and
the manners
of
Gibbon
gentlemen."
abhorred
freedom" of
the "wild theories of equal and boundless
And while serving as a member
the French Revolution.
liberties to
he voted against extending
of Parliament
colonists
the American
(Gibbon 1984, 65, 75, 86, 128,
173). Saturated with his own upper-class prepossession,
Gibbon was able to look admiringly on ancient Rome's
violently
He
aristocracy.
acquisitive
might
have
pro
duced a much different history of Rome had he been
a self-educated
cobbler, sitting in a cold shed, writing
into the wee hours after a long day of unrewarding
himself was keenly aware of the material
toil. Gibbon
realities behind scholarly effort. As he remarks in his
memoirs:
pendence,
"A
of
gentleman
and
books
of
possessed
talents,
may
leisure
be
and
inde
to
encouraged
write by the distant prospect of honor and reward: but
is the author, and wretched will be the work,
wretched
is stimulated
where daily diligence
by daily hunger"
157,
175).
(Gibbon,
in epoch, culture,
In a word, for all their differences
religion,
and
things
through
age-old
nationality,
rather
unanimity
of
scholars
patrician
similar
upper-class
ideological
bias
that
have
seen
lenses,
in an
is often
mis
taken for objectivity.
PROFESSIONALS
By
the mid-nineteenth
the United
States,
brought a noticeable
AND PURGES
century
in western
Europe
and
in trade and industry
the growth
increase in university populations
499
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and Political
Patricians, Professionals,
and
a
tual
pursuits.
commensurate
replaced by more formally
itly certified to conduct the
newly minted professionals
of
established
institutions
for
exchange
of
professionalization
self-trained
patrician
The
schooled
intellec
was
scholar
individuals
explic
requisite scholarship. These
drew salary and rank from
in
higher learning, mostly
duties.
teaching
November 2006
Science
The
amateur
gentleman
academic
gave way to the gentleman
(Hamerow
Holt 1967).
A leading light of Germany's
professionalized
was
arship
the
unflinching
vor
renowned
of German
von
Leopold
to absolutism
devotion
In
monarchs.
schol
Ranke
Professor
1831,
to edit a political
by the
agreed
journal sponsored
he launched
Prussian
from which
crown,
position
a
series
of
attacks
against
democracy
parliamentary
of
the recording
1973, 102-3). For Ranke,
(Ranke
on facts that
events was
to be grounded
political
were to be ascertained
in documents
produced mostly
state.
tended
the
Hence,
by
"objective"
scholarship
to be that which was heavily
refracted
through the
state. In 1841, King
official
lenses of an autocratic
Friedrich Wilhelm
IV anointed Ranke
official histo
of
riographer
the
state.
Prussian
Ranke's
other
royal
II of Bavaria,
admirer, King Maximilian
appointed
him chair of the newly formed Historical
Commis
sion of the Bavarian Academy
of Sciences
(Gilbert
1990, 11-45;
1973, xxviii-xxix,
Iggers and Moltke
xxx-xxxv).
Nota
took
the
bene,
academic
of ideological
missions,
German
monarchs
scholarship
seriously
and
journals,
Ranke's
an
financed
They
propagation.
of
as
professional
antidemocratic
day
Bauer
and
Arnold
Ruge.
A
close
too,
paths
scholars
university
usually
saw
their
who
careers
a
case of Thorold
sorry finish. There was the prominent
Rogers, who brought forth a monumental
study, the
of
abridged version of which, entitled Six Centuries
Work
and Wages,
text for the
served as a political
British socialist movement
well into the twentieth cen
To
shore
his
tury.
up
professional
acceptability Rogers
comments
about so
repeatedly
injected disparaging
cialism
into
demics
insert negative?and
his writings,
just
as many
often
modern-day
inapposite?swipes
aca
on
launched
a
career.
promising
strike.
DeLeon's
colleagues
such
expressed
ut
ter contempt
for the laborers as to infuriate him. In
short time, he threw his support to Henry George,
radical
whom
advocate,
single-tax
labor
the
unions
modest
that
electoral
campaign
to "overthrow
threatened
DeLeon's
society"
as a "monstrous
the
1979,
(Seretan
considerable
as
talents
agi
struc
entire
13-15).
a
scholar
De
and
teacher, his political activities prevented him from ever
on Columbia's
being offered a professorship
political
science teaching staff. In 1889 he left the faculty in
disgust.
and conservative
business
By the 1880s, wealthy
leaders came to dominate
the governing
boards of
most universities
and colleges, inwhat has proven to be
an enduring reign. These trustees seldom hesitated
to
take action against faculty members with outspokenly
heretical politico-economic
opinions, including anyone
who was known to have championed
anti-monopoly
in the Philippines,
causes, opposed U.S. imperialism
or defended
the rights of labor leaders and socialists.
those dismissed were such accomplished
schol
Among
ars
down
to
fought
spite
newly
compan
strayed
come
no
the
one day, while DeLeon
sat with some of his
a
workers
trundled
crowd
of
by in the street
colleagues,
their victory after a hard
below. They were celebrating
ture of civilized
ion of both Bauer and Ruge was Karl Marx. Though
endowed with a doctoral degree and exceptional
capa
bilities, Marx never got his foot in the university door.
In Britain,
iconoclastic
radicals
was
There
Then
tation"
formed American
Historical
Association
elected him
as its first honorary member, on which occasion George
Bancroft dubbed him "the father of historical science"
(Holt 1967, 20).
Within
German
universities
of that day could be
found some dedicated
but they were not
democrats,
or special
awards, editorships,
likely to be granted
funding. While
heaping honors on Ranke, Friedrich
Wilhelm
IV launched a campaign
to root out "the
of Hegelianism,"
dragon-seed
including such dissidents
as Bruno
seemed
entist
rather
taking
the
markedly
rate.
survival
conspicuous
be
for mayor of New York. DeLeon
backing
for George,
identified as
gan campaigning
publicly
of Columbia College." Columbia's
"Professor DeLeon
con
Frederick Augustus
Porter Barnard,
president,
demned DeLeon's
radical views and his participation
in the mayoralty
election. Ever alert to the dangers
of class leveling, Barnard condemned Henry George's
chairs, com
sentiments,
low
any
Outspoken
who received the prized
table case of Daniel DeLeon,
lectureship at the fledgling School of Political Science
was a member
at Columbia College
in 1882. DeLeon
of the Academy
of Political Science, which was first
law
in 1880 as an adjunct of Columbia's
established
school and Columbia's
newly created political science
selected DeLeon
the Academy
graduate school. When
as its president
the young political sci
for 1884-1985,
the
care that these be staffed by men
like Ranke who
shared their own views about how past and present
should be perceived.
In 1885, undeterred
by Ranke's
pronouncedly
a
in
ushering
perspectives.
Britain,
grew
were
instrument
societies,
without
in political
change
had
the fa
him
xxvii).
and aristocratic
As inmonarchist
Germany
so in republican America,
professionalization
apace?but
1987;
whose
Ranke,
won
disclaimers
But these precautionary
against Marxism.
were not enough to prevent him from being run out
at Oxford
of his professorship
1981, xxvi
(Samuel
as Edward
Bemis,
Thorstein
and E. A.
Veblen,
Ross.
The purging of faculty escalated around World War I.
officials such as Nicholas Murray Butler,
University
of
Columbia University,
forbade
president
explicitly
that
faculty from criticizing the war. Butler maintained
such
the
heresy
was
not
Butler
patrician
is a constant
letariat
tolerable
who
source
in
said
of
that
times
"an
disturbance
of war.
educated
and
It was
pro
danger
to any nation" (Nearing 1972). The prominent
scholar,
Charles Beard, was grilled by Columbia's
trustees, who
suspected that his views might "inculcate disrespect for
American
institutions." A furious Beard resigned his
500
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Political Science Review
American
Vol.
No. 4
100,
that Butler and the trustees
declaring
professorship,
or terrorize every
sought "to drive out or humiliate
man
who
held
celebrated
Another
was
the
mon
various
ered
career.
Max
Veblen's
sets
Veblen's
upset
at
said;
"not
him
an
edited
the record
academic
stable m?nage
back
who
ways.
froze
They
scholarly.'"
was
He
of
less
really
his
un
got
thoughts. They
'not
sound,'
his meager
they
and
salary
his productivity
and
delayed his promotions.
Despite
wide readership, his choice of teaching posts shrank,
and
he
was
never
a
awarded
for
grant
research
any
project he submitted. In 1925, no longer able to ignore
his scholarly contributions
and his growing celebrity
Economic
As
among a literate public, the American
sociation tendered Veblen
the nomination
for its presi
dency. Even then the invitation was extended only after
heated clashes within
the AEA.
In the end, Veblen
refused the offer, remarking with some bitterness
that
it should have come years earlier when he needed
it
(Lerner 1948, 9-10, 19).
As a formal academic discipline, political science seems
to have branched off from history, law, and philoso
science
phy. By the late nineteenth
century, political
as separate entities from
had emerged
departments
often partly stocked with recycled his
history?though
torians. Even into the 1980s one could still find stray
historians
science
lodged in one or another political
ones such as
department,
including rather prominent
Howard Zinn at Boston University
and Raul Hilberg
at the University
of Vermont.
Sometimes
the distinc
a historian and a political
tion between
scientist was
a blurry one. In the late 1950s the
jest was: "If you're
writing about events before the New Deal, you are a
historian. If you're writing about events after the New
Deal, you are a political scientist." And the New Deal
itself seemed to be fair game for both disciplines.
Into the early decades
of the twentieth
century,
the political
science and history departments
of lead
were populated
ing universities
largely by relatively
males
a
tained
of
antiwar
of the established
stance,
so
view
zealously
of
negative
protestors.
Anglo-patrician
Worthington
scholars
Most
the
order.
trumpeted
were
often
trinomina:
Chauncey
them
"captains
of
were
Samuel
and
of
opinion
Many
eign policy that his students
Flagg Bemis." As befitting
gentlemen
descent
European
opinion.
solicitous
try" and a rather
and
northern
conventional
litically
of
the
virtues
indus
boosters
for in
Flagg Bemis,
of U.S.
for
dubbed him "American
their lineage, American
endowed
James
Ford, Archer
Truslow
with
of more
People
their
making
and class back
The
scholars.
conservative
varied
into
way
ethno-class
background
once
patrician
were
what
graduate schools. The changes that took place did not
themselves.
In 1957, at
go unnoticed
by the patricians
vented
Yale, the chair of the Yale history department
his
in a remarkable
concerns
to
letter
the
university's
president, noting that although the English department
"still draws to a degree from the cultivated,
profes
and
sional,
well-to-do
classes,
the
contrast,
by
subject
of history seems to appeal on the whole to a lower social
stratum." Far too few of the doctoral applicants
in his
he
department,
itor,
watchman,
bookkeeper,
cable
tester,
sons
"are
complained,
far too many
men;
list their parents'
salesman,
railroad
clerk,
mechanic,
professional
as jan
occupation
grocer,
cutter,
pocketbook
pharmacist,
general
of
cutter,
clothing
clerk,
butter-and-egg
and the like" (Novick 1988, 366).
same year, 1957, I
from a
myself?coming
working-class
family of the kind deplored by Yale's his
a
chairman?was
tory
stipend-supported
graduate
stu
dent in the Yale political
science department.
Typical
of departments
at other elite schools, the Yale political
science faculty was all-male, all-white, and largely (but
not
exclusively)
Euro-Protestant,
such
featuring
nota
bles as Robert Lane, Robert Dahl, Frederick Watkins,
and Bradford Westerfield.
To their credit, none of these
troubled by the budding ethno-class
faculty appeared
student pop
diversity of the department's
graduate
ulation. However,
into the
diversity did not extend
realm.
political
As
I recall,
not
one
of
us
or
students
rad
faculty were involved inwhat might be considered
ical scholarship.
Indeed, radical scholarship
probably
would have been considered
an oxymoron
in those
it still
days?as
is in some
quarters.
POLITICAL SCIENCE WITHOUT
THE POLITICS
po
enter
labor unions
tireless
ened.
and
and
enrollments,
science and his
grip on the political
was not broken but definitely
loos
Anglo-patrician
tory professions
were
student
in ethnicity
diversity
students
among
ground
in
growth
this a greater
jobber,
That
TWILIGHT OF THE ANGLO-PATRICIANS
well-off
a commensurate
with
check
anthology
"was
employers
li
illicit
of his
straight; what
than his dangerous
in many
fire
Com
and
cause
the
under
Veblen.
divorce
were
women
Lerner,
work,
came
Thorstein
it that a stormy
with
and Smith 1961,
who
economist
lore has
aisons
unconventional
(Hofstadter
academic
renowned
or
liberal,
progressive,
views on political matters"
883-92).
Wilson
Porter
Bonneil
Ulrich
Shortridge,
Phillips,
Harold Underwood
Falkner, Henry Eldridge Bourne,
Moses Coit Tyler, Wilbur Fisk Gordy?one
could go
on. As is said of the patricians,
they own 80% of the
wealth and 90% of the names.
After World War
II, the G.I. Bill and other fed
eral and state funding for higher education
brought
toney
Adams,
Butler Hurlbert,
The 1930s, the New Deal, and the ensuing war
against
the fascist powers produced
a generation
of political
and social scientists whose
liberalism placed them well
to the left of anything that would have been welcomed
Porter Barnard
and his peers.
by Frederick Augustus
But with the advent of the Cold War
there came a
Instruc
heightened
repression of campus heterodoxy.
tors who trod a politically
deviant path were hounded
from
their
certed
with
islators
positions
conservative
(Schrecker
by
administrators
faculty,
who
trustees,
often
and
state
con
leg
1986).
501
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Patricians,
and
Professionals,
Science
Political
November
In addition to ideological purges, the late 1950s
the emergence
of a depoliticizing
methodological
as
known
"behavioralism."
proach
Up until then
in political science, and
orientation
predominant
lesser extent other social science disciplines, might
as nontheoretical
described
tion was
to
the
and
to specific
directed
of
this
son,
practitioners
as "institutionalists"
described
ists." Institutionalists
on
than
the
To
rather
For
were
approach
and
even
be
have
rea
nizations
rather
earlier
years
there had been political scientists like Arthur Bentley,
Charles Merriam,
and V O. Key, and sociologists
like
em
W. I. Thomas who attempted
to be systematically
in scope.
theoretical
pirical in approach and somewhat
But
they
were
the
among
exceptions.
less than amajority of the pro
Although
composing
came to occupy
the high
the
behavioralists
fession,
in the discipline, with their outside
ground
funding
and
over
control
consequent
areas
many
of
graduate
were to be studied
research. Now political phenomena
for the purpose of extracting
scientific hy
primarily
and theories. Cross-disciplinary
potheses
approaches
were encouraged.
Political
scientists
learned to place
and the rigorous
greater emphasis on quantification
it seemed that every
Suddenly
testing of hypotheses.
political science department had to have a "quantifier."
about the normative worth of
Meanwhile,
questions
studied were to be left to the moral
the phenomena
philosophers.
Itwould be wrong to assume that the swift ascension
was achieved purely through intellec
of behavioralism
tual discourse. Other factors having nothing to do with
scholarly dialogue exercised an influence, most notably
the enormous financial support given to the behavioral
foundations,
government,
institutes
and
of centers
by
persuasion
tions. A
vast
studies
elaborate
urban
military
political
the world,
change
such
of
as
subjects
scientists
to
but
and
of
social
honed
deviancy,
consumer
communism,
campaigns,
The
task
corpora
mustered
who
teams of behavioralists
on
the lures
riots,
recruitment
counterinsurgency.
teams?with
to
and
array
cross-disciplinary
these
habits,
and
insurgency
social
science
not
them?was
among
authorities
assist
in get
ting a firmer grip on the existing social order. As the
on Government
in the
Committee
Programs
Advisory
in 1968: "The
Sciences proudly reported
Behavioral
sciences
behavioral
mation, analysis
vidual behavior,
relevant
instrument
are
an
important
source
of
infor
about group and indi
and explanation
and thus an essential and increasingly
of modern
government."
in PS,
In
the
1980s, writing
Joseph
early
noted that political scientists could help
LaPalombara
overseas
how political conditions
investors determine
in foreign lands might affect the safety and profitability
field of
the burgeoning
of their investments. Within
scientists could ap
"political risk analysis," political
ply their theories to help "intelligent, harried bankers
and
corporate
For
line."
in
managers
such
services
tions were willing
. . .
an
in social
interest
and
orga
revolutionary
and
capabilities"
change,
responsiveness
regime
(see also Diamond
sometimes
announced
breathlessly
and banks were
1982). Corporations
(LaPalombara
not the only ones interested in controlling
"the restless
natives." In the January 1983 APS A Personnel Service
the Central Intelligence Agency advertised
Newsletter,
for analysts to work inThird World areas. "They should
1992).
"traditional
some
sure,
LaPalombara
challenge,"
than
this
on the ideographic
focused
nomothetic.
them.
ap
the
to a
be
Atten
nonsystematic.
institutions
across
cut
that
processes
saw
2006
the restless
keep
transnational
the
natives
corpora
"to spend hard cash." "It is a heady
THE POST-BEHAVIORAL CHALLENGE
the ferment of the late 1960s, numbers
of
During
scientists began complaining
that important
political
happenings were being ignored by the discipline. The
critics were labeled (sympathetically)
by then-APSA
as
Easton
David
president
post-behavioralists
These
"post-behavioralists."
themselves
organized
into
the Cau
for a New Political
Science
under
the leader
the
ship of Christian Bay and Mark Roelofs. Among
a
note
critical
of
who
scientists
proffered
political
viewpoint were Charles McCoy, Peter
post-behavioral
cus
James
Bachrach,
was
from
removed
litical life or inaccurate
democratic
the
to place
undue
a
for
disregard
Process
abstracted
show
tems.
of
criticisms
1983):
behavioralists
on
emphasis
the content
of
from
in the
engaged
and
process
events
and
sys
tends
its substance
to be treated in an ahistorical reductionist
itmay be true that both Napoleon
Hence,
valet
po
of a benevolent
1. In their search for the nomothetic,
tended
of
imperatives
is a summary
years ago (Parenti
in
Some,
of the discipline's
in its depiction
Here
pluralism.
I first offered
Wolin.
Sheldon
that most
complained
cluding myself,
scholarship
and
Petras,
fashion.
and his
one
process,
decision-making
for the Empire and the other for the Emperor's
Both organized
household.
staffs, set priorities,
and
scarce
allocated
resources.
one
Perhaps
might
that could apply to the ac
come up with a model
tivities of both, but it would obscure differences
in historical substance that were more important
than
the
generalizable
ory of decision-making
would
be
a
somewhat
patterns
of process.
abstracted
A
the
in this fashion
accomplish
meaningless
if the process
ment.
Indeed, we might wonder
when so
itself were being properly understood
and
context
of
interest
its
from
divorced
utterly
power.
became increas
the behavioral methodologies
seemed to
studied
the
elaborate,
problems
ingly
preci
insignificant. Quantifiable
get increasingly
sion imposed limits on the kinds of subjects that
could be addressed. So it seemed that the method
brought forth an intellectual
ological mountain
2. As
mouse.
3. In pursuit
often
selected
of scientific
neutrality,
uncontroversial
behavioralists
subjects
to
study.
the investigator,
instead of neutralizing
Hence,
their subject mat
in neutralizing
they succeeded
be
the difference
ter. They seemed to overlook
into the
tween (a) injecting value
judgments
502
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Vol.
Review
Science
Political
American
No.
100,
4
and (b) studying
study of empirical phenomena
political activities in an empirical
value?charged
way. The laudable desire to eschew (a) should not
lead us to avoid (b).
4. Although
claimed a value-free
the behavioralists
scientific
their
of
to place
eagerness
government,
sorts
all
in their research.
hidden
judgments
were
there
posture,
their
at
science
the
business
and
military,
of
value
For instance,
service
on
rested
that the overall
value assumption
a benign
system was essentially
the unexamined
politicoeconomic
one.
In 1981, Evron Kirkpatrick,
who served as direc
tor of the American
Political Science Association
for
more than 25 years, said, "I have always believed
that
we gain as scholars should provide a
the knowledge
for
basis
fective
or
others
and
for
sound
an
to play
ourselves
role
in government
ef
active,
and
politics."2
1981, 597) He referred to the many po
(Kirkpatrick
litical scientists who occupied
public office, worked
in electoral
ous
capacities.
mainstream
or
campaigns,
His
remarks
served
on
behalf
colleagues
tific detachment.
or biased about
a "sound
played
role
no
of
his
scien
nothing wrong
as long as one
partisanship
in government"
in vari
from
outcry
value-free
there was
It seemed
political
officialdom
evoked
rather
a dis
than
academics
like
senting role against it. Establishment
never explained
how they were able to
Kirkpatrick
avoid injecting politics
into their science while so as
siduously injecting their science into politics.
Not long after the Caucus for a New Political Science
was formed,
it became clear that the postbehavioral
was
critique
ticular
research
a radical
really
mode
than
directed
one,
at
the
less
or
centrist
at a par
"main
stream" orthodoxy
shared by many
behavioralists
and traditionalists
alike (Lindblom
and
1982; McCoy
Playford 1967; Parenti 1983). In foreign policy analysis,
the
centrists
the
benevolent
to domestic
never
challenged
intent
of U.S.
issues,
had
capitalism"
an
it was
actual
the assumptions
interventions.
assumed
about
In
regard
that "democratic
referent
empirical
and
was
not an ideological or propaganda
term. But what really
was the relationship of democracy
to capitalism? And
of economics
to political power? That these kinds of
questions were themselves
ideologically
inspired was
I argued at the time, for they still could
irrelevant,
lead
ical
to
empirical
The
import.
investigations
centrists
claimed
that
carried
to be
theoret
nonpartisan,
but the determination
of what is nonpartisan
is itself
a highly partisan matter. They failed to acknowledge
that husbanding
the status quo was no less partisan
than struggling to alter it.
AND TODAY?
1950s purges of academia were followed by the
in the late 1960s,
of New Left radicalism
into the following decades
that continued
The
suppression
a campaign
some
to
and
extend
to
obtains
this
day,
out
targeting
spoken leftists and campus activists in political science
and just about every other discipline. The political mo
tive behind
these purges usually have been denied.
Most
the
of
were
who
people
a contract
refused
were
to be deficient
declared
in scholarly
performance.
were
to
Sometimes
declared
budgetary
exigencies
be the deciding
factor. No doubt such explanations
must have been true in some cases. Still one had to
at
marvel
stream
how
career
the
often
to main
open
path
less rocky
than
the one
so much
was
academics
trod by equally qualified
radicals. In some instances,
the political motives
behind
the firings and nonhir
were
ings
tive
trustees
openly
and
pronounced,
usually
or
administrators,
conserva
by
legis
right-wing
lators and other
off-campus
ideological
gatekeepers
and Lippman
1985, 73-87; Parenti
(Meranto, Meranto,
Parenti 1996, 235-52).
1995,175-96;
cases. In 1978
Consider one of the better publicized
Bertell Oilman was offered
the chair of the political
at the University
science department
of Maryland. Af
ter accepting
the position,
he came under fire in the
media and from some trustees who explicitly opposed
could find
having aMarxist as chair. The administration
academic credentials, yet
nothing deficient inOilman's
it buckled under the pressure and withdrew
the offer.
one
As
security-minded
corporation
president
to the university president,
"We can't
hold of a department
of government
White House"
(Oilman 2004, 34).
one
In contrast,
whose
can
are
writings
to those
point
and
polemical
it
put
let aMarxist
get
so close to the
academic
denizens
partisan,
and
who
Brzezinski, Henry
yet have done quite well: Zbigniew
Daniel
Jeane Kirkpatrick,
and
Boorstin,
Kissinger,
Daniel
Patrick Moynihan,
to name a few. Far from
being politically neutral, such individuals have been ex
of American military-industrial
plicit proponents
poli
cies
at home
and
abroad.
enjoyed
meteoric
sequently were
posts. We might
selected
it?they
a hindrance
gather
to one's
have
because
careers
and
of
sub
to serve in prominent
public
that outspoken
is not
advocacy
as
calling
the right direction.
the current
Regarding
senses that the discipline
behavioralists
this?or
Despite
academic
long
as one
advocates
in
state of political science, one
is stuck in a time warp. The
evolved
into
"rational
choice"
spe
cialists whose highly abstracted model-building
seems
to be something of an end in itself, valued for the el
egance
of
its mathematical
cal questions
posed,
they
about
seem
to be
When
configuration.
the political
the
same
science
ones
criti
discipline
that
were
are
put
inmy salad days a half-century
ago: What are the
as applied
promises and limits of the scientific method
to political
science? Does
the more methodologically
about
2
in acceptance
of the National
Kirkpatrick's
speech was
Capital
Area
Political
Science Association
Pi Sigma Alpha Award
to a po
litical scientist who had made a significant
"to strength
contribution
between
science and public service."
ening the relationship
political
a commensurate
rigorous
work
it come
at too high a cost to understanding
political
Is there an incremental
gain in knowledge?
reality?
have
payoff?
Or
does
503
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Patricians,
and
Professionals,
Political
Science
November
Or do changing events, paradigmatic
shifts, and other
to shambles?
intellectual
tides reduce past research
Have we developed
any reliable middle-level
theory
life? (for example Hill 2004, and
regarding political
Strakes, and
subsequent
exchanges
by Ozminkowski,
Hill 2005).
There is an additional problem for those who teach
political science. What is to be done about student skep
forms of
ticism in regard to the more
indecipherable
and
research
and
dent
other
to
specialize.
less and
about
is to know
that
"Okay,
less, until
to
I know
nothing."
be political
would
all there
absolutely
advisor
science."
more
and
treated as a bad joke in a syndicated news
discipline
paper cartoon is an unkind cut. People are trying to tell
us
are
right-wing
would
who
critics
us
have
believe that institutions of higher learning are hotbeds
leftist orthodoxy,
correct"
of "politically
propagated
and
Black
militants, Marxists,
feminists,
liberals,
by
cannot
tive opinion
it is said,
college
campus,
to bow his head
not
hope
for
leftist
rule,
and
inmany
fixture
heavy
financial
a decent
a career.
fact, no
remain
In
of
and
trustees
teachers,
its
student
steep
arrogation
ically,
same mainstreamers
erals.
More
Now,
stripe.
are
accusing
conservatives
emboldened
recently,
of being
often
students,
these
read
leftists
Thus
students
such
as Howard
also
grumble
about
rights by being
Zinn.
"Where
de
being
required
are
the
in right-wing
they
students
register
their
trustees,
and
as
and
groups;
pressure
act
Even
administrators,
college
profes
more
treatment.
disseminate
and Web
publications
censors
self-appointed
whereas
themselves
claiming to be victims of censorship.
the major points in this article: All
To summarize
needs
work
Such
fortune,
one hand,
and
must
or
patronage,
seen through
and
is a link
on
the
institutional
of formal
and
power
governmental
the ages
formations,
professional
and the emergence
governmental
and
institutional
we have
research
actu
to achieve
support
come
from personal
either
material
support
sources. What
on
resources,
the
other.
the inter
in our own time and profession,
Specifically
and institutional
action between scholarly proliferation
and governmental
funding is illustrated in one salient
and in the subse
instance by the rise of behavioralism
quent
serve
supposedly
that be.
all these
is the age-old
developments
over
exercise
elites
institutional
that
to
scientists
value-free
of
eagerness
the powers
person
selection, and the ideological
thereby
conformity
is usually
propagated. Of course, ideological coercion
more implicit than overt. It becomes a painfully visible
issue during times of crisis (World War
I, the Cold
the
War,
maintained
sixties,
to
read
ings by Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, and Bill O'Reilly?"
one (Meranto 2005, 221). They do more
complained
In
etc.).
critical
less
this whole
matter,
process
itself and is a component
Some might dis
tured within the profession
of the dominant
ideological
miss
is
hegemony
that is struc
times,
a socialization
through
paradigm.
us
telling
reason
is no
there
to
has been influenced
act surprised that the discipline
idea
by elite forces. But if it be such a commonplace
a
as
it
so
to
and
dismiss
continue
do
many
deny
why
shopworn radical notion?
the
mains
growing
unaccountable
intellectual
of
bereft
pelling
political
little of
ers. Let
any
economic
it still
uncontested,
of
characters,
The
rules.
from
the
but
of discourse.
it is never
subjected
504
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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
of
inquiry may
confected
It is always
het
of
repression
passing phase. The use
resources
to effectuate
the ongoing politicoeco
before Ranke and even
with an ever-changing
patricians
of today. Scholarly
plutocrats
neutral,
re
com
issues. Not everything written by mainstream
scientists serves the powers that be, but very
such pow
their scholarly output challenges
no longer
it be said that although orthodoxy
than just a
is more
erodoxy
and material
of institutional
ideological compliance within
nomic structure goes back well
an old story
beyond Cicero,
cast
pre
science
to society's
approach
and
power,
the
crises,
in political
product
critical
reac
inequality,
political
environmental
catastrophic
potentially
goes
of
face
rollback,
dominant
abet
embrace.
Conservative
the conservative
intimidating,
tionary
lib
and political bounty
ted by right-wing organizations
that
have complained
like David Horowitz,
hunters
ideas
that
to
liberal
is,
ideas,
they disagree
exposure
free
them of their right to academic
with, deprives
dom and ideological
"pos
diversity, and constitutes
sible indoctrination"
they
2006). What
(Horowitz
di
is not the lack of ideological
really are protesting
versity but their first encounter with it, an encounter
other than the one they regularly
with perspectives
nied their First Amendment
subjected
motivated
conservative
that
such
them
accusing
and politically
to
class
teachers
confronting
harassment,
noted
be
with
complaints
outside
conservative
In
iron
driven
ideologically
conservative
an
scorned
scientists
every
should
not
the
that the students
nel
extravagant
corporate
increasing
mainstream
years
political
of
and Marxists
radicals
tiwar
are
control
of institutional
functions, and overall growing depen
dence on private funding all militate
against anything
(Soley 1997; White
resembling a radical predominance
science the
in political
and Hauck
2000). If anything,
to
the
somewhat
has
moved
right since the
spectrum
in the wider
the climate of opinion
1970s, mirroring
society.
For
It
classes.
of
academic
police
things
and
unbalanced
Overriding
university
a
regular
administrators,
top
adjunct
lib
The university's
departments.
for
indebtedness,
who
conservative
conservatives
board
compensations
of
exploitation
the average
to the tyranny of campus
academic
corporate-oriented
monetary
conserva
where
place
light of day. On
find
refuses
dare
a
promoters,
gay/lesbian-rights
is under
of conducting
sites.
teach
of,
"outing"
to the
point
disapprove
sometimes
activists
campus
of faculty who
between
something.
there
Today
erals
rooms
sors
the guise of protecting
conservative
scholarly
alization.
responds,
see one's
To
than grumble. Under
freedom,
their disclosures
a stu
is saying,
more
the
7,
(March
country,
advisor
learn
And
about
the
of a course
I want
cartoon,
Chronicle
around
newspapers
in the office
sitting
"I want
Boffo"
"Mr.
in the San Francisco
appearing
2005),
a
In
scholarship?
2006
in a neutral
to
yore
strive
the
to be
universe
to institutional
and
American
Political
material
constraints
even
Still,
have
Review
that shape
and
distributed,
funded,
there
Science
some
the way
100,
No.
4
it is produced,
rewarded.
would
progressives
been
Vol.
real,
to admit
have
albeit
that
advances
limited,
the narrow confines of the political science dis
cipline. The Caucus for a New Political Science never
to turn the profession
in a genuinely
radical
managed
a
but
it
did
direction,
produce
fairly decent journal of its
within
own
and
mainstream
space
none.
a section
offers
ings. And
where,
even
of
panels
at
the
some of the discipline's
members
do
in an
earlier
occasionally
there
age,
annual
meet
more
liberal
create
had
been
light and
almost
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