As a political scientist, I confess having many criticisms of the field as undertaken in the U.S. What this New York Times‘ article touches upon is fundamental: what good is political science?
Truth be told, much of what is done by academics in political science departments is useless nonsense. It’s scholars asking questions about articles written by other scholars who asked questions about other scholars. The regnant tenure award system encourages this behavior, as does the self-selecting hiring process.
Beyond being boring, such research is very ivory tower, very uninformed by the complexities of reality. This is why one can read rigorous political science studies that offer nearly no insight on the phenomena they are purporting to address—scholars miss basic variables at work because they are too far from the phenomenon.
I kid you not—one can find folks with doctorates in American politics who have never read congressional committee prints, do not know what either the Government Accountability Office or Congressional Budget Office do, and are ignorant of the federal budget process. Regrettably, these folks also tend to know very little political history, and so cannot place things within any context.
Add to this the fetish for complex models and you have a recipe for disaster—an academic field that seems incomprehensible and intellectually masturbatory. Lots of talk about methods, but little knowledge of what has happened. (Sadly, being able to accurately explain what exists and what has occurred is often derided by political scientists as “journalism” or merely “descriptive.”) Really, now, if I wanted to know, say, how the the U.S. and Russia’ relationship was changing, I wouldn’t call a political scientist, not one based at a university. I probably would reach out to a reporter who covers the area or a think tank expert who has worked in international diplomacy. Same goes with figuring out how Congress currently operating (Is it Speaker-led? Committee-driven? Etc.)
A seldom discussed problem with political science today is that it has jettisoned some of its key parts—the study of law, public administration, public policy all now are done in different departments and schools. Which is ludicrous, as each of these fields focus on aspects of the political and governmental process. Additionally, the field little covers subnational governance units. Want to know about the politics and governance of cities? Want to know how states handle budgeting? Good luck finding someone in a department of political science who can help you.
Res ipsa loquitur.
Source: Patricia C