Presidential Address

Abstract

This, the fiftieth annual meeting of our Association, has more than ordinary significance. Certainly it can be said that the Association has attained middle-age and the intellectual as well as the physical maturity to do proper credit to our years. We may, on this special occasion at least, regard with pardonable pride our record of growth, the recognition and development of our discipline in both teaching and research, the public service it has rendered, and its contribution to the forward progress of American political democracy. American political scientists, practitioners of what Aristotle rightly or wrongly described as the “master science,” have recognized, as did Plato and Aristotle, the surpassing importance of political problems in society and have experienced the difficulties which they foresaw in the effort to employ scientific methods and procedures in the solution of such problems. Beyond doubt, however, we move steadily forward. Our scientific and professional standards show constant improvement. Our store of knowledge is immense. Our almost feverish search for new data is incessant. We know almost all there is to know about the political infirmities of our patients except how to cure them. The state of domestic and world affairs keeps us humble.

The Coevolution of American Political Science and the American Political Science Review

“…. , and the lack of what might be called unifying roots" (Bunche 1954(Bunche , 1964)--were clearly in evidence. The early-twentieth-century humorist Stephen Leacock (himself a political scientist whose work appeared in the Review) could have had political science in mind when he wrote of the man "who flung himself upon his horse and rode madly off in all directions.…”

What Good Can Political Science Do? From Pluralism to Partnerships

“…2All APSA presidential addresses could be cited. Especially pertinent passages include Lowell 1910, 3-4; Wilson 1911, 6-9; Merriam 1926, 11-12; Loeb 1934, 8-9; Dykstra 1939, 5-6; Gaus 1946, 218, 223-226; Spencer 1949, 16; Wright 1950, 3-4; Pollock 1951, 12-17; Herring 1953, 964-66, 971-74; Bunche 1954, 968-71; McKinley 1955, 973-75; Key 1958, 962-65; Redford 1961, 756; Deutsch 1971, 18-19, 24-27; Leiserson 1975, 182-185; Huntington 1987, 1-9; Lowi 1992, 5-6; Ostrom 1998, 2-3, 17-18; Keohane 2001, 1, 8-12; Putnam 2003, 249-250; Skocpol 2004, 12-13; Katznelson 2007, 10-12; Mansbridge 2014, 8, 13-14.…”