A Discipline Divided

This volume contains a collection of articles that seek to explain the emergence and divergence of the two dominant camps of political science: ideology and methodology. The author examines the "hard" versus "soft" science argument, the history of model-fitting in studies of communism studies, the strengths and weaknesses of the rational choice movement and the historical forces and processes that have shaped political culture. Part 2 addresses the problem of transmission of methods and findings within the discipline. The author asserts that a wide gulf exists between pre- and post-1965 scholars. He discusses the current emphasis on pluralism among political theorists in Communist countries while a corresponding evaluation of this concept is occurring among American scholars. He concludes with an evaluation of the neo-statist movement and the evaluation of political development. An appendix covers the culture of the Chicago School.