A pox on perestroika, a hex on hegemony: toward a critical political science [July 2002]
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2002
Authors
Dryzek, John
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Abstract
Introduction: While the perestroika reform movement that began in 2000 has shaken US political science, the virtual absence of methodological argument on any side means that the dispute is mostly political rather than intellectual. The discipline has been shaken but not stirred. The movement may change the balance of power within the profession, but otherwise leave the practice of political science unchanged. This paper is intended to help move methodological debate, with “methodology” taken in its broad sense of reflection upon the conduct of inquiry (so it also covers epistemology). The existing – now faltering –hegemony (usually identified with rational choice theory and quantitative methods) may be indefensible, but perestroika proposes only an empty pluralism in its place. Perestroika’s heart may be in the right place, but its head needs to catch up. I discuss a critical disciplinary pluralism, not as an alternative program for the discipline, but as a way of making the best of existing political science practice.
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perestroika reform movement, US political science, hegemony, pluralism
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