The State in Political Science: How We Became What We Study

TLDR

American political science emerged from the American state, with post‑World War II political dynamics establishing public opinion, public policy, and public choice as the dominant subdisciplines. The study frames each subdiscipline as a case illustrating alignment with modern bureaucratic governance and its scientific decision‑making methods. Overreliance on Leviathan leads to three harms: missing the shift from law to economics in state language, dulling political science discourse, and neglecting ideological shifts that accompany regime changes.

Abstract

American political science is a product of the American state. There are political reasons why particular subdisciplines became hegemonic with the emergence of the “Second Republic” after World War II. The three hegemonic subdisciplines of our time are public opinion, public policy, and public choice. Each is a case study of consonance with the thought-ways and methods of a modern bureaucratized government committed to scientific decision making. Following Leviathan too closely results in three principal consequences: (1) failure to catch and evaluate the replacement of law by economics as the language of the state, (2) the loss of passion in political science discourse, and (3) the failure of political science to appreciate the significance of ideological sea changes accompanying regime changes.