How Do You Introduce Political Science to a Friendly Stranger?

Abstract

From campus to campus, there is only modest variation in the core content of the introductory science or social science course, from anthropology to biology to physics to sociology. But what should the first course in political science include? Political scientists have less consensus on the content of their introductory course than teachers in any of these other disciplines. I have grappled with this question over the last 16 years in attempting to teach “Introduction to Political Science” at a large public university. The question became even more compelling when, during the last several years, I was writing a textbook (Danziger, 1990) for such an introductory course. This forced me to be more universal (or at least less idiosyncratic) in the choice of topics and examples.In fact, the first course in political science at most colleges and universities does not introduce students to “the discipline.” Rather, the course focuses on the American political system. It seems unimaginable that the first course in biology would center in American biology, or that the first course in economics would be a study of the economic system of the United States. In most fields, an introductory course aims to familiarize students with the basic theoretical and conceptual elements of the discipline, whether the discipline is paradigmatic or preparadigmatic (in Thomas Kuhn's terms).The tendency to begin political science with a course in American politics does have some reasonable justifications. First, it is possible to learn basic principles and ways of thinking within a discipline by the study of an exemplary case which is used to reveal those basics.