Liberal Democracy and Political Science. By James W. Ceaser. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990. 210p. $29.95.

Abstract

Do political scientists in a liberal democracy bear a special responsibility that goes beyond their academic pursuits? Ceaser, a scholar of American political parties, argues that they do, and he challenges colleagues and students to reexamine what they do as political scientists. He observes that liberal democracy is a compound of two elements not easily wed: constitutionalism and republicanism. The role of political science is to perform the superintendent function of keeping these parts together.