Liberal Learning and the Political Science Major: A Report to the Profession

Abstract

This report was completed in cooperation with a national review of arts and sciences majors initiated by the Association of American Colleges as part of its continuing commitment to advance and strengthen undergraduate liberal learning. The American Political Science Association was one of twelve learned societies contributing to this review. Each participating learned society convened a task force charged to address a common set of questions about purposes and practices in liberal arts majors; individual task forces further explored issues important in their particular fields. In 1991, the Association of American Colleges will publish a singlevolume edition of all twelve learned society reports with a companion volume containing a separate report on Liberal Learning and Arts and Sciences Majors. Inquiries about these two publications may be sent to Reports on the Arts and Sciences Major, Box R, Association of American Colleges, 1818 R Street, NW, Washington, DC 20009. Generous funding for the project and dissemination of the reports was provided by the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) and the Ford Foundation. The Task Force on the Political Science Major, which was appointed by Lucian Pye, then President of the American Political Science Associa-