Making Connections in Introductory Political Science

Abstract

Historically, political science has been plagued by disagreements over the purposes it serves, the basic questions it should be addressing, and the methods of analysis by which we gain knowledge of politics.1 These quarrels have affected the political sci ence curriculum, especially Introduc tion to Political Science. One result is that the course is not even offered at some American colleges and universi ties. Based on nationwide surveys, John Wahlke (1992,1) reports that only 60 percent of four-year institutions of fer it. In contrast, Introduction to American Government is a required course at 80 percent of these schools. Furthermore, one finds very little uniformity among the introductory po litical science courses that are taught. In this course, students should learn about the basic nature of political sci ence and the connections between the sub-divisions of the field. Instead, we find a wide array of different ap proaches, including the great issues of politics, classics of political sci ence, comparative political systems (generally confined to Europe), and in troduction to empirical analysis. Al though courses of this nature are valu