On the Origins of the Western Political Science Association and PRQ

Abstract

As the WPSA celebrates its 60th anniversary this year, there ar few of its members who have a clear sense of the history of the organization or its journal, Political Research Quarterly (formerly Western Political Quarterly). As the chair of the Department of Political Science at the University of Utah for the past seven years, I was aware of the spe cial relationship between the University of Utah and the WPSA. Recently, I found some of the original documents related to the founding of the association and the journal, and this brief essay presents them to the membership. The WPSA was born at a meeting held on November 29, 1947, in the Little Theater in the old Union Building at the University of Utah. Actually, the idea was discussed at the Statler Hotel in Chicago the previous December during the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association. Vigor ous discussions between University of Utah professor G. Homer Durham and University of Wyoming professor Vincent Ostrom were held at the APSA meeting about establishing such an organization. Also engaged in those discussions were Frank H. Jonas, Utah State Agricultural College and later the University of Utah, and Stanford University's Charles Fairman. Later, the University of Washington's Thomas I. Cook and Whitman College's Chester C. Maxey joined in the efforts. On January 6,1947, Professor Durham wrote to Professor Cook about how to establish such a group and copied the American Political Science Association. Letters were sent to other faculty in the west with an interest in such an organization. By the end of January 1947, the president of the American Political Science Association had written back wishing the venture well. On April 5,1947, the president of the University of Utah, A. Ray Olpin, authorized the use of university facilities to hold a meeting to establish a political science associa tion in the west. The meeting was held in November at the University of Utah, a draft constitution was adopted, and officers were elected. Among the institutions repre sented at this first business meeting were the University of Utah, Stanford University, San Francisco State University, Fresno State University, University of New Mexico, University of Colorado, University of Puget Sound, University of Denver, University of Arizona, University of Oregon, Carbon College, University of Wyoming, University of Hawaii, Idaho State University, Brigham Young University, and Utah State Agricultural College. On December 29, the American Political Science Association formally accepted the Western Political Science Association as a regional group. The Western was the second such regional association rec ognized by the APSA, even though it was preceded in terms of organization by the Southern Association, the oldest of the regional political science associations; the Midwest Conference; and the Southwestern Social Science Association. The first officers of the WPSA were G. Homer Durham (Utah), president; Vincent Ostrom (Wyoming), vice president; and Frank L. Jonas (Utah), secretary-treasurer. The first program of the WPSA meeting in 1947 fea tured a symposium on the Objectives of U.S. Foreign Policy that included a paper on U.S. Objectives in the Middle East. Following a luncheon address by Charles Fairman (Stanford University and APSA vice president), an afternoon session was held on Current Develop ments in Local Government. A roundtable on Politics and Public Policy closed the meeting. Along with approving a draft constitution submitted by Professor Durham, the meeting also approved the statement of purpose of the WPSA: to promote the study and teach ing of government, to foster research, to facilitate the discussion of public affairs, and, as a section thereof, to conform to the objectives of the American Political Science Association. On January 13, 1948, the University of Utah's President Olpin provided funds and authorized the Institute of Government in the Department of