Report of the Committee on Policy of the American Political Science Association for the Year 1932

Abstract

The work of the Association's Committee on Policy in 1932 covered, on the whole, an even wider sphere than in 1931. 1. Subcommittee on Publications. This subcommittee has been practically quiescent since the annual meeting of last year. The experiment of publishing the REVIEW as a bimonthly, facilitated by a contribution of $600 by the Committee on Policy, has been carried on, and is referred to more at length in the report of the managing editor submitted to the Executive Council and the Association. The Committee has provided for the continuation of this subsidy in 1933. A publication outlet for brief popular discussion of current political topics has been found in the reprints of radio addresses published by the University of Chicago Press. It is impossible, of course, altogether to reconcile the requirements of a radio address and those of publications of permanent value. To a surprising extent, however, good radio speeches have turned out to be valuable in printed form. Up to the present time, 30 of these addresses are available in print. By the end of the current academic year, there will be 54 of them. It is earnestly recommended that the subcommittee on publications consider these radio addresses with a view to their improvement as publications and their use as supplementary reading in high school and college classes. 2. Subcommittee on Personnel. The work of this subcommittee has been divided into three parts. (a) The Placement Service. This was taken advantage of by more than one hundred young political scientists during the past year. The subcommittee his recommended the transfer of the service to the office of the secretary-treasurer, and that a fee be charged those enrolling in it; and at the meeting of the Committee on Policy on December 27, provision was made that the service be so transferred, at a date to be agreed upon by Professors Anderson and King. The proposal of a registration fee was not endorsed, but hereafter the service is to be confined strictly to persons who are members of the Association. (b) The Project for a Comprehensive Study of Training for the Public Service. The subcommittee planned very carefully an outline of such a study, with a budget adequate to carry it out. This was presented to certain foundations, which received the idea sympathetically but were in no position to provide funds for so large a study at this time. With the approval of the full committee, the subcommittee has decided that, rather