Showing papers by "Giovanni Sartori published in 2004"

Where is Political Science Going

Abstract: Political science, as we currently understand the label, was born, in Western Europe, in the early Fifties. One may say that it was “reborn”; but that would be inaccurate, for in the nineteenth century and until World War Two the label indicated a captive discipline largely dominated by juridical or historical approaches (as in the case, e.g., of Gaetano Mosca). So political science had a new start and became a field of inquiry in its own right about half a century ago. I was, at the time, one of its founders (with Stein Rokkan, Juan Linz, Mattei Dogan, Hans Daalder, Erik Allardt, S. N. Eisenstadt, and others. See: Comparative European Politics: The Story of a Profession, edited by H. Daalder, 1997). I am thus one of the witnesses of what the “young turks” of the time had in mind, of how we conceived and promoted political science. I am now an “ancient sage” and it now pleases me to reflect, some fifty years later, on where political science has gone and on whether it has taken the right course, the course that I had wished for and expected. Thus to ask today, in the middle of Mitteleuropa, where political science has been heading is also to ask whether the new beginnings of the discipline in Eastern Europe should or should not follow the path entered by our “big brother,” I mean, by American-type political science. I too have been somewhat swallowed by our big brother (to be sure, a benevolent and well meaning one) in the sense that I have been teaching in the United States for some thirty years. Let me add that I have largely benefited from my American exposure. Yet I have always resisted and still resist the American influence. And I take this occasion to say why I am unhappy about the American molding of present day political science.

Hacia dónde va la ciencia política

Abstract: LJa ciencia politica, segun entendemos actualmente el termino, nacio en Europa Occidental a principios de la decada de 1950. Se podria decir que "renacio", f)ero eso no seria del todo preciso, porque en el siglo xix y hasta la Segunda Guerra Mundial, dicha etiqueta senalo una disciplina cautiva dominada, en gran medida, por los enfoques juridicos o historicos (como en el caso, por ejemplo, de Gaetano Mosca). De este modo, la ciencia politica tuvo un nuevo comienzo y se convirtio en un campo de investigacion por derecho propio mas o menos hace medio siglo. En ese tiempo, yo fui uno de sus fundadores (junto con Stein Rokkan, Juan Linz, Mattei Dogan, Hans Daalder, Eric Allardt, S. N. Eisenstadt y otros. Vease Comparative European Politics: The Story ofa ProJession, editado por H. Daalder, 1997). Soy, por lo tanto, uno de los testigos de lo que los "jovenes turcos" de ese entonces tenian en mente, de como concebimos y promovimos la ciencia politica. Ahora soy un "viejo sabio" y me da gusto reflexionar, unos cincuenta anos despues, respecto a donde ha ido la ciencia politica y si ha seguido el camino correcto, el que yo hubiera deseado y esperado. Asi, preguntar hoy dia hacia donde se ha estado dirigiendo la ciencia politica es tambien preguntar si los nuevos comienzos de la disciplina en Europa Oriental debieron o no seguir el camino andado por nuestro "gran hermano", y me refiero a la ciencia politica americana. A mi tambien me ha absorbido de alguna manera nuestro gran hermano (ciertamente, benevolo y bien intencionado) pues tengo unos treinta anos de dar clases en Estados Unidos. Permitaseme anadir que yo me he beneficiado bastante de mi contacto con Esta-