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The Role of Political Science and Political Scientists in Civic Education

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The Role of Political Science and Political Scientists in Civic Education The Role of Political Science and Political Scientists in Civic Education By James W. Ceaser An essay for the series “The Professions and Civic Culture” AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE The Role of Political Science and Political Scientists in Civic Education By James W. Ceaser An essay for the series “The Professions and Civic Culture” August 2013 AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE This essay is part of a series exploring the role of professions in a modern, liberal democratic society and their effect on the civic culture of the nation. The other papers include: • Education for Liberty? The Shortcomings of Contemporary Civic Education Theories, Rita Koganzon • Economists and Res Publica: The Virtues and Limits of Economic Analysis, Steven E. Rhoads • Music and Civic Life in America, David Tucker and Nathan Tucker • The Literary Professsion and Civic Culture, Paul A. Cantor • The Future of Journalism and Citizenship, Christopher Caldwell To read the other papers in this series, or for more information about AEI’s Program on American Citizenship, visit www.citizenship-aei.org. The Role of Political Science and Political Scientists in Civic Education By James W. Ceaser Civic education in America today is widely said to be in and Aristotle, who launched the first investigations into trouble. Whether the concern is primary and secondary the full range of political phenomena. The practical sub- education (K–12), where national civics tests show that ject matter of political science for Aristotle has aptly been only a quarter of 12th graders score at a level considered characterized as “knowledge of the varieties of regimes and proficient; higher education, where requirements in core of the things that create, support, preserve and destroy American history and government courses are being rap- them.”3 For the classical thinkers, this empirical focus idly abandoned; or adult education for immigrants, where went together with a more speculative and normative communities and businesses have fallen woefully short in inquiry, known as political philosophy, that considered providing English language and civics instruction, all signs the nature of political things and the standards for judging point to a failure in imparting the basic knowledge that better and worse regimes. contributes to good citizenship.1 Citing these facts about the origin of political science We cannot say for sure if things have gotten worse is of more than an antiquarian interest. It is a reminder than they were in the past, but leaders and educators that a continuing body of thought in the West has helped today are certainly worried. As former Supreme Court some to analyze and understand political affairs and Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, now active in promoting influenced how people conceive of the world of politics. civic education, recently noted, “We have a terrible prob- Much of the terminology used in analyzing politics has lem on our hands.”2 been either defined or refined by political science, and the Although not alone in expressing alarm, members of discipline has helped to focus inquiry on the purposes and one profession can perhaps lay special claim to a propri- ends of political life. etary interest in this problem: political scientists. Practi- Today, most in America probably associate political tioners of political science in ancient Greece first identified science with the organized profession found in depart- the concept of civic education, and political scientists to ments in universities and colleges. But long before these this day continue to produce some of the most significant institutional embodiments, many notable thinkers, such commentary and scholarship on the subject. as Montesquieu, David Hume, and Alexis de Tocqueville, In studying a major area of public policy, analysts were consciously adapting, revising, and developing the sometimes examine the set of relations that exist among a science of politics. body of knowledge, an organization, and the provision of No nation owes more to political science than does a key social function. Applying this model to the case at the United States. Some of the nation’s most influential hand, this essay will look at the discipline of political sci- founders took their intellectual bearings from the dis- ence, the profession of political science, and the provision cipline. James Madison and Alexander Hamilton refer of civic education. Each term, though familiar, needs to explicitly to “political science” or “the science of politics” be considered more carefully. in The Federalist, while John Adams celebrated “the divine science of politics.”4 These men relied extensively on political science in crafting America’s form of government, The Discipline of Political Science and all of them are now counted as major contributors to the development of the discipline. Political science is the oldest of the social sciences, dating By the same token, political science is deeply back to classical Greek philosophy, in particular to Plato indebted to America for both its prestige and influence. 1 As the early American historian David Ramsay observed, consider that part of their purpose is to provide civic edu- the United States had placed the “science of politics on cation. Yet many of those who teach these courses do not a footing with other sciences, by opening it to improve- share this assumption, and some would reject the notion ments by experience, and the discoveries of the future.”5 that political science should play any role in this task. Political science has had a special relationship with Political science was developed in the Greek city- civic education. The connection between them flows state. Aristotle was well aware of other forms of political almost directly from Aristotle’s definition of political or social organization, such as the tribe or the empire, science. In enumerating the factors that “support and but he focused on the city-state, which was the form his preserve regimes,” Aristotle immediately singled out edu- fellow Greeks knew best and which he thought promoted cation: “the greatest of all things that have been mentioned the highest possibilities of both self-rule and just rule. with a view to making regimes lasting—though it is now His most extended treatment of civic education was on slighted by all—is education relative to the regime.”6 regimes having a republican element, where a substantial Political science was thereby invited to consider the number of citizens actively participated. proper kind of education for each regime type, a task that Civic education in republican regimes was a crucial involved designing the ends or objectives of an educational aid to preparing people for citizenship. Montesquieu, program, for whom it was intended, and how and at what whose systematic treatment built on Aristotle’s analysis, stages of an individual’s development its teachings would stated this point best: “It is in republican government be presented. Aristotle began to carry out this task in The that the full power of education is needed.”7 “Need” Politics, and others later took up parts of the assignment, notwithstanding, most republican regimes failed to including Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Montesquieu, attend adequately to the matter, which was a source and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Some of America’s founders, of their weakness. Sparta was the great exception, and including Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas thinkers from Plutarch to Rousseau celebrated it for its Jefferson, and Benjamin Rush, also added noteworthy comprehensive education plan. Aristotle also admired the reflections, although as acting statesmen they practiced attention Sparta gave to education, though he believed its “applied” political science, focusing on the kind of civic system needed certain corrections. education appropriate to the new American republic. Other regime types have different goals for edu- cation. In tyrannies or despotisms, for example, civic education, as described by Montesquieu, looks to be No nation owes more to political almost a “noneducation” that aims at inculcating fear and discouraging citizens from involvement in political science than does the United States. affairs. Modern totalitarian systems have had a Janus-faced approach to civic education, acting like despotisms by To avoid getting twisted in words, a clarification is teaching obedience to the state while often promoting needed at the outset. The discipline of political science intense ideological indoctrination. studies the properties and objectives of civic education. It As a result of the analysis of classical political science, does not follow, however, that political science itself is part the “model” of civic education came to be associated of the content of civic education (or, if it is, that it should with the idea of republican government. The connection be included at every level of instruction). The place of between civic education and republicanism was strength- political science within civic education is therefore a mat- ened when those who founded modern liberal democ- ter to be investigated. racies, beginning with the founders of the United States, This clarification is needed because in higher often chose to designate them as “republics.” education in America today courses on government and Despite some similarities between ancient and mod- politics are usually offered under the label of political ern republics, the two are obviously distinct regimes. And science. Many from outside the universities expect that even though this was well known, the use of the common the instructors in certain of these courses, in particular an name “republic” has had an effect. Thinkers who sought introductory course in American government, consciously to revive the concept of civic education for modern 2 republics were able, when they wished, to invoke themes contains a major theme of classical political science. of ancient republicanism to bolster an argument. This Political systems are never in perfect equilibrium; influence also operated unconsciously, as the republican they generate effects harmful to their preservation model structured the categories of thought about civic and well-being—hence the need for continual adjust- education.
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