Michigan State University Extension
Diversity and Pluralism - 02080014
12/95/
ERIC TITLE NUMBER: ED159124 AUTHOR: Ladd, Everett Carll, Jr.; Lipset, Seymour Martin
TITLE: US Revisited. A Survey Portrait of the American
Political Science Community.
YEAR PUBLISHED: 1978
NOTE: 142 p.; Paper presented at Annual Meeting of the
American Political Science Association (New York, New York,
August 31-September 3, 1978)
ABSTRACT: This paper describes the political science
community in the United States, namely, its faculty,
graduate students, and undergraduate majors. The study is
based on six national surveys conducted by the Carnegie
Council in 1969 and 1975. Part one, "Professional Status,"
points out that the economic position of political science
faculty has deteriorated relative to professors in other
disciplines since 1969. Political scientists are now among
the lowest paid academic scientists. Furthermore, the
disciplines are no longer attracting especially able
students, partially a result of a poor job market. The
doubts of political scientists about disciplinary
performance is discussed in Part two, "Academic
Assessments." Faculty point out grade inflation and
students point out declining classroom relevance. Part
three, "Educational Standards and Sociopolitical
Perspectives," examines the changing sociopolitical views
of faculty and students revealing a stable conservative
shift. The final section reports on demographic features of
the profession. It is overwhelmingly white, male, and
middle class. Affirmative action appears to have had little
impact on the composition of the graduate student and
faculty populations within political science. Overall the
data presented in the report leave one with the sense that
political science is a discipline in decline. A substantial
portion of the data is presented in 58 tables and 14
graphs. (Author/BC)
KEY DESCRIPTORS: Comparative-Analysis; Demography-;
Economic Status; Educational-Trends; Graduate-Students;
Graphs-; Higher-Education; Intellectual-Disciplines;
Political Attitudes; Professors-; Student-Evaluation;
Tables-Data
KEY DESCRIPTORS: *Academic-Standards; *College-Faculty;
*Educational-Assessment; *National-Surveys; *Political
Science; *Student-Characteristics
This is an ERIC database document. ERIC is the National
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following ERIC TITLE NUMBER indicates an ERIC document,
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floor of the west wing. All you need is the six digit ED
number. If EJ follows ERIC TITLE NUMBER the item is a
journal article. The complete journal name is listed after
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