It is a monumental showcase for monumental politics: The American Political Science Association (APSA) announced yesterday that this year’s convention will be “the world’s largest gathering of political scientists.”
Is it one for the Guinness Book? Perhaps.
A whopping 7,000 analysts, historians, scholars, authors, pollsters, military officers, pundits, students and assorted experts from 52 countries will gather to take in more than 900 symposiums, 200 exhibits, 100 receptions and 20 educational courses in Chicago next week. They will schmooze with 150 political science publishers, and perhaps dally at cocktail parties hosted by the New York Times, Harvard University and dozens of other high-profile hosts — plus one “graduate student” happy hour.
It will not be an assembly of shuffling academes rehashing whether Dewey defeated Truman in the 1948 presidential election.
“This is political science and beyond, which means making contact with other disciplines. We have 300 participants coming in from 30 fields outside political science,” said APSA president Robert Axelrod yesterday.
Those disciplines include zoology, publishing, social dynamics, religion, law, cyberspace, foreign policy, terrorism, sex and racial issues, publicity, security and defense. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is sending representatives, along with such groups as Christians in Political Science, the French Politics Group, the Claremont Institute, the Latino Caucus in Political Science, and the Committee on the Status of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and the Transgendered in the Profession.
“The meeting has grown dramatically, because political science has expanded dramatically. Politics itself is full of complex questions, which simple horse-race politics aren’t going to answer,” said APSA spokesman Bahram Rajaee.
“But there’s still room for the wisdom of what has come before, including the number-crunching of the old school,” Mr. Rajaee added.
Indeed, old and new worlds may clash when the meeting begins next Thursday.
There are round-table discussions on Aristotle, Machiavelli, traditional demographics and legislative rhetoric — along with intense forays into computer-generated displays, blogging, Facebook politics and pitching reference-book ideas to appropriate publishers.
A pending identity crisis may be looming for the nation’s political scientists, who seem bent on introspection as well. Scholars from Yale, Stanford and Columbia universities will debate “whether or not political science in America is too parochial,” according to program highlights.
Another symposium will focus on the topic “This is Not Your Father’s Negative Campaigning: Analyses of How Visual Content is Leading Mainstream Media and Elections into Uncharted Territory.”
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