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TIS PAPER ATTEMPTS FIVE GOALS:TO DESCRIBE AND ILLUSTRATE THE USE OF FORMAL METHODS OF POLITICAL BEHAVIOR; TO EXPLAIN WHY SOME USE MODELS IN RESEARCH; TO IDENTIFY SUBFIELDS IN WHICH MODELS EXIST AND SUGGEST OTHERS WHERE MODELS SHOULD EXIST; TO DISCUSS VARIOUS TYPES OF EXISTING MODELS; AND, TO OFFER SOME CRITICAL STANDARDS ACCORDING TO WHICH RESEARCH WHICH INVOLVES MODELS CAN BE JUDGED.

AT THE 1980 AMERICAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION MEETING IN WASHINGTON, A NEW ASSOCIATION DEDICATED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF AN INTEGRATED BIOSOCIAL PERSPECTIVE IN THE POLITICAL SCIENCES WAS FORMED, THE ASSOCIATION FOR POLITICS AND THE LIFE SCIENCES. THIS ARTICLE REVIEWS THE HISTORY AND RATIONALE BEHIND THIS INTELLECTUAL ACTIVITY AND SOME OF OBJECTIVES OF THE ASSOCIATION.

Should political science be publicly relevant? Instead of furnishing a direct answer, I propose to complicate the question. Yet in doing so, I will indicate an answer. And the answer is yes, political science should be publicly relevant – but not in any simple sense, since 'political science', 'should' and indeed 'publicly relevant' are less straightforward than they might seem. In what follows I will first complicate the questions posed to political science. I will proceed to reflect on the connection between publication – one of the central activities of all science, including political science – and publicity. I will then briefly tell a story about the journal that I edit, Perspectives on Politics, and the distinctive mission of this journal, which is to serve as 'a political science public sphere'. I will conclude with some brief reflections on the best ways of thinking about how political science can and should be 'publicly relevant'.

Political behavior research has delivered less than the "behavioral revolution" seemed originally to promise. A survey of recent work suggests that the reason is not its epistemological premises (which are accepted here) or its methodology, but (1) its unsystematic, atheoretical character and limited range of research topics, and (2) the erroneous conception of human nature on which research rests. Compared with either the established principles of modern biobehavioral science or the conceptions of human problems of earlier political science, political behavior research remains "pre-behavioral."To progress beyond this stage, political scientists must recognize and apply the basic knowledge about human behavior provided by the biobehavioral sciences. Two brief examples of such application are given: how ethological knowledge can supply a needed theoretical perspective for identifying political behavior problems worth studying; and how neurophysiological knowledge, particularly psychophysiology and psychophysics, can correct mistaken conceptions of the relationship between political attitudes, political words, and political actions.

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Confusion reigns almost supreme in the field of political science, particularly when the meaning of terms is involved. Some of our most commonly used words have so many meanings, shades of meaning, and connotations that hearers and readers are frequently at a loss as to the meaning and significance of terms used unless the speaker or writer defines them as he uses them. A cursory examination of the term "state" brought to light no fewer than one hundred forty-five different definitions, even though only a few writers were included who might be classed as radical. Less than half of the definitions were in general agreement. Even this statement is based on the assumption that when the same words were used by two writers they were used to mean the same thing; and I doubt whether the assumption is entirely justifiable. Furthermore, "state" is not the only term in political science which is defined in multifold ways. A similar situation was found when others, especially "law," "government," "political," "administration," were investigated.The process of communication between political scientists, as well as between these scientists and laymen or between laymen and laymen, comes to be a guessing game. Consciously or unconsciously, it is suggested, we are spending much of our time guessing what the sender means when he uses even technical words.

Prof Christian Schuster's Inaugural Lecture.

Good governance is essential, but governance reforms in the global south often fail. This lecture asks why. One increasingly popular view is that the strategy adopted by international development organisations – which focuses on advancing 'global best practice' laws – is fundamentally flawed and that solutions need to be home-grown. This lecture challenges that perspective.

The Major Brent Taylor Foundation Gala The opening reception for the Brent Taylor Leadership Legacy Gala was held on Saturday, November 6, 2021. Among the honored scholarship attendees were three BYU students: Kray Jubeck and Zeke Peters (recipients this year), and Harrison Mayer (last year). Each recipient (and his wife) stood next to a large […]

Sir David Omand, former Director of GCHQ, and later Security and Intelligence Co-ordinator in the Cabinet Office, has just published How Spies Think: Ten Lessons in Intelligence.

China regards the island of Taiwan as a breakaway province; Taiwan's leaders say it is an independent state. As China rises to superpower status, it has shown greater interest in reclaiming territory long regarded as its own, in the South China Sea, along the Himalayan border – and in Taiwan. The growing tensions could drag the US into the fray. To discuss the implications for security, peace and the people of Taiwan, we have three distinguished experts: Prof Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute; Susan Thornton, a retired senior US diplomat and Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution; and Dr Chun-Yi Lee, director of the Taiwan Studies programme at the University of Nottingham.

Jack Straw was Foreign Secretary in the Blair government from 2001 to 2006. His five years at the Foreign Office saw him grappling with every conflict zone from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, the accession of ten new states to the EU, the failed accession bid from Turkey, the bombing of the Twin Towers on 9/11, and the Allied invasion of Iraq, led by the United States. At this seminar he will reflect on the role of Foreign Secretary with Sir David Manning, foreign policy adviser to Tony Blair from 2001 to 2003, and at the time of the invasion of Iraq, British Ambassador to the US.

How can we design our institutions to protect the interests of future generations?