Global Political Science versus Critical Political Science

Abstract

Given that critical reflection on politics is a core mission of political science, we might expect the geographic expansion of the discipline to bring a wave of critical consciousness of public affairs across the world. A tension has emerged, though, between a political science that is global and one that is critical. Sources of that tension lie in a universalizing tendency within the discipline, which squeezes out local conversations, and in the standardization of academic criteria that encourages faculty to engage external, "global" discussions rather than local ones. Political science knowledge, however critical in spirit, can end up disconnected from local engagement. The particular sort of global political science that has been created gives universities, departments, and faculty members reason to spread political science in a way that limits it as a mode of engaged inquiry. We should think carefully about how we can retain political science's critical edge as the profession globalizes.