Acceso usuarios
Kari Palonen
A parliamentary perspective on the politics of the academicpolitical science connects my former interest in the history ofthe discipline with parliamentary studies. This article continuesthe discussion in a previous article of mine on the GermanBundestag.1The conceptual point lies in a mutual suspicionbetween parliamentarians and academics regarding politics. Inthis present study I analyse Westminster debates on the conceptof‘political science’. Possible similarities between British and(West-)German debates appear in how this applies to academicauthorities, in the increasing number of parliamentarians havingstudied political science at university, as well as in the distancetowards academic political scientists. However, in theBundestagpolitical science is understood in academic and disciplinaryterms and references to it serve for the members’politicking. InWestminster a concept of political science frequently refers to aintellectual tradition persisting also in the late twentieth centuryand it emphasizes analysing political changes as challenged topolitical science.
