Science of the State

The Science of the State: Race, Class, and National Identity in US Political Science, 1835-1945 traces the origins of US political science as it emerged from the Staatwissenschaft paradigm of post-Hegelian nineteenth century Germany, particularly through the influence of Johann Caspar Bluntschli, Wilhelm G. F. Roscher, and Ludwig von Gumplowicz. The US science of the state emphasized three concepts – race, class, and national identity – which generated two competing theories of the state: a metaphysical theory of the state anchored in the concept of race, and an economic theory of the state anchored in the concept of class. By the 1920s, a new sociological theory of the state laid the foundations for a paradigm shift from the science of the state to pluralism in US political science. The author suggests that the origins of US political science structured its development as a dialectical conflict between the official discipline’s ideological defense of economic and racial inequality and a critical political science, which challenged the structural inequalities of US capitalism and liberal democracy.