ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the issues of society and politics that affect the professions and society at large. It provides the political issues: the American legacy; dissent in academia; prevalent beliefs and values; ideology and politics; ideology revisited; politics and science; scholarship and the establishment. Government and corporate intrusion into academic and cultural life has been pervasive. Students are exposed to the ideology and mystique that pervade the relationship of political science and economics to university professors, government officials, business interests, and the military. The prevailing ideology in American political science drew on a "civic culture" in Anglo-American society and pluralism in the U. S. democratic process. Progressive and concerned scholars and students have reassessed these positions, challenged the ruling professional power structure, promoted a sense of ethics in scholarship and teaching, and exposed government penetration and control of much academic research and publication and the implications thereof for comparative inquiry.
