Politics as a university discipline and political education in schools *

Forty years ago Ernest Barker in his inaugural lecture at Cambridge described Political Science as ‘certainly nebulous, probably dubious and possibly disputatious’ ⁽¹⁾ . The struggle by political scientists to give their subject both clearer definition and greater respectability has met with considerable success in recent years. The consequent blossoming of university departments of Political Science (or Politics or Government) has been a notable academic achievement. Vagueness, doubt and dispute still restrain the subject, though one cannot question that the break-through has now been achieved. Even as late as 1954, Professor Robson stated that Oxford, London and Manchester were the only universities with flourishing courses ⁽²⁾ . A variety of evidence reveals how the position has been transformed in the 1960s. One indicator is the number of senior university appointments in the fields of Politics and International Relations. The number of Chairs in English and Welsh universities in 1948 was 10; there were still only 16 in 1960; while in 1966 the number had risen to 38 ⁽³⁾ . The availability of courses was revealed by a survey conducted by Dr. Nettl (1964) based on questionnaires completed by 27 U.K. universities. He calculated that:

roughly 26 per cent (7 of the 27 universities) offered a politics special Honours degree, 37 per cent (10 of the 27) a combined Honours degree only, and 37 per cent (10 of the 27) offered politics specialisation within a social science or economics degree. ⁽⁴⁾