ABSTRACT
Chapter 3, titled ‘On the Track of the Dominant Western Template’, traces the major sources and evolution of the dominant western template of social sciences not just for its own sake but to nurture a more difficult aim of exploring the potential of non-western sources and modes of negotiation to offer alternative template(s). It begins with an analysis of Immanuel Wallerstein’s writings on the template question, highlighting the merits and constraints of the same to search for a roadmap and uncover how Wallerstein in a self-critical vein has succeeded in intensifying the existing debates on the twists and turns of the western template.
The section ‘Political Science’ in this chapter delves in a matter-of-fact manner into the state of affairs of the discipline with the foundational question of (ir)relevance. It chooses the discipline from among sister social science disciplines not just because of the author’s direct experience and intimate understanding of it but also because of its ‘special responsibility’, having power as its core concept, in providing direct and deeper explanation of the dialectic of depoliticisation and repoliticisation. The analysis in this section hinges on three core sectors: policy relevance, methodology and teaching-research linkage. Accordingly, it scrupulously explores the factors responsible for the ‘detachment’ of political scientists from the policymaking corridor, the prime sources and key manifestations of the methodological tensions and strains in the discipline and skewed teaching-research engagement to reveal why the discipline lags behind in living up to its promise. The section scans the contemporary discourse of the discipline with special reference to some of the leading political scientists to understand what went wrong and how to resuscitate it from being irrelevant.
