The Place of Political Philosophy within Political Science: Results of a Global Expert Survey

A large body of literature (see e. g. Shapiro 2005, Gunnell 2010, Kasza 2010, Elkins 2014, Dowding 2020) indicates a growing gap between the disciplines of political philosophy and political science. The lack of cooperation and knowledge transfer among both disciplines yields serious consequences for research on politics and its social and scientific relevance. While political science faces criticism for the lack of theoretical guidance and futility of part of its research, political philosophy, on other hand, is being called out for lack of interest in the empirical world, self-absorption, and inner sectarianism. The normative and evaluative nature of political philosophy can be perceived as inherently problematic for the (alleged) norm-neutrality declared by contemporary political science. Subsequently, many authors identify the prevalence of positivism, fragmentalization, and over-specialization of research together with the intellectual self-isolation of political philosophers as the main causes of the growing disjunction between both disciplines. Despite the fact that this issue has been addressed widely in the literature, complex empirical evidence on the relationship between both disciplines is missing (exception is Moore 2010, however, the survey is concerned with the American environment exclusively and addresses solely views of the political theorists). Hence, this paper aims to present data from an original global expert survey conducted in fall 2019/spring 2020 among political philosophers and political scientists on the matter of the relationship between political philosophy and political science. In sum, 7008 scholars from the global 200 top-ranked (by QS ranking) departments of political science were approached and 737 responses (out of them 542 fully completed) were collected. The general aim of the survey was to map the opinions of political scientists and political philosophers on the place of political philosophy within political science as well as mutual relevance and research cross-fertilization between both disciplines. The focus of the survey is furthermore dedicated to the problem of marginalization of political philosophy and its representation in political science journals, conferences, departments, and teaching practices. The survey also examines the opinions of political scientists and political philosophers on the causes of the discrepancy between both disciplines as well as their methodological preferences and epistemological stances.