American Politics and Political Science in an Era of Growing Racial Diversity and Economic Disparity

Abstract

Political science should play a larger role in grappling with the political roots, meanings, and implications of the various levels and unique configurations of class inequality and racial diversity that have characterized the last several decades of U.S. history. I offer some observations about the discipline’s research, or lack thereof, and indicate suggestions about how we might think about and do more in these respects.I will come at these concerns by noting some developments that influenced the present in social and political terms and other events in political science; identifying intellectual guideposts that may help how we think about research issues of our day; considering why race and class are not studied (more); acknowledging how the questions have been studied, as well as noting some reservations about these; and providing several examples from the research in which I have been involved, both directly and indirectly, that suggest how we might or can study these questions.