Liberal Democracy and Political Science (The Johns Hopkins Series in Constitutional Thought) - Softcover

"A welcome candidate for a prospective list of texts for introductory courses in American politics and political theory."

(Avery Leiserson Journal of Politics)

"An illuminating and forceful defense of Tocquevillian or traditional political science against its two contenders within the profession, a scientific political science increasingly equated with rational choice theory and an activist moralistic political science, which Ceaser terms the 'new normativism.'."

(Review of Politics)

Do political scientists in a liberal democracy bear a special responsibility that goes beyond their academic pursuits? Ceaser, a scholar of American political parties, argues that they do, and he challenges colleagues and students to reexamine what they do as political scientists. He observes that liberal democracy is a compound of two elements not easily wed: constitutionalism and republicanism. The role of political science is to perform the "superintendent" function of keeping these parts together.