Thomas Heilke

Realism, narrative, and happenstance: Thucydides' tale of Brasidas

Neorealism and some versions of realism seek to furnish nomothetic theories of the international system at the same time that they also strive to prescribe policy for political leaders. Insofar as practical advice is insufficiently articulated by means of either nomothesis or the structural theoretical framework that (neo-)realist paradigms supply, these two aspirations seem contradictory. This essay is an examination of what contemporary realism and, especially, neorealism require to make practical wisdom available for practitioners. It argues that narrative, which is exemplified in the so-called classical realism of Thucydides, remains a crucial component of practical realism and neorealism.

The Changing Readability of Introductory Political Science Textbooks: A Case Study of Burns and Peltason, Government by the People

It has been standard wisdom among academic professionals for several decades that educational standards in post-secondary institutions are declining: grade inflation, fewer written assignments, and less demanding syllabi are aspects of the typical complaint. Students, too, have come in for questioning. Their preparation for college work on a number of levels has been found wanting. At the post-secondary level, however, a gap remains in the literature of our discipline: what about the curriculum? Most of the attention to this question has been directed at the technicalities of teaching theory and empirical knowledge (Cushman 1993; Jordan and Sanchez 1994; Luna and McKenzie 1997; Opheim and Stouffer 1997). However, the substance of the curriculum itself—the textbooks that most of us use at least in our introductory-level courses—have not received a full examination. From the past 15 years, several articles have been published in this journal on various aspects of textbooks as teaching tools, including their prejudices, their effectiveness, or their ideological content (Goldstein 1985; Sanchez 1996); there has also been a puzzling lacuna. There is a quiet but oft-repeated suspicion in the profession that textbooks are not what they used to be—they do not have as much substantive or theoretical content, they are increasingly video-driven, and less space is dedicated to argument and information. We found nothing from the most recent 15-year period of PS publications that remotely addresses this question. Given common perceptions—correct or not—about the deterioration of student ability (and there are articles in recent issues of this journal about that topic), it is remarkable that textbooks have not been subjected to a parallel scrutiny within our profession. There are many reasons to consider the change in quality of textbooks over time: they are a core part of our instructional resources; writing them is frequently considered a part of our “research” activity; and, they are a primary way of introducing students (including potential members of our profession) to the discipline of political science. While there are many ways to measure change, we limit our focus in this preliminary study to the accessibility of written materials, to the increase or decrease in the readability of introductory texts over the past several decades. Readability is one measure of accessibility, making it a key factor in communicating ideas and ultimately in teaching political science.

Theological and Secular Meta-Narratives of Politics: Anabaptist Origins Revisited (Again)

Until recently, scholars both friendly and hostile to Anabaptism have agreed that its origins and development to the present time could be rendered in a coherent, continuous narrative, making Anabaptist identity relatively unproblematic. This consensus has broken down. The present essay seeks to show how newer, ostensibly “objective” social-science accounts of Anabaptism in fact offer a secular counter-narrative to the Anabaptists’ accounts of their own activity. This seemingly confined dispute over Anabaptist origins and identity leads to a wider consideration of the significance of both Christian and social-scientific uses of meta-narratives or “narrative bases” in political and ethical reflection.