POLITICAL SCIENCE is a well-recognized and widely established academic discipline, whose focus is primarily on public government and politics. This summary statement, however, masks a wide array of institutional and intellectual diversity.

政治学是一门公认的，广泛建立的学科，其重点主要是关注公共事务的政府和政治。然而，这种概要的陈述掩盖了大量的机构和知识的多样性。

Political science is closely related in both origins and present concerns to a number of other disciplines. The kinds of questions that are addressed by political scientists seeking knowledge about political processes, behavior, institutions, functions, and ideas usually overlap the concerns of individuals who are specialists in other academic disciplines.

政治学在起源和当下的关注方面都与一些其它的学科密切相关。政治学者在寻求政治过程、行为、制度、功能和观念时所提出的各种问题通常与其它学科的专家个人的关注相重叠。

The Concerns of Political Science.  Nevertheless, systematic concern with political phenomena in the Western world for roughly the last 25 centuries has centered on public governments and politics, and political science in the United States in the late 20^th century maintains this central concern. The American political scientist Austin Ranney links the two concepts completely when he defines government as “a body of people and institutions that make and enforce laws for a particular society” as well as when he defines politics as “the process of making government policies.”

对政治学的关注。然而，在过去的大约25个世纪中，西方世界对政治现象的系统关注都集中在公共事务的政府和政治方面，而美国在20世纪末的政治学保持了这个中心关注。美国政治学者奥斯汀·兰尼将两个概念完全连接起来，当时他将政府定义为“为特定社会制定和执行法律的一群人和机构”，他还将政治定义为“制定政府政策的过程”。

Political scientists often use broader definitions of politics that move the scope of inquiry beyond the confines of established governments. American political scientist Harold Lasswell, for example, asserts that “the study of politics is the study of influence and the influential.” The Canadian-American political scientist David Easton elaborates by saying that “political life concerns all those varieties of activity that influence significantly the kind of authoritative policy adopted for a society and the way it is put into practice.” His phrase “the authoritative allocation of values” (he uses “values” as a synonym for “social policy”) is widely accepted as a shorthand description of the central concerns of political scientists.

政治学者常常使用更宽泛的政治定义，以至于将调查范围超了出现有的政府限制。例如，美国政治学者哈罗德·拉斯韦尔断言“研究政治就是研究影响力以及有影响力的人”。加拿大裔美国政治学者大卫·伊斯顿详细阐述道“政治生活涉及各种各样的活动，以至于极大影响了社会采用的权威政策和它付诸实施的方式”。他的话语“权威的价值分配”（他使用“价值”作为“社会政策”的同义语）被广泛接受为政治学者中心关注的一种简略描述。

Emanating from these core concerns, however, are a vast and diverse number of specific subjects that have, in fact, been studied by political scientists. Also, for reasons of historical evolution and, more important, because of the widespread application of politics to many areas of human activity, the boundaries of the discipline are always changing and ill defined. This is reflective both of intellectual vigor and of subject matter that is incurably complex. It also reflects a self-conscious concern in the discipline with increasing both the diversity and precision of methods and techniques for acquiring and analyzing knowledge about politics.

然而，从这些核心关注出发，实际上都是政治学者研究过的大量而多样的特定主题。另外，由于历史演变的原因，更重要的是由于政治在许多人类活动领域的广泛应用，该学科的范围总是在变化，而且定义不清。这既反映了智力活力，也反映了过于复杂的主题。随着获取、分析政治知识方法和技巧的多样性和准确性的增加，这也反映了该学科中自我意识的关注。

There is no authoritative listing of all the “subfields” or divisions of political science. Several suggestive lists can be offered, however. For example, at one annual meeting of the American Political Science Association the scholarly portion of the program was organized around the following broad topics: political theory; epistemology and methodology; comparative politics; international relations; political behavior; public policy and political organization; American political institutions; and the judiciary.

政治学的所有“子领域”或分类都没有权威的清单。然而，可以提供几个提示性清单。例如，在美国政治学协会的一届年会上，围绕下列广泛主题组织了项目的学术部分：政治理论；认识论和方法论；比较政治学；国际关系；政治行为；公共政策和政治组织；美国政治制度；以及司法。

Virtually all Ph. D. dissertations written in graduate department of political science in the universities of the United States are put into one of seven categories: political philosophy, theory, and methodology; government and policies of the United Sates; constitutional and administrative law in the United States; American state and local government and politics; public administration; foreign and comparative government and politics; and international organization, politics, and law.  

几乎所有在美国各大学的政治学研究生院撰写的博士论文都可归入七个分类中的一类：政治哲学、理论和方法论；美国政府与政策；美国宪法与行政法；美国的州和地方政府与政治；公共管理；外国政府与比较政府和政治；以及国际组织、政治和法律。

The Purposes of Political Science. Given a somewhat amorphous, permeable discipline that focuses on inherently controversial issues, it is not surprising that the members of the discipline do not agree on all of the purposes of the discipline. Probably all agree that academic political science can help citizens enrich their lives by giving them some training and insight into how to analyze public issues for themselves. There is also widespread agreement that the processes by which public policies are made can receive systematic and meaningful treatment. There is also widespread, although far from universal, agreement that a scientific approach is appropriate to the study of politics, even if a rigorous science modeled on physics or chemistry is not achievable in all details.

政治学的目的。考虑到它是一门集中固有争议性问题、有点不确定、可交叉的学科，该学科的成员不赞同学科的所有目的，也就不意外了。或许人们都会赞同，通过给予他们一些训练以及学会如何让他们自己分析公共问题，学术政治学就可以帮助公民丰富他们的生活。人们也普遍认为，通过制定公共政策的过程可以获得系统而有意义的处理。尽管远非普遍，但人们还普遍认为，科学的方法适用于政治研究，即使是一门以物理学或化学为模型的严谨学科也无法实现所有的细节。

Political science will continue to change and develop. Societal influences will present it with new challenges and will create new debates over its proper sphere of competence and its potential contribution to society and to individuals. The questions that follow suggest some ways in which political science may grow and evolve:

政治学会不断变化和发展。社会影响会给它带来新的挑战，并且会引起超越其适当权限范围及其对社会和个人潜在贡献的新争论。下面的问题提出了政治学可能发展和进化的一些方法：

(1) Can and should political science or parts of political science join with other disciplines in creating a set of policy sciences that are aimed not just at understanding and prediction but at meaningful advice on how to achieve “good” policy?

（1）政治学或政治学的一部分能够并且应该与其它学科一起创建目标不仅仅是理解和预测，而且还能就如何实现“好”政策提供一套有意义建议的政策学？

(2) How far can knowledge be advanced by continuing to develop budding links between political science and such seemingly diverse disciplines as computer science, mathematics, biology, and psychiatry?

（2）通过不断发展在政治学与像计算机科学、数学、生物学和精神病学这些看似不同学科之间的萌芽联系，知识能进步到什么程度？

(3) Can and should political scientists be content with primarily academic careers for themselves? Or do they have skills and training that might serve society even better if larger numbers of them were to seek career opportunities in other areas?

（3）政治学者能够并应该主要满足自己的学术生涯吗？或者，如果他们许多人在其它领域寻求职业生涯的机会，他们拥有的技能和训练能更好地服务社会吗？

(4) In the study of international relations, what are the limits of focusing on nation states as actors? Can transnational (but not explicitly international) phenomena be isolated for study, and what practical effect might such study have on the relationships of peoples as opposed to the relationships of governments?

（4）在国际关系研究中，集中于作为行动体的民族国家的限制是什么？跨国的（但不明确是国际性的）现象能够单独研究吗？而且完全不同于政府关系的这种有关民族的关系会有什么样的实际效果？

(5) What are the ethical bases for policy choices? What can political scientists contribute as trained professionals to ethical debate or discussion?

（5）政策选择的伦理基础是什么？作为训练有素的专业人士，政治学者对伦理争论或讨论能贡献什么？

Political Science in the United States.  Modern American political science has sprung from many roots. It is derivative from a very long and diverse Western tradition. Moreover, scholars receiving at least part of their formal training outside the United States have consistently played important roles in developing the discipline. For example, some of the most important contributors in the mid-20^th century were European scholars driven from Europe by the rise of Hitler in the 1930’s.

美国的政治学。现代的美国政治学源自许多根源。它起源于非常悠久且多样化的西方传统。此外，至少在美国以外接受正规训练的部分学者一直在该学科的发展中发挥着重要作用。例如，20世纪一些最重要的贡献是20世纪30年代由于希特勒的崛起被逐出欧洲的欧洲学者。

American political science is in part also derivative from and interactive with concerns for history, law, economics, philosophy, sociology, and psychology. Modern ties with these disciplines remain, and significant new ties have been developed with statistics, mathematic, computer science, and quantitative geography, as well as with psychiatry.

美国的政治学在某种程度上也是衍生于，并且关注于历史、法律、经济、哲学、社会学和心理学相互作用的结果。与这些学科的现代联系依然存在，并且已与统计学、数学、计算机科学和定量地理学和精神病学形成了重要的新关系。

The movement of political science toward separate disciplinary (and departmental) status began in earnest in the late 19^th century. By 1903 there were enough individuals calling themselves political scientists to support the creation of the American Political Science Association. Most colleges in the United States now have separate departments of political science, although some of the smallest still include political science in joint departments of some sort.

政治学正式走向独立学科地位的运动（分科的）始于19世纪末。到1903年，已有足够的称自己为政治学者的个人来支持美国政治学协会的创立。美国大多数的高校现在都有独立的政治学系，尽管一些最小的高校依然在一些联合院系中包含了政治学。

There are about 12,700 political scientists in the United States. Of these about 9,000 are on college and university faculties, and more than two THIRDS of these have Ph. D.’s in political science. More than 110 departments offer the Ph. D. degree and more than 150 others offer an M. A. degree. Collectively the academic political scientists help produce about 900 Ph. D’s each year.

在美国，大约有12700名政治学者。其中大约有9000名在学院和大学任教，有超过三分之二的人拥有政治学博士学位。110多个院系提供博士学位，而其它150多个院系提供硕士学位。学院政治学者每年帮助培养大约900名博士学位。

Political scientists with Ph. D.’s not on university faculties are most often in government service (either federal, state, or local), university or college administration, research, journalism, or business. A few are in elective politics. Careers for holders of M. A.’s and B. A.’s in political science tend to be in government service, education (high school or perhaps community colleges), law, business, and journalism.

拥有博士学位而不在大学任教的政治学者最常见的是在政府服务部门（在联邦、州或地方政府）、大学或学院的行政部门、研究、新闻或商务部门工作。很少有人投身选举政治中。政治学硕士和学士拥有者的职业生涯倾向在政府、教育（高中或许是社区大学）、法律、商务和新闻等部门。

Political Science in Other Countries.  In the rest of the world, political science as a separate discipline in the American sense has grown slowly and unevenly. A number of the traditional ties to other disciplines such as sociology and law remain in strong evidence in some western European countries. Britain, Sweden, Norway, Canada, the Netherlands, Australia, and Japan have sizable numbers of political scientists who interact with each other and with American colleagues. An International Political Science Association was created after World War II.

其它国家的政治学。在世界其它地方，政治学作为美国意义上的一门独立学科发展缓慢且不均衡。在一些西欧国家，许多传统与社会学和法律这样的其它学科的联系依然十分明显。英国、瑞典、挪威、加拿大、荷兰、澳大利亚以及日本拥有相当数量的相互交流的政治学者，以及与美国同事相互交流的政治学者。二次大战后便成立了国际政治学协会。

Most developed Western countries and a number of developed and non-Western countries have at least a few individuals pursuing political science inquiries recognizable as such in American terms.

大多数发达的西方国家和许多发达国家，以及非西方的国家至少有一些个人在从事美国术语中所说的政治学研究。

                                       RANDALL B. RIPLEY

                                    The Ohio State University

                                 Author of “American National

Government and Public Policy”

兰德尔·B. 里普利

俄亥俄州立大学

“美国国家政府与公共政策”的作者

      2023年3月17日译

（译者注：该词条位列《大美百科全书》1985年版，第22卷，第349页至350页）