Money Quote
By Giovanni Sartori, in the October 2004 issue of PS: Political Science and Politics:
Where is political science going? In the argument that I have offered here, American-type political science (to be sure the “normal science,” for intelligent scholars are always saved by their intelligence) is going nowhere. It is an ever growing giant with feet of clay. Visit, to believe, the annual meetings of the American Political Science Association; it is an experience of unfading dullness. Or read, to believe, the illegible and/or massively irrelevant American Political Science Review. The alternative, or at least, the alternative for which I side, is to resist the quantification of the discipline. Briefly put, think before counting; and, also, use logic in thinking.
Hat tip to Ellis Goldberg for pointing it out.
The greatest crime, as Sartori suggests, is the stifling dullness of most political science work. Really, it is impossible to use the American Political Science Review for any purpose other than propping up table legs; it is certainly of no use on a long bus or plane ride.