What political scientists actually do


Nicholas Chan

WHEN I reply to someone that I am a graduate student in political science, their response would be “Oh, then you can be a good politician!” or “Good! You can fix all the problems with our country”. This happens quite often.

To be fair, being misunderstood in terms of the nature of one’s vocation is rather common. I am sure doctors frown when the TV series Grey’s Anatomy is used to frame their lives, and detectives roll their eyes when people expect crime-solving to be done just like in an episode of CSI. What prompted me to write this piece is the observation that some politicians, and political scientists themselves, are misinformed – at times utterly deluded – as to what the profession actually entails. There are grave consequences to such misunderstanding.


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