Ideology and Politics within American Political Science. A Critical Historical Review

This article reviews some relevant historical and political contextual determinants that have impacted the global process of institutionalization of the discipline called political science in the United States. Based on a review of the meta-disciplinary literature and its relationship with different moments in American history, it is argued that this political and historical conjunctures have influenced the development of the methodological characteristics and the ideological-normative nuances of the discipline and that such a process of influence must be the subject of reflective and open discussion as a starting point to address the tension between the academic knowledge purposes and the objectives of application or incidence in practical politics and to seek the social relevance of the discipline.