International Science Association
The International Political Science Association (IPSA), founded in 1949 through the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), is an international association that is focused on the advancement of knowledge pertaining to political science throughout the entire world. For the entire time it has been in existence, the IPSA has helped improve relationships between countries throughout the entire world and has helped collaboration efforts between scholars in all forms of democracies for the common good. The main goal of the IPSA is to create a common international political science community where experts in all parts of the world can contribute their knowledge for the advancement of the political science movement.
What is Political Science?
Before one can understand the agenda and goals of the International Political Science Association, one must know the fundamentals of political science and what it involves. Under the category of social science, political science is the theory and practice of everything related to politics. Political science studies and attempts to predict governments, public policies, and the processes involved with political practices, systems and behavior. Within the field of political science, there are several subfields including political theory, political philosophy, political ideology, international relations, political studies, comparative politics and political economy. Political science is considered a “soft science”, meaning that it does not use hard data, but rather its studies are very subjective in nature and are left up to interpretation. Political science classes help prepare students for a career in politics, but may also train students about political knowledge for use in another career.
History of the IPSA:
The International Political Science Association is the result of a collaborative effort to combine resources of many other smaller political science organizations from such countries as the United States, Canada, France, and India. By the year 1960, twenty four other countries contributed their resources of political science knowledge from their established associations. Even today, the IPSA is still expanding its membership and right now, the total number of contributing countries is at fifty one nations, all of which are regular members.
The Structure of the IPSA:
The IPSA has a group of representatives that make up what they call the Council. The duty of the Council is to enforce policies and rules that the association is required to follow. Also, the Council is responsible for electing members of the Executive Committee, the area of the IPSA that deals directly with governmental bodies.
Currently, the total number of individual memberships in the IPSA is about 3,600 members. It has made recent successful efforts to increase the percentage of female membership and involvement. The current percentage of women in the IPSA is about 34%. Institutions may receive an associate membership to the association if they are involved with or engaged in the education of political science. The IPSA has about 100 institutions under this membership right now.
The IPSA publishes a great deal of political science literature. It publishes International Political Science Abstracts, the International Political Science Review, and its own bulletin, the Participation.
