Democracy, Dictatorship, and the Making of Modern Political Science: Huntington's Thesis and Pinochet's Chile

In his 1987 presidential address to the American Political Science Association,” One Soul at a Time: Political Science and Political Reform,” Samuel P. Huntington (1988, 3–10) argued at some length that “political science … is not just an intellectual discipline (but) also a moral one,” and that “the impetus to do good in the sense of promoting political reform is … embedded in our profession.” Therefore, “it is impossible to have political scientists in the absence of political participation, and political science has only developed with the expansion of political participation. In a society in which there is no participation—no competition for power—political scientists would have nothing to do.” It logically follows that “the connection between democracy has been a close and continuing one.”