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From modern republic to administrative state: American PS in the 19th century

Political science is bound up with the fate of democracy in the modern world, especially the US, where it
was born around 1880 due to the fact that the party system was more advanced here than in Europe.
However, it was only in the opening decades of the 20th century that “democracy” became the defining
object of an American science of politics, which had previously focused on nation, republic and state.

Creation of American Political Science Association – 1903

Farr suggest a historiography of problems. Political scientists are influenced by problems, be they
internal and related to intellectual tradition or external. Problems must be identified as such by the
political scientists under historical investigation. Problems never rest.

Karl Popper offers a rough formalization of this historiography:

Initial problem -> tentative theory or solution -> error elimination in the theory -> reformulated problem

6- a modern republic