Its wounds are self-inflicted.

The Weekly Standard reports.

Is Political Science Dying?

While the campus grievance mongers cry for Justice! and continue their drive for power and safe spaces, I note an extraordinary story in the latest issue of Stanford, the bimonthly magazine of the Stanford Alumni Association. Take this in very slowly:

UNDECLARED UNDER­GRAD­UATES needn’t feel forlorn: Political science wants YOU. It’s looking for more than a few good students who are interested in a globally relevant education that readies them for everything from an academic career to national security work. And the department’s recruiting mission is headlined with a revamped major that offers students a better opportunity for tackling “big problems—and social issues,” as noted by associate professor Justin Grimmer. New enlistments are earnestly sought in the wake of a notable decline in poli-sci majors over the last four years, from 74 in the 2010-11 academic year to 61 in 2013-14 to 47 in 2014-15 [emphasis added].

By extrapolation, it would seem that Stanford has slightly more than 200 political science majors, out of an undergraduate student body of a bit more than 7,000—or 2.9 percent. There are 46 faculty listed on the political science department’s web page, which means there is a faculty-to-major ratio of about 1-to-4. This is incredible, as it indicates a discipline at one of our leading universities that attracts almost no students. The fact that political science majors are declining (this is happening at a lot of universities—not just Stanford) at a time when general interest in politics is rising suggests a crisis in the discipline.