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Issues concerning the characteristics of the political regime in the United States following the election of George W. Bush as president are discussed. Comparisons between the political stance of George W. Bush and Bill Clinton are drawn.

A critical view of the presidential elections in the United States in 2000 is presented. Particular attention is give to the events leading to the final court statement deciding that George W. Bush will be the next president of the United States.

The 1989 fall of the Soviet Union inspired few published responses from US political theorists. Noted American political theorists discuss the phenomenon and the political identity of the nation. Some feel that the problem lies in 20th century definitions of politics and the state that are unable to resolve deadlocks. Others see short-sightedness emerging from a streak of cultural cynicism that prevents the union between various ethnic groups in society.

American political science is a product of the American state. There are political reasons why particular subdisciplines became hegemonic with the emergence of the 'Second Republic' after World War II. The three hegemonic subdisciplines of our time are public opinion, public policy, and public choice. Each is a case study of consonance with the thought-ways and methods of a modern bureaucratized government committed to scientific decision making. Following Leviathan too closely results in three principal consequences: (1) failure to catch and evaluate the replacement of law by economics as the language of the state, (2) the loss of passion in political science discourse, and (3) the failure of political science to appreciate the significance of ideological sea changes accompanying regime changes.

American political theory has been accused of being uniformly liberal' but its history is diverse and is worth studying to understand the development of political science and the institutions it reflects (representative government, federalism, judicial review, and slavery). While modern social science expresses a slow democratization of values, it has been compatible with many ideologies. This can be seen in Jefferson's anthropology, Madison's theory of collective rationality, and Hamilton's empirical political economy. Jacksonian democracy encouraged social history, while its opponents devised an elitist political sociology. Southern defenders of slavery were the earliest to develop a deterministic and authoritarian sociology, but after the Civil War Northern thinkers emulated them with Social Darwinism and quests for causal laws to grasp constant change in industrial society. Though social critics abounded, democtratic empirical theory emerged in the universities only in the generation of Merriam and Dewey, who founded contemporary science.