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This book is the first comprehensive study to respond to the ongoing debates on political sciences´ fragmentation, doubtful relevance, and disconnect with the larger public. It explores the implications of the argument that political science ought to become more topic-driven, more relevant and more comprehensible for "lay" audiences. Consequences would include evolving a culture of public engagement, challenging tendencies toward liars´ rule, and emphasizing the role of "large" themes in academic education and research, the latter being identified as those areas where severe democratic erosion is occurring - such as escalating income and wealth disparities pushing democracy towards plutocracy, ubiquitous change triggering insecurity and aggression, racist prejudice polarizing societies, and counter-terrorism strategies subverting civil liberties.
Political science needs to address these pressing problems ahead of other issues by in-depth research and broadly accessible public narratives, including solution-orientated normative notions. This need provides the final justification for evolving a discipline where problems would take priority over methods and public relevance over sophisticated specialization.

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1. Improving the Human Condition.- 2. What Is the Current Human Condition?.- 3. Coming to Grips with Change.- 4. Serving Citizens.- 5. The Civics of Friendly Persuasion.- 6. A Determination to Blow the Whistle.- 7. Affirming Ethno-Cultural Diversity, Avoiding Tribalized
Segmentation.- 8. Low Income, Inferior Education.- 9. Robust Regulatory Policies for Capitalism.- 10. Global Warming, Power Structures, and Living Conditions.- 11. Radicalization, Terrorism, Subversion of Civil Liberties.- 12. Twenty-First-Century Political Science: Politicization of a Discipline?

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Rainer Eisfeld, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Osnabrück University, Germany, taught at UCLA as a Visiting Professor. He has represented IPSA´s research committees on the IPSA Executive Committee, and has also served on the Board of Trustees of the Buchenwald/Mittelbau-Dora Concentration Camp Memorial.

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