Political Science Textbook

[Red Sun]

I'm not sure if this is the right forum or not, but I wasn't sure where else to post it.

I am taking a Introduction to Political Science class next quarter, and as I was skimming through the textbook, I saw this caption beneath a picture of Hugo Chavez at some kind of rally:
"Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a classic demagogue, whips up a crowd in 2010 to march Venezuela away from democracy.":rolleyes:

What do you think? Should I be worried about this class, or do you think I might still get something useful out of it?

[Blake's Baby]

'Worried'?

You should always critically examine everything (including presumably the exhortion that you should critically examine everything). Be aware of the ideological biases of the viewpoints on offer.

I'm not a fan of Chavez, or 'democracy', or the American education system, so I can't really advise you too closely, but anything you're exposed to will come from a certain ideological slant. That doesn't mean you can't get something 'useful' from the course, you've already learned that it's going to be biased in favour of the US's foreign policy aims, for example. That's useful to know, isn't it?

[The Garbage Disposal Unit]

Aye, that doesn't exactly sound like a particularly nuanced critique of Chavez. I feel like I'm generally skeptical of any throwing the word "democracy" around without adjectives as though it's always and everywhere an undeniable "good". Smacks of "Amurica! Love it or leave it!"

[LeonJWilliams]

We should use political science, fact and evidence to come to conclusions, not the other way round.
If there is evidence to support your views then you can effectively argue against the opposing view, there is nothing to be worried about, your lecturer wont penalise you for holding an opposing viewpoint providing you can back it up.

[Red Sun]

I'm not a particular fan of Chavez either, that caption just seemed particularly hyperbolic and biased. Still, I guess I can at least get an idea of what the pro-capitalist, pro-imperialist idea of politics is, which would be helpful in arguing against it.

[Blake's Baby]

Some of think that Chavez is also pro-capitalist and pro-imperialist - just not pro-American.

[o well this is ok I guess]

Your prof probably didn't choose the textbook. At my school almost all the textbooks were written by profs at the school or in the one down the street. So unless your profs name is straight up on the textbook you needn't be worried.

[Zealot]

All education, regardless of what subject it is, will be tainted with a bourgeois class nature. This is not a dogmatic position since bourgeois professors are ready to accept that written material from pre-bourgeois periods are tainted with a class character but simply cannot comprehend the fact that class bias is still very much alive in our current era. You will probably get something useful out of it, even if only the knowledge of what the bourgeoisie wants us to believe and some "street-cred" if you ever decide to pursue an academic career.

I'm majoring in political science but have not personally come across anything so blatant as that. However, the view that is presented will depend on the institution, the professors, the circumstances, etc. For example, I live in New Zealand and my university tolerates Marxist analysis and Lenin's "Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism", among others, was even recommended reading in my American Foreign Policy class.