The European Consortium for Political Research

Political science expanded very rapidly indeed in Western Europe in the 1960s, but most of this activity was contained within, and fragmented by, national boundaries. Links between different national groups and organisations were not created to any great extent, relatively little systematic research of a cross-national comparative kind was carried out, and in the main both teaching and research were predominantly national, not to say parochial. Some political scientists maintained a professional interest in other parts of the globe, but this did not encourage systematic comparative research. Rather, there tended to be a focus by people in one country with an interest in another single country - often in a colonial or ex-colonial country.