The Specter That Haunts Political Science: The Neglect and Misreading of Marx in International Relations and Comparative Politics

We compiled an original database of syllabi for introductory, graduate courses from top-ranked US departments to assess the extent to which elite international relations and comparative politics scholars engage with Marx. Analysis of those syllabi overwhelmingly demonstrates that even superficial engagement with Marx or the Marxist tradition is exceedingly rare. We argue that the reasons behind this near-total absence are more political than...