The Academy's founders sought to create an organization that could embrace a broad set of social science disciplines while serving as an intermediary between scientific thought and practical effort and a venue where diverse perspectives on social issues could be voiced. At its founding, men and women were at work in various social reform movements without cooperation, and above all, without the sympathy and support of those pursuing allied interests, whether in practical or theoretical ways.

In similar fashion, the Academy's founders saw a need for an organization - and a publication - that would help insure that the increasing specialization of the social sciences did not splinter our understanding of issues of public concern into a hundred pieces. While each discipline and its theories and methods provides its own insights into these issues, each falls short in offering a rich and comprehensive understanding. The Academy continues to offer broad and interdisciplinary perspectives on important social issues at a time when much of the work within disciplines of the social sciences has become increasingly specialized.

Consistent with the cultural impulses of Ben Franklin's university, the Academy's membership is open and inclusive. It has always rested on more democratic than exclusionary inclinations. Ideally, the Academy has sought the type of member who would become, first, a more intelligent citizen and, second, someone willing to assist any other member in his or her pursuit of enlightenment. The Academy's members have included distinguished public servants such as Herbert Hoover and Francis Perkins. Notable individuals such as Eleanor Roosevelt, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, Harold Lasswell, Margaret Mead, and Mahatma Gandhi have served as special editors or contributing authors to The Annals.

A widely distributed and disciplinarily-diverse membership has enabled the Academy to realize, in some small measure, the large ideals of it founding. With each new member it has been possible to extend the scope and usefulness of the Academy's work.