The Comparative Study of Politics

In: Comparative studies in society and history, Band 1, Heft 2, S. 105-112

Abstract

The newly awakened interest in the comparative study of politics is part and parcel of a silent revolution that has taken place in the social sciences during the last decades. Such a re-orientation in turn is in part due to the radical social and political transformations in this era of total wars and revolutions. Because as Aristotle knew all too well, and peaceful periods in history all too often tried to forget, the social sciences are disciplines of "ethics", spelling out man's deep involvements and demanding decisions at critical turning points of history.