Suchergebnisse

PROFESSOR LAZARSFELD ONCE REFERRED TO SOCIOLOGY AS BEING IN A sense a residuary legatee, the surviving part of a very general study, out of which specializations have successively been shaped.The same might be said of political science. In the West the first deliberate and reflective studies of political life were made in Greece at the end of the th century BC, and in the succeeding century. The histories of Herodotus and Thucydides, some of the pamphlets attributed to Xenophon, above all the normative and empirical studies of Plato and Aristotle were among the direct ancestors of contemporary political science. Parallel examples are to be found in the intellectual history of China, India and Islam. It seems that at certain stages in the development of great societies questions of legitimacy, power and leadership assume supreme importance; and intense intellectual effort, using the best analytical tools available, is devoted to the study of man as brought to a focus in the study of politics.

In an introduction to summaries of papers delivered at the 2nd Congress of the Int Polit Sci Assoc (Sep 1952) the following points are made: (1) while the meetings had adequately indicated the 'complexities inherent in the analysis of political ideologies,' it failed to establish acceptable lines of methodological approach; (2) 'the relations between political theory (or philosophy) and political ideology remained unexplored.'; (3) a lack of terminological precision hampered results (discrepancies in the use of `symbol,' differing definitions of 'ideology,' and lack of differentiation between political ideologies and other ideologies); & (4) emphasis was on the East-West conflict rather than historical experience. The summaries of the paper are grouped under the following headings: (1) Dealing with the analysis and dissemination of ideologies. J. Blanchet, 'Ideologies et Transformations Sociales.' Jacques-Serge Billy, 'Le Problems de la Finalite des Societes Politiques et lea Explications Ideologiques.' H. D. Lasswell, 'The Political Role of Ideologies.' K. Lowenstein, 'Political Ideologies and Institutions and the Problem of Their Circulation.'; (2) Case studies of specific ideologies. S. D. Bailey, 'The Revision of Marxism.' R. D. Lang, 'Conservative Thought in Europe 1818-30'; (3) Case studies of ideologies in specific geographical areas. R. D. Lucic, 'Means of Propagating Ideologies and the Conditions for Their Development in the Various Parts of the World (Yugoslavia).' M. Azis Ahmad, 'Political Ideology of Pakistan.' D. N. Banerjee, 'Political Ideologies and Their Influence on Political Behavior with Special Reference to the Results of Their Propagation and the Conditions of Their Acceptance'; (4) Case studies of internationalism as an ideology. W. N. Hogan, 'International Organization and the Dissemination of Ideologies. J. Ellul, 'Propagande et Ideologie.' F. Lenz, 'An Introduction into the Sociology of Broadcasting'; (6) Special Studies. I. de Sola Pool, D. Lerner & C. E. Rothwell, 'The Measurement of Ideological Change.' P. Feldkeller, 'Donnees Psychologiques Fondamentales de la Psycho-politique'; (7) Referring to Research. R. Aaron 'Le Role des Ideologies dans les Changements Politiques'. Q. Wright, 'Current Research on the Subject of Political Ideologies and Their Dissemination.' J. Meyriat, Recherches en Cours dans les Differents Pays d'Europe sur les Ideologies Politiques et Leur Diffusion.' D. Wolsk.

TWO STREAMS OF POLITICAL THOUGHT WERE PRESENT AT THE FOUNDING OF THE AMERICAN NATION.ONE WAS NOTABLE FOR FRIENDSHIP,BROTHERHOOD,INDIVIDUAL SPONTANEITY AND DISTAIN FOR THE MATERIAL.A FOLLOWER WAS T.PAINE,AND ITS BASIS IS IN ROUSSEAU.THE DECLARATION AND ARTICLES EXPRESSED IT.THE SECOND WAS FOR SOCIAL ORDER,RATIONALITY AND MATERIAL CONSIDERATIONS EXPRESSED IN THE CONSTITUTION BY HAMILTON AND MADISON.

The dominant belief among both teachers and graduate students of political science seems to be that political theory constitutes the heart of their subject; yet political theory is not, in practice, the core of political science teaching. Such is the schizoid condition of political science and political scientists that is revealed by the investigations of the Committee for the Advancement of Teaching of the American Political Science Association. The hypothesis advanced in this note presents a dual reason for the unfortunate situation: it is partly that political theorists have failed to keep up with the times and have not engaged in sufficient value-free theoretical study of the raw data of politics, and partly that vast numbers of political scientists have falsely concluded that one of the most important parts of the traditional study of political theory—political ethics—is not susceptible of scientific treatment and should rigorously be eschewed.

Among political scientists, even among political theorists, there is a widespread conviction that political theory has entered upon a time of troubles. Few, however, regard it simply as a "dead dog," and political theorists continue, as they should, to administer critical self-analysis, and to define and defend their methodological and philosophical positions. The basis for a unity of opposites is still a subject for dispute. This paper is offered, not as a solution, but as a statement of one conception of the role of political theory.A time-honored technique of dialectic is to seek well-reasoned objections to the view one does not hold. A medicine often commended to the political scientists is a body of systematic, scientific theory akin to economic theory in approach and methodological sophistication. Accordingly, this article takes issue with that interpretation which conceives of political theory as, ideally, the master discipline whereby the science of politics is to be unified and systematized, and empirical investigation oriented and guided. A few definite and carefully developed proposals for reconstruction along these lines, familar to political scientists, are G. E. G. Catlin's The Science and Method of Politics, Harold D. Lasswell's and Abraham Kaplan's Power and Society, and David Easton's The Political System. These works can serve as an initial point of purchase for analysis and discussion.

C. P. Snow, in his Rede Lecture on the scientific and literary worlds as separate cultures, lists four groups needed by a country if it is to "come out top" in the scientific revolution. First, as many top scientists as it can produce; second, a larger group trained for supporting research and high class design; third, educated supporting technicians; and "fourthly and last, politicians, administrators, an entire community, who know enough science to have a sense of what the scientists are talking about."It seems increasingly clear that the growing army of "political" scientists—meaning natural scientists in politics—is more likely to be aided by students of politics prepared to understand the effects of science in political terms than by most of the recent efforts to understand politics in scientific terms. When one looks over the journals in political science, and in related areas of public opinion and social psychology, searching for significant conclusions in articles where much time has been spent on the elaboration of method, it is difficult to avoid V. O. Key's conclusion "that a considerable proportion of the literature commonly classified under the heading of 'political behavior' has no real bearing on politics, or at least that its relevance has not been made clear."

Like Rachel, Jacob's beloved but still childless bride, who asked herself and the Lord each morning, "Am I?," or "Can I?," so presidents of this Association on these annual occasions intermittently ask, "Are we a science?," or "Can we become one?" My predecessor, David Truman, raised this question last September applying some of the notions of Thomas Kuhn in his recent book on scientific revolutions. I shall be following in Truman's footsteps, repeating much that he said but viewing the development of the profession from a somewhat different perspective and intellectual history. My comments will be organized around three assertions.First, there was a coherent theoretical formulation in the American political theory of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.Second, the development of professional political science in the United States from the turn of the century until well into the 1950's was carried on largely in terms of this paradigm, to use Kuhn's term. The most significant and characteristic theoretical speculation and research during these decades produced anomalous findings which cumulatively shook its validity.Third, in the last decade or two the elements of a new, more surely scientific paradigm seem to be manifesting themselves rapidly. The core concept of this new approach is that of the political system.