Suchergebnisse

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."

Much of this essay falls within the realm of speculative thought. Since it is in the nature of speculation that one's words may appear immodest and his conclusions often eccentric, I shall state my arguments at the outset without pausing to elaborate them. The arguments themselves are quite simple. Each of them will reappear later on clothed, I hope, in more attractive dress.Two varieties of political thought contended for the allegiance of the American people at the founding of the new nation. The two seem irreconcilable in certain crucial respects.One was notable for its expression of friendship and brotherhood, for its insistence upon individual spontaneity and uniqueness, and for its disdain for material concerns; it was intuitive and unsystematic in temper. The other displayed a preoccupation with social order, procedural rationality, and the material bases of political association and division; it was abstract and systematic in temper.The exponents of the latter point of view, having put their opponents to rout, assumed the responsibility for organizing the government and politics of the country. They enacted their psychological, social, economic, and political theories into fundamental law, then erected insititutions designed to train generations of citizens to prefer certain goods and conduct over all others.

Attempts to explain the nature of ideologies & to specify their functions in society as a whole can be seen as falling into 6 distinct groups: (1) as systems of theoretical propositions purporting to tell how things really are; (2) as systems of normative or evaluating statements; (3) as calculated lies, for the furtherance of particular pol'al purposes; (4) as myths; (5) as expressions of the needs & demands of soc groups; & (6) as expressions of the att's of diff human personality types. The only approach that will always be found to pay a dividend is to preserve an open mind with respect to the diff ways that may lead us to our goal. IPSA.

The departments of political science in America's colleges and universities are now numbered in the hundreds, their students in the tens of thousands. The variety of these departments is bewildering, differing as they do in size, curriculum, teaching methods, political complexion, aspirations, and even in name. It is no easy matter to discover what the fifty-man faculty in political science at Columbia and the one-man department of government at a California junior college have in common; yet one thing in common they certainly do have: the introductory course, and the complex problem which it presents.That the introductory course does present a major problem to departments of political science everywhere was clearly acknowledged by the program committee of the 1947 meeting of the American Political Science Association, when it scheduled a panel entitled "The Beginning Course in Political Science." The problem was further acknowledged by the panel itself; hardly a person of the many who took part in its proceedings, whether seated at the round-table or holding forth extemporaneously from the audience, failed to show some degree of candid dissatisfaction with the introductory course as presently conducted at his institution. Rare indeed is the department of political science which is willing to let its introductory course ride along through 1948 in the exact shape it assumed through 1947. The urge for improvement is nation-wide, and several prominent departments have gone so far as to relieve instructors of part of their normal teaching burden and commission them to work out definite programs of radical revision.