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The article examines some issues related to the development and consolidation of the democratic process in contemporary society. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of topics on the origins and meanings of the concept of democracy, the democratic ideal and real democracy, the challenges and paradoxes of democracy, as well as the perspectives of contemporary democracy. It is concluded that the discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of some or other forms of democracy is not finished and probably will not be finished soon, and today more and more disputes are going on some issues of theoretical, political and practical interest - what meaning we should give to the concept of democracy, how democracy works in the practice of contemporary society, what would be the nature and prospects of democracy.

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.

The goal of this deliverable on Community Networks and Political Advocacy is the identification of how Community Networks (CNs) gain leverage on regulators and policy-makers: What are the appropriate organizational modes to engage in political advocacy in order to foster the growth of community networks as cooperative plat-forms? What are the successful mediation of their interactions with other actors in the telecom sector and the local, national and European policy environments? In short, how can a CN build political advocacy capacities? With "advocacy capacity-building" we identify the process by which CNs can upgrade the collective skills on which they rely to influence policy development, but also to develop and upgrade the procedures and organizational designs devoted to these activities.

The goal of this deliverable on Community Networks and Political Advocacy is the identification of how Community Networks (CNs) gain leverage on regulators and policy-makers: What are the appropriate organizational modes to engage in political advocacy in order to foster the growth of community networks as cooperative plat-forms? What are the successful mediation of their interactions with other actors in the telecom sector and the local, national and European policy environments? In short, how can a CN build political advocacy capacities? With "advocacy capacity-building" we identify the process by which CNs can upgrade the collective skills on which they rely to influence policy development, but also to develop and upgrade the procedures and organizational designs devoted to these activities.

Cover Page -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Introduction: What Political Science is . . . and Isn't -- A Christian Framework for Approaching Political Science -- Faithful Learning Illustrated: The Logic of Power and Attitudes Toward Risk -- Conclusion: "Dr. Horne, I Think I'm Interested in Going into Politics . . . -- Discussion Questions -- Series Afterword -- More on Faithful Learning in Academic Studies -- More from P& -- R on Political Studies -- More from P& -- R on Politics.

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.