Suchergebnisse

Finer investigated the phenomenon of politics in its spatial & temporal framework, trying to look into as many forms of government as possible & to find uniformity in their variety. He paid particular attention to a study of institutions of government, which he considered the core of politics. His investigations focused on the state. By condensing the consequences of the emergence of the state on the forms of government, Finer came up with two variables: the extent to which rulers establish a standardized central administration & the extent to which homogeneous culture, religion, & laws are achieved. The second important topic in Finer's research was military organization. He wanted to demonstrate how the survival of a state, international order, social distribution of power, governing, the degree of bureaucratization, & a regime's nature, are intertwined with the structure of the state's military institutions. His opinion was that the military organization is necessary for the establishment & preservation of political communities, regimes, & governments. According to Finer, the state's key functions are preparing for wars, waging wars, reconstructing the country after wars, & expecting the next war. Finer's third topic is the relationship between political & religious systems of belief. He stressed their dualistic nature, with two more or less independent hierarchies that have been a source of serious tensions. Furthermore, Finer links the existing system of beliefs, social stratification, & political institutions. Where these factors are balanced, the political community achieves permanent stability. 2 Figures. Adapted from the source document.

'IF YOU WANT QUICK RESULTS, PLANT LETTUCE; ENDURING results take longer.' So said Léon Walras, France's greatest nineteenth-century economist and predecessor at Lausanne of Pareto, whom Sammy Finer wrote about with admiration. Finer's last and greatest work in three volumes and over 1,600 pages will be published in May 1997 by Oxford University Press. Unlike his contemporary political scientists, Sammy Finer had the self-confidence and breadth of vision singlehandedly to take on an immense work and almost bring it to completion before death imposed its own premature conclusion. As a foretaste of its contents, the first Finer Memorial Lecture, delivered at the University of Keele on 10 May 1995, is published in this journal, with which he had an especially close affinity. It can only suggest, in the most succinct way, what is to come. I am confident that the study of comparative government will never be the same once the whole breathtaking work appears in all its magnitude.