Category: Political Thought

Methods of Political Science.  Limitations and Difficulties:- Having endeavored to show that the study of political phenomena may under certain conditions attain the character of a science, we come now to inquire into the processes and methods by Which this may be done. First of all, however, we must note the limitations and difficulties under…

Definition and scope of political science. Views of Eminent Authors:- It was a saying of a Roman jurist that all definitions are dangerous because they never go far enough and are nearly always contradicted by the facts. The truth of this observation applies as well to general propositions in political science as to those of…

Political Terminology . Lack of a Precise Nomenclature : It is Characteristic of political Science that, differing from the natural sciences, it lacks a precise and generally accepted nomenclature.  Such terms as “state” “government” “politics” “administration” “nation” “nationality” “liberty,” “democracy” “oligarchy, people” and many others are used in different senses and convey different meanings to…

Law as a source of authority: To those for whom law is a simple command, legal by virtue of the source from Which it comes, it is not likely that such complexities as these will be popular. We are urging that law is, in truth, not the will of the State, but that from which…

Co-ordination and federalism: My point may perhaps be made by saying that since society is essentially federal in nature, the body which seeks to impose the necessary unities must be so built that the diversities have a place therein. If it is true, as I have argued, that no association included the whole of myself,…

Representation for authority: This is at least the path to a solution of the two issues in the problem of authority that I outlined earlier in this article. It does not, as in the classic theory of politics, begin by postulating the necessary unity of society and continue by insisting on the supremacy of the…

Authority and allegiance: Here is the head and center of the problem of authority. That problem, as I conceive it, is twofold in nature. It is the problem Of making the solutions of the ultimately unifying authority able to command the willing allegiance of citizens, and Of discovering a process through which the likelihood of…

The place of consent in politics: The view of the State discussed in the previous Article involves a new attitude to the problem of authority. It involves, of Course, the exercise of power by persons and it admits that the number of persons legally entrusted with power is likely to remain small. But its center…

The movement towards a new order: No effort is more suspect in our time than the criticism of the existing rights of property. It is wrong because it is subversive. It is futile because it is Utopian. It is erroneous because it runs counter to the eternal laws of human nature. But the existing rights…

The Problem of incentive: If this be true, the main problem of property is a psychological one. The old system has passed because the spread of education made it impossible to utilize the motives which were sufficient for its functioning a half-century ago. Largely it was built upon fear, and systems built upon fear bear…