ABSTRACT
A glance at the history of political analysis reveals three main battlefields. One is the opposition between unique events and generalizations and raises indirectly the question of ‘quantification’. Another is the opposition between legalism and the factual or realistic presentation of happenings. And in the third ‘descriptive’ confront ‘normative’ studies which have made a strong comeback: they were one of the main objects of political analysis in the past, but were relegated to second place in the post-war period. The conflict between the unique and general schools of thought runs through the whole of political science. The study of general trends is neither new nor restricted to a narrow group. The question of reality affects in another way those who think politically. While some of the classics of political science felt a need for generalizing on the basis of a legal approach, most felt even more strongly the need for moralizing.
