How bright was the future?

Introduction The establishment of the Committee of Political Sociology in 1959 was part of a larger process of activation and expansion in international social science. For the study of politics, this trend meant a number of profound improvements. It gave rise to a genuine cross-national exchange, bringing together sociologists and political scientists from around the globe long before “internationalization” became the pet word of national research councils and academic bureaucrats. It brought about a stronger emphasis on theory by linking empirical research with abstract models. It shifted the focus towards comparative empirical analysis, thus reducing the element of parochialism that had been all too evident in much of earlier research on government and political sociology.