ABSTRACT
First published in The Australian Journal of Politics and History, Vol. XVI, No. 3, December 1970
MOST STUDIES of political factionalism begin with attempts to define the terms ‘faction’ and ‘factionalism’. The resultant definitions are then regarded as having universal validity, irrespective of time, place, or political culture. The use of this procedure, in our opinion, leads either to the unwarranted universalization of causal relationships having limited scope, or to generalizations which are too broad to be of much practical value.
