ABSTRACT
The choice of title might suggest that they are wedded to traditional and pre-scientific modes of thought. It might equally well betoken an entirely commendable modesty. Perhaps the main motive for choosing it, however, was a desire to maintain common English usage and not to ‘go continental’. The devotees of the science have, in fact, largely divorced the study of politics from the disciplines with which it has been traditionally associated – history, philosophy and law. Inspired by the example of their sociological colleagues, they are experimenting boldly in the techniques of surveying and sampling; they are formulating and testing conceptual frameworks of surprising breadth and compendiousness. A more important and more reputable reason for ‘scientism’ is the growing conviction on the part of students of politics that they must make a distinctive contribution to task of political problem-saving. It is evident to the meanest intellect that the peoples are living in dangerous times, when political stability is nowhere assured.
