ABSTRACT
The implications of biological theory, for the perpetuation of much of traditional political science, are much more revolutionary than those of political behavioralism as it has been understood heretofore. From a biological point of view, the most basic need of any animal is to survive long enough to reproduce. It is the gene pool and not the individual phenotype that natural selection operates, ceteris paribus, to preserve; but that can be done only through the successful adaptation of some minimally large population of phenotypes that do reproduce successfully and rear their young to the stage of self-sufficiency. The effects of social environment tend to be much better recognized as pertinent to political science, as a sampling of the recent literature in political behavior and in biopolitics demonstrates. The possible impact on political science of the alternative premise supported by modern biology, that the relevant gene pool with which public policy should be concerned is that of species, is staggering to contemplate.
