Politics is not based primarily upon History but on Psychology: the fundamental assumptions in our political reasonings consist of certain propositions as to human motives and tendencies, which are derived primarily from the ordinary experience of civilized life, though they find adequate confirmation in the facts of the current and recent history of our own and other civilized countries.

The only general criticism that occurs to me is that the discussion in these chapters tends to be rather a discussion of English methods of government, with occasional references to American methods. If it be possible to generalize the treatment rather more, not making it seem to flow from or follow the arrangements of England, this would better accord with the scientific character of the book as a general treatise on politics. But perhaps it is impossible … perhaps there is no writing profitably on ταπολιτικα except on the basis of experiments of concrete πολιτεα.