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Political Theory and Political Science*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

Gabriel A. Almond
Gabriel A. Almond*
Affiliation:
Stanford University
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Extract

Like Rachel, Jacob's beloved but still childless bride, who asked herself and the Lord each morning, “Am I?,” or “Can I?,” so presidents of this Association on these annual occasions intermittently ask, “Are we a science?,” or “Can we become one?” My predecessor, David Truman, raised this question last September applying some of the notions of Thomas Kuhn in his recent book on scientific revolutions. I shall be following in Truman's footsteps, repeating much that he said but viewing the development of the profession from a somewhat different perspective and intellectual history. My comments will be organized around three assertions.

First, there was a coherent theoretical formulation in the American political theory of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Second, the development of professional political science in the United States from the turn of the century until well into the 1950's was carried on largely in terms of this paradigm, to use Kuhn's term. The most significant and characteristic theoretical speculation and research during these decades produced anomalous findings which cumulatively shook its validity.

Third, in the last decade or two the elements of a new, more surely scientific paradigm seem to be manifesting themselves rapidly. The core concept of this new approach is that of the political system.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 60 , Issue 4 , December 1966 , pp. 869 - 879
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1966

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References

1 Truman, David B., “Disillusion and Regener ation: The Quest for a Discipline,” this Review, 59 (12, 1965), 865–873Google Scholar; Kuhn, Thomas, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1965)Google Scholar.

2 Plato, , The Laws, trans. Jowett, B. (New York: Random House, 1937), Book VIGoogle Scholar.

3 Aristotle, , The Politics, trans. Barker, Ernest (New York: Oxford University Press, 1962)Google Scholar. See Book IV: Chapter XIV on the deliberative power; Chapter XV on magistrates; Chapter XVI on the judicial power.

4 Aristotle, op. cit., Book IV: Chapter IV on democracy; Chapter V on oligarchy.

5 Harrington, James, The Commonwealth of Oceana (1656) (New York: G. Routledge & Sons, 1887)Google Scholar; see Lilburne, John and the Levellers in The Leveller Tracts, edited by Haller, William and Davies, Godfrey (New York: Columbia University Press, 1944)Google Scholar; Locke, John, Second Treatise on Civil Government in Social Contract (New York: Oxford University Press, 1962)Google Scholar, especially chapters XI–XIV.

6 Montesquieu, , The Spirit of the Laws, trans. Nugent, Thomas (New York: Hafner Publishing Company, 1949). Book XI, also II, V, VIGoogle Scholar.

7 The Federalist, Beloff, edition (Oxford: Blackwell, 1948), No. 1, and No. 9Google Scholar.

8 Ibid. See Nos. 9–10 on factions, No. 47 on separation of powers, No. 51 on checks and balances.

9 Ibid. See Nos. 52–53 on the House of Representatives, Nos. 62–63 on the Senate, Nos. 67–77 on the Executive, Nos. 78–83 on the Judiciary.

10 Wilson, Woodrow, The State (Boston: D. C. Heath, 1898), Chapter IIIGoogle Scholar.

11 Lowell, A. Lawrence, “The Physiology of Politics,” this Review, 4 (02, 1910), 1–15Google Scholar.

12 Goodnow, Frank J., Politics and Administration (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1900), Chapter IGoogle Scholar.

13 Wilson, Woodrow, “The Study of Administration,” Political Science Quarterly, 2 (06, 1887), 197–222CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Frank J. Goodnow, op. cit., Chapter I.

14 Lowell, A. Lawrence, Public Opinion and Popular Government (New York: David McKay Company, 1914), pp. 61–64Google Scholar.

15 Bentley, Arthur F., The Process of Government (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1908)Google Scholar.

16 See inter al. Herring, E. Pendleton, The Politics of Democracy (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1940)Google Scholar; Schattschneider, E. E., Party Government (New York: Holt, Rineharrt and Winston, 1942)Google Scholar. See also Finer, Herman, Theory and Practice of Modern Government (New York: Henry Holt, 1949)Google Scholar, Chapters VI and VII for a critique of separation-of-powers theory in terms to those developed here.

17 Herring, E. Pendleton, Group Representation before Congress (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1929), p. 18Google Scholar; Childs, Harwood L., Labor and Capital in National Politics (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1930)Google Scholar; Odegard, Peter H. and Helms, E. Allen, American Politics (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1938), p. 753Google Scholar.

18 See inter al. Ickes, Harold L., America's House of Lords: An Inquiry into the Freedom of the Press (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1939)Google Scholar; Cater, Douglas, The Fourth Branch of Government (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1959)Google Scholar. For an analytical discussion of the function of the press in the process of policy making and citations of the literature see Cohen, Bernard C., The Press and Foreign Policy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1963), pp. 31 ffGoogle Scholar.

19 White, L. D., Introduction to Public Administration (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1926)Google Scholar; see particularly the third edition (1948) for a discussion of principles of public administration.

20 Thomas Kuhn, op. cit., Chapters III–VII.

21 Easton, David, The Political System (New York: Alfred Knopf, 1953), pp. 96 ff. and 160 ffGoogle Scholar.

22 Merriam, Charles E., New Aspects of Politics (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1925)Google Scholar.

23 Lasswell, Harold D., Psychopathology and Politics (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1930), Chapter XIIIGoogle Scholar.

24 See Truman, David, The Governmental Process (New York: Alfred Knopf, 1951)Google Scholar; David Easton, op. cit. and A Systems Analysis of Political Life (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1965)Google Scholar; Dahl, Robert A., Who Governs? (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1961)Google Scholar and Modern Political Analysis (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1963)Google Scholar; Deutsch, Karl W., The Nerves of Government (New York: The Free Press of Glencoe, 1963)Google Scholar and “Social Mobilization and Political Development,” this Review, 55. (09, 1961), 493–514Google Scholar; Key, V. O. Jr., Politics, Parties, and Pressure Groups, 5th. ed. (New York: Crowell and Company, 1964)Google Scholar.

25 Almond, Gabriel and Coleman, James, The Politics of the Developing Areas (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1960), ConclusionGoogle Scholar; Lipset, Seymour Martin, Political Man (New York: Doubleday and Co., 1960)Google Scholar; Karl Deutsch, The Nerves of Government, op. cit. and “Social Mobilization and Political Development,” op. cit., Russett, Bruce, et al., World Handbook of Political and Social Indicators (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1964)Google Scholar; Banks, Arthur and Textor, Robert, A Cross Polity Survey (Cambridge: M.I.T. Press, 1963)Google Scholar; Rosecrance, Richard, Action and Reaction in World Politics (Boston: Little, Brown, & Co., 1963)Google Scholar; Eulau, Heinz, “Comparative Political Analysis: A Methodological Analysis,” Midwest Journal of Political Science, 6 (11, 1962), 397–407CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

26 In this connection see Robert Dahl, op. cit.; Brzezinski, Zbigniew and Huntington, Samuel P., Political Power: USA/USSR (New York: Viking Press, 1965)Google Scholar; and Gabriel Almond and James Coleman, op cit., Chapter I.

27 Dahl, Robert, Political Opposition in Western Democracies (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1966)Google Scholar; Wahlke, John C., et al., The Legislative System (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1962)Google Scholar; Agger, Robert E., et al., The Rulers and the Ruled (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1964)Google Scholar.

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