Limits of Political Science

This volume provides a critical examination of the manner in which politics, government and political science is studied. It argues that current studies have become negligent and shapeless, caused by a steady weakening of the historical and philosophical structure of political study and research. The author outlines a reconstruction of the subject which separates it into two complementary sides of political study, pure and applied politics. Pure politics would be a philosophical and historical evaluation of political experience pursued for its own sake, while applied politics would encompass a descriptive, explanatory study of the practices of modern government, directed chiefly at vocational needs. Using this basis, the author feels that the study of politics would be placed on a stronger foundation: one idiom would be recognized as a branch of humanistic social and moral inquiry, and the other as primarily practical and technical.Table of ContentPolitics within the social sciences: some introductory questions; The emergence of politics as a University discipline; Politics as present action: the idiom of current affairs; Politics in science; The illusions of utility; Models of reconstruction; Politics as a discipline: the need for foundations