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Political science 173
law and history are strong in the universities and cannot be overthrown; sec-
ondly, that it would be disastrous for the social sciences if they lost contact with
these older disciplines, and that political science is well qualified by its history
and its interests to maintain a bridge, over which there is continual traffic in both
directions.
Thirdly, it can be argued that political science (like sociology and economics
in their present forms) is based strongly on a field of interest. Students are
drawn to political science in the first instance by a commitment to the study of
States and the world system of States. With this driving force in their minds,
they are ready to learn that progress can only be made by mastering tools and
by collaborating with other disciplines, and they gain a wider understanding
and concern for what is ‘political’ in various social settings. A discipline of
political science which has a strong core of practical interest but is not narrowly
parochial can be valuable in linking the structure of the social sciences.
Finally, the problem of States and their future (and here I include all States,
capitalist and socialist, old and new) is so huge and of such dominating import-
ance to humanity that it requires nothing less than the service of a fully-organiz-
ed discipline.
4. Political science as a teaching discipline
It must be remembered (though it is outside the scope of the present inquiry)
that in some countries, though not in all, political science is as much a teaching
discipline as a research discipline. In America and Britain, for instance, per-
haps one in twenty (at most) of those who study political science as students
wil continue to practice it as research workers: the rest wil return to society at
large to hold positions of considerable importance both in government and in
teaching. All education contributes to socialization into a political culture?
but political science has in this respect rather a special responsibility, within its
own society and also in relation to the development of the world polity. All
science serves an international function : political science does so consciously,
in awareness of its own political situation.
My personal conclusion from these complex arguments is not a dogmatic
one; it would be disastrous to the development of thought if a clear disciplinary
boundary were drawn between political science and the other social sciences,
and I should indeed welcome a radical attack on the present disciplinary struc-
ture of the social sciences.
But disciplines are themselves social entities, and I think it is realistic to regard
the discipline of political science now as primarily a ‘statecraft’, in terms of its
traditions, and of the special demands made on its members.
B. Objectives
Political science rightly has a place in this inquiry into nomothetic disciplines
in the social sciences. Its character as a social science is determined by the fact
that it searches for laws and is to some extent successful in establishing them.