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Political science 199
This is undoubtedly one of the most important areas of ‘field-induced‘ research
at present. To participants progress seems desperately slow; this is
partly due to lack of research resources, but it is also relevant that administrative
experiments have a fairly long time span, which must be respected. One wellknown
political impediment to good administration is the tendency to swing
impatiently from one expedient to another at the first hint of delay or failure.
D. Power, force, influence, authority
We now come to certain central difficulties in the structure of political science as
an empirical discipline. In practice, much research has been stimulated by a
demand for short-term answers to specific problems localized in one State;
and such work has been within its limits interesting and successful. But the
regularities established are at a fairly low level of generalization; and one of
the keys to partial success of this kind is to define a problem narrowly, recognizing
but hedging off the avenues which lead to wider problems not at present
soluble.
I. A provisionaI schema
This is a defensible scientific procedure, but it makes it difficult to plan a general
exposition. The soundness of work at lower levels is not in dispute: but there is
no general agreement about the conceptual framework within which it should
be presented. The framework used here has a long history, and perhaps corre-
sponds to some fundamental distinctions in the structure of States. But it is
presented with diffidence, as an instrument of exposition and not as the conclu-
sion of research nor as a philosophical system. Its rhetorical function is to
make it possible to pass quickly to specific research topics, each of which could
be illustrated by a very large bibliography.
The basic distinction is one drawn by Aristotle:47 in certain ecological con-
ditions there could be no human life without the State; the State once created
serves ends higher than those of existence.
There are certain conditions necessary to all States, dictatorial or democratic,
primitive or advanced. There must be a minimum standard (which is hard to
measure except by reference to historical events) of command and obedience;
a standard described by such words as power, authority, influence, and summed
up in the very difficult word ‘sovereignty’.
The way downwards from that cloudy peak is much easier. There would be
a measure of agreement that authority depends on a shifting combination of
force in battle (external and internal), executive efficiency, and prevailing myth
and ideology; and it would be agreed also that there are degrees of specializa-
tion of function as between military, bureaucracy, and ‘myth-makers’.
These conditions are to be defined as those which must be realized under
any state whatever, if it is to persist. The case has been stated here in ‘traditional’
language; it could be restated in Marxist language or in ‘general systems’
language.