Neglected Aspects of Political Science

Extract

Since our Association was founded more than forty years ago, many things have happened under the head of political science. Men and women as political animals have supplied scholars with new data sufficient in volume and variety to satisfy the most exacting minds in the profession. At our annual sessions, numerous learned papers have been read and discussed. At our universities, new courses of studies have flowered luxuriantly. From the workshops of the guild, books and articles have poured forth in a copious stream. Several of our members have achieved distinction, indeed renown, in the public services; while, as far as I can discover, none has been sent to prison under the presidential decree of 1947 against that type of lawful dissent stigmatized as subversive activity. As if in testimony to our good works, it should be added that the amount of money now laid out per annum for political science is many times the sum expended long ago when we were young.

It might seem, then, an act of temerity even to suggest that anything under the sun has been neglected or less than perfectly disposed of in our golden age, our best of promised lands. Undoubtedly it is temerarious for one like myself, with eyes full of beams, to raise questions about stray motes in the eyes of members who may be properly satisfied with their accomplishments. Yet, on the other hand, there is some authority in our tradition and methodology, no less than in the practice of free enterprise, for occasional surveys or audits designed to find out whether in fact our liabilities are fully covered by assets, fixed and liquid.