Nature of politics

The book deals with some important issues of Contemporary Political Theory. By and large it seeks to re-establish the normative character of Politics that has largely been undermined by some recent methodological theories concerning the study of Politics which, with their avowed purpose of constructing a science of Politics, emphasise facts and facts alone. Section I of the book directly discusses this problem and aims at driving home the conclusion that the tendency towards value-neutralism would only impoverish the study of Politics. Furthermore, the essays in cluded in this Section also reveal the persuasive nature of Politics, thereby implying that the political is essentially democratic and that that which is not democratic is, strictly speaking, any thing but political. The three Sections that follow elucidate the dual assumption regarding Politics, i.e., its normative character and its persuasive nature. Section II discusses some problems of practical politics in the same context while Sections III and IV discuss the ideas of some modern Western and Indian thinkers respectively to eluci date the persuasive nature and the normative character of Politics.