Modern politics : an introduction to behaviour and institutions

This book is intended to introduce the reader to the study of politics. No book, however, can cover the whole field of study and selection is necessary. What is selected depends on the preferences or the interest of the author and the needs of those to whom the work is directed. Here the emphasis is on politics as a study in which the work particularly of sociologists and psychologists is increasingly relevant. It is not a book on politics by a sociologist or a psychologist but one written by (to coin a word) a 'politicologist'. As a consequence there is a mixture of the old and the new. It therefore reflects the transfer of interest of many teachers of politics away from politics as the description and evaluation of 'legal' (as opposed to 'private') governments, and their policies towards politics as the study of the behaviour of those men and groups (whoever and wherever they may be) who participate in the making and the execution of public policy. This difference of emphasis (for it is that, and not a revolution in the study as some of the pro tagonists claim) makes the subject matter of interest to students of many 'disciplines'. With all its limitations, it is offered to students in the hope that they will be encouraged to take a wider view and to others as an indication of how contributions from their disciplines are valued by those of us who, as the phrase goes, 'teach politics'.

Like all human groups teachers of politics include pessi mists and optimists, those overconfident of what cannot be done and others overconfident of what can be achieved. Both groups (and the realists if such there be) agree that the subject has rarely, if ever, been so stimulating-traditional barriers between disciplines are dissolving and 'the winds of change' are upon us. What better time than this for the reader to join in the enquiry which engages the minds of those who study politics.