Nerves of Government : models of Political communication and control

This book offers an interim report from an enterprise of thought that is still continuing. The enterprise is to develop eventu ally a theory of politics, both national and international. This differs from the history of past political ideas, somewhat as the search for an adequate economic theory differs from the study of the history of economic thought.

Such a theory should develop appropriate analytic concepts and models, so as to aid the economy and power of our thinking about politics. It should suggest what facts are likely to be most relevant, and help us to order these facts into meaningful contexts. It should show the probable trend of future political developments, if present policies should be continued, and it should show the probable con sequences of particular political actions or decisions. It should help us to appraise the significance of particular institutions, and of the actual patterns of political behavior that may differ greatly from whatever the formal laws and institutions would have led us to ex pect. In short, it should be as unblinkingly realistic as any social scientist's commitment to truth and to reality could make it.

Finally, however, such a theory should link the "is" and the "ought." It should show the effect of specific facts and policies on the main values that men have held in Western culture; and it should show the significance of some of our major values for specific policy choices. Beyond this, it should show which policies are likely to prove compatible with the pursuit of a wider range of values, and what values are likely to prove in political practice more compatible with others. Ultimately, a mature theory of this kind should help us to identify viable, growing, and creative patterns of political values and political action.

There is no such theory today. There are current political ideolo gies and philosophies, some of them with the claim to be "peren nial." There are important theories and insights in different fields of social science. There are relevant elements in the findings and the philosophy of the natural sciences-elements that could help us in our task. There is the great tradition of classic political theory, from the ancients down to our own time, and there are important and impressive attempts at synthesis by contemporary writers.¹ Yet it seems clear that there is still before us a continuing task of pro ducing and developing a theory of politics that will be comprehen sive, coherent, relevant, and, one hopes, increasingly effective.