Approach to the study of politics: twenty two contemporary essays exploring the nature of politics and methods by which it can be studied

THE ESSAYS in this volume grew out of one of those agonizing exercises in introspection which departments from time to time go through -that of re-examining their curriculum. While engaged in such an exercise, it occurred to the Department of Political Science at Northwestern University that scholars from other universities, and to some extent from other disciplines, might have some rewarding remarks to make about the study of politics. These scholars were not asked to comment on or to propose changes in the North western curriculum, a task which in any event they might have approached with understandable reluctance. Instead, they were given somewhat freer scope for their talents, being asked inferentially to discuss some of intellectual problems associated with the development of an academic discipline-and with that of political science in particular. By making the center of concern the acquisition of knowledge in the study of politics, rather than the curricular content of any single department, the discussions were raised to a level of generalization which has relevance not only for political science but for other social sciences as well.
The essays in this volume were prepared specifically for a series of four conferences held by the Department which were concerned, topically, with the formation of political concepts, the development of political theory, the use of analytic systems, and the study of the community. The categories of the various sections are not water-tight inasmuch as some essays have wider applicability than the topic of the conference suggests. No attempt has been made to edit the material in such a fashion that it will fit into a precise format, as if everything had been worked out in advance, nor yet to prepare an interpretative essay.