Irresistible Forces: The Pressures for a Science of Politics
| Author | Jeffrey Stanyer |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1467-9248.1976.tb00111.x |
| Published date | 01 September 1976 |
| Date | 01 September 1976 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
IRRESISTIBLE
FORCES:
THE
PRESSURES
FOR
A
SCIENCE
OF
POLITICS*
JEFFREY
STANYER
University
of
Exeter
AMONGST
the signs of the growth of a discipline
is
the appearance of two related
‘crises’-of identity and legitimacy-experiencd by those who believe they belong
to the same intellectual fraternity.’ When a subject reaches a degree
of
sophisti-
cation and complexity those
who
study it begin to question the nature of the
enterprise in which they are engaged and its status in comparison with others.
Questions about identity are those concerning its relationship with practical
affairs and its ‘autonomy’ from longer and better established subjects. Does it
give a better understanding than commonsense? Should it be taught
to
fledgling
citizens and potential administrators and politicians
?
Questions about legitimacy
are those that relate to the scope, rigour and adequacy of its paradigm methods.
Does it pass the tests that ought to be applied to all intellectual subjects? If the
answer to the second type of question is wholly or partly in the negative indi-
vidual students do not surrender their claim
to
a place in the academic sun but
engage in search behaviour.
The purpose
of
this paper is not to describe the recurrence of these two crises
in the study
of
politics in the twentieth century but to offer an interpretation
of
the
apparently dialectic nature
of
the evolution of the discipline?
If
those who seek
to advance political science are explorers, then this is a special sort
of
map,
derived from the experiences of those who have been lost. Like all explorers’
maps it is a picture of the partly unknown.
SEARCH BEHAVIOUR
There is only one substantial point in this paper, and to appreciate it fully
the nature and functions
of
search behaviour must be understood. An organism
engages in search behaviourwhen it continues to investigate a range
of
behavioural
alternatives (situations, conditions etc.) until it discovers one
it
deems satisfactory
for
its purposes. Then it stops; that is, it does not continue in an attempt to find
a better or the best one. Such behaviour is encountered when an environment is
largely unknown before the investigation, which means in effect that the concept
of the ‘best’ solution is non-applicable. One can only choose the best from a
finite set
of
known
thing^.^
*
This is a revised and shortened version of a paper originally given to the Political Studies
Conference, Oxford, March 1975.
The expressions are used by
R.
Jensen in ‘History and the Political Scientist’, chapter
1
in
S.
M.
Lipset, ed.,
Politics
and
the Social Sciences
(Oxford University Press, 1969), pp. 2-3.
The meaning given
to
them in this paper is somewhat different from that
of
Jensen.
This has already been done by a number of writers.
See,
for instance,
D.
Easton,
ThePolitical
System
(Knopf, 1953);
A.
Sornit and
J.
Tanenhaus,
The Development
of
Political Science (Allyn
and Bacon, 1967);
H.
Eulau,
The Behavioural Persuasion
in
Politics
(Random House, 1963).
A
similar point underlies the rejection by March and Simon (in
Organizations,
Wiley,
1958) of classical rationality in favour of
satisficing
behaviour as a foundation for a science of
administration.
See
esp. pp. 140-1.
Political
Studiea,
VoJ.
XXIV,
No.
3
(237-252)
238
IRRESISTIBLE FORCES
The process
of
invention is a perfect example of what
is
meant by search
behaviour in this context. The answer to the problem that the inventor faces
cannot be known in advance; what he can do is recognize a satisfactory solution
when he encounters it. The persistent inventor tries one ‘solution’ after another
until he creates something that he and others judge to perform the necessary
function with a tolerable degree of efficiency and effectiveness. He may give up
before this happens, he may accept a solution when further research would have
produced a better one, or he may go to the grave still seeking unavailingly for an
acceptable answer.
Search behaviour, therefore, results from the value systems of individuals,
is located in a changing and uncertain environment in which they exist, and de-
pends on their ignorance of the full variety
of
the external world.
It may be argued that all subjects are continuously engaged in such behaviour;
that the monolithic appearance given by the long established ones conceals the
existence of individuals and groups who find the state of the discipline intolerable
and try to change the general consensus. On occasions a minority may grow in
size and this will lead to the frenetic activity now usually called ‘methodological
controversy’. Any one of several outcomes may result; the old subject may split
into different disciplines, a new satisficing pattern may emerge, or the subject may
fade away.
The application of this general point to the present circumstances of political
studies depends on the acceptance of four subsidiary considerations.
The first is simply that those who study politics and government in any system-
atic way have been and still are engaged in a search for a satisfactory way of
achieving their aims. The search has consisted largely of attempts to discover
in other, more reputable subjects an inspiration or set of directions which will
transfigure the study
of
politics. Such attempts often specifically reject other
candidates; the ‘behavioural revolution’ of the
1920s,
for instance, was largely
the replacement of law, history, ethics and speculative metaphysics by psychology,
sociology and natural science as the compasses of ambitious political scientists.
The second is that the solutions that have been ‘found’
so
far have received only
temporary acceptance, even though this may have been an enthusiastic embrace
for a short time.
No
way of studying politics has received general and lasting
assent.
The third is that the search is a differentiated process, occurring at several levels
of generality and abstraction. It may be the attempt to discover ways of dealing
with the small problems of empirical research-for instance, those encountered
in case-studies of political behaviour in a locality-or
it
may be concerned with
broader range questions-such as those of comparative analysis-or with the
most general question of all; what account ought to be given of the whole activity
itself?
The fourth is that though substantive answers obviously cannot be discerned
in an unknown future, yet much can be said about the logical characteristics of
solutions which will be more than temporary camps. The ‘irresistible forces’
mentioned in the title of this paper derive from the relationship between these
logical characteristics and the commitment of members of
a
discipline, established
or
emergent, to general intellectual standards.
The first three considerations only prepare the ground for the fourth; the rest
of the paper depends on it providing the basis for the evaluation
of
all ‘solutions’.
To continue reading
Request your trial