Introduction: The Domain of Political Science Author(s): Munroe Smith Source: Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 1, No. 1 (Mar.

, 1886), pp. 1-8 Published by: The Academy of Political Science Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2139299 . Accessed: 05/02/2014 22:55
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Volume I.]

March,z886.

[Numberz.

POLITICAL

SCIENCE

QUARTERLY.
INTRODUCTION.
THE DOMAIN OF POLITICAL SCIENCE.

term "political science" is greatlyin need of definition. Technical termsshould have a limitedand exact meaning; but this particularterm is used vaguely,not by the laity alone experts. These speak sometimesof a "political but by professed science," at other times of a pluralityof "political sciences." described as "politiAgain, the sciences which are commonly cal " are oftendesignated as " social "; and besides the various " social sciences" there appears to be a "social science." desirable. This, A more exact use of these termsis certainly it seems to me, is more likelyto be obtained by endeavoringto establish the respective domains of the sciences in question and theirrelationto each other,than by laying down dogmatic the practicalvalue of which is often overrated. A definitions, the is a veryattractive thing. It seems to offer neat definition conclusionof wisdom in portableform. It is, in fact,the condensed result of a great deal of hard thinking; but to understand it, to appreciatewhat it includes and what it excludes,the must be thought over again until the thoughts of the definer disciple has gained the same outlook over the subject as the master-and then he no longer needs the definition. Social science, in the broadest sense, deals with all the relations of man in society; more precisely,with all the relations that result from man's social life. It may be questioned whetherit is properto speak of a social science. We certainly have no general social science in the sense in which we have particularsocial sciences. In politics,in economics,in law and THE

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POLITICAL SCIENCE

QUARTERLY.

[VOL. I.

in language, we are able to some extentto trace phenomenato theircauses, to group facts under rules and rules under principles. But the laws which underlieman's social life as a whole have not been grasped and formulated. Social science or sociology, if we use the term, is thereforesimply a convenient general expression for a pluralityof social sciences. But social science is used in another and a narrower sense. The various social sciences do not cover the entire field of man's - e.g., movement social life. There are portions of that field of population,vice and crime-which lie beyond the domain of the older and better-defined sciences; in which the preliminary work of explorationhas only recentlybeen undertaken; and in whichlittle has been accomplishedbeyondthe collection of data by statisticalobservations. For lack of a more definite social science is used in a restrictivesense to describe term,1 these newly-entered domains of investigation. Among the social sciences we find some which are designated as the political sciences. Political science signifies, literally,the science of the state. Taken in this sense, it includes the organizationand functionsof the state, and the relation of states one to another. But what are the political sciences? Are they subdivisions,or special branches of the science of the state? Economic science is obviouslyregarded as one of the political sciences, for the term "political economy" is used more often than "economics" and commonlyin quite as broad a sense. But economic science does not occupy itself simply with the state. It is the science of wealth. It deals with the finances of the state, but it deals also with the accumulation, exchange and distribution of wealth by individuals. But the political sciences may perhaps be taken to be those which deal with the relations of man in the state, i.e., with all the relationswhich reszult2 from
1 For the science of populationthe Germansare beginningto use the word Demologie. This new science,strictly lies onlyin partwithin speaking, the circle of the social sciences; in partit reachesout intonatural science,i.e., biology. 2 This limitation is obviously necessary. The merefactthatcertain relations exist in the present in the statedoes not makethempolitical; otherwise, stage of civilizawouldbe political. The questionis: Do the relationsexist tion,all social relations becauseof men'slivingin and underthe state?

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No. I.]

THE

DOMAiV

OF POLITICAL

SCIENCE.

political sciencea purely life. But is economic man'spolitical science even in this sense? Do we not find,for example, and barteramongpeople who,like Homer's private property than that of the Cyclops,knowno othersocial organization must be a politicalscience,muchmore family? If economics science, dealswithmanyrelalaw be so. Law, like economic - e.g., property and from life man's political tionsnotresulting by state relations -but its rulesare at least formulated family machinery.Nevertheby governmental organs,and enforced classifiedas one of the political less, law is not commonly to underthese circumstances, sciences. It seems preferable, -the science of the state. but one politicalscience recognize withwhich this science deals may,of course, The relations and treatedseparately. We may separate the be subdivided ofstatesone to another- theinternational relationsrelations into the national. We maydividethe nationalrelations from of stateorganization and state action. We maydisquestions of thestate. But there thevarious between functions tinguish these various groupsof quesis no good reasonforerecting of each tionsinto distinct politicalsciences. The connection withall is too intimate. the soto distinguish In endeavoring politicalsciencefrom theclose I have no thought of denying calledpolitical sciences, whichsubsistsbetweenpoliticalscience,as here connection and law. On the conand the sciencesof economics defined, to demonstrate theinterit is a chief objectof thisarticle trary them we emphasize of thesesciences. In defining dependence thanthe fieldof view- the side from thepointofviewrather are regardedratherthan the relations whichsocial relations of thatthedomains themselves. Thence arisesan impression thanis really thecase. thesesciencesare moredistinct
die Gedanken, wohknen Leicli beieinander sickdieSachen. Doch hartimRaumestossen

holdsa large scienceswe are nowconsidering Each ofthethree withone or bothof the in common of its territory proportion in theorganizahavecommon others. Law and politics ground

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POLITICAL SCIEiVCE QUARTERLY.

[VOL. 1.

in the single state. Law and tion and operationof government economicsare both concernedwithall commercialtransactions. The theoryof governmental administration is largelyeconomic; is a part of the administrative and state-finance systemof the state, is based on economic theory,and is regulated by law. The relative position of these sciences may be indicated by drawing three circles or ellipses, each of which intersectsthe other two, with a very considerable space occupied by all in common. Nor is the groundwhichthese three sciences cover, properto themonly. All the social relationswithwhichpolitics, law and economics have to do lie within the domain of ethics. - these ideas are forces that Duty, loyalty, honesty, charity underlieand supportthe state; that give to law its mosteffective the egoistic struggleforgain. sanction; that cross and modify Politics, law and economics-political, legal and economic science -these two classes of terms have thus far been used indiscriminately. But it is obvious that the politicianand the lawyerare not necessarilypolitical or legal scientists,any more than a man who busies himselfin devising new means of gaining wealth is an economist. Primarily, of course,the difference is in the aim. Science aims at the discoveryof truth; But the methodsmust be such as are adapted to realize this aim. What then are the methods of the social sciences? All the various methods employed may be grouped under one term- cornparison. The single fact means nothingto us; we accumulate facts that seem akin; we classify and reclassifythem, discarding superficial and accidental similaritiesas we discover deeper substantial identities. We accumulate and comparefactsfrom our own and fromforeigncountries; we accumulatefactsfrom the immediate and more remote past, and compare themwith each other and with present facts. Statistics, comparative legislation,history -these are means and modes of accumulating facts forcomparison. The ancillaryrelationwhich these studies bear to the social sciences is often lost from view. We speak of an historical science, of a science of comparativelegislation,of statistical science - and thus apparentlycoordinatethese studies with the

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No.

I.]

THE DOMAIN OF POLITICAL SCIENCE.

social sciences of politicsand economics,law and ethics. But they should not be so coordinated. History,forexample,is not a social science in the same sense as economics,forit does not deal with a definitegroup of social relations. It is a mode of investigatingall sorts of social relations. The same is true of legislation. statisticsand comparative I have not the slightestintentionof denying the existence of of statistics,or of comparativelegislation. a science of history, There are methods of accumulatingand using facts (?) that are inaccurateand deceptive. The numberof these methods is as unlimited as the ingenuityof ignorance. There are, on the other hand, methods of collecting,testing, sifting and using facts that give approximatelyaccurate and reliable results. called scientificmethods. They are limited These are properly the most important and are those which we call the number; in legislation. of statistics,and of comparative sciences of history, But the relation of these sciences to the social sciences is not but auxiliary. coordinate, is history. Of all these auxiliarysciences, the most important All othermethods of comparativestudymay be said to operate on a single plane -the plane of the present. Historygives to the social sciences the third dimension,and thus indefinitely increases the range of comparison. But it does farmore than this. To the application of the historicmethod we owe the persist and at the same time discoverythat social institutions change from generation to generation and from century to century; that these changes, in the case of each single institubut steady, and are of such a naturethat we tion, are not fitful involuntarilyborrow words which describe the processes of organic life,and speak of their "growth" and "decay"; and when we take a further step, and comparethe social institutions with those of earlierand of the present time,in theirtotality, azure in the " infinite vanishes until tradition earlier still periods of the past," we discovera constant tendencyfromthe simple of form to the complex,a constantlyincreasingdifferentiation another so that we borrow of phrase and specialization function; fromthe science of biology,and speak of the "evolution" of

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POLITICAL SCIENCE

QUARTERLY.

[VOL. 1.

states and law, of art and language. The sociologists have borrowedthe word fromthe naturalists, but not the conception. Beforethe naturalistsmade the word technical,German philologists had demonstrated the evolutionof language,and a German jurist had said: Law is not made, it grows; it is as much a part and a productof a nation's life as is its speech.' We have alreadyseen that the domains of politics,economics and law are largely coincident. From that coincidence alone would result a close interdependence. This interdependenceis greatlyincreased by the use of the comparativeand especially of the historical method. To use statisticssafely,the sociologist must take into account the entire social conditionof the state in which the statistics are gathered. Political or legal as well as economic differences may make the statisticalreportsof two states upon the same subject valueless for comparison. The intelligentuse of foreign legislations by the jurist, the economist, or the student of politics, implies not only an acquaintance with the general principles and technical structure of foreig,n law, but of the political and economic conditions of the countryin and forwhich each particularlaw was made. But it is in historicalinvestigationthat this interdependence of the social sciences becomes most sensible; and it is through historical investigationthat we gain insight into the cause of this interdependence. It is rarelypossible to stamp a historical fact as exclusively political, legal, or economic. The student will naturallyapproach it from one of these sides, and is in dang-erof failing to see the others; but a one-sided view is never a true view. Take, forexample,the agrarian bill of the youngerGracchus. To the economist,its principalinterestlies in the attempt to break up the lattfundia,the great cattleranches,and to reestablishsmall agricultural holdings. To the lawyer,the chief points of interestare the tenure by which the were held, and the proposedinalienability Zatifundia of the new properties. To the student of politics, it is a phase in the struggle between the senatorial oligarchy of Rome and the
1 Savigny, Berufunserer Zeit (I8I5).

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No.

I.]

THE DOMAliV OF POLITICAL SCIENCE.

democracyof the peninsula. But to view the fact truly,each of the three should be able to see it on all sides. If we seek to trace throughhistorythe evolutionof the state, we find each step in its developmentrecordedin the evolution of law and explained to a great degree by economic changes. of the nomadic clan into the local commuThe transformation state is accompaniedand nityand of the tribeinto the primitive conditionedby the developmentof agriculture. The substitution of aristocracyfor kingship in the ancient world, and the analogous developmentof feudalism in mediaeval Europe, are results of the developmentof private propertyin land. The substitution of monarchy for aristocracy,and of democracy -the formonarchy cycle throughwhich Aristotle alreadysaw the little states of the ancient world moving-and the similar in modern Europe, of absolutism for feudalism substitution, and of democracyfor absolutism-these furtherchanges are necessitated by the developmentof commerceand the increasing weightof movable wealth. If it is the evolution of law upon which our attentionis primarilybent, we find that in primitivesociety rules which we are inextricably blended withmoral preshould to-daycall legral cepts and religiousdogmas. Properlyspeaking,thereis neither religionnor morals nor law in this stage of social development, forthese distinctionsare not yet drawn. The only sanction of rules is religiousfear and the moral sense these undifferentiated of the community. But as the tribe becomes territorially fixed the physical powerof the state begins and the state takes form, to be applied to compel obedience to a certainportionof these traditionalrules,and law begins to separate itself fromreligion and ethics. As civilizationbecomes more complex, the state plays an increasinglyimportantrole, and the domain of law widens. But every step in its development, as in that of the state, is conditionedto a great extentby economic changes. Finally,if we take economicsas the immediateobject of investigation,we find that the operation of the social forces with modiwhich this science primarily concerns itselfis constantly fied by the developmentof ethics and law. In the strugglefor

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POLUT/CAL SCIENCE

QUARTERLY.

existenceinto which men enter with unequal endowments, it is at first the physically weaker who goes under,and the physically who survives; but the cruderforms stronger of violence are gradually tabooed byethics,and at last law interposesits imperative vimn fieri veto,ends the reign of force,and makes the plane of struggleintellectual. Then cunningand fraud take the place of brute strength; but law meets fraudwith equitable interposition, and develops a systemof checks that grows more complex and refinedas the increasing ingenuityof man develops subtler formsof iniquity. It is a resultof the entireprecedingdiscussion that political, economic and legal science are so interdependent that the invesof both tigationof any one of the threeimpliesthe investigation of the others. Choose whichyou will, the others are necessary the science of the state is assuming auxiliaries. But of the three, more and more the dominant position. The principal legal question of the day,in our country, is: To what organ or organs of the state shall the developmentof law be entrusted -to the judicial and legislative,or to the legislativealone ? This is the essence of the question of codification. Behind this is risinga second question, which Europe has met and answered and which we shall soon be called upon to answer: Shall the development of law be partly local and partlynational,or national only? Both of these questions are political. Again, the burningeconomic questions of the day all turn on the advisability, the extentor the methodof state interference:between landlordand tenant, in Great Britain; between capitalistand laborer,in Germany; between corporations and the public, in the United States. The conceptionof the state as a mere protective association against externalforceand internaldisorderis antiquated. The state is everywhere exercising otherfunctionsthan the protection of person and propertyand the enforcement of contract. Whether the increasingimportanceof the state be deploredor applauded, the fact remains that it is rapidlybecoming,if it is not already,the centralfactorof social evolution.
MUNROE SMITH.

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