Gunnar Heckscher - The Study of Comparative Government and Politics

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ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS:
POLITICAL SCIENCE

THE STUDY OF COMPARATIVE
GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

THE STUDY OF COMPARATIVE
GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

By
GUNNAR HECKSCHER

Volume 10

First published 1957

This edition first published in 2010
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

1957 George Allen & Unwin Ltd.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 10: 0-415-49111-8 (Set)
ISBN 13: 978-0-415-49111-2 (Set)

ISBN 10: 0-415-55541-8 (Volume 10)
ISBN 13: 978-0-415-55541-8 (Volume 10)

Publisher's Note
The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent.

Disclaimer
The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and would welcome correspondence from those they have been unable to trace.

THE STUDY
OF
COMPARATIVE
GOVERNMENT
AND
POLITICS

GUNNAR HECKSCHER

Professor of Political Science
in the University of Stockholm

WITH A PREFACE
BY
WILLIAM A. ROBSON

First published in 1957

This book is copyright under the Berne Convention. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, 1911, no portion may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Inquiry should be made to the publisher

George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1957

Printed in Great Britain
in 12 pt Fournier
BY UNWIN BROTHERS LIMITED
WOKING AND LONDON

PREFACE

THE work by Professor Gunnar Heckscher which is now published for the first time is the report of a round table conference on teaching and research in comparative government held by the International Political Science Association in Florence from April 510, 1954. Although Professor Heckscher has drawn freely and fully on the papers contributed to the round table, and on the discussions which took place there, his essay is far more than a report in the ordinary sense of the word. It is, I believe, the first monograph to explore at length the methodological problems involved in the study of comparative government and politics.

The subject was admirably suited to an international meeting of political scientists. For it bears on the question how far conclusions drawn from the experience of one country can be validly applied to the political systems of other countries; and the conditions which must be taken into account in attempting to answer that question. Can the data of government and politics be regarded as strictly comparable in any sense, or is it unique to the particular countries from which it is drawn? What are the merits and demerits of the different methods of approaching the subject? How far must the political scientist rely on the findings of neighbouring disciplines, such as history or economics or sociology, in studying a foreign country? What do we mean by area studies? These are a few of the significant points on which those who organised the meeting hoped an international discussion would throw some light.

My own interest in the subject had been stimulated by a report I had prepared for I.P.S.A. on The University Teaching of Political Science (published by UNESCO in 1954). This was based on national reports from twelve selected countries, in all of which some teaching of comparative government takes place. I was also aware of the intense interest in the methodology of comparative government and politics aroused by the challenging ideas put forward by a group of American political scientists at a seminar held in Evanston, Illinois, in 1952 and of which a report was published in the American Political Science Review in 1953.

The round table in Florence was attended by about forty political scientists coming from twelve countries, including some situated in Western Europe, some in North and South America, and some in Asia. Thirty papers were contributed on different aspects of the subject: these papers were grouped round the following themes, to which separate discussion sessions were devoted:

The nature, scope and purpose of the study of comparative government

Studies of particular areas

Democratic control of foreign policy

Political parties

Contemporary revolutionary movements

Parliamentary procedure

Electoral systems and elections

Nationalised industries

Methods of research and methods of teaching.

It was hoped to print some of these papers in the present volume, and this was the desire of Professor Heckscher; but it was unfortunately not possible for the publishers to do this from a commercial point of view.

It fell to me, as president of I.P.S.A. at the time, to appoint Professor Heckscher to act as the rapporteur-general of the round table meeting. The outstanding quality of his report shows that my decision was a fortunate one. I wish to thank Professor Heckscher warmly for his great efforts on behalf of the International Political Science Association. I hope that a wide circle of political scientists in many countries will recognise his report as a masterly presentation of the main problems of methodology involved in the study of comparative government and politics. It deserves to be regarded as an indispensable introduction to the subject which every student should read.

The discussions at Florence were of a most stimulating character and often reached a very high level. There was a great clatter of debate by the exponents of different schools and the proponents of diverse outlooks. Traditionalists and innovators were both well represented; and there were participants from some of the neglected countries as well as from the favoured lands which have been the happy hunting grounds of writers on comparative government. At the end of the meeting everyone had learnt something, and most of us felt our horizons had been broadened.

The International Political Science Association received a generous grant from the Ford Foundation which enabled it to invite certain eminent scholars from the United States who otherwise would not have been able to attend. The cordial thanks of I.P.S.A. have already been conveyed to the Ford Foundation. UNESCO has been closely associated with the present project from its beginning. As part of its activities in the field of teaching of political science, UNESCO has been a co-sponsor of the present study and has made a financial contribution to the holding of the meeting as well as to the preparation of the present report.

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