POLITICAL SCIENCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 21, 26 January 1939, Page 10

POLITICAL SCIENCE.

UNIVERSITY TEACHING. Dr. Leslie Lipson will arrive in New Zealand in about a month's time to take up his duties at Victoria University College, Wellington, in connection with the newly-created chair of pvrblic administration and political science. Dr;. Lipson s appointment is a public acknowledgment of the fact, now universally conceded, that if a little more scientific thinking were done in relation to the government of nations many blunders might either be avoided altogether or their worst effects minimised. The question of adequate training of those who desire to fit themscVres for the career of public administration and scientific government has been given intensive consideration during the past few years by many of the leading thinkers of the world. It is unquestioned that world's political outlook and social institutions lag feebly behind the astonishing rate of progress in general scientific knowledge; also that the mainsprings of national action, the various Governments of the world, suffer by the inclusion of administrators who have had no scientific training to fit them for their important tasks. Hit-or-Miss Method. It is worse than useless to try to meet the problems of our own age armed with political and administrative weapons which were originally devised to deal with the difficulties experienced during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Social and political experiments are more than costly. The ancient "hit-or-miss" principle of government has resulted, times without number, in the unemployment, unhappiness and discontent of countless individuals, together with their descendants unto the third and fourth generation. There is a strong tendency to arrive at political and ethical conclusions in terms of emotional reactions, yatjier than by rational judgment, thus making government an art— the cynic would say a dodge!—rather than a science. The present New Zealand appointment draws attention to a significant change in the conception of the function of government during the past century—a change which has exercised a profound influence on the whole theory and practice of administration. This transition has been from the idea of the State as essentially a policeman to that of active promoter and provider of facilities for enabling all citizens to live fuller and happier lives —a kind of universal provider, in fact. In consenting to absorption by the State of more and still more control of national activities, the democracies should remember, urgently, that such State services are the concern of several political ministries whose nominal heads are helplessly dependent upon such advice as may be tendered by the permanent officials of the depart mente concerned. The Hissing Link. As the higher departmental staffs consist of individuals who are generally chosen for ability bv examinations in which science of any kind—much less anything so rare as political science—is a subordinate subject, political ministries are scarcely justified in relying upon the advice of such staffs.. Even if capable of understanding the advances of scientific knowledge in the various departments of national life and activity, they have not the time to keep abreast of them. Hence the institution of scientific advisory committees in many countries. The weakness of such advisory bodies lies in the absence of strong co-ordinating links between them, whereby the whole of the knowledge possessed by theiu may be synthesised and utilised in the true interests of the nation and of the race. -*-S jPi