IMPORTANT STUDY

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 61, 14 March 1939, Page 15

IMPORTANT STUDY

POLITICAL SCIENCE

ITS PLACE IU A DEMOCRACY

PROFESSOR LEPSON'S ADDRESS

The importance -which a study of political science might assume in a university college in a democracy where all the citizens had the right to participate in government, and the duty to pass judgment on it, was stressed last night by the recently-appointed Professor of Political Science at Victoria University College, Professor L. M. Lipson, .B-A. (Oxford), Ph.D. (Chicago), when, in a public lecture, he commenced the work of the first Department of Political Science and Public Administration to be established at a university college in New Zealand. Professor Lipson asked and answered three questions: First, Is political science really a science? Second, What do we mean by political? Third, What is the place of this field in the university curriculum? Speaking of the first, he said it had been held by some people that political science ought to be made into an exact science and' capable of the method economics had used in reducing its subject matter to quantitative terms and building up laws of a universal character. An attempt had been made to invent an abstraction, a political man, with the characteristic that he desired power and did everything for the sake of gaining power. POLITICS AND ETHICS. "On the basis of this hypothetical man certain political scientists have tried to make an exact science of political science, centred round this creature of their imagination." Professor Lipson continued: "They want to divorce the science of politics from ethics and say that it is concerned with means and not with ends. I reject that view because I do not think it is possible in dealing with politics to divorce consideration of ends from means." Professor Lipson said the whole subject matter, of political study was steeped with ethical considerations and if one considered it as dealing only with means it lost its value. Whether one adopted the philosophical method of Plato or preferred the observational method of Bryce, who studied States as they are, with both methods, one had to admit evaluation of the worth of what one was studying. UNCERTAINTY OF HUMAN NATURE. Professor Lipson said he did not think the abstract political man- was any use, for economics had suffered because a great many of its statements had only been true of the abstract economic man. "In addition," he said, "political study cannot really be an exact science because you cannot predict how human nature will behave, and the concepts with which you. are dealing—liberty, authority, and justice —are not susceptible to precise analysis such as are those used by the chemist." Referring to the second question, j "What do we mean by political?" Pro-' fessor Lipson said many thinkers nad attempted to equate politics with power ag.d held that the sphere of the State was the sphere of force and coercion. "Thaj^ in my view, is to take a narrow view of political," he said. "You must study not only who gives orders, but also what orders they give and who benefits by the orders. Power is justified only by the ends for which it is used. "To ascertain the meaning of political, we must look at the State, because they are co-extensive terms," he said. "The role of the State is that of a co-ordinating, managerial institution in the fabric of society, and its specific function is to harmonise the functions of individuals and institutions so that they may harmonise into the general interest. The State's task is to promote the general welfare which no institution of smaller scope is able to take care of. The political function is to harmonise special interests into the general one." Dealing with the third question, "What is the place of political science in the university curriculum?" Professor Lipson said: "In our studies today we have a great tendency to specialisation. That is necessary, because life has become more complex, but the corollary of specialisation is that we must integrate these parts into a unified whole." A COMMON MEETING GROUND. There was, he said, need for some subject which would serve as a common meeting ground for all other subjects. Philosophy was a study eminently suited for that purpose, because it studied the nature of reality and the sources and validity of knowledge. Political science was another field which could fulfil the same need. "Political science is intimately connected with economics, history, law, sociology, and philosophy," he said. "Its boundaries are indistinct and its ramifications spread into all these other fields. It is, therefore, fitted to act as a unifying focus, particularly in a democracy where all the citizens have the right to participate in government and the duty to pass judgment-on it. Students of all fields should have a knowledge of the function of the State in society." The specialist most socially useful was he who could see the connection between his own work and that of others, Professor Lipson said. Public administration, as he envisaged it, was the dynamic aspect of the political function. It involved the actual harmonisation in practice of conflicting interests and will. The first principle of legislation should be that one could not legislate what one could not administer. Social amelioration must advance side by side with the development of the technique of administration.