POLITICAL SCIENCE. 199 POLITICAL SCIENCE. the formation of political ijuriiuscs and in pro- viding a basis for political action, i'ar from involving merely o i>riori reasoning about human nature and about the actions proper to it, this pursuit is concerned with the establishment of practical conclusions upon the basis of wide and accurate information. Practical life, however, differs from histoid' and sociology, where the in- vestigator in his study of the connection of facts is led on along a seemingly endless chain of causation. Here resolutions have to be formed and action taken bcfoie the basis of induction is complete. In this aspect politics is an applied science — both normative and teleological — which determines the best mode of political action upon the basis of the most complete scientific informa- tion procurable. Relation of Political Science to Otheb Fields of Knowledge. The relation of politics to the general science of society has already been indicated; its field is more restricted and the character of its methods teleological rather than causative. ( See Sociology. ) The difference be- tween the purposes and methods of sociology and of polities might be further indicated by consid-. ering how either would treat the career of a statesman like Lincoln. The science of polities would study the principles and purposes em- bodied in his character in a concrete manner; sociology, on the other hand, would attempt to trace these composite factors back to their ulti- mate causes, and, passing beyond the energies manifesting themselves in the political struggle, would probe into their psychological and physical origins. The relation of politics to psychology also is that of a teleological to a causative science. All political institutions may be looked upon as psychological facts having their existence only in the mind, although they may be of the greatest tenacity and are in turn productive of concrete facts such as public buildings and im- provements. But psychology', like sociology, is a causative science, going back of the purpose or concept with which politics starts, and trying to investigate its psychic and physiological origins. The science of economics deals with a different set of social phenomena, which, however, have the closest bearing upon politics. Not only is political influence largely determined by economic power, but the constant interference of political agencies with economic interests and processes makes it necessary for political science to give special attention to economics. The field of his- tory, like that of sociology, embraces political action together with the other manifestations of social life. But history differs specifically from politics in that its purpose lies in tracing indi- vidual chains of causation, whereas politics, by the use of the comparative method, establishes broader generalizations. The science of stalis- tics furnishes a basis of induction for all the social sciences. Both in the study of the composi- tion of political forces and of the results of politi- cal action regarded as experiments, the aid of statistics is indispensable. The knowledge of the material body and of the physical basis of State life is furnished by the sciences of ethnology and geography, the results of both of which form the most essential data of political science. Among the other natural sciences physiology and biology are of special importance to political science. Although the similarity of the life processes in the State and in the physical organism have been exaggerated in the organic theory of the State, the analogy of historic to organic development, as opposed to purely mechanical construction, will always remain valuable. The absolute iden- tification of biological, .social, and political laws of development is, however, being abandoned and is giving way to a tendency to view political phenomena under the aspect of psychological facts to be explained rather by the laws of asso- ciation and imitation than by the principle of organic structure and growth. The Methods of Political Science. The sci- entific method of politics acquires its materials by the historic study of individual institutions, by the analysis of contemporary political life, by statistical investigation, and bj- the comparative study of institutions. On the'basis of the facts thus secured it arrives by the process of induc- tion at the general laws and principles of political action. The most distinctive features of this method are a sharp juristic analysis of institu- tions and the discovery of true analogies in dif- ferent .systems. By the application of this meth- od the materials furnished by a number of aux- iliary sciences are subjected to analysis and become the elements for a recomposition which results in a clear and definite grouping of social purposes in the form of political action. As the facts with which politics deals are much more definite than those of the general social sciences, and as political institutions and laws constitute, as it were, a precipitation of social forces, en- dowed with great permanence and solidarity, the study of political development will always remain the backbone of historical work. Although we need not accept Freeman's dictum that history is past politics, it may be said that historical forces are most clearly understood, although per- haps not completely fathomed, when seen from the point of view of the growth and succession of political institutions and laws. The principal methods auxiliary to political science are the historical, the statistical, the ex- perimental, the analytical, and the deductive method. Political studies have always drawn their material chiefly from the recorded history of mankind, and are therefore assisted by the technique of the historical method — the critical scrutiny of documentary evidence and the mas- tery of the laws of cause and effect. But although politics, as indeed every other social science, has thus to make use of historical material, its problems differ distinctly from those of history. It is the function of history to explain a suc- cession of events and actions through the dis- coverj' of a causal relation. The function of politics, on the other hand, is to explain a given institution through an investigation of its origins as well as through comparison with similar insti- tutions elsewhere. To history all the transforma- tions of a given institution are equally interest- ing: to politics, only those which explain its present character. Thus in the study of the Eng- lish parliamentary system of the present, politi- cal science need not give consideration to the orig- inal causes for instituting the British Parliament, as other causes have been substituted upon which the parliamentary regime is at present based. Therefore, in general, in a succession of substi- tuted causes, political science would not go back of the causes directly operative in the institution to be explained, while to history the whole series of substitutions is important.
