and McDougall. But the "science," if it be that, is as yet only in its beginnings, and beyond indicating that there are problems connected with man's actions in a group, the social psychologist has not produced any body of principles which must be used by the student of government.2 It must be realized, furthermore, that political forms are haphazard; that in their development there is ofttimes the play of chance rather than conscious purpose. In England, for example, the foreign birth of the first two Georges and Queen Victoria's widowhood contributed to the decline of the royal power. Indeed, the first Hanoverian's meager knowledge of the English language was responsible for the constitutional convention that the sovereign does not attend cabinet councils. France's republican form of government is a sheer accident, and by reason of their undeliberate promulgation, her constitutional laws exhibit many gaps. There is nothing about judicial power, civil Public Finance, the Party system in England and America, and innumerable others, are constantly recorded, discussed, and compared. "The only form of study which a political thinker of one or two hundred years ago would now note as missing is any attempt to deal with politics in its relation to the nature of man. The thinkers of the past, from Plato to Bentham and Mill, had each his own view of human nature, and they made those views the basis of their speculations on government. But no modern treatise on political science, whether dealing with institutions or finance, now begins with anything corresponding to the opening words of Bentham's Principles of Morals and Legislation—“Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure'; or to the 'first general proposition' of Nassau Senior's Political Economy, 'Every man desires to obtain additional wealth with as little sacrifice as possible!"" Human Nature in Politics, pp. 11-12. 1An Introduction to Social Psychology (1908) and The Group Mind. A Sketch of the Principles of Collective Psychology with some Attempt to Apply them to the Interpretation of National Life and Character (1920). Of interest also are Lippmann, A Preface to Politics (1913); Conway, The Crowd in Peace and War (1915), and Trotter, Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War (1917). "See the searching reviews of McDougall, The Group Mind, Political Science Quarterly, Vol. XXXVI, p. 122 (March, 1921) and The New Republic, December 15, 1920. Under the title, "Human Nature and some Social Institutions," H. M. Kallen examines Mr. Wallas' most recent book, Our Social Heritage, in the New Republic, May 18, 1921. For an interesting discussion of this point see J. A. Farrer, The Monarchy in Politics and Lytton Strachey's recent biography, Queen Victoria. Henry Lefret, Le Gouvernement et le Parlement, p. 25. Political accidents Constitutional lacunæ liberty, and the private rights of individuals—surprising lacuna in view of France's contributions to political theory.1 In the United States, the growth of political parties was unanticipated by the "founding fathers"; no provision is made to fill the presidential office if the President-elect dies after election but prior to inauguration; Mr. Wilson's illness demonstrated the very incomplete and ambiguous constitutional preparation for presidential inability; and, as Mr. Wilson and Mr. Roosevelt clearly showed, presidential theories can interpret and modify the formal relationship between the executive and the legislature. But the forms are far less important than the forces behind them.3 There is, finally, another factor which may be mentioned. In the ancient City States or in an absolute monarchy, there is little difficulty in determining who are the governors; but now the vast size and the extreme complexity of existing political systems make the real rulers of a society undiscoverable. The task is not simply to 1E. M. Sait, Government and Politics of France, p. 15. Aside from the provision that the Chamber of Deputies must be based on universal suffrage, the Constitution is silent with regard to elections. 2See Rogers, "Presidential Inability," The Review, Vol. II. p. 481 (May 8, 1920). "Over three hundred different constitutions were promulgated in Europe between the years 1800 and 1880. So slow have men been in discovering that the forms of government are much less important than the forces behind them. Forms are only important as they leave liberty and law to awaken and control the energies of the individual man, while at the same time giving its best chance to the common good." Morley, "Democracy and Reaction," Miscellanies (Fourth Series), p. 300. "The phrase is attributed to John Chipman Gray. says (Authority in the Modern State, p. 29): Commenting on it Laski "The new Chancellor of the Exchequer may be dependent upon a permanent official whose very name is unknown to the vast majority whose destinies he may so largely shape; and, indeed, the position of the English Civil-servant has been defined as that of a man who has exchanged dignity for power." Compare the following from Burke (The Present Discontents): “Nations are not primarily ruled by laws; less by violence. Whatever original energy may be supposed either in force or regulation; the operation of both is, in truth, merely instrumental. Nations are governed by the same methods and on the same principles by which an individual without authority is often able to govern those who are his equals or his superiors; by a knowledge of their temper and a judicious management of it.' The real determine who is the political or legal sovereign; nor is it one of ascertaining public opinion. President Lowell has shown the difficulty of knowing what is, and what is not public opinion.1 The electorate is influenced by “organized emotion," prejudices, non-rational inferences, and economic interests, rather than by reasoned judgments; rulers its choice is limited by party leaders, who in turn are not its own masters; measures are framed by representatives who are influenced by considerations other than what really are, or what they conceive to be, the interests of their constituents; and after these processes are complete, the executive and the courts have their day. Any lawyer can tell who, juristically, exercises in a given government the several sovereign powers. But the legal question is simple compared with the problem of what political forces determine the decisions that are made. These forces are not easily understood, much less measured. Dicey's "political sovereignty" in public opinion is too simple. Harrington's famous statement that political power always follows economic power is—like many generalizations-a half truth, but is very suggestive. Moral, psychological, economic, social, and personal forces determine what decisions are actually made by the nominal or legal rulers the government. If the term "political sovereignty" is permissible, it means the predominant force in this complex, the one that is most powerful, most of the time. To attempt to discover the real rulers is one of the most important tasks of political science. TOPICS FOR FURTHER INVESTIGATION The Relation between Ethics, Politics, Economics, and History.-Garner, Introduction to Political Science; Lieber, Political Ethics; Clay, Economics for the General Reader; Willoughby, The Nature of the State; Pollock, History of the Science of Politics; Seeley, Introduction to Political Science. 1Public Opinion and Popular Government. Political power and economic power Is Politics an Art or a Science?-Garner, Introduction to Political Science; Pollock, History of the Science of Politics; Bryce, Modern Democracies; Lewis, On the Methods of Observation and Reasoning in Politics. The Origin of Political Authority.-Jenks, The State and the Nation; Jenks, Law and Politics in the Middle Ages; Willoughby, The Nature of the State. Psychology and Political Science.-For references, see above, pp. 8, 9. CHAPTER II PRELIMINARY DEFINITIONS A STATE, concretely viewed, is a group of individuals regarded as a politically organized unit.1 Such a group is said to be politically organized when it recognizes an allegiance and yields obedience to a ruling organization which is regarded as the ultimate source and enforcer of all legally binding rules for the regulation of the relations of the individuals with one another and with this law-making and law-enforcing authority itself. In this concrete sense we speak of the English people or of the people of the United States of America as constituting a State. Sometimes, also, by a not very correct transference of the term, we speak of the territory inhabited by a politically organized people as a "State," as, for example, when we speak of the territory inhabitated by the French as the State of France. These are concrete conceptions of the State. A State, abstractly considered, is a group of individuals 1 For a great number of definitions by different writers on politics, see Garner, Introduction to Political Science, Chapter II. State "means two things. It means the government of a community, as Just as an owner or possessor has a standing or position or state in respect of his " What is the |