http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/1022631

Regarding politics essays on political theory, stability, and change

After World War II, political science in general and especially comparative politics underwent what may be considered a "scientific revolution." Harry Eckstein, one of the most influential postwar political scientists, was a major participant in that revolution from the beginning, and he has made substantial and varied contributions to its unfolding over the years. These collected essays, written over thirty years, cover virtually all major issues in comparative politics: democracy, political stability, revolution and civil wars, political development, and "civic inclusion," defined by the author as "the tendency over time to include in politics, in workplace decision-making, education, and in other institutional realms, people previously excluded from participation." Eckstein also deals with aspects of political science as a field: its relation to political practice, its development before the postwar unrest in the field, its state after the first wave of attempts to remake it, and its methods. Eckstein has intentionally avoided the "grand" theoretical controversies in the field--controversies that have arisen from attempts to provide a broad framework, or "master conceptual scheme," for all of political study. He has, instead, always followed the conviction that the development of political science and comparative politics is best served by building middle-range theories--theories that T.H. Marshall called "(theoretical) stepping stones in the middle distance"--About aspects of political institutions, processes, and behavior. In this first collection of his work, Eckstein reflects on the issues and events that underlie and unify his thinking: his personal experiences as a refugee from German Nazism and as an observer of European politics and cultures. Regarding Politics presents in one volume a comprehensive view of the lifelong work of one of the leading comparative political scientists of our times.

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