Excerpt from An Introduction to the Problem of Government

Our purpose has thus been to deal analytically and critically rather than descriptively with governmental structures. Descriptive material, however, has not been excluded. Care has been taken to illustrate concretely the abstract principles which have been discussed, but there is no pretence that the student is given a full description of the governments of any of the States whose constitutions are considered. We do venture to think, however, that the chapters which follow, with the illustrative material in the appendices, furnish an adequate outline for a course in Constitutional Government, and that any descriptive details which are deemed to be lacking can perhaps be better acquired from the constitutions themselves or from other texts, rather than that the student should get his descriptive knowledge without the synthesis and orienta tion which we have sought to provide.

So, also, the present volume may be useful in linking up existing political institutions with the subject matter of courses on the elements of Political Science or Political Theory. For, just as it is essential that the student of government see the problems common to all constitutional systems, and temporarily solved in different ways, so it is necessary that the student of political philosophy have his feet on the ground, and appreciate the connection between political thought and governmental adjustments.

The authors are fully aware that this book is only an introduction to the problem of government. For this they make no apology. The subject is so intricate and its ramifications are so numerous that phases of it (which may seem to some readers to be important) are given summary treatment, considered only in, the footnotes, or even relegated to the Topics for Further Investigation which are appended to each chapter.

From the pedagogical standpoint this is an advantage. The student should not think that the beginning and end of a course or a subject are between two covers; it is better for him to have a syllabus rather than a text book; for him, in many cases, to work out his own salvation on topics that are sufficiently important to warrant independent study, yet sufficiently simple not to impose too great difficulties. It is thought that this purpose may be more easily and more advantageously accomplished, with the aid of the unusually copious references which have been included to current political literature of an interesting and authoritative, but non-technical character. On pedagogical grounds, also, there is no objection to the re petition of certain matters (from different points of view) which the plan of our book makes inevitable. In result, then, it is hoped that the student may be led to a knowl edge of the true meaning of constitutional liberty, and to an adequate understanding of the problems involved in the harmonizing of popular government with an efficient ad ministration oi public affairs.

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