CHAPTER I THE PROVINCE OF POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY The Province of Political Science. Political Science, using the term in its broadest sense, has for its purpose the ascertainment of political facts and the arrangement of them in systematic order as determined by the logical and causal relations which exist between them. These political facts, which include both objective phenomena and the subjective forces which create them or fix their functional activities, are those which relate to the State; and by a State is understood a group of human individuals viewed as an organized corporate community over which exists a ruling authority which is recognized as the source of commands legally and, in general, ethically, binding upon the individuals composing the community. The qualifying adjective, political, may, therefore, be applied to all matters which relate to the origin and history of the State, to its governmental organization, its activities, its aims, its administrative methods, its legitimate sphere of authority, and to its very right to exist. Furthermore, inasmuch as the State may be viewed as comprehending within itself all types of organizations legally subordinate to itself, Political Science is concerned with political authority in all its forms of manifestation, with inferior as well as with sovereign bodies politic, and with primitive and undeveloped types of public life as well as with those of the modern 'This, of course, is a merely provisional or general definition of a State. Its more precise definition will be the outcome of the discussions contained in this volume. civilized world. These phenomena it deals with descriptively, historically and comparatively, and with regard to all the circumstances, objective and subjective, which condition their existence or activities. State and Society Distinguished. An aggregate of human individuals, united by a mutuality of interests and by what has been termed a "consciousness of kind" is termed a Society. Such a group thus has a certain psychological unity, and possesses, in a measure at least, to use Rousseau's terminology, a volonté générale as distinguished from a volonté de tous. When, for the realization of its common interests through the united efforts of its members, this group comes to have a more or less definitely organized existence, and possesses definite organs for the expression of its corporate will, and when there is a recognition by the individual members of the group of a general obligation upon their part, moral and legal, to obey the expressions of this will as thus disclosed, and, therefore, an admission of the right of the ruling authority to enforce its commands by physical or other sanctions, the group takes on a political character. The social body becomes a body-politic and, as such, is brought within the purview of Political Science. Whether or not the term "State" should be employed only as designating political entities possessing supreme legal authority or sovereignty is a question later to be discussed. For the present it is sufficient to say that a political group is one which is itself a State, an integral part of a State, or a group the members of which are united by some common purpose which directly relates to the conduct or administration of a State. Integral parts of a State include all corporate groups of individuals or instrumentalities created by a State for the government or administration of its territorial divisions, such as colonies and dependencies, member commonwealths of a federation, and the less autonomous administrative or local government units. Associations or leagues of sovereign States constitute, of course, political groups. Under the third class of bodies-politic as enumerated above may be grouped political parties and insurrectionary and revolutionary organizations. In so far as a group of individuals place themselves in armed opposition to the laws of the land in which they are, they become, as such, subjects of distinctively political interest, since their actions are directed against the integrity and administrative efficiency of the existing ruling political organization. Such groups are not, however, political groups when that which unites their individual members is merely resistance to existing law without the effort or desire upon their part to nullify the law in its general application. It is only when it is their aim to overthrow the existing political authority and to establish a new one in its place, or to bring to a standstill the operation of the existing government with reference to certain of its policies, that the group takes on, strictly speaking, a political character. Thus a band of brigands, although well organized, is not a political group, while a body of individuals seeking by their concerted efforts to bring about the overthrow of the existing government or to transfer their fealty and allegiance to another State, is to be so termed. The distinction between a political group and a nonpolitical group is, therefore, that, in the one, a public, and in the other, a private end is sought. At times it may be difficult to determine whether individuals who are refusing obedience to existing law are to be treated simply as a body of law-breakers, or as a revolutionary and therefore political group. Though this fact may not be one that is easy of determination, the distinction between the two is sufficiently clear, and is one which is |