Human nature in politics : The dynamics of political behavior / James Chowning Davies.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Davies, James Chowning, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Political psychology.

Social psychology.

Social history.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xi, 403 pages) : illustrations

Other Title:

Human nature in politics

Place of Publication:

New York : John Wiley & Sons Inc, 1963.

Summary:

"The purpose of this book is to help close gaps between the areas of political behavior we know well and those we know only slightly. To serve this purpose is to search for origins of political behavior. This makes it necessary to go deeper than is customary into basic mental processes and to range wider in time and space--back to the formative centuries of Western politics and out to parts of the world where the West has not meant the maturation of popularly responsible government so much as it has meant techniques of nonresponsible exploitation and control. The search for origins thus takes us inescapably into the depths of the mind, in the search for common, universal causes of action. My definition of human nature--the behavioral tendencies that are common to the species and rooted in the human organism-is logically incontestable. The tendencies that fit this definition are clearly disputable. In any event, I do not labor the phrase human nature, nor the shibboleth democracy. As the mind relates to pohtics, this book is an attempt to consider what can and cannot be imprinted on the tabula non rasa. To me it seems necessary to do this to understand the origins of political action in the non-Western world. Indeed it seems necessary to do this to understand with more depth why people have developed the sorts of pohtical institutions that prevail in Europe and America".

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.