The One, the Few and the Many
FOGELMAN, EDWIN
The One, the Few and the Many The Evolution of Political Thought. By C. Northcote Parkinson. Houghton Mifflin. 327 pp. $6.00. Reviewed by Edwin Fogelman Department of government, University of...
...In the end, his explanation of the nature of historical development seem to reduce to a thinly disguised environmentalism...
...Part of the originality of Parkinson's work is that he draws his evidence not only from Western history but from the history of virtually every part of the world and every period...
...Parkinson's picture of the historian is, apparently, a man who compiles chronologies of events as objectively as possible...
...If Parkinson's historical interpretations are somewhat unsatisfying, his foray into political theory proper is even less convincing...
...Every modern political system is...
...There is no denying the usefulness of chronologies for many purposes, and to be worth anything chronologies should unquestionably be compiled with as little bias as possible...
...But the comprehensive theory of history which Parkinson offers us cannot be sustained by a rather arbitrary listing of events...
...Perhaps the root of the trouble in this book is that Parkinson conceives the study of political theory to be the province of the historian, and of a particular kind of historian...
...The cycle occurs deterministically...
...One is reminded of the student who affirms that "the facts speak for themselves," and can only be asked, "Well, then, what do they say...
...Actually, it would simplify matters considerably if this were indeed the case...
...Unavoidably, each reader will find particular interpretations open to question...
...What Parkinson should be arguing for is not the elimination of political philosophy, but a more careful distinction between philosophy and social theory...
...He supposes that durability and efficiency are the proper standards by which political systems should be judged...
...All modern governments make provision for political participation by the masses of the people—the fact of general literacy alone makes this necessary...
...This is the first disenchanting lesson taught by Professor Parkinson...
...No doubt all these facts—everything from the results of intelligence tests to the number of garbage collectors employed by a given city—might be worth knowing, but in the absence of any theoretical interest it is hard to think why...
...Forms of government, he finds, undergo a continuing cyclical development, in which governments of the one, the few, and the many succeed each other in predictable sequence...
...Witnesses to the acts committed during the 20th century in the name of diverse ideologies need no reminder that events and theories are intertwined...
...Political theories, he maintains, are merely a "rational explanation" after the facts...
...The great modern effort devoted to the sociology of ideas has certainly shown that the role of theories is often more limited and less independent than is sometimes claimed, but it suggests also that the inter-relationship between theories and events cannot be explained by the simple notion of rationalization...
...The facts," he says, "are needed before the theory," and the facts he recommends that we collect are as diverse and miscellaneous an assemblage as one could imagine...
...Reviewed by Edwin Fogelman Department of government, University of Oklahoma...
...At the same time, performance of the vital managerial and bureaucratic functions, which are essential to the operation of modern society and government, necessarily devolves into the hands of the qualified "few...
...Certainly, 20th-century totalitarianism does not fit readily into any of the traditional categories, and it is significant that totalitarianism as a type of political system is not even mentioned by Parkinson...
...The point is well taken...
...One is only perplexed, however, when the author quotes the Webbs in order to establish that Communist Russia is a "theocracy," and then adds that, on the basis of events before the Second World War, "we have little reason for concluding that he [Stalin] was a dictator...
...The villain in this book is the idea that there is some one perfect form of government, which Parkinson condemns as pre-Darwinian...
...The job of the political theorist, he insists, is to free himself from useless presuppositions, such as the notion that government is instituted to secure to men their natural rights, and to concentrate instead on collecting "the facts...
...No doubt in certain circumstances theories do serve more or less as rationalization, but in other cases ideas play a rather different role...
...therefore, simultaneously a government of the one, the few, and the many...
...The cyclical theory is at least as old as Herodotus, and although its antiquity is certainly nothing against it, we may still wonder whether the traditional classification into governments of the one, the few...
...At the same time, however, Parkinson's own conviction that we should dispense with political philosophy is certainly pre-Hitlerian...
...Parkinson avoids the problems implicit in his ambitious undertaking by skipping, at convenient moments, from place to place around the globe and through history to gather the evidence he needs...
...Thus, no understanding of modern political systems can possibly disregard the comprehensive and continuing effects of industrialism— which are connected in a number of important ways with the emergence of totalitarianism—but the impact of industrialism on the problems of government receives no attention here...
...Actually, of course, Parkinson does slip in a presupposition, although he doesn't like to acknowledge it as such...
...Perhaps he is right, but before he can convince use he will have to contend with the banished philosophers...
...Parkinson's second main theme is equally straightforward...
...while the contributions which only a personal leader can make have never been permanently dispensable, as the career of President Eisenhower again reminds us...
...and the many is entirely adequate under the conditions of modern life...
...This highly commendable effort to escape the parochialism which usually characterizes the study of political theory involves, however, important difficulties, even while it opens valuable new opportunities...
...Rockefeller fellow To PARAPHRASE the famous aphorism: The more things change the more they repeat themselves...
...each form of government unavoidably creates the conditions out of which arises its successor...
...In part, Parkinson's uncritical acceptance of the traditional classification is rooted in his failure to analyze the "way of life" of modern society —a task which he performs at some length with respect to primitive societies...
Vol. 42 • January 1959 • No. 1
