Political Theory: Foundation of Social Organization and Government (2nd Edition)

Description

FOREWORD
For a long time, African students and academics have largely confronted political theory and social organizations from the optic nerve of European Scholars. It is this obvious vacuum that the author of this book attempts to fill. The book represents a modest and ambitious attempt by an African author to demystify political theory using both theoretical and empirical insights. Having taught the subject for several years, the author bring his wealth of experience to bear on this work.

In elucidating on the broad stream of political theory, the author presents in simple, concise and understandable knowledge the salient features of ancient and contemporary political theory. The writings of Marcus Tullius Cicero, St. Thomas Aquinas, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, George Hegel, Karl Marx and a host of others are extensively treated in the various chapters of the book with cognizance to the relevance of their thoughts to our contemporary world. The ideology of capitalism and the dependency polemic were also articulated in the work.

The pre-occupation of the work is to grant to its readers access to conceptual and theoretical issues in political theory and to answer some of the most common questions asked by students and academics and provide theoretical insights to them. It might not have covered the entire world of political theory, for in reality, no work can ever do so, but it has set a precedent upon which subsequent works can build.

lt is my hope that the readers of the book will find it both interesting and educating and thus help them better understand the crux of political theory and social organizations as presented from an African’s perspective

Dr. M. E. Bassey
Ag. Head
Dept. of.Political Science and Public Administration.
University of Uyo, Uyo, Akwa lbom State.

PREFACE
The book, ‘Political Theory: Foundation of Social Organization and Government’ was conceived to bring the essence of appreciating ‘Political theory‘ to the students and all social scientists alike. This is because, more often than not, students tend to see the course and subject as abstract and difficult.

Political Theory is to social sciences, Government and its institutions, what concrete foundations are to buildings. The reason why the superstructure (Governments) generates very many wrong results, is simply because it operates in violation of the dictum ‘salus populi suprema lex, (let the welfare of the people be the supreme law) as we were enjoined by Marcus Tullius Cicero, in the era of the Roman Jurists.

It is instructive to note that when the values, norms and processes of organizations and institutions as espoused by the political thinkers are upheld, the society progresses and we describe it as a ‘develop state’ and vice versa. It is the position of this book that the first step to political development is the understanding and abiding by the tenets propagatedtby the political philosophers, with little variation. This complements the thesis of Professor Samuel Huntington on ‘Political Development and Decay‘.

A critical part ofthis text are the eonnnenturies and the chapter on ‘Outcomes and Impact’ of the various political postulations addressed in this book, which is complemented by chapter 18 on the Reformation.

The third world and Africa are not left out in the analysis of the trends of political theory. This is a ventured, which has taken a number of years to put together. Wherever I had taught Political Ideas and Political Thought 1 and 2, I had picked up the need and the desire to script this book.

Welcome to my world of Political Theory: Foundation of Social Organizations and Government..

E. O. Frank
Dept. of Political Science &
Director- Clement Isong Centre for Development Studies
University of Uyo
Akwa Ibom State
Nigeria.