The two main demands of post-behaviouralism are-relevance and

1ction. Easton, who had at one stage enumerated ! ip t ~ain charac-

:cristics of bchaviouralism, and called them the uiolellectuaJ found-
ation stones,, of the movement, now came out with seven major
traits of post-behaviouralism-and described them as the -,.Credo or
Relevance" or "a distillation of the maximai image.'' ·They ·can
be
summarised as follows: ·

(1) In political science re~earch, substance must come before techni-

que. · It may be good to have sophisticated tools of investigation, but
the more important point was the purpcse to which these tools were
being applied. Unless the scientific r~search was relevant and mean-
ingful for contemporary urgent social problems, it was not worth
being ',nderaken. To the slogan raised by the ~ehaviouralists that it
was \letter to be wrong than vague, the post-beha vioura!ists raised
the counter-slogan that it was better to be vague than non-relevantly
precise•
. (2) Contemporary political science should place its main emphasis
•OD social change, not social preservation, as the bebaviouraJists
seemed-to be doing. The behaviouralists had confined themselves I

~xclusivcly to the description and analysis of facts, without ·taking

sufficient care to understanct_these fa<;ts '- in their broad social context~
which ba~. made be~a~~olit~J poiiti~al sci'~nce "8'11 ~deoJ;gy' ~ f soc~ai .
conservatism tempered b1 modest incremental c&mge·.u .
{3) . Political ·sc1ence, .during · the\. behavioural _period, had broken
i~(compl~teJ~·away .f ro~_•the 'b~t~ .. realiti~s of politics.' ~h~ . heart
, '·, of behaviou,al el)quiry· ·oe_iog a~s~raction and anaJ_ysis, it was no
, . longc;r possible f~r.ipofiti~l sctentists to - cfose - thejr eyes ~o ·the
. realities _. of-the situation. Tlte times..wcrt.4af crisis _.and":,anxiety. ·With
,' . ... - · ,· . ';I, ~ ' · ~

its enormous · wealth and technical ~sources, and·a fantastic rate of

i~rease ·i n man's mate'flaf~cornf<>rts,-: the W~tem• world was, at th~
same time, mov ~ng towards increasing social conflicts and -deepening
fears and anxieties about the future. If it was not the responsibility
of the political scientist t~-re~h out to the real needs of mankind, of
what use politi~al science was to society?
·(4) Behaviouralists~ even though.Dot completely denying the role
 36 Modern Political Theory

of value, had put so much emphasis on sci~ntism · and value-free

approaches that values had been, for all pr~th::al purposes, thrown
out of · consideration. This was a very unhappy situatjon. It was on
value premises that all knowledge stood and unless val_~es.:werc
regarded as the propelling force behi.nd kno~ledge there was a danger .
that knowledge would be used for wrong purposes. Values played
an important role in politics, and research, in the name of science,
could not be permitted to throw them out of political studies. If
knowledge was to be used for right goals, value~ had to be restored
to the central. position.
(S) The post-behaviouralists wanted to remind ·the pdlitical scien•
tists that. being intellectuals, they had a role to play-''majo r tasks to
perform"-i n society. It was their responsibilit y to do the best to
protect the humane values of civilization. If the political scientists,
in the name off detachment and objectivity and-time·consumin_g rese-·
arch. kept themselves away from social problems they would become
•mere technicians, mechanics for· tinkering with society,' and could
not claim the privilege of freedom of enquiry and a quasi-extra terri-
torial prQtection from the onslaughts of society.
(6) If the intellectuals understood the social problems and felt
themselves in.v olved in them they could not keep themselves away
from action. · Knowledge must be put to work. "To know," as Easton
porats out, I"is'· to
.
bear the responsibility for acti~g and to act is to
. . .. .•
engage in re&haping society." Contemplati ve science might have been
a1J right in the nineteenth century, whe~ there was a broader moral
/ agreement among nations, but it was completely out of place in the
contempora ry · society which was sharply divided over ideals and
ideologies. The. pos.t-behaviouralists ask-.........
\
for ~ .... . .
action science in place
of contemplative science, and ·plead that a sense of commitment and
action must (Jermcate ·and
colour entire research in political science,. .
{7) Once it was recognised (a) that the intellectuals had a positive
roJe to play in soc·icty, and (b) that this role was to try to ~termine
pro~~.go_a]~s for society and make society move in the direction·. of
these goals, it t-ecame inevitable to draw th! conclusion that the
p_oHticisation of the profesSion -of all pro~css1onal associatio?s as
well as universities-became not only inescapable but highly
desirable.