The Dissolution of the Union in 1905 a Comparison Between the Swedish and Norwegian Arguments
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The Dissolution of the Union in 1905 A Comparison between the Swedish and Norwegian Arguments Reprint from Evert Vedung, Unionsdebatten 1905. En iiimfiirelse mellan argumenteringen i Sverige och Norge, pp. 415-447. Summary This thesis contains (1) a discussion of theory and methods in the contem- porary analysis of political ideas, (2) a framework for the study of deci- sion-making in the field of foreign policy, and (3) an application of this framework to the discussions about the dissolution of the Unioo between Sweden and Norway in 190). The subject-matter has been treated in the form of a comparative study of Swedish and Norwegian discussions, as they can be followed in newspaper articles, pamphlets, aod records of parliamentary sessions and party meetings. I have also drawn upon a considerable amount of private material (diaries, letters, minutes and me- moranda). l. Tbeoretical point of departure My point of departure has been the theory of. tcientilic oalue relatiaitm. This value theory has been well established at Swedish universities since the appearance of the Uppsala School of Philosophy at the beginning of this century. As Arnold Brecht's great work on value relativism, Political Theory: The Foundatiou of Twentietb-Centary Political Thought shows, this theory of value has several implications. In my opinion, there are at least two reasons for the study of political ideas within this tradition. Ideas can be studied for the sake of their content, with the intention of construc- ting theories which are to govern the collection, classification and explana- tion of empirical data. But they can also be studied because they have played a considerable role in the political discussions in a certain country. By critically examining their value bases, their logical structure, their empirical contents and their causes and functions, the analyst can play an important role in modern society. Pertinent, stringent and careful inquiries can improve the standard of the political debate. They can have a purifying effect and make it easier for decision-makers and ordinary people to master the problems posed by their environment. But - and this is a crucial point - one cannot study ideas in the hope of finding the essence of reality. 43' Scientific value relativism is directed against all forms of essentialistic thought. It implies a radical break with the classical tradition of $Testern political thought, which stood and still stands on a value objectivistic ground. It also takes a firm stand against the Marxist tradition of political thought and its claim to be able to establish "complete rationality" by scientific methods. Furtermore, in my opinion this theory of value takes a cooceptualistic view of concepts or universals. Social scientists working within this paradigm distinguish between terms, concepts and reality, as Ogden and Richards did in their book, Tbe A4eaning of Meaning. They do not assert, however, as defenders of the doctrine of conceptual realism do, that universals have an absolute existence outside the mind. The uni- versals are human constructs, which, as such, do not exist in empirical reality. Consequently, concept formation always implies some elements of value, some elements which are not thoroughly rational. The logical conclu- sion from this is the adoption of thinking by means of models. As one cannot find the concepts in reality, one must construct them oneself. This kind of work is basically subjectivistic, a fact that must be explicitly admitted. Scientific value relativism, the theory of conceptualism and model building are - and this is my point - branches of the same tree. They constitute the foundation upon which the greater part of modern social science is based. 2. Some zuays ot' analysing ideas within the paradigm ot' s cientit'ic'ua.lr4e r elatiztism. I$Tithin the paradigm of scientific value relativism, it may, as I see it, be useful to make a distinction between two kinds of approaches to the study of political ideas. One may be called contentual and the other rela- tioxal. Contentual analysis focuses on the intellectual content of ideas. Relational analysis means linking ideas to something outside of themselves, such as other ideas, the personality of the people who embrace them or the societal environment. Relational analysis is concerned with various kinds of coonections between ideas and other ideas, personality and society, e. g. the causes or the functions of ideas. Thus we have the following types of analysis of political ideas: 1. The contentual analysis of ideas 2. The relational analysis of ideas (a) in relation to ideas, (b) in relation to personality and (c) in relation to society. 436 In the contentual method of analysing ideas one has first to solve a semantic problem. One has to decide the meaning of the words and sentences in the texts analysed. At this point I have related my concepts to those developed by Arne Ness. I distinguish between interpretation, plausible interpretation and more precise formulation. In this context it would be going too far to enter into the exact definitions of these concepts. It must suffice to say that in consequence with scientific value relativism I am only speaking of plausible interpretations. It is of little use to talk of true interpretations, as it is impossible for us to specify scientifically the >>real> meaning of. aoy coocept in a deeper sense. The second approach may be called the logical method of analysis. One may examine how well somebody's arguments correspond with the intel- Iectual demand for logical consistency. One may investigate whether the Patterns of argumentation are logically consistent or not. The third approach may be called the tenability method of analysis. Are the propositions made in descriptive sentences (probably) true or (probably) false with regard to reliable empirical data? To answer this question is, however, no simple task. Descriptive sentences not only contain proposi- tions about things directly observable in reality, but also teem with genera- lizations from simpler propositions about reality, mixed with explanations of these propositions on varying levels of abstraction. In order to give reliable answers, one is forced to cary out very extensive empirical research. In the other main way of examining political ideas, relational analysis, one may, first of all, study one structure of ideas in relation to other structures of ideas. In pursuing what I call a genetic analysis of ideas, one starts from certain ideas and draws attention to their precursors. One investigates to what extent elements of thought correspond with the doc- trines of former thinkers and schools of thought. Sometimes one may go further than demonstrating similarities and dissimilarities and try to de- monstrate direct influence. If such an investigation is to be meaningful, it must deal with faidy distinct and abstract conceptions. To search for pre- cursors for trivial ideas seems to be rather pointless. Secondly, one may study the relations between the ideas and the perso- nalities of the people who embrace them. One may study in what ways the personality exerts an influence on the ideas held or study what func- tions certain ideas fulfil for the personality. This may be called the psycbo- logical analysis of ideas. The third type of relational analysis of ideas may be called sociological; the ideas are related to the surrounding society. One may make a quantita- 437 tive study and try to find out if there any statistically significant connec- ^rc tions between the arguments of the proponents and their social back- grounds. As independent variables ooe may choose, for instance, class, pro- fession, level of education, income, wealth, age and residence. This has been done in electoral research. But one may also explore the qualitative connections between ideas and society. In the field of foreign affairs it seems to be natural to study the connections between ideas and the inter- national political system. One may investigate what functions some specific ideas or recommendations for action fulfil in the international system and their proponents' own views of these functions. Furthermore it seems to be natural to study the party strategic functions of ideas. One may also investigate connections qualitatively by using a socio-psy- chological approach. One may proceed from a fairly well-known concePt in social psychology or the sociology of knowledge, which has been given such names as the belief system or perception. I have borowed a concePt of perspective developed by Villiam Connolly in his book, Political Science G Ideology. Through a very complicated interaction between himself and his social environment, every man develops a perspective, i. e. a way of looking at the world around him. Connolly describes it as "the implicit scheme the individual brings to inquiry; it is the culturally rooted lens through which we interpret our observations". This perspective makes the individual perceive the world around him selectively. The evident fact that the phenomena surrounding him are innumerable makes it necessary to be selective. In a decision-making situation, interpretations of reality must usually be based on very fragile pieces of information. In many cases it is necessary to make predictions about the behaviour of other countries. Here much scope is left for arbitrariness. The hypothesis is that men make an image of the surrounding wodd which suPPorts the evaluations and conceptions of reality aheady integrated in their perspectives. Following Karl Mannheim, Connolly emphasizes that "the perspective . orients the investigator to the political environment in ways that tend to protect high- level commitments from destruction". He also asserts that "the concepts we employ to organize and explain the political environment are sliced and shaded in ways that allow us to retain commitments and values aheady developed". At least three cases of perspective influence may be considered: 1. Different schools of thought use different sets of concepts in describing reality, so that a segment of reality which is thoroughly 48 scrutinized in the one is completely or almost completely ignored in the other.