It is the forte of political theo¬rists to look life in the eye, as a Russian saying goes, with¬out flinching and as far as possible by keeping away from the coloured filters of those who argue in a different vein. In any political speculation there is always a lot of room for conjecture; but Papworth dabbles feverishly in all the concepts evolved since Plato’s celebrated city state, only to write them off as the brain children of dreamy idealists.
The author dismantles old theories systematically and picks up historical perspec¬tives which are charitable to his thesis, tracing the course of evolution of the centres of power from the paterfamilias, the patriarch, the tribe, the city state, the nation to the present day mega nation.