'n Kritiese oorsig oor die staatsleer soos gereflekteer deur politikon van 1974–1983

ABSTRACT

Politikon celebrated it's tenth anniversary in 1983. The authors of this article felt it necessary to reflect back in order to make an assessment of the progress made by the PSASA in terms of the promotion of political science in South Africa. The method employed was a content analysis of all Politikon‐articles since the inception of the journal In terms of field of interest, it was found that articles concentrated mainly on Political Philosophy and Formal Theory, South African Politics and International Relations. In addition the majority of the articles followed the Group, Philosophical and Sociological approaches. The so‐called English and Afrikaans‐speaking universities contributed fifteen and sixty‐eight percent of the articles respectively. A significant number of articles — eighty percent‐displayed no quantification of data. This article investigates the factors that could help to explain these occurences, and the following conclusion is reached: Certain tendencies, revealed by Politikon‐articles, are alarming in terms of implications for the future development of political science in South Africa (especially at Afrikaans universities). These tendencies include ideological frameworks which serve as a directive for authors on South African politics; a consequent disregard for alternative explanatory models in terms of South African politics; and the low level of methodological sophistication present in the majority of Politikon‐articles.