Professor
Samuel Edward Finer (September 22, 1915 – June 9, 1993) was a
political scientistPolitical science is a social science concerned with the theory and practice of politics and the description and analysis of political systems and political behavior. It is often described as the pragmatic application of the art and science of politics defined as "who gets what, when and how",...
and
historianHistory is the study of the human past, with special attention to the written record. Scholars who write about history are called historians. It is a field of research which uses a narrative to examine and analyse the sequence of events, and it often attempts to investigate objectively the patterns...
who was instrumental in advancing political studies as an academic subject in the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
, pioneering the study of UK political institutions. His most notable work is
The History of Government from the Earliest Times – a three-volume comparative analysis of all significant government systems.
Born 22 September 1915, Finer was the third son of poor
BessarabiaBessarabia is a historical term for the geographic entity in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west...
n
JewThe Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
ish parents who had emigrated to the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
, and who ran a greengrocer's stall at Chapel Street market,
IslingtonIslington is the central district of the London Borough of Islington. It is an inner-city district in London, spanning from Islington High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the area around the busy Upper Street...
.
Professor
Samuel Edward Finer (September 22, 1915 – June 9, 1993) was a
political scientistPolitical science is a social science concerned with the theory and practice of politics and the description and analysis of political systems and political behavior. It is often described as the pragmatic application of the art and science of politics defined as "who gets what, when and how",...
and
historianHistory is the study of the human past, with special attention to the written record. Scholars who write about history are called historians. It is a field of research which uses a narrative to examine and analyse the sequence of events, and it often attempts to investigate objectively the patterns...
who was instrumental in advancing political studies as an academic subject in the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
, pioneering the study of UK political institutions. His most notable work is
The History of Government from the Earliest Times – a three-volume comparative analysis of all significant government systems.
Life
Born 22 September 1915, Finer was the third son of poor
BessarabiaBessarabia is a historical term for the geographic entity in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west...
n
JewThe Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
ish parents who had emigrated to the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
, and who ran a greengrocer's stall at Chapel Street market,
IslingtonIslington is the central district of the London Borough of Islington. It is an inner-city district in London, spanning from Islington High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the area around the busy Upper Street...
. His parents were killed in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
in January 1945 by
V-2 rocketAccording to head of Nazi rocket program Walter Dornberger, the V-2 rocket was the world's first ballistic missile and first human artifact to achieve sub-orbital spaceflight. It was the progenitor of all modern rockets...
s. One of his brothers,
HermanHerman Finer was a Bessarabian-born British political scientist.He was a brother of Samuel Finer.- Literary works :* Foreign governments at work, 1921...
, was also a distinguished political scientist. Although Herman emigrated to the
USAThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, his achievement was, according to Finer, an early source of inspiration.
Finer went to Holloway School, where he won a scholarship to
Trinity College, OxfordThe College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity in the University of Oxford, of the foundation of Sir Thomas Pope , or Trinity College for short, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It stands on Broad Street, next door to Balliol and Blackwells, and opposite...
. He obtained a double first in modern history and modern
Greats Literae Humaniores is the name given to the study of Classics at Oxford and some other universities.The name means literally "more humane letters", but is perhaps better rendered as "Advanced Studies", since humaniores has the sense of "more refined" or "more learned", and literae means...
. After this, he began researching Sir
Edwin ChadwickSir Edwin Chadwick KCB was an English social reformer, noted for his work to reform the Poor Laws and improve sanitary conditions and public health. One of the reasons why Chadwick believed in improvement to public health was because he believed it would save money. He was born in Longsight,...
, a Benthamite civil servant. During
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
he served in the
Royal SignalsThe Royal Corps of Signals is one of the combat support arms of the British Army...
, where he attained the rank of captain. From 1946 to 1950, he taught politics at
Balliol College, OxfordBalliol College , founded in 1263, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England.Traditionally, the undergraduates are amongst the most politically active in the university, and the college's alumni include three former prime ministers. H. H...
, acquiring an impressive reputation as a teacher and lecturer. From 1950 to 1966 he served as
ProfessorThe meaning of the word professor varies. In some English-speaking countries, it refers to a senior academic who holds a departmental chair, especially as head of the department, or a personal chair awarded specifically to that individual...
of Political Institutions at the new University College of North Staffordshire (now
Keele UniversityKeele University is a research-intensive campus university located near Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, England. Founded in 1949 as an experimental college dedicated to a broad curriculum and interdisciplinary study, Keele is most notable for pioneering the dual honours degree in Britain...
). In 1966, he became head of the Department of Government at the
University of ManchesterThe University of Manchester is a "red brick" civic university located in Manchester, England. It is a member of the Russell Group of large research-intensive universities and the N8 Group for research collaboration...
, teaching Government and generally successfully contributing to the revival of the department's reputation. In 1974, he was made Gladstone Professor of Government and Administration at the
University of OxfordThe University of Oxford , located in the UK city of Oxford, is the oldest surviving university in the English-speaking world and is regarded as one of the world's leading academic institutions. Although the exact date of foundation remains unclear, there is evidence of teaching there as far back...
. He retired from this post in 1982, but continued writing – see
History of Government below.
He has been described as a charismatic lecturer and a very effective administrator. He believed that the academic study of politics required a firm grounding in history, and was sceptical of attempts to convert the subject into a science based on such deterministic frameworks as
MarxismMarxism is the political philosophy and economic worldview based upon a materialist interpretation of history, a Marxist analysis of capitalism, a theory of social change, and an atheist view of human liberation derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels; three primary aspects of...
and
behavioralismBehavioralism is an approach in political science which seeks to provide an objective, quantified approach to explaining and predicting political behavior. It is associated with the rise of the behavioral sciences, modeled after the natural sciences...
.
He was chairman of the
Political Studies AssociationThe Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom is an association of political scientists that exists to develop and promote the study of politics in the United Kingdom...
of the UK from 1965 to 1969 and was a vice-president of the
International Political Science AssociationThe International Political Science Association , founded under the auspices of UNESCO in 1949, is an international scholarly association. IPSA is devoted to the advancement of political science in all parts of the world...
.
Sammy Finer was a passionate
liberal democratLiberal democracy is the dominant form of democracy in the 21st century. During the Cold War, liberal democracies were contrasted with the Communist People's Republics or "Popular Democracies", which claimed an alternative conception of democracy...
and supporter of the causes of
electoral reformElectoral reform is change in electoral systems to improve how public desires are expressed in election results. That can include reforms of:*Voting systems, such as runoff voting, instant runoff voting, approval voting, citizen initiatives and referendums, recall elections, and proportional...
and
ZionismZionism is the international political movement that originally supported the reestablishment of a homeland for the Jewish People in Palestine. The area was the Jewish Biblical homeland, called the Land of Israel...
. He was twice married and had two sons and one daughter. He died on 9 June 1993, aged 77, leaving a widow, Catherine.
Masterwork
Finer's magnum opus,
The History of Government from the Earliest Times, is a comparative analysis of all significant civilised government systems, past and present. Polities covered include the
SumerSumer was a civilization and historical region in southern Iraq . It is the earliest known civilization in the world and is known as the Cradle of Civilization...
ian city states, the kingdom of
Ancient EgyptAncient Egypt was an ancient civilization of eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. The civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh, and...
, the
Assyrian EmpireAssyria was a civilization centered on the Upper Tigris river, in Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times in history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur...
, the kingdoms of
Israel and JudahThe history of ancient Israel and Judah is known to us essentially from the Hebrew Bible...
, the Persian Empire, the
Classical GreekAncient Greece is the civilisation belonging to the period of Greek history lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca. 1100 BC and the Dorian invasion, to 146 BC and the Roman conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth. It is generally considered to be the seminal culture which provided the...
city republics, the republic and empire of
RomeAncient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea, it became one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
, the Chinese Empire under the
HanThe Han Dynasty was the second imperial dynasty of China, preceded by the Qin Dynasty and succeeded by the Three Kingdoms . It was founded by the peasant rebel leader Liu Bang, known posthumously as Emperor Gaozu of Han. It was briefly interrupted by the Xin Dynasty of the former regent Wang Mang...
, the
TangThe Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...
, the
MingThe Ming Dynasty , or Empire of the Great Ming , was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history," was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...
and the
QingThe Qing Dynasty , also known as the Manchu Dynasty, was the last ruling dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912...
, the
Byzantine EmpireThe Byzantine Empire or Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered on the capital of Constantinople, and ruled by Emperors in direct and de jure succession to the ancient Roman Emperors...
, the Arab
CaliphateThe term caliphate refers to the first form of government inspired by Islam. It was initially led by Muhammad's disciples as a continuation of the political authority the prophet established, known as the 'rashidun caliphates'. It represented the political unity of the Muslim Ummah, and was the...
, Mamluk Egypt, the
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
an
feudalFeudalism is a decentralized sociopolitical structure in which a weak monarchy attempts to control the lands of the realm through reciprocal agreements with regional leaders...
kingdoms (including the emergence of
representative assembliesA representative assembly is a political institution in which a number of persons representing the population or privileged orders within the population of a state come together to debate, negotiate with the executive and legislate...
), the Italian Mediaeval/Renaissance city republics (e.g.
FlorenceFlorence is a major historical city in Italy, distinguished as one of the most outstanding economical and artistic centres in the peninsula from the late Middle Ages to the Renaissance.-Roman origins:...
and
VeniceThe Most Serene Republic of Venice or Venetian Republic was a state originating from the city of Venice in Northeastern Italy. It existed for over a millennium, from the late 7th century AD until the year 1797...
),
Tokugawa JapanThe , or , is a division of Japanese history running from 1603 to 1868 and is the premodern era. The period marks the governance of the Edo or Tokugawa shogunate, which was officially established in 1603 by the first Edo shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu. The period ended with the Meiji Restoration, the...
, the
Ottoman EmpireThe Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299 to November 1, 1922 The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِیَّهِ عُثْمَانِیَّه Dawlet-il ʿAliyyat-il ʿOs̠māniyye, Modern Turkish:...
, the
Mughal EmpireThe Mughal Empire was an Islamic and Persianate imperial power of the Indian subcontinent which began in 1526, invaded and ruled most of Hindustan by the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and ended in the mid-19th century...
, and the modern state as it emerged in Europe, including themes of absolute versus
parliamentA parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom. The name is derived from the French parlement, the action of parler : a parlement is a discussion. The term came to mean a meeting at...
ary monarchy, the transplantation of European state models overseas, the
Age of EnlightenmentThe Age of Enlightenment, or simply The Enlightenment, is a term used to describe a time in Western philosophy and cultural life, centered upon the eighteenth century, in which reason was advocated as the primary source and legitimacy for authority....
, the
AmericanThe American Revolution is the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen of Britain's colonies in North America at first rejected the governance of the Parliament of Great Britain, and later the British monarchy itself, to become the sovereign United States of...
and
FrenchThe French Revolution was a period of political and social upheaval and radical change in the history of France, during which the French governmental structure, previously an absolute monarchy with feudal privileges for the aristocracy and Catholic clergy, underwent radical change to forms based...
revolutions, the
constitutionalisationA constitutional monarchy is a form of government in which a monarch acts as head of state within the parameters of a written , unwritten or blended constitution...
of the European monarchies, and
industrialisationIndustrialisation is the process of social and economic change whereby a human group is transformed from a pre-industrial society into an industrial one...
.
The conceptual prologue includes a classification of government systems in terms of combinations of four elements: Palace (monarchy), Forum (democracy), Church (organised religion) and Nobility. Government is not analysed in isolation but explained in the context of economics, technology, agriculture, geography, religion, law, warfare, etc. – giving a complete picture of how a state works as a mechanism, explained in language designed to be highly accessible to a sufficiently determined general reader.
History of Government was many years in the making. It is approximately 1,700 pages long. The herculean programme of research, consultation and writing consumed Finer's retirement years 1982-93. Slowed down by heart disease including a serious heart attack in 1987, he was only able to complete 34 out of the projected 36 chapters, but the result is nevertheless a 'block-buster'. (The missing two chapters would have been on the exportation of the modern state model outside the 'West', and on the variations on the theme of modern
totalitarianismTotalitarianism is a political system where the state, usually under the control of a single party or faction, recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible...
.) Finer had hoped that it would be a single volume, but it was found to be impossible to reduce the material to less than the three volumes in which it was finally published. The preface to the work gives an idea of what efforts went into the project, and how it was rescued and published after the author's death.
Works
- A Primer of Public Administration, 1950 (ISBN 0-8371-9492-X, 1977)
- The Life and Times of Sir Edwin Chadwick, 1952 (ISBN 0-416-17350-0, 1970) – the outcome of Finer's postgraduate research
- Local Government in England and Wales (joint author), 1953 (ISBN 0-19-889159-8)
- Anonymous Empire: A Study of the Lobby in Great Britain, 1958 – a ground-breaking study of political lobbying in the UK
- Private Industry and Political Power, 1958
- Backbench Opinion in the House of Commons, 1955-59, 1961
- The Man on Horseback: The Role of the Military in Politics, 1962 (ISBN 0-86187-967-8, 1988) – short but very original
- Vilfredo Pareto: Sociological Writings (selector), 1966 – the writings of an Italian sociologist
- Comparative Government: An Introduction to the Study of Politics, 1970 (ISBN 0-14-021170-5, 1974) – a successful textbook
- Adversary Politics and Electoral Reform (editor), 1975 (ISBN 0-9504469-0-4)
- Five Constitutions: Contrasts and Comparisons (editor), 1979 (ISBN 0-14-022203-0)
- The Changing British Party System, 1945-1979, 1980 (ISBN 0-8447-3368-7)
- Parties and Interest Groups (audio cassette, joint author), 1982 (ISBN 1-86013-297-9)
- Electoral System (audio cassette, joint author), 1982 (ISBN 1-86013-296-0)
- Comparing Constitutions (editor), 1995 (ISBN 0-19-876344-1)
- The History of Government from the Earliest Times, 1997 (ISBN 0-19-822904-6 three-volume set, hardback) – Finer's retirement project and magnum opus, unfinished and published posthumously
External links