Politics, PolicyandPoliceyas Concepts in English and Continental Languages

An Attempt to Explain Divergences

Bibliographic Data

ID6399378
AuthorsArnold J Heidenheimer (corresponding author)
Year1986
Volume48
Issue1
Pages3-30
Publication date1986-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Review of Politics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0034-6705 • E-ISSN: 1748-6858
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0034670500037499
OpenAlexW2064296575
LanguageEN
Citations received25
References cited17

This article explores the problem of why most Continental languages lack a term which distinguishes the concept ofpolicy, and to what extent political scientists writing in them are handicapped. It employs a diachronic approach to explore historical shifts of meaning within the “polis-family of words” in English and German, with reference also to French and other languages. The analysis is related to the manner in which the concept and term for state flourished m these languages over time, and explores why a convergence in usages of the Englishpolicyand the ContinentalPoliceywas aborted in the early nineteenth century. The bureaucratic and ideological roots of the broad Continentalpoliceconcept are traced. Then synchronic analysis is used to explore how in the contemporary setting the presence or absence of a policy term effects communication and conceptualization

Bureaucracy · Conceptualization · Economics · Epistemology · German · Ideology · Linguistics · Meaning (existential · Political science · Politics · Positive economics · Social science · Sociology · State (computer science · Term (time · Computer Science · European Political History Analysis · Law · Philosophy · Political and Social Issues · Political Systems and Governance