Arthur N. Holcombe Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

American Arthur N. Holcombe (1884–1977) was one of the twentieth century’s most prolific and respected political scientists. He received his doctorate in 1909 from Harvard University and taught there until his retirement in 1955. He also served at national universities in China, the College of Europe, Claremont College, the University of Michigan, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He contributed to a number of government agencies, including the U.S. Bureau of Efficiency (1917–1919), the President’s Committee on Administrative Management (1936), and the War Production Board (1942–1945).

Early in his career, Holcombe focused on state government and party politics, publishing Foundations of the Modern Commonwealth (1923) and Political Parties of Today (1924). A visiting professorship in China led to a book on Chinese politics in 1930. Later his interests turned to international peacekeeping and the United Nations (UN). His enduring interest, however, was the U.S. political system. Throughout his career he promoted the concept of public interest, which he saw as the mediating element in conflict resolution and the animating element of a democratic society promoting civility and moderation—two cardinal civic virtues. He believed that political parties should be organizationally strong but not doctrinaire and partisan. Holcombe viewed the middle class as the repository of middle-of-the-road and moderate value systems and thus the key to the functioning of a successful democracy.

Holcombe applied the same concepts to a study of the United Nations. In his work, A Strategy of Peace in a Changing World (1967), Holcombe advocated the development of a two-party system within the organization as part of which members would sacrifice some of the elements and prerogatives of sovereignty. By curtailing national sovereignty, he felt the UN could become an effective world government. Holcombe was the chair of the Commission to Study the Organization of Peace and authored the commission’s report, Strengthening the United Nations (1957), which contained numerous recommendations for the institutional reform of the UN.

Holcombe’s lasting legacy is in the field of political behavior and political institutions, especially in the United States. His early work, State Government in the United States (1928), compares varieties of state government practices and programs.

He found that two-party systems are more desirable in promoting public interest because they enable large segments of the population to come together to serve common purposes.

Bibliography:

Holcombe, Arthur N. Dependent Areas in the Post-war World. Boston: World Peace Foundation, 1941.
The Middle Classes in American Politics. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1940.
Our More Perfect Union: From 18th Century Principles to 20th Century Practice. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1950.
Securing the Blessings of Liberty: The Constitutional System. Chicago: Scott, Foresman, 1964.
The Spirit of the Chinese Revolution. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1931.
State Government in the United States. New York: Macmillan, 1928.
A Strategy of Peace in a Changing World. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1967.
Strengthening the United Nations. New York: Harper, 1957.

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