The problem of social order and the history of political science -- Plurality and unity -- Processing community -- Bringing community back in -- Conflict and consensus -- Support for the system -- Uncovering consensus -- Power and participation -- The problem of social order and the future of political science.

"Since the early twentieth century, political science has been marked by an intractable problem of social theory. The discipline has, in fact, been marked by one of the problems from which modern social theory originated: the problem of social order. This book tells the story of how this came to be; how political science ended up, largely unbeknownst to itself, with this ostensibly sociological problem, and how this problem has shaped and continues to shape, surreptitiously, the ways in which political scientists approach their object of inquiry - politics"--