1 Ten years ago, Macridis's The Study of Comparative Government (1955) was becoming known in political science faculties and was a qualified success (in the sense that it raised important issues) but Gunnar Neckscher had still to publish his The Study of Comparative Government and Politics (1957) – badly‐written but still useful in the absence of anything better. There seemed then little sign of the ‘methodological revolution’ that had been forecast in the 19409 (see Political Studies, XII (3), October 1964: 362–9) and it was not until 1960 that it was re‐asserted that ‘…we may be approaching a revolution in the study of comparative politics’. This confident claim is to be found in the foreword to Almond and Coleman's The Politics of the Developing Areas, the content of which was described by Almond ipse as ‘… an intimation of a major step forward in the nature of political science as science’ (ibid, p. 4). Within a very short time there were to appear from the same Princeton presses Almond and Verba's The Civic Culture (1963) and the first of the ambitious Studies in Political Development (Communications and Political Development), edited by Lucien Pye (1963); Bureaucracy and Political Development, edited by Joseph LaPalombara (1963); Political Modernisation inlapan and Turkey, edited by Robert Ward and Dankwart Rustow (1964; Education and Political Development edited by James Coleman (1965); and, now under review, Political Culture and Political Development, edited by Lucian Pye and Sidney Verba (1965).