This is the final volume in Jouvenel's magnum opus, the trilogy that begins with On Power, moves to Sovereignty, and concludes with The Pure Theory of Politics. In this volume, Bertrand de Jouvenel proposes to remedy a serious deficiency in political science: "the lack of agreement on first principles, or 'elements.'" The author's concern is with political processes as they actually exist, not as they are conjectured to be in hypothetical models.