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Samuel Edward FinerFBA (22 September 1915 – 9 June 1993) was a Britishpolitical scientist andhistorian specializing incomparative politics, who was instrumental in advancing political studies as an academic subject in theUnited Kingdom, pioneering the study of UK political institutions. His most notable work isThe History of Government from the Earliest Times – a three-volume comparative analysis of all significant government systems. He was also a major contributor to the study ofcivil–military relations with the publication of his book,The Man on Horseback.[1]
Samuel Finer, the youngest of six children, was born 22 September 1915 toRomanian-Jewish immigrant parents[2] who had emigrated to the United Kingdom, and who ran a greengrocer's stall at Chapel Street market,Islington. His parents were killed inLondon in January 1945 byV-2 rockets. One of his brothers,Herman Finer, was also a distinguished political scientist and writer. Although Herman emigrated to theUnited States, his achievement was, according to Finer, an early source of inspiration.
Finer went toHolloway School, where he won a scholarship toTrinity College, Oxford. He obtained a double first in modern history and 'modernGreats' (PPE). After this, he began researching SirEdwin Chadwick, aBenthamite civil servant. DuringWorld War II he served in theRoyal Signals, where he attained the rank of captain. From 1946 to 1950, he taught politics atBalliol College, Oxford, acquiring an impressive reputation as a teacher and lecturer. From 1950 to 1966 he served as Professor of Political Institutions at the new University College of North Staffordshire (nowKeele University). In 1966, he became head of the Department of Government at theUniversity of Manchester, teaching Government and generally successfully contributing to the revival of the department's reputation. In 1974, he was madeGladstone Professor of Government atAll Souls College. He retired from this post in 1982, but continued writing – seeHistory of Government below.
He has been described as a charismatic lecturer and a very effective administrator. He believed that the academic study of politics required a firm grounding in history, and was sceptical of attempts to convert the subject into a science based on such deterministic frameworks asMarxism andbehavioralism.
He was chairman of thePolitical Studies Association of the UK from 1965 to 1969 and was a vice-president of theInternational Political Science Association.
Samuel Finer was a passionateliberal democrat and supporter of the causes ofelectoral reform andZionism. He was twice married and had two sons (one of whom is the musicianJem Finer) and one daughter. He died on 9 June 1993, aged 77, leaving a widow, Catherine.
(Most of the information in this section is derived from the collection-level description of the Samuel Finer Papers on the Archives Hub of the University of Manchester Special Collection.[3])
Finer's magnum opus,The History of Government from the Earliest Times, is a comparative analysis of government systems, past and present. Polities covered include theSumerian city states, the kingdom ofAncient Egypt, theAssyrian Empire, the kingdoms ofIsrael and Judah, thePersian Empire, theClassical Greek city republics, the republic and empire ofRome, the Chinese Empire under theHan, theTang, theMing and theQing, theByzantine Empire, the ArabCaliphate,Mamluk Egypt, theEuropeanfeudal kingdoms (including the emergence ofrepresentative assemblies), the Italian Mediaeval/Renaissance city republics (e.g.Florence andVenice),Tokugawa Japan, theOttoman Empire, theMughal Empire, and the modern state as it emerged in Europe, including themes ofabsolute versusparliamentary monarchy, the transplantation of European state models overseas, theAge of Enlightenment, theAmerican andFrench revolutions, theconstitutionalisation of the European monarchies, andindustrialisation.
The conceptual prologue includes a classification of government systems in terms of combinations of four elements: Palace (monarchy), Forum (democracy), Church (organised religion) and Nobility. Government is not analysed in isolation but explained in the context of economics, technology, agriculture, geography, religion, law, warfare, etc. – giving a picture of how a state works as a mechanism, explained in language designed for the general reader. Finer had hoped that it would be a single volume, but three volumes were published, about 1,700 pages in all.
History of Government occupied Finer's retirement years, 1982 to 1993. After a heart attack in 1987, he was able to complete 34 out of the projected 36 chapters; the missing two chapters would have been on the exportation of the modern state model outside the West, and on the variations on the theme of moderntotalitarianism.[4]
He is the father ofPogues instrumentalist and composerJem Finer. Jem adapted Samuel's translation ofGuillaume Apollinaire's poem "Pont Mirabeau" to music for the Pogues' final albumPogue Mahone.[5]
