The joke about political science is that it’s not about politics, and it’s not a science. This would have surprised Aristotle, the ancient inventor of the field, and Machiavelli, its modern reinventor. Both believed politics were a means to the end Aristotle called a telos, an objective. For Aristotle, the telos was the cultivation of virtue and happiness in citizens. This led Aristotle to the ideals of balance, moderation, and the “mixed regime,” which spreads power among what we now call the middle class. For Machiavelli, the telos was the means of getting and keeping power so that the prince could stabilize his rule. Machiavelli’s idea of virtu isn’t virtuous but a form of radical amoral strategizing. Anyone who spreads power is asking for a dagger in the doublet.

Still, Machiavelli believed, like Aristotle, that the nature of society and politics could be perceived through our senses and rationalized into universal principles. Political science as taught and practiced in the United States has its universal principles, too. They tend, as the principles of Aristotle and........

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