SCIENTIFIC CREATIVITY AND DECENTRALIZED SOCIETIES: The Swiss Cantons and The Rise of The Social Sciences

Abstract

The productivity of a country in science as for as the numerical output of its scientific papers is concerned ls, in large measure, a by-product of its industrial producfivi ry, Such a purely quantitative approach may lead one to overlook however9 that some of the greatest qua Ii tative advances in modern sci ence have been made in the towns of countries relatively less developed in industry, Zurich, Berne, Louscnne, and Copenhagen have been such centers of the highest scientific originalityo Among the decentralized Swiss cantonal towns, Lausanne was especially noteworthy for affording a university base for the work of Vi lfredo Pareto and Leon Walrasu pioneers in scientific sociology and mathematical economlcs, Pareto regarded the Swiss dernocrcrlc, decentralized towns as providing the ideal setting for the development of his logico-experimental method, whi Ie Wclros, debarred from a post in bureaucratic Fronce, was able at Lausanne to found the most original school in economic thouqht, DecentTalized communifies, as Kropotkin offirmed, may have an especial role in the preservation of scientific creativity in bureoucrcflc, industrial soclefies.