42 SOCIAL SCIENTIST countries through such class alliances pose .a threat to the capitalist class and its conflict theorists. What is particularly noticeable is that Rex nowhere mentions the development of powerful liberation movements especially on the periphery of South Africa. Rex's prediction is a product of the conflict model. So too are those of Dahrendorf and others. Sociology starts with the assumption that there is a close relation between methodology and analysis. There is an equally close connection between analysis and action. A wrong analysis leads to wrong action. Conflict model serves that purpose, for revolutionary action must be prevented at all costs: that is the conflict theorist's business, serving the interests of his masters^ Rex, for instance, knows too well that British power cannot survive without her "colonies." 1 The idealist historians tend to see political unification as the end, giving no causal weightage to the economic practices which precede it. 2 E Roll, A History of Economic Thought, 1953, p 65. 8 It is interesting to note that Hughes has made Pareto, Mosca and Michels the heir of Machiavelli. They are all violently anti-Marxist and steadily evolved towards fascist views. Mussolini took pleasure in citing Pareto as one of his masters. See H Stewart Hughes, Consciousness and Society, pp 227, 253, 271; also J Plamentaz (Ed.) The Prince and Selections/Torn Discourses and Other Writings of Machiavelli, 1951. 4 Roll, op.cif., p 89. 5 J W Alien, A History of Political Thought in the Sixteenth Century, 1960, p 402. 8 Roll, op. cit., p 91. 7 E Barnes and H Becker, Social Thought from Lore to Science, 1938, p 38 \ • Roll, op. cit., p 12. » Ibid. 1 • H Spencer, Man versus State, 1950, p 117. 11 L Gumplowicz, Outlines of Sociology, FW Moore (Tr.), 1889, pp 68, 82-3. 12 J Bernard, "Where is the Modern Sociology of Conflict ?", American Journal of Socio-^ logy, Vol LVI, 1950, pp 11-13. 18 L Coser, Function of Social Conflict, 1954; Masters of Sociological Thought, 1971. 14 R Dahrendorf, Class and Class Conflict in Industrial Society, 1956. 16 ] Rex, Key Problems of Sociological Theory, 1961. le J Rex, Race and Race Relations in Sociological Theory, 1970. 17 South Africa is the major source of investment income for Britain. See Arragi and Saul, Socialist Register, 1969, p 136. 18 J Rex, Race and Race Relations in Sociological Theory, p 70.