Hyperpolitics: Hypertext, Concepts and Theory-making

Political theory begins with respect for the complexity of its conceptual universe. Hypertext, a language for organizing knowledge on a modular rather than a sequential basis, provides an opportunity to unscramble this verbal mixture and to reconstitute it with new understandings and a new source of creative political discourse. This article reports on an experiment in computer-assisted advancement of political theory. It presents the initial results of a hypertextual approach to the conceptual basis of the literature by: (1) selecting the concepts most frequently employed in a sample of political science dictionaries; (2) linking them to a number of textual and bibliographical sources for in-depth analysis; and (3) developing multi-dimensional linkages by placing each concept in a matrix of logically consistent relationships. Thanks to the Web, Hypertext opens the door to unlimited navigation through wider and wider domains. The Hyperpolitics platform is an attempt to make this compatible with the logical structure and informed guidance of higher learning.