robbed bourgeois theory (of which American political theory is a part) of any real wisdom."2
Niebuhr contended that the absence of a consideration of the reality of sin in the development of political theory and policy led to the development of unrealistic assumptions about the character of both human beings and the nation states that they create. As a consequence, according to Niebuhr, the "result of this persistent blindness to the obvious . . . is that democracy has had to maintain itself precariously against the guile and malice of the children of darkness, while its statesmen . . . conjured up all sorts of abstract and abortive plans for the creation of perfect national and international communities."3
Niebuhr's condemnation of "moral idealists who are not conscious of the corruption of self interest in their professed ideals" led him to the development of his concept of human nature which has placed his ideas in the realist school.4 He extended to the realm of political intercourse between nations the effects
1Reinhold Niebuhr, The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1944), 16.
4Ibid., 151.of his realistic assessment of the character of human nature. In this context, Niebuhr cautioned that human political and social systems are imperfect and that no ultimate solutions are realizable. It was Niebuhr's position that utopias are unrealizable in either a national or an international context. Nevertheless, he also thought it was necessary to attempt to build workable communities. In this context, he stated that the "building of a world community is man's final necessity and possibility, but also his final impossibility."5
Niebuhr contended that an absolute devotion to political ends is a threat to communal peace. Having said that, however, he harshly attacked those individuals "who would substitute the formulation of humanitarian goals or principles for the ambiguit...