APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF POLITICS

Disagreement about the nature of political activity is matched by controversy about the
nature of politics as an academic discipline.

1. Philosophical Tradition
Origins: Ancient Greece, tradition usually referred to as a political philosophy
o Deals with the ethical, prescriptive, normative concerns; what should/must be or
ought to be
o Cannot be objective
o Central theme: attempt to describe the nature of ideal society through a benign
dictatorship dominated by a class of philosopher kings
o traditional approach to politics
o Taken the form of history of political thought that focuses on collection of major
thinkers and a canon of classic texts
o Has the character of literary analysis: it is interested primarily in examining what
major thinkers said, how they developed/justified their views, and the intellectual
context w/in w/c they worked
2. Empirical Tradition
Less prominent than normative theorizing; descriptive/objective
o Characterized by the attempt to offer a dispassionate and impartial account of
political reality
o Seeks to analyze and explain
o Descriptive political analysis acquired its philosophical underpinning from the
doctrine of empiricism
Advanced the belief that experience is the only basis of knowledge
All hypotheses and theories should be tested by a process of observation
o 19th cen. such ideas had developed into positivism
(doctrine) proclaimed that the social sciences and all forms of philosophical
enquiry, should ADHERE STRICTLY to the METHODS of the NATURAL SCIENCES
Once science was perceived to be the only reliable means of disclosing truth,
the pressure to develop a science of politics became irresistible
Scientific tradition mid-19th cen.
3. Behavioralism
Gave politics reliably scientific credentials since it provided what had previously been
lacking: objective and quantifiable data w/c hypotheses could be tested
o Came under growing pressure fr. 60s onwards
Behavioralism constrained the scope of political anlysis, preventing it from
going beyond what was directly observable
A narrow obsession with quantifiable data threatens to reduce the discipline
of politics to little else
o It inclined a generation of political scientists to turn their backs on the entire
tradition of normative political thought
o Concepts such as liberty, equality, justice and rights were sometimes discarded as
being meaningless bec. They were not empirically verifiable entities
o Scientific credentials of behavioralism started to be questioned
Basis of assertion that it is objective and reliable the claim that it is valuefree (not contaminated by ethical/ normative beliefs)
However, if the focus of analysis is observable behavior difficult to do much
more than describe the existing political arrangements
Means that the status quo is legitimized
Conservative value bias was demonstrated (eg: democracy was
redefined in terms of observable behavior, seen at the situation in the
west)
Rational-choice theory
This approach to analysis draws heavily on the example of economic theory in building up
models based on procedural rules (usually abt. Rationally self-interested behavior of the
individuals involved)
o formal political theory
o Provides a useful analytical device , w/c may provide insights into the actions of
(actors) and behavior of states within the international system
o Eg: game theory
o Supporters: claim that it introduces greater rigor into discussion of political
phenomena

Critics: questioned its basic assumptions ; theres an overestimate in human

rationality that it ignores the fact that people seldom possess a clear set of
preferred goals and rarely make decisions in the light of full and accurate
knowledge
o Critics: (abstract model of the individual) RCT pays insufficient attention to social
and historical factors, failing to recognize that human self-interestedness may be
socially conditioned and not merely innate
4. New institutionalism
Political institutions are no longer equated with political organizations; they are thought of
not as things but as sets of rules, w/c guide or constrain the behavior of individual actors
These rules can be informal or formal and both are equally likely
Institutions are embedded in a particular normative and historic setting
Critical Approaches:
Includes feminism, critical theory (conflict theory), green politics, constructivism, poststructuralism, and post-colonialism
Constructivism= an approach to analysis that believes there is no objective social or
political reality independent of our
understanding of it
Post-positivism= an approach to knowledge that questions the idea of an objective
reality
Two characteristics of critical approaches are: they seek to contest the political status
quo by aligning with the interests of
marginalized groups, and they have tried to emphasize the role of consciousness shaping
the political world
Concepts, Models and Theories:
Concepts= set of ideas surrounding a particular thing (ex. Equality)
Ideal type= a mental construct in which you attempt to draw meaning from a complex
reality through the presentation of a
logical extreme
Model= comprise a range of ideas by representing something on a smaller scale (used to
impose meaning on what would
otherwise be too disorganized and difficult to grasp)
Theory= a systematic explanation of a body of empirical data, usually presented as
reliable knowledge
Paradigm= a related set of principles, doctrines, and theories that helps to structure the
process of intellectual enquiry
Fig 1.5 on pg. 23 shows the levels of conceptual analysis
o

Politics in a Global Age:

Beyond the Domestic/International Divide:
Politics within the state is usually orderly because of the ability of the state to impose rules
Politics outside of the state is more anarchic because there is no authority in the international
sphere
Politics takes place in many spheres: the national, the local, the regional and the worldwide