Approaches to study Political Science

• Intro-Political Science is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and laws.

• Pol sci ki bhar bhar k tareef:
• It stands apart bcoz of its utility.
• 
• Aristotle calls pol sci as master science because:
• Its all encompassing character in which it deals with economy,politics,governance,society,law,etc thus it covers diverse spheres of human lives.
• Greeks never looked at politics in a compartmentalized manner
• Since it deals with justice  it automatically becomes architectonic .
• It is dynamic and flexible which can be seen in behavioral and post behavioral movements
• The diversity of ideologies highlights the discipline’s tolerant culture.
• Conclusion-Aristotle on political science- It is no small matter we are discussing. we are discussing how we ought to live.

• Various approaches to study Political Science:
• 
• Traditional- before WW2 in Europe:
1. Philosophical- oldest method (as Plato belongs to it). Political science originated as a part of political philosophy
• Exponents: Plato
• Father of pol philosophy who gave the philosophy of ideal state and role of pol philosophy in ensuring a good life said scholars must look beyond what is and what ought to be
• dialectics as a method to understand the essence of governance.
• Berlin , Rawls , Leo Strauss support this as they think the purpose of the discipline is how to improve our existence. 
•  It is prescriptive, leans towards idealism. Results in armchair theories having no connection with real world
• is at risk of getting biased

2: Historical- it is said if history is a root, politics is shoot. 

History is past politics, politics is present history.

• Exponents:
• Laski : every thinker is child of his times. 
• Mac said prince should study history rather than philosophy.

Sabine- historical approach is common sense based approach

• 
   George Holland Sabine
• History is vast, concept like philosopher king/communism never came into existence still relevant
• Some ideas are beyond time and always relevant. Hence it is important to understand their idea rather than time.

3: Empirical - focuses on facts rather than ideas. Understanding politics based on empirical observations.

• Exponents: Machiavelli: what is rather than what ought to be unlike Plato.
• here Aristotle is the link b/w Plato and Machiavelli. He shows interdependence b/w the world of being and becoming.
• Locke rejects Socrates view that knowledge is inherent in soul. Says mind is like a tabula rasa ( clean slate) and source of knowledge is observation.
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4: legal constitutional approach: study constitutions and institutions. Dominated the scene till WW2 after which behavioral movement started. most useful in comparative politics . Revival in form of Neo institutional-ism. Became basis for structural functional approach.

• Decline of political theory-
• Couldn’t explain rise of fascism and authoritarianism
• Couldn’t explain third world politics as there was huge difference between context and text of constitutions because these were prismatic societies

• Modern methods
• after WW2 in USA
• APSA wanted to make pol sci as pure science.

• Behavioral approach-
• saw normative theories are abstract,reductive,arm chair creations of philosophers.
• Hence this movement was a response to the decline of political science as a discipline because of heavy dominance of philosophical aspect .
• Exponents :

1. David Easton 
   
   David Easton,
1. Easton in his 1951 article, wrote that “Political theory today is interested primarily in the history of ideas” and “the ever-increasing role of historicism is a major cause of the decline of political theory.” said historicists made the discipline a parasite on centuries old ideas and normativists made no pains to produce verifiable theories.According to Easton, in addition to historicism, hyper-factualism and domination of moral theory also contributed to the decline of political theory.traditionalists produced arm chair theories, reducing political theory to opinionated ideology. Hence he wanted to convert pol sci as pure science and give value free analysis.
2. gave 8 feature of behavioralism ( RSTV MVIP)

Traditionalists say value neutrality is neither possible nor desirable. Acc to Leo Strauss: ignoring value is like inability to make difference b/w clean water and dirty water.

8- pure science- by adopting above 7 parameters.

2.Charles Merriam ( father of behavioral-ism from Chicago school)

1. stay away from values
2. study of pol behavior
3. systematic politics with focus on processes and not just institutions
   

 

• achievement of behavioral-ism-
• led to development of rich scientific literature like exit polls/voter behavior, approval ratings of leaders.
• Such knowledge has been useful for the political parties to frame policies.Revived pol science.
• Govts use data to track welfare schemes and design their political manifestos.
• Helped in development of comparative political approaches like structural functional approach, political sociology approach,etc
• Legal institutional approach was not relevant for studies of developing societies as these are prismatic in nature and there has been huge difference between constitutions and actual practice. Hence without field study it was difficult to understand their society and politics.
• Systems approach in IR was a result of behavioural movement

• critics of behaviorism 50s and 60s , there were social unrest movements in USA and behaviorists did not have a solution to offers as they had ignored normative values like justice,rights.
• Behaviorism as an approach has been criticized for “naive scientist. ”

max Weber : said facts without values are meaningless.	Alfred Cobain said Technique became an end in itself .	David M. Ricci termed the "tragedy of political science": As the discipline sought to become more scientific, in part to better address society’s ills, it became less practically relevant.

4.Political theorists like Dante Germino, Isaiah Berlin and David Miller argued that the political theory is never dead and it is evolving in newer forms with newer engagements.

5.David Easton- Due to over emphasis on empirical method political science looked more of a discipline of mathematics rather than social science

• Hence first decline of pol sci due to traditionalists and second due to behaviorist.

• post-beh: to arrest decline of pol science
• Exponent:
• David Easton:Gave 7 features for post- behaviorism at APSA called credo of relevance .
1. held that political scholars sitting in ivory towers perfecting their technique forgot the purpose of the technique.
2. Say research is guided by "action" and "relevance".
3. Reject value neutrality and suggest to bring back the values.
4. focus on "creative theory"
5. It is not a rejection of scientific technique but adopting flexibility towards technique
6. David Easton has given 7 features of post behaviorism-
1. Technique is important but the purpose for which the technique is used is more important
2. Theories should have capacity to deal with social crisis
3. behaviorism does not reject values, it rather invites values
4. We need to promote such values which contribute to flourishing of human civilization
5. Responsibility of social scientist more than that of natural scientist
6. Political science is applied science rather than pure science
7. Political science is a useful discipline that needs to be actively supported and funded by universities and foundations
• 

• Post behaviorism and Rawls are interlinked as both brought normative values back in the study of political science.
• This propelled the behaviorists to transform by adopting the creative theory and resolved the fact-value dichotomy. Facts became values and values became facts.

Conclusion:

In general, no approach can be a full proof approach because in politics we move in a bottomless and a border-less sea(oakeshott).