Comez, Kay Anne Noreen P. Diga, Mary Mhel Y.

Thesis Statement Politics is studied from different traditions which suggest different ideological perspective to key issues. It becomes the central purpose for the basis of human society. Nonetheless, as an academic discipline, antagonism about the nature of political activity and nature of politics is comparable. I. Philosophical Tradition, emphasizes that it should be based upon certain ideals and concentrates on the values which a political system should set for itself. A. The origins of political analysis date back to ancient Greece and a traditionusually referred to as political philosophy. This involved a preoccupation with essentially ethical, prescriptive or normative questions, reflecting a concern with what should, ought or must be brought about, rather than with what is. B. Philosophical tradition involves the analytical study of ideas and doctrines that have been central to political thought that focuses on a collection of major thinkers and canon of classic texts. C. Philosophical tradition has the character of literary analysis: it is interested primarily in examining what major thinker said, how they developed or justified their views, and the intellectual context within which they worked. Such analysis may be carried out critically and scrupulously, as it deals with normative questions. II. The empirical tradition stresses on experience or ground reality in the study of politics. A. It is characterized by the attempt to offer a dispassionate and impartial account of political reality and tries to objectively study politics without any bias and prejudice. B. Empirical approach is descriptive in that it seeks to analyze and explain, whereas the normative approach is prescriptive in the sense that it makes judgments and offers recommendations. C. Descriptive political analysis acquired its philosophical underpinning from the doctrine of empiricism that advanced the belief that experience is the only basis of knowledge, and that therefore all hypotheses and theories should be tested by a process of observation.

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Materialist conception of history, Karl Marx has been hailed as the first to have described politics in scientific terms. However, Behaviouralism or Behaviouralism persuasion in politics made a big impact in the theoretical development of the scientific tradition of the study of politics. A. Through his materialistic interpretation of history, he developed and enabled to make predictions about the future based upon laws that had the same status in terms of proof as laws in the natural sciences. B. In 1950s and 1960s, the study of politics assumed a new form called behaviouralism. This gave politics reliably scientific credentials, because it is provided what had previously been lacking: objective and quantifiable data against which hypothesis could be tested. Although behavioural analysis undoubtedly produced, and continues to produce invaluable insights in fields such as voting studies, a narrow obsession with quantifiable data threatens to reduce the discipline of politics to little else. Concepts such as liberty, equality, justice, and rights were sometimes discarded as being meaningless because they were not Empirically verifiable entities. C. Moreover, the scientific credentials of behaviouralism started to be called into question. The basis of assertion that behaviouralism is objective and reliable is the claim that it is value free: that is that is not contaminated by ethical or normative beliefs. However, if the focus of analysis is observable behavior, it is difficult to do much more that describe the existing political arrangements, which implicitly means that the status quo I legitimized.

Conclusion There is no unanimity about the way politics should be studied. However, of late, emphasis on values in the study of politics has been revived. It is now realized that while scientific method is useful for studying politics, the study of politics would be directionless and meaningless if it does not aim at realizing some values (ethical or normative beliefs). Emphasis on norms and values in studying politics has been renewed and given birth to postbehaviouralism.