STUDYING POLITICS

Approaches to the study

What is Science?
It is a field of study that aims to develop reliable explanations of phenomena through repeatable experiments, observation and deduction. (Heywood, 2013)

Philosophical Tradition
Ancient Greece: Plato and Aristotle,

Traditional approach to politics

Plato: ideal society is ruled by a benign dictatorship of

philosopher kings.
Analytical study of ideas and doctrines tha thave been

central to political thought History of political thought from a collection of major thinkers and classical texts Literary analysis: what the thinkers said; how they developed their views and intellectual context It deals with the normative questions.

Empirical tradition
Empirical = based on observation and experiments;

empirical knowledge is derived from sense data and experience. Examples:

Aristotles classification of constitutions

Machiavellis account of statecraft

Montesquieus sociological theory of government and law

 Approach is descriptive it seeks to

analyse and explain Doctrine of empiricism experience is the only basis for knowledge, all hypotheses and theories should be tested by a process of observation Auguste Comte (1798 1857) Positivism Social sciences and all forms of philosophical enquiry, should follow strictly the methods of natural sciences.

Behaviouralism
Positivism theory that social and all forms of enquiry

should follow the strict methods of the natural sciences.

Behaviouralism belief that social theories should be

constructed only on the basis of observable behaviour, providing quantifiable data or research.
Ex.: voting behaviour, behaviour of legislators and lobbyists

Down-side of Behaviouralism: constrained the growth of

political analysis, setting aside normative political ideas and legitimizing the status quo.

Rational-choice Theory
Public-choice theory or Political economy

it considers an individual as an abstract model. (Lazo,

2009) It assume that an individual will prefer an option over other ones as in a game theory
The Prisoners dilemma

New Institutionalism
Involves the study of institutions, i.e., a well-established

body with a formal role and status; more broadly, a set of rules that ensure regular and predictable behaviour, rules of the game (Heywood, 2013)
Political institutions are no longer equated with political

organizations; they are thought of not as things but as sets of rules, Institutions are embedded in normative and historical context

Critical approaches
Constructivism:
An approach to analysis that is based on the belief that there is no objective social or political reality independent of our understanding of it.
Constructivists do not therefore regard the social world as

something out there, it exists only inside, as a kind of inter-subjective awareness.

Critical approaches
Post-positivism:

An approach to knowledge that questions the idea of an objective reality, emphasizing instead the extent to which people conceive, or construct, the world in which they live.

Critical approaches
Postmodernism
shift away from societies structured by industrialization

and class solidarity to increasingly fragmented and pluralistic information societies.

Individuals are transformed from producers to consumers
Individualism replaces class, religious and ethnic loyalties. there is no such thing as certainty; the idea of absolute

and universal truth must be discarded as an arrogant pretence.

Critical approaches
Characteristics of critical approaches: 1. They are critical contesting the status quo, siding with the marginalized sectors.
Feminism Critical theory (Neo-Marxism)

Green politics or ecologism

Post- colonialism

2. Emphasizing the role of the consciousness in shaping

social conduct post-positivism

Concepts, models and theories

Concept is a general idea about something, usually
expressed in a single word or a short phrase.
General

Ideal types
political concepts are often the subject of deep ideological

controversy. Politics is, in part, a struggle over the legitimate meaning of terms and concepts. E.g. freedom, justice, liberty

 Model: A theoretical representation of empirical data

that aims to advance understanding by highlighting significant relationships and interactions.

System is an organized or complex whole, a set of

interrelated and interdependent parts that form a collective entity. (input output)
Demands

Supports
Outputs

Theory: A systematic explanation of empirical data,

usually (unlike a hypothesis) presented as reliable knowledge.
Model explanatory device Theory offering a systematic explanation of a body of data.

Paradigm refers to an intellectual framework

comprising interrelated values, theories and assumptions, within which the search for knowledge is conducted.

SHOULD WE BE OBJECTIVE AND POLITICALLY NEUTRAL IN THE STUDY OF POLITICS?

YES
Desire to explain Objective knowledge Free-floating intellectual

NO
Myth of neutrality Emancipatory knowledge Competing realities

POLITICAL IDEAS AND IDEOLOGIES

The philosophers have only interpreted the worldthe point is to change it
Karl Marx, Theses on Feuerbach (1845)

Ideology
Coherent set of ideas that provides a basis for organized

political action to preserve, modify or overthrow an existing political system.

Attributes: Analysis of the existing order or worldview Model or vision of what is the future or Good Society Course of action to acquire political change

Can politics be without ideology?

YES
Overcoming falsehood and

NO
Ideology as an intellectual

delusion intellectual prisons

framework
Ideological renewal

Rise of technocratic politics

unipolar world, managing the capitalist economy, smaller questions parties marketing themselves in elections

flexibility
The vision thing gives

Rise of consumerist politics

people something to believe

CLASSICAL IDEOLOGICAL TRADITIONS

Liberalism
Meta-ideology higher or second-order ideology that

lays down the grounds on which ideological debate can take place
Development past 300 years Laissez-faire John Locke (1632 1704) natural or God-given rights

like rights to life, liberty and property.

An exponent of representative government and toleration A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689) Two Treatises of Government (1690)

Key ideas of Liberalism

Individualism core principle

Freedom core value

Reason progress and capacity of

individual to resolve their problems Equality level playing field or meritocracy Toleration allowing others to express their beliefs Consent consent of the governed Constitutionalism limited government