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Introduction to Political Analysis Methods

Political analysis involves systematically organizing information about political issues, events, and phenomena to establish relationships between data in order to explain and predict political experiences. It has developed from the works of ancient Greek philosophers and early empirical analysis to modern behavioral approaches that emphasize human behavior. Behavioralism sees humans as social beings and focuses on shifting emphasis from governments to individuals, while also developing long-term theories and enhancing predictability, though it faces challenges with accurate measurement and replication. Political analysis is important for systematically verifying impressions and beliefs to determine what is truly important, valuable, and real in politics.

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Ronan Jeeven Maitem
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910 views1 page

Introduction to Political Analysis Methods

Political analysis involves systematically organizing information about political issues, events, and phenomena to establish relationships between data in order to explain and predict political experiences. It has developed from the works of ancient Greek philosophers and early empirical analysis to modern behavioral approaches that emphasize human behavior. Behavioralism sees humans as social beings and focuses on shifting emphasis from governments to individuals, while also developing long-term theories and enhancing predictability, though it faces challenges with accurate measurement and replication. Political analysis is important for systematically verifying impressions and beliefs to determine what is truly important, valuable, and real in politics.

Uploaded by

Ronan Jeeven Maitem
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Political analysis can be defined as the various methods, theories, concepts, and approaches

employed by a political scientist to summarize and explain various themes, political experience,
events, political issues, and phenomena.

Political analysis entails the process of investigating issues or events, decisions, and
challenges by systematically organizing these information categories and then establishing a
relationship between these data for the basic objective of explanation and subsequently
prediction.

Development of political analysis

- Can be traced back to the works of Greeks and other western philosophers
- In the 19th century, political analysis relied on the historical, descriptive and
philosophical narrations. The work of Aristotle also revealed primitive empirical analysis,
especially his classification of authority.

20th century new developments emerged such as:

- The emergence of several new states especially those resulting from the fall of empires
and kingdoms as well as the independence of new states in Asia and Africa;
- The spread of social sciences outside the western hemisphere.

20th century modern political analysis dominated the mode of political analysis. It places
emphasis on man/human behaviour. Modern political analysis embodies the behavioral
school.

Behaviouralism sees man as a social being.

Strengths of behaviouralism

- It is able to shift emphasis away from the institution of government to man.


- It is able to place emphasis on human behaviour.
- It is able to develop medium and long range theories.
- It enhances some degree of predictability.

Limitations of behaviouralism

- It is accused of being ahistorical


- There is the absence of generally acceptable laws, theories and concepts
- Lack accurate measurement tools
- Replication is difficult to achieve

Importance of political analysis

- To know what is important in politics


- To know what is valuable
- To know what is real or true by systematically subjecting our guesses, impressions,
popular belief, even rumors to verification

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