Approaches of Political Theory

Meaning of Political Theory- David Held defines political theory as “a network

of concepts and generalizations about political life involving ideas, assumptions
and statements about the nature, purpose and key features of government, state and
society and about the political capabilities of human beings.’’ A very elaborate
definition of political theory has been given in Political Science Dictionary,
describing it as “a body of thought that seeks to evaluate, explain and predict
political phenomena. As a sub-field of Political Science, it is concerned with
political ideas, values and concepts, and the explanation of prediction of political
behaviour. In its broad sense, it has two main branches: one is political philosophy
or normative theory, with its value, analytic, historical and speculative concerns.
The other is empirical theory, with its efforts to explain, predict, guide, research
and organize knowledge through the formulation of abstract model and
scientifically testable propositions.” Political theory is all about politics. It is an
overview of what the political order is about. It is a symbolic representation of
what is “political”. In its nature, it is a formal, logical and systematic analysis of
processes and consequences of political activity. It is, in its method, analytical,
expository, and explanatory. It is, in its objective an attempt to give order,
coherence and meaning to what may be referred to as “political”.

The discussion on what a theory is or what political theory is would help us

identify the characteristic implications or the major aspects of political theory.

Some of these can be stated as under:

i) The area in which political theory works extends to the realms of politics
only political life of the citizen, his political behaviour, his political ideas,
the government that he seeks to establish, and the tasks expected from
such a government.
ii) The methods, which political theory adopts, include description,
explanation and investigation of the political phenomenon.
iii) Though political theory is all about what is ‘political’, yet it attempts to
understand ‘political’ in relation to social, economic, psychological,
ecological, moral, and the like.
iv) The objective which political theory seeks to achieve is to build a good
state in a good society, and in the process, create processes, procedures,
institutions and structures historically tested and rationally attained.
v) As a body of thought, political theory attempts to explain, evaluate and
predict political phenomena, and in the process builds not only
scientifically testable models, but suggests values as rules of human
conduct.
vi) Political theory is both prescriptive and explanatory. Political theory, as a
disciplined investigation of political phenomena is closely related to why
and what of the institutions of the government, and the whole political
system in which the government operates.

To study political theory is to study the context in which it exists. We need to

understand political theory within the realm of the political system, the political
system within the realm of the social system, the social system within the realm
of the period it exists, and in the environment it breeds. The contents of political
theory include understanding of what is really ‘political’, to link ‘political’ with
 what is ‘non-political’, and to integrate and coordinate the results of the
numerous social sciences for knowing its own nature.

Its scope is not limited to what it constitutes, but to what exists in the periphery
and beyond. Suggesting that the task of defining what is political is a continual
one, Sheldon Wolin (Politics and Vision 1960) includes the following in the
contents of political theory:

(i) A form of activity centring on the quest for competitive advantage

between groups, individuals, or societies;
(ii) A form of activity conditioned by the fact that it occurs within a situation
of change and relative scarcity;
(iii) A form of activity in which the pursuits of advantage produce
consequences of such magnitude that they affect in a significant way the
whole society or a substantial portion of it.

Philosophical Approach- In the classical or normative period the study of politics

reflected a normative concern and deductive method of explanation. It argued from
a general premise to more specific conclusions. It speculated on the proper form of
government and on the nature of political obligation. Philosophical approach is
generally identified with value preferences. The emphasis is on moral and rational
premises. This approach is based on the view that values are inevitable and
essential for evaluating political phenomena. The classical political philosophers
were concerned with the justification of values and reconciliation of liberty and
obligation. Plato, for example dealt with the question of ‘justice’ in the Republic
through the ideal state. The ethical basis and the moral purpose of the political
community was analysed in detail by political philosophers like Plato, Aristotle,
Bentham and Hegel. Thus the philosophical period is noted for its general trend of
setting standards based on values like justice, freedom and happiness.
Philosophical approach aims at evolving “standards of right and wrong” for the
purpose of critical evaluations of the existing institutions, laws and policies. It may
denote efforts to arrive at truth through the use of reason. According to Vernon
Van Dyke, the object of philosophical enquiry in this sense is to establish standards
of the good, the right, and the just, and to appraise or prescribe political institutions
and practices in the light of these standards. In this sense most of the classical
political theory represents philosophical approach. Its themes are generally
concerned with moral reasoning which cannot be subjected to scientific test.

Institutional Approach-

As the name suggests, a thorough investigation of political institutions in order to

study the discipline of political science is called the institutional approach. The
approach is almost as old as the discipline of politics and most political scientists
since the times of Aristotle have defined and restricted the scope of the discipline
only to the study of state and government. In this respect a particular feature of the
approach is that it does not usually make use of other social sciences such as
philosophy, history or law to analyse political phenomena. It, therefore, assigns an
independent individuality to the organized inquiry of political science. Institutional
approach allocates the fundamental status to the institution of state in the study of
politics and its agency, the government along with its various organs such as
legislature, executive, judiciary and bureaucracy are also identified for close
scrutiny as important political institutions. There are also many other institutions
such as political parties, trade unions, nongovernmental organisations, educational
institutions, religious and cultural organisations etc. which may interest a scholar
who is employing institutional approach if they directly or indirectly have some
bearing on political processes. In this context it is necessary to know what an
institution really is. An institution by and large, can be defined as an established or
organised society, an organisation, corporation or an establishment especially of a
public nature or whose working affects a community. An institution may be a
foundation, a charitable institution, a sports club or a literary body. In the words of
Vernon Van Dyke: “An institution is any persistent system of activities and
expectations, or any stable pattern of group behaviour.” A typical feature of an
institution is its offices, agencies and the personnel associated with it are arranged
in hierarchy that means each office, agency or personal attached to it is assigned
specific powers and functions. It also implies that the people or the community that
are likely to be affected by the working of an institution expect that its offices,
agencies or personnel should function in accordance with the respective powers
and functions assigned to them. If we particularly look for the definition of a
political institution then we get to know that a political institution is an
organisation that creates, enforces and makes governmental policies pertaining to
economy and social system. It also provides for people’s representation. The
examples of such political institution include government and its various organs,
political parties, trade unions and the courts. The term political institution may also
denote the recognised structure of rules and principles within which it operates.
Thus, institutional approach in the study of political science implies a detailed
study of the government, its structures, and the body of rules within which it is
required to operate and also a thorough examination of its various organs. Besides,
the study of political parties, their structures, ideologies and functioning that have
linkages with political processes forms a significant segment of institutional
approach. Similar studies of other political institutions such as trade unions and
civil society institutions are also part of the institutional approach. Aristotle who is
also considered the father of traditional school of politics was the first who
classified the governments as per the numerical strength of the rulers and the
qualitative worth of their governance. Accordingly, he identified forms of
governments as monarchy, aristocracy and polity applying the numerical as well as
better governance criteria; also as tyranny, oligarchy and democracy using
numerical as well as erosion of legitimacy of governance criteria. Though
Aristotle’s classification is no more valid, its study is imperative to comprehend
the historical background of political theory. The modern classification of
governments such as democracy or dictatorship, parliamentary or presidential and
unitary or federal is not the sudden growth of our times. These forms of
government owe a lot to archetypal kinds of government that had emerged in
ancient Greece, Rome and some other ancient societies. The institutional approach
includes the study of all forms of governments. Additionally the institutional
approach also emphasises on the inquiry of levels of government which means
whether the levels of governance pertain to federal, state or local institutions. The
approach also prescribes the analysis of the powers and functioning of the organs
of government such as legislature, executive and judiciary. The institutional
approach is more or less value free in the sense that it is mainly concerned with the
consideration of facts in relation to political institutions. This is a feature that is
usually ascribed to a modern approach. In this respect, despite being a traditional
approach, the institutional approach not only radically differs from the normative
and historical approaches but appears more like a modern approach. Nevertheless,
political scientists refrain from including it in the category of modern approaches
because it is exceedingly concerned about description rather than analysis of
political phenomena.

The experts have also enlisted some other shortcomings of this approach. They are
as under:
i) It is exclusively focused on political institutions. As a result, the
individual, the primary actor in political process has been totally
discounted in the institutional approach. It led to a situation that the study
of voting behaviour and political preferences of an individual was
ignored by those political scientists who advocated institutional approach
in the study of politics;
ii) in the area of international politics the adherents of institutional approach
restrict their studies only to the investigation of international political
institutions such as the United Nations and its allied agencies and
completely ignore the subject matter of international politics such as
foreign policy, diplomacy, international law and so on;
iii) since it is concerned with the study of only established political
institutions, it totally ignores the consideration of other phenomena like
violence, political movements and agitations, wars, revolution and the
scourge of our times, terrorism, which certainly influence politics;
iv) Finally, it also overlooks the position and influence of informal groups
that have an effect on the politics of almost all states. Nevertheless, it
must be underlined that institutional approach is very significant because
political institutions constitute the core segment of the scope of political
science. It is unimaginable to ignore the study of political institutions in
any meaningful inquiry of political phenomena. It should also be made
clear that no single approach is adequate in itself for the study of any
social science.

It is true about institutional approach as well. It is only the combination of a few

significant approaches that helps in a dispassionate study of political science
and institutional is certainly one of the significant approaches.
Behavioural Approach (Empirical approach) –

Behavioralism is regarded as a turning point in the history of political science,

thought and analysis. It has been widely acclaimed as a great revolution which
has transformed the goals, nature, scope, methodology, and theoretical
formulations of political science. Emergence of behavioural studies reflects the
determination of new scholars to derive their findings on the basis of direction
or indirect observation of human behaviour. It is to be regarded as a first real
attempt to make political studies as a ‘science of politics’. Behavioralism is an
intellectual tendency and academic movement. It has so many facets: a
revolution, a reform movement, a mood, an approach and an attitude. It has
been adopted because of its objectivity, observability, value neutrality and
verifiability. Behavioralism maintains that there are certain fundamental units
of analysis relating to human behaviour out of which generalisations can be
formed. These generalizations offer a common base on which a ‘science of
man’ can be appropriately built. behavioralism in political science not only
concerned with behaviour but also concerned with its perpetual, motivational,
and attitudinal components making for man’s political beliefs, values and goals.
In sum, it involves external aspects of behaviour and the affective, contiguous
and evaluative processes engrossed through it. behavioralism, as an academic
movement in political science first began in the United States after the Second
World War. Growth of behavioralism is the outcome of varied reasons marked
mainly by dissatisfaction with prevailing historical descriptive, legal formal and
normative perspectives.

In 1908, Graham Walls (Human nature in politics) and Arthur F. Bentley (The
process of government) advocated psychological and group oriented approaches
Walter Lippmann (public Opinion) in 1922 took up the study of public opinion
and political attitude formation. In 1951, David B. Truman revived Bentley’s
neglected orientation in his (The governmental process). But the pioneering
efforts were made by Charles E. Merriam (New Aspects of Politics in 1925) His
efforts came out in the form of famous ‘Chicago School’ which produced a host
of political scientists, such as Harold F. Gosnell, Harold D. Laswell, V .O. Key,
Herbert A. Simon, Gabriel Almond, etc. So far behavioralism remained only a
‘movement of protest’ against traditional methods of analysis. After the Second
World War, the movement came out in the form of an academic revolution.
Evaluation of behavioralism has witnessed certain trends also. In its first phase
(1920- 30), it paid more attention to qualitative aspects and less on substantive
and theoretical problems. In its second phase, up to 1950, behavioralists moved
in both substantive and nonsubstantive areas. After that, they began to
specialise in various directions: multi-methodologism, behavioural theories,
behavioural positivism and Watsonian Behaviorism. behavioralism can be also
being broadly divided as;

(a) Pure behavioralism, and

(b) Applied behavioralism.

Pure behavioralism aims at contributing to theory and techniques of the

discipline and remains ready to study any problem. It purpose is ‘pure research’
or knowledge for the sake of knowledge, seeking generalisations on the basis of
technical judgments. Applied behavioralists take up problems of important
social consequences and collaborate with several disciplines to solve them.
Often they behave like social reformers, administrators or engineers and have
some consideration towards persons and situations. In the field of political
Science, the origins of this approach can be traced to this approach can be
traced to the writings of Graham Walls and Arthur Bentley. These two writers
in the early Twentieth Century, laid emphasis on the importance to political
process in the analysis of politics. Charles E. Merriam and G.E.G Catlin in the
1920’s and Harold D. Lasswell in the 1930’s stressed this approach. It gained
popularity with the work of American Political Scientists after the Second
World War. David Easton laid the foundation of the behavioural movement
with certain assumptions and objectives. Easton’s concept of behavioralism is
regarded as the intellectual foundation stone of behavioralism.

It contains principles is known;

(1) Regularities- These are certain discoverable uniformities in political

behaviour of human beings that can be expressed in generalisations or theories
capable of explaining and predicating social phenomena.

(2) Verification- The validity of such generalisation must be tested and verified
in principle by reference to relevance to relevant behaviour.

(3) Techniques- Appropriate techniques should be used for observing,

recording, acquiring, analyzing or testing and interpreting the data.

(4) Quantification- Ample care should be taken by a researcher not merely to

collect data but also to measure and quantify the same. Quantification and
measurement are the essential ingredients that determine the scientific method.

(5) Values- Facts and values may be studied separately. Ethical evaluation and
empirical explanation should be kept analytically distinct and it should be value
free or value neutral.
(6) Systematization- It means that research in the field of political science
should be systematic. Attempts should be made to build systematic theories on
the basis of logically interrelated body of concepts and propositions.

(7) Pure Science- The behaviour lists contented that both theory and its
application are parts of scientific method and must be closely linked.

(8) Integration- The study political Science should be integrated with other
social sciences and inter disciplinary approach should be adopted. It will
facilitate cross fertilization of ideas and results in more generality and validity
of political studies.

The behavioural approach originated due to dissatisfaction with the traditional

approaches. It was opined that the traditional approaches laid emphasis on
organized formal institutional structures which made political Science
functionally irrelevant as it lacked an insight into operational dimensions. Many
developments in other social sciences like sociology, psychology and
anthropology influenced the behavioralist to restructure the study of political
science. The behavioural approach focuses on political behaviour. It calls on
political behaviour. It calls for the study of acts, attitudes, preferences and
expectations of man in the political context. It lays emphasis on the collection
and examination of facts relating to actual behaviour of man as a social and
political being.

Thus, behavioralism shifts its focus from study of politics from formalism and
normative orientations of the legalistic and philosophical schools to political
behaviour, i.e., the behaviour of actual actors in the political field like power
holders and power seekers as well as voters.