James DANZİGER
CHAPTER ONE
POLITICS AND KNOWLEDGE
Definitions of Politics.
1) Politics is the exercise of power.
2) Politics is the public allocation of
things that are valued
3) Politics is the resolution of conflicts.
4) Politics is the competition among
individuals and groups pursuing their
own interests.
5) Politics is the determination of who
gets what, how, and when.
Politics is a human activity through which power and
influence are used in the promotion of certain values
and interests.
- [Explain the distinction between private and
public aspects of life]
Politics is associated with those aspects of life which
have public significance. Other aspects of life are
private and thus are beyond the domain of politics.
Some examples of issues which have public
signiificance:
- how much of your income you must give to
government as income tax.
- how much social and economic benefits the
government must distribute and to whom.
Political knowledge: Individual
understanding of politics.
- differs from person to person,
- determines our understanding about politics and
shapes our decisions,
- may be limited,
- may be familiar to most people,
- may be obtained by various ways.
A political statement:
“Political participation of men is greater than women.”
When you read or hear such statements you
might………..
a- ignore them
b- accept them
c- reject them
d- try to evaluate them
Political Analysis is an attempt to describe and explain
politics and political facts.
Political science: A set of techniques, concepts,
and approaches whose objective is to increase
the clarity and accuracy of an understanding
about the political world“.
Three general types of political knowledge.
1- Descriptions of political facts
2- Explanations of how and why politics
occurs as it does.
3- Prescriptions of what should happen in any
area of political activity.
1) Description: Political knowledge includes descriptive
response to "what" question. (descriptions may or may
not reflect a reality)
-Italy is not a member of the EU.
-Turkey is a unitary state.
-The country in Africa with the highest per capita income
is Nigeria.
-Soviet union collapsed in 1991.
-
2) Explanation: Explanatory political knowledge is about
"why something happens”.
- Why did the USA want to change the political regime in
Iraq?
- What causes a country to have inflation of more than 100
percent in a single year?
3) Prescription: Political knowledge that reflect specific
preferences in the political life.
--"Statements about politics often include claims or
assumptions that certain choices and actions are more
desirable than others".
"a prescription is a value judgment that
indicates what should occur and should be
done. So prescription deals with
"normative" political knowledge.
-- Everyone should have the right to vote.
-- An underdeveloped state should be
included as a permanent member in the
UN Security Council.
-- Citizens of foreign states should not be
allowed to invest in property market.
Normative political knowledge combines
three levels of understanding (descriptive,
explanatory and presciptive)
Sources of Political Knowledge
1)authority 2)personal thought 3)science
1- Authority
a) Specific authority sources: political knowledge
derives from a parent, teacher, friend, or
famous person. (Direct or face-to-face
communication between person and the specific
authority)
b) General authority sources: Constitution, leaders
(leaders who are respected by people), media,
books, religious teachings. (There is no direct link
between person and the general authority)
c) Everyone as authority: "If virtually everyone
seems to agree on a fact about politics, there is
little reason for you to disagree or challenge
2. Personal Thought
Some facts are correct for us because they are so obvious
for us. Here you don't rely on an outside authority. The
individual can use his powers of though to determine what
he knows about the political world. Such knowledge can be
based on rationality, intuition, and personal experience.
a- rationality: When you think that a certain fact is true
because it is logical for you, you do not need for further
justification. For example, you may believe that human
beings are equal or unequal.
b- intuitions: is the second form of personal though. Here,
your knowledge is based on feelings, on a sense of
understanding rather than on reason.
c- personal experience: You can be convinced that
something is true, because of your own experience.
3. Science
Unlike authority and personal thought as source of political
knowledge "science uses explicit methods that attempt to
enable different people to agree about what they know"
Characteristics of scientific method:
-Search for regularities
-Science is empirical
-Science is cumulative
-Science is testable.
*Applying scientific method in Political Science.
Knowledge clause: “In a democracy men are more
likely to vote than women.”
This issue requires an analysis of gender and voting. Is it true that men are
more likely than women to vote? How can we analyze this claim through
Scientific method?
In order to apply scientific method to analyse political knowledge we can
follow the following steps:
1- To examine the existing evidence. We find what have been done about
“voting” by Political Scientists. Shortly, we read relevant studies (books,
journal articles and research reports)
2- Making hypothesis: You identify or describe what you are going to do in
precise manner. “men are more likely to vote than women.”
3- Operationalizing key concepts: This means that you specify exactly what
each concept means and how they might be measured. (what is meant by
“voting” and “democracy”)
4- Gathering appropriate data: You need a strategy for colleting evidence
that is valid and reliable. You must collect data about specific elections in
one or more democracies. The relevant data can be gathered from secondary
sources (articles, books or reports) or you may conduct a field study to measure
the phenomena through a survey.
5- Analyzing the evidence: You compare the results obtained from different
elections. (US presidential elections)
1976 1996
man women man
women
voted (%) 77 67 53 56
not voted (%) 23 33 47 44
6- Making inferences by using a statistical technique. This technique
helps you to decide whether the difference in the data for women and
men is greater than might expected by chance.
- Is the evidence sufficient? (men are more likely to vote than women)
- Is it possible to make generalization about gender and voting in the US
based on only two elections?
- What is our inference about gender and voting in the US?
Our answer will probably be based on the idea that men are more likely to vote
than women, but if you get data for other presidential elections you would
discover that women have voted at a higher rate than man in every USA
presidential elections since 1980, and at a lower rate in every election prior to
1980.
------ Our first inference is incorrect.
------ Things can change. For this reason generalizations must be made with care.
------ All important variables should be considered. For example education level
or social status, profession, ethnicity etc. may affect voting behavior.
7- Conclusion: It requires extensive data, careful analysis, and consideration of
several alternative explanations.
Sub fields of Political Science
1- Comparative Politics: Focuses on similarities and differences in Political
processes and structures.
2- International Relations
3- Political theory or Political Philosophy focuses on the ideas and debates
dealing with important Political questions. (what is political justice? Equality?
democracy? Human rights?)
4- Boundary-Spanning Sub fields
Political science link with other fields of inquiry that borrows and adapts ideas
from other disciplines such as political economy, political psychology, political
sociology, political history.
Scientific quality of Political Science:
First criticism: Political Science is not a real science in comparison to "natural" and
applied sciences (e.g. chemistry, physics)
A fully developed Science includes four elements:
- Central concepts, which identify and name key phenomena.
- Theories, which are sets of systematically related generalizations that provide
explanations and predictions about the lineages between certain concepts.
- Rules of interpretation, which indicate the methods that are used to understand
whether the explanations and predictions provided by the theory are appropriate or
inappropriate.
- A list of questions (issues)
Second criticism: Its subject matter defies (disregard) generalizations:
it is argued that political world is too complex and contradictable for systematic
generalization.
Third criticism: Political Scientists can not be objective:
It is argued that the issues chosen for study are influenced by the researches and
his/her social realty such as culture, ideas, life experiences and so on.
Fourth criticism: Its practice diverts attention from normative questions.
