Study Notes – Politics, Political Science & Political Theory

Meaning of Politics

  • Etymology: Derived from Greek words ‘politika’ (affairs of the cities) / ‘polis’ (city-state)

  • Ancient Greek scope: Covered all activities of the city-state – civic, moral, economic, military

  • Popular (often cynical) images: “Politics is a dirty game”, associated with violence, lies, manipulation

  • Contemporary academic view: Politics = a socially-embedded activity + an academic field that studies that activity

Politics vs. Political Science

  • Question often asked: Are they identical?

    • Politics → actual practice, struggle for power, policy-making, conflict-resolution

    • Political Science → systematic, empirical, and/or philosophical study about those practices

Four Classic Views of Politics (Heywood)

  • Politics as the art of government

  • Politics as public affairs

  • Politics as compromise & consensus-building

  • Politics as power (who gets what, when, how)

Changing Nature of Politics

  • Shift from city-state to national & international arenas

  • From normative (what ought to be) to empirical & behavioural study (what is)

  • Expansion to non-state actors, informal groups, identity politics, global governance, feminism, environmentalism, subaltern studies

Historical Evolution of the Concept

  • Greek period: Aristotle called politics a “master-science”; man is by nature a “political animal”

  • Medieval era: Religious dominance overshadowed autonomous political inquiry

  • Modern era (Machiavelli onward): Politics regained autonomy from ethics & theology

Politics as the Study of State or Government (Traditional View)

  • Representative definitions

    • Garner: “Political Science begins and ends with the state.”

    • R. G. Gettell: “Political Science is the science of the state.”

    • Seeley, Dorothy Pickles, Leacock: focus on government machinery

  • Critique: Static, ignores social processes, informal power, change

Politics as a Social Process (Post-WWII)

  • Politics permeates entire social fabric → no one can evade it

  • Interaction between man, society & polity

  • Focus on power relations, communication, behaviour, values

Modern Definitions of Political Science

  • Harold Lasswell: “The study of the shaping and sharing of power.”

  • David Easton: “Concerned with the authoritative allocation of values for the entire society.”

  • Karl Deutsch: Political system as a network of communication channels → “nerves of government”

  • J. D. B. Miller: Politics is fundamentally about disagreement or conflict

David Easton’s Systems Model

  • Politics = continuous process of inputs & outputs

    • Environment generates demands & supports → enter the political system

    • System converts them into decisions / policies (outputs)

    • Feedback loop carries consequences back, modifying future demands/supports

  • Key implications

    1. Inherently conflictual

    2. Concerns public goals/decisions

    3. Requires authoritative resolution

    4. Involves interest groups

    5. Designed for conflict resolution

Nature of Political Science: Science or Art?

  • Arguments against “science” (Buckle, Comte, Gilchrist)

    • No laboratory, no repeatable experiments, value-laden, imprecise, low predictability

  • Arguments for “science” (Garner, Lord Bryce)

    • Systematic study possible, limited experiments, comparability with other social sciences

  • Middle ground: Not an exact science but employs scientific methods where feasible

Scope of Political Science

  • State & Government structures

  • Political theories & ideologies

  • Formal institutions (legislatures, executives, judiciaries)

  • Political dynamics (parties, pressure groups, social movements)

  • Individual–state relations, civil rights & duties

  • National & international politics, international law & organisations

  • Political leadership, policy processes, comparative politics

Political Theory

  • “Theory” (Greek theoria) → systematic contemplation to unveil truth

  • Political Theory = Systematic knowledge to understand, evaluate & judge political phenomena, suggest new ways of thinking

  • Definitions

    • George Catlin: includes Political Science and Political Philosophy

    • Heywood: a set of ideas imposing order/meaning on political phenomena

    • Weinstein: activity of posing questions, formulating responses, imagining public life

Characteristics

  • Often a single thinker’s speculative explanation

  • Explores man, society & history → universal in ambition

  • Descriptive + explanatory + interpretive + reformist

  • Ideology-coloured; articulates desired political order

Major Issue-Clusters Over Time

  • Classical: perfect political order

  • Modern: individualism, liberty, equality, property, justice

  • Post-WWII: political behaviour, voting, elites

  • Late 20th C: feminism, environmentalism, communitarianism, development, subalternism

Significance

  1. Guides control of social life

  2. Enables social criticism & reconstruction

  3. Clarifies core concepts (power, justice, rights…)

  4. Promotes mutual respect & toleration

  5. Encourages systematic thinking

  6. Links ideals to empirical phenomena

  7. Helps diagnose & hypothesise about contemporary problems

Schools of Political Theory

  • Classical

  • Liberal

  • Marxist

  • Empirical-Scientific

  • Contemporary (communitarian, feminist, green, post-colonial, etc.)

Approaches to the Study of Political Science

  • "Approach" ≠ "method"; approach = overall perspective, method = concrete tool

  • Chronology (approx.)

    1. Traditional (≤ 1945)

    2. Modern / Empirical (≈ 1950s on)

    3. Revival of traditional political theory (≈ 1970s→)

Traditional Approaches

Normative / Philosophical

  • Founders: Plato, Aristotle

  • Focus: ideals, values, what ought to be

  • Deductive, prescriptive, value-laden, unverifiable

  • Advantages: keeps morality central, provides yardsticks

  • Limits: subjective, utopian, gap between theory & reality

Historical

  • Key figures: Machiavelli, Montesquieu, Sir Henry Maine, Sabine, Oakeshott

  • Principle: Must grasp past to understand present/future, avoid repeated errors

  • Limits: Subjectivity, non-replicability, contextual mismatch, politicised narratives

  • Ongoing value: shows evolution of institutions & ideas, reveals interconnected events

Legal-Institutional

  • Legalists: John Austin, Bodin, Hobbes, Bentham, Dicey

  • Institutionalists: Bentley, Bryce, Bagehot, Laski

  • Studies constitutions, laws, formal powers & procedures

  • Limits: Ignores informal forces, social dynamics, extra-legal behaviour

Modern / Empirical Approaches

Positivism & Logical Positivism

  • Auguste Comte: father of positivism, knowledge = sensory verification

  • Vienna Circle (1920s-30s): A. J. Ayer, Carnap, Neurath, Wittgenstein, Nagel → “no knowledge beyond sense-experience”

Empirical Approach

  • Post-WWII surge

  • Features: verification, falsifiability, \text{Is} over \text{Ought}, value-free ideal, descriptive, inductive, interdisciplinary

  • Merits: Realism, comparative theory-building, scientific rigour

  • Limits: Quantification challenges, personal bias, experiential reductionism, under-analysis of values

Behaviouralism

  • “Science of Politics” movement (1940s-50s)

  • Forerunners: Graham Wallas (psychology), Arthur Bentley (group pressures), Charles Merriam (policy science)

  • Chicago School: Lasswell, V. O. Key, David Truman, Herbert Simon, Gabriel Almond, Lipset, Easton

  • Robert Dahl’s four traits: Protest, Skepticism, Reform, Optimism

  • Easton’s eight foundation stones: Regularities, Systemisation, Techniques, Quantification, Values, Verification, Pure Science, Integration

  • Achievements

    1. First rigorous study of political behaviour

    2. Advanced electoral analysis → practical party strategies

    3. Clarified theory–practice gaps

    4. Enabled sophisticated comparative studies

  • Criticisms

    • Over-scientism, neglect of purpose/values, fact–value dichotomy impossible (Strauss, Germino, Kirk)

    • Quantification fetish despite complexity of political life

Post-Behaviouralism (Mid-1960s on)

  • Trigger: Behaviouralism’s social irrelevance, US social crises

  • 1969 APSA Address: David Easton called for “Post-Behavioural Revolution”

  • Credo of Relevance

    1. Substance over technique

    2. Change-oriented, action-oriented, value-laden

    3. Research must address urgent social needs; politicise profession

  • Comparative Table

    • Inquiry: Pure knowledge (behav.) vs. Applied problem-solving (post-behav.)

    • Focus: Micro (behav.) vs. Macro (post-behav.)

    • Attitude to change: Neutral vs. Pro-change

Revival & Contemporary Trends in Political Theory

  • 1970s onward: Re-emergence of normative theory

    • John Rawls – “A Theory of Justice” (1971)

    • Libertarians – Robert Nozick, Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman

    • Conservatives – Michael Oakeshott

    • Communitarians – Alasdair MacIntyre, Michael Sandel, Charles Taylor

    • Critical Theorists – Frankfurt School (Herbert Marcuse, Jürgen Habermas)

  • Debates on “decline” of political theory

    • Alfred Cobban (1953): absence of new tradition

    • Easton: historicism to blame

    • Germino: ideological reductionism

    • Max Weber: moral relativism

    • Behaviouralism’s “hyper-factualism” criticised

Ethical, Philosophical & Practical Implications

  • Separation (or fusion) of \text{Is} and \text{Ought} remains core dilemma

  • Pursuit of science without social responsibility leads to irrelevance; excessive morals without facts leads to utopianism

  • Political analysis must balance empirical evidence, normative goals, and practical policy impact

Key Numerical / Formal Elements

  • Easton’s model: cyclical flow → Inputs (Demands + Supports) → Conversion → Outputs → Feedback → Inputs…

  • Behavioural credo lists: Dahl’s four points, Easton’s eight points, Post-Behavioural six-point “Credo of Relevance”

Concept Map (Mnemonic Summary)

POLITICS = \text{Power} + \text{Process} + \text{Purpose}
POLITICAL SCIENCE = \text{Systematic Study of Politics}
APPROACH LADDER = \text{Normative} \rightarrow \text{Historical} \rightarrow \text{Legal} \rightarrow \text{Empirical} \rightarrow \text{Behavioural} \rightarrow \text{Post-Behavioural}
THEORY TRIAD = \text{Description} + \text{Explanation} + \text{Prescription}

Exam Quick-Hitters

  • Aristotle: politics as “master-science” & humans as “political animals”

  • Lasswell’s slogan: “Who gets what, when, how.”

  • Easton: “authoritative allocation of values” + systems model

  • Behaviouralism: Focus on observable behaviour, quantification, Chicago School

  • Post-Behaviouralism: “Substance over technique”, relevance, action-orientation

  • Normative approach pros/cons: moral compass vs. unverifiable utopianism

  • Legal-institutional approach limitation: ignores informal power

  • Historical approach caution: context specificity & politicised narratives

Possible Essay / Short-Answer Prompts

  • Distinguish Politics vs. Political Science with examples

  • Evaluate whether Political Science is a true science

  • Compare & contrast Behaviouralism and Post-Behaviouralism

  • Explain Easton’s model and its application to a current policy issue

  • Assess the relevance of classical political theory in 21st-century global politics