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7/23/2012
Behaviouralism
Behaviouralism emphasizes scientific, objective and value-free study of politics as determined by the environment. It focuses on study of actual behaviour as opposed to thoughts or feelings. The behavioural approach rejects moral and ethical questions in politics. Behaviouralism is characterized by methodology, observation, classification, measurement and data analysis.
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Behaviouralismcontd
The approach borrows techniques from biology, mathematics, physics and other natural sciences. However, behaviouralism suffered criticisms from scholars who said it focused on relatively minor topics and ignored the major issues of politics. Critics say that behavioural studies were often irrelevant.
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Post-behaviouralism
In the early 1970s, behaviouralism was replaced by Post-Behaviouralism. Post-behaviouralism was led by scholars who insisted that facts and values are tied together. Post-behaviouralism is a synthesis of traditional, behavioural and other techniques in the study of politics. The approach relies on both the qualitative data of the traditionalists and the quantitative data of the behaviouralists.
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Post-behaviouralismcontd
Post-behaviouralism studies history and institutions and opinions as well as rely on rational-choice theory. Post-Behaviouralism emphasizes that political research and enquiries must be relevant and meaningful Research must address contemporary social problems. Research must strive to improve the society.
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Post-behaviouralismcontd
Post-Behaviouralism seeks to change society and make the world a better place to live in. Post-behavioural revolution in pol. sc. led to development of new theoretical schemes and research designs. These schemes are systems approach, structural functionalism, political culture and political socialisation.
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Systems Approach
David Easton developed the systems approach in political science. He relied on biology, cybernetics and engineering mechanisms to develop his approach. Easton argued that a political system consists of institutions, processes and interactions. Through this system, values are authoritatively allocated in a society.
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I N P U T S
O U T P U T S
Feedback
Environment
Source: Easton, David (April, 1957). An Approach to the study of Political Systems, World Politics, Vol. 9, No. 3, p. 384
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Systems Approach
Easton says, The study of politics is concerned with understanding how authoritative decisions are made and executed for a society (Easton, 1957, p. 383). He listed three aspects of political life which work to produce a system: o Institutions (political parties, interest groups, government, and voting). o The nature and consequences of political practices (manipulation, propaganda and violence/war). o The structure of politics (the state system).
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Systems ApproachContd
Easton lists four components of a political system: 1. Attributes: Units and Boundaries. 2. Inputs (Demand, Apathy and Support) and Output (Political Decisions, Policies and Laws). I. The domains of support are political community, the regime, and the government. II. He emphasized that the outputs could be negative or positive. 3. Differentiation of roles in the political system. 4. Integration of the system.
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Structural Functionalism
Critics of systems approach developed structural functionalism. Gabriel Almond popularized the approach. It examines the functions performed by each institutions in a political system. The approach emphasises studying the mechanisms by which political functions are performed. The functions performed by each structure is also identified. Almond differentiates between (i) Input functions and (ii) Output functions.
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Structural Functionalismcontd
Input functions-Political socialisation or recruitment, interest articulation, interest aggregation and political communication. Input functions are performed by nongovernmental sub-systems, the society and the general environment. Output functions-Rule making, rule application and rule adjudication. Output functions are performed by government structures such as legislature, executive and judiciary.
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Structural Functionalismcontd
Structural functionalists argue that identification and location of these functions will help in understanding a political system. The input and output functions were later modified into three functions: (i) Capability functions. (ii) Conversion functions. (iii) System maintenance and adaptation functions.
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Political Culture
Political Culture (PC) is another approach of studying politics. Sidney Verba defines it as the system of empirical beliefs, expressive symbols and values, which defines the situation in which political action takes place. It is a sub-set of the general culture reflecting the pattern of individual attitude and orientations towards policies among members of the political system. The components of political culture are political attitudes, values , feelings, information and skills.
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Political culture is always reflected through national ideology, attitudes toward the political system and its leaders, and duties of citizenship. Almond and Powell say there are three types of orientations: (i) Cognitiveknowledge and belief about the political system. (ii) Affectivefeeling of loyalty, patriotism about the political system. (iii) Evaluativejudgments and opinion regarding the political system. Evaluative combines values or standard with information and feelings.
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Political Culturecontd
Political Culturecontd
There are three types of political culture: Participant, subject and parochial.
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Conclusion
However, there is no single political culture that fits perfectly into any of the above types. They are usually mixed in varying proportions, although one type could be dominant.
Individual Assignment
Political science tends to get caught up in trends We will never have a paradigm that can consistently explain and predict political actions. Explain this statement in light of the explanatory and predictive powers of these theories: behaviouralism, systems theory, rational choice theory, political culture and functionalism.
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