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Contemporary Political Theories

Behaviouralism Post-Behaviouralism Systems Approach Structural Functionalism Political Culture

7/23/2012

Intro. to Political Science--Isiaka ADAMS

Contemporary Political Theories


Classical political theory is gradually losing its appeal thus paving the way for contemporary theories. Contemporary political scientists are dissatisfied with the way politics was studied by the Classical, Medieval and Modern philosophers. They began to study politics scientifically rather than normatively. This gave birth to behaviouralism.
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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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A Systems Approach Model


Environment: Social, Economic and Political Interaction/Processes Demands Apathy Support Conversion Process by Government Decision Makers Decisions Policies/ Actions

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
7/23/2012 Intro. to Political Science (PSCI 1010). Isiaka A. Adams 9

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).
7/23/2012 Intro. to Political Science (PSCI 1010). Isiaka A. Adams 10

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.
7/23/2012 Intro. to Political Science (PSCI 1010). Isiaka A. Adams 11

How the System Works


The political system takes input from the society, processes it and churns it out as output. Input means demands for particular policies and expressions of support. Output consists of laws, executive orders, judicial decisions, as legislated by the government. Support includes obeying laws, paying taxes and support/loyalty to government and its leaders. Feedback is the process through which output is fed back into the system to generate new input and this process continues in that order.
7/23/2012 Intro. to Political Science (PSCI 1010). Isiaka A. Adams 12

Systems Approach: Merits


Systems approach is sensitive to the input output interaction between a system and its components. It is economical to organize disconnected political data for analysis. It examines important public problems. It identifies those who provide the system input. It also examines how decisions are made. It evaluates the extent to which these functions meet the citizens demand.
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Systems Approach: Demerits


The model is static/fixed and biased towards the status quo. It cant handle upheaval or sudden changes. Instead of the systems to be continually self-correcting, most systems collapse when faced with sudden change. It is not suitable to analyse a dynamic political system.
7/23/2012 Intro. to Political Science (PSCI 1010). Isiaka A. Adams 14

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.

Participant political culture


People understand that they are citizens and they pay attention to politics. They are proud of their country and its political system. They believe they can influence politics and change policies. They have high level of political competence and political efficacy. A participant political culture nurtures democratic ideals.
7/23/2012 Intro. to Political Science--Isiaka ADAMS

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Subject political culture


It is less democratic. People infrequently pay attention to politics. They are not proud of the countrys political system. They are uncomfortable discussing politics. Subjects believe that their influence in politics does not extend beyond the local offices. Their sense of political efficacy and political competence is lower, some even feel powerless.
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Parochial political culture


It is less-democratic. People do not care about government and its policies. They identify with their immediate locality. They are not proud of their countrys political system and expect little from it. They have neither the desire nor the ability to participate in politics. They have no sense of competence or efficacy in politics and they feel powerless in the face of existing institutions.
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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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