Approaches to study of comparative politics: Approaches enable us in deconstructing and understanding a particular phenomenon. The perspective may encompass micro and macro level of local,regional,national or international issues. Comparative politics is no more limited to the study of government alone.The discourse of comparative politics has broadened to such an extent that it has emerged as an interdisciplinary study. Elements of society,economy,and others emerging disciplines has greatly influenced the subject area of comparative politics in modern times. The following approaches are the meaningful tools by which various phenomenon that occur around us can be understood in its proper perspective.
1.System approach:System approach is one of the pioneering models of political analysis which conceive: political activity within a framework of system or systems . Society is the most inclusive entity within which any system may be evaluated. Systems thus are abstractions of this real society and any phenomena of society may be viewed as a system or systems. All phenomena of society are interrelated; although boundaries may be drawn to delineate different systems.
Among all social sciences,economics made early contribution to system theory .In recent years computer stimulation has begun to supplant many of the econometric techniques. Computer must be used,for example,in an input-output analysis such as that developed by Wassily Leontief,who sought to analyse the relation among all segments of an economic system.Such analysis was utilized in the former Soviet Union for planning at the national level.Input-output analysis isusually statistical in nature and is thus limited for a short period; and this analysis in political science generally has been limited to qualitative rather than quantitative application.
System theory in comparative politics has its origin in physical and biological sciences.Pablo Gonzalez Casnova,a Mexican political sociologist,identified two types of systemic study; the first type has its roots in nineteenth century positivist explanation which today can be called functionalism and its major theoretician is
Talcott Parson. The second type is known as system analysis,which emphasizes on the problem of decision-making. Under certain conditions,both analyses are self-limiting and self-defeating' theories. David Easton was the first political scientist who analysed system theory.He defined politics as the 'authoritative allocation of value'which broadly constitutes the political process in the system. Any political phenomenon does not take place in a closed circuit or isolation; its ends are connected with the social process, that is open.In other words, 'allocation of value' is made because there are corresponding 'demands'from society or 'environment'. According to Easton,the political system receives 'inputs' as 'demand' and 'support' from the environment and it produces 'output' in the form of 'policies'and'decisions'. The 'output' flows back into the environment through a system of feedback 'mechanism giving rise to' demand.
This process continues as 'input, 'optput' , and feedback and any political occurrence can be understood through this methoto
Easton has identified four kinds of inputs : (i) demands for allocation of goods and services, such as wages and working conditions, educational opportunities, recreational facilities, infrastructure, etc.; (ii) demands for regulation of behaviour such as making statutes, public safety acts, rules pertaining to marriage, health, and sanitation; (iii) demand for participation in the political system, for example, right to vote, right to hold officer right to representation, right to form political association and; (iv) demands for communication and information, for example, right to information regarding policies; etc. Easton has also indentified four kinds of support : (i) material support, for example, payment of taxes, rendering services for public interest such as social work, military services, and so on; (ii) obedience to law, rules, and regulation; (iii) participatory support such as voting, political discussion, and all kinds of political activity and; (iv) paying attention to governmental communication and display of differences or respect to public authority, symbols and ceremonials. The outputs which come as policies and decisions are also sub-classified into four categories : (i) extractions that may be in the form of tribute, taxes, or personal services; (ii) regulation of behaviour, which may cover a wide range of human activities and so on; (iii) allocation of goods and services, opportunities, honours, statutes, etc., and; (iv) symbolic outputs, for example, affirmation of values, display of political symbol such as national flags, and communication of policy intent.
The framework of system analysis is very important for the comparative analysis of diverse political units, for example, for developed or developing polities. It can also be applicable to the international political studies. Yet, this theory has some drawbacks in •its generalization about the diverse political system. This approach conceived political system as preoccupied with stability, maintenance, persistence, and equilibrium, a tendency derived from biology which could not be applicable to a political system. For example, Easton referred to the 'authoritative allocation of value' as 'life processes' of the political system but this idea can lead to 3.1 : Paper V : Introduction to Comparative Government and Politics 3
some 'misleading assumptions on which to construct an adequate theory of politics'. In particular, he was unable to deal with particular change. "We can in no sense regard Easton's theory as a theory of political change as a theory which answers questions concerning why any particular political change occurred." Further his abstraction may lead to misperception about real situation, people, and the society.
2. Structural-Functional approach : Influenced by the Easton's work Of system analysis, Gabriel Almond setforth a new formulation, utilizing political system as a base and turning to a set of concepts related to structure and function. The structural-functional approach of political analysis has been more widely used in comparative politics because it provides for standard categories for different types of political system. Earlier this model of analysis has been used in social anthropology in the writings of Redcliffe-Brown and B. Malinowski followed in sociology by Talcott Parsons, Robert Merton, and Marion Levy. Gabriel A. Almond and James S. Coleman developed the structural-functional approach in their book 'The Politics of the Developing Areas' (1960).
3. Political Culture approach : The term 'culture' has diverse meanings according to assumption or perception of particular communities, such as, tribal culture, western culture, Islamic culture, African culture, and so on. In a similesense, culture is a way of life of a pårticular community. The culture of upper class teens in the cities is quite different from the tribal teens or village teens in India. The culture of southern India is different from northern India in terms of food habits, dresses, believes, norms, values, and so on. The style of speech, the moral assumptions, the gender identities, and the political outlooks will be different in China from India. Culture in this sense consists of the forms of thought, speech, and action as well as rituals, institutions, and protocols of the particular society and it may vary from one society to another, one state to another, and from one country to another. Culture can be understood as a system of symbols (political, economic, and social) and meanings that even their creator contest, which lacked fixed boundaries, that are constantly in flux, and that interact and compete with one another. It can be defined as all the ways of life including arts, beliefs, and institutions of a population that is passed down from generation to generation. It also includes codes of manners, dresses, language, religion, rituals, and norms of behaviour, and so on.
Gabriél A. Almond and Sidney Verba wrote a book entitled 'The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations' (1963) in which they studied comparative study of political culture in five states — the United States, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, and Mexico-due to the wide range of political-historical experience of these states. Powell and Verba employ the term 'political-culture' that specifically include political orientation attitudes towards political system and its various pakts, and attitude towards the role of the self in the system. It is a set of orientations toward a special set of social objects and processes. When we say political culture of a society, we refer to the political system as internalized in the cognitions, feelings, and evaluation of its population. Peoplé are inducted into it just' as they are socialized into non-political roles and social systems.' Conflicts of political cultures have much in common with other culture conflicts, and political acculturative processes are more understandable if we view them in terms of the resistance and the fusion and incorporative tendencies of cultural change in general.
The political culture of a nation is the particular distribution of patterns of orientation towards political objects among the members of a nation-state. Almond and Verba tapped individual orientations towards political object and defined as well as specified specific .models of political orientation and classes of political object. Orientations refer to the internalized aspects of objects and relationships.
4. political Economy approach : Comparative politics embraces all questions of politics but the study of politics cannot be isolated from social and economic questions. The political economy approach to the study of comparative politics is one way of looking at the relationship between politics and economics. Any social and political phenomena cannot be understood completely without the understanding of the interaction of those social or political events with economics. This approach is not only striving to see the relationship of politics and economics but all economic dimension of social, political, cultural, and institutional domain
of society that affect the individual's life. This approach, therefore, has a multidisciplinary dimension in order to enquire about any social phenomena. Having said this, it is important to point out that while the concept of political economy points at a relationship, there is no single meaning which can be attributed to the concept. The specific meaning of the concept depends on the theoretical or ideological tradition, that is, either Liberal.or Marxist, within which it is placed.
Marx's critiques of political economy influenced a number of scholars worldwide to understand the social and political phenomena very uniquely. His major work, 'Capital', is subtitled. "A Critique of Political Economy that emphasizes on commodities, money, surplus value and accumulation of capital. In the preface to 'A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, Marx began with terms such as capital, landed property, wage labour, etc. In his introduction Marx focused on "all material production by individuals as determined by society" and he indicted his predecessors Adam Smith and Pierre Joseph Proudhon, among others, for basing their conception of political economy upon illusions of an eighteenth century society of free competition in which an individual appears librated from constraints of nature. In this sense, Marx's idea influenced future scholars and a separate school was founded and named the Marxist School of Thought that solely focused on the economic question of any social and political phenomena.
5. The New Institutionalism : The new institutionalism (NI) is an approach to politics that suggest that 'behaviour is fundamentally moulded by the institutions it is embedded in (Oxford Dictionary of Politics 2009:366).' The phrase NI was first coined by James March and Johan Olsen in their seminal article, 'The New Institutionalism: Organizational Factors in Political Life' (published by American Political Science Review, 78:734-49). They emphasized on the organizational factors on political life by attaching values and norms through which these organizations would function. NI, as an approach, has immensely contributed.to political science in contemporary times. It is observed, of late, that a lot of usage of the phrase almost in all areas of political science, which entails a distinction of its features' that is established, as an, approach to the study of politics. In this direction, it can be more transparent provided a distinction is manufactured between old and new institutionalisms.
6. Feminist approach : Gender distinctions are critically linked to gender discrimination and inequality. This link is evident at all levels of social, political more so in the economic World and can be seen in the uneven patterns of change that have occurred in the gender system during the past half-century. This link between differentiation and inequality can be seen in the greater societal value and worth attached to maleness and to all things masculine relative to femaleness and things deemed feminine. The deemed feminine further catapults women to gender inequality and subordination which is perpetuated through the processes of institutionalization and legitimation.
Feminism as an academic discipline grew out of the feminist movement in the 1960s and 1970s that challenged the superiority of men. This movement was dedicated to achieving political, social, and economic equality in the private sphere as well as in the public sphere. The most indispensable goal for feminist theory is to explain women's subordination, which exists in all societies in varying degrees. The most important institution in comparative politics is the government and its various functions. Which form of government is a better form of rule? The federal, parliamentary, democratic, or authoritarian. The government and its administrative system, legislation, executions, and adjudication generally ignores the female or transgender concern most of the time. Thanks to the feminist movements, women's needs, gender equality and rights are being demanded all over the world.
Comparative political studies place gender at the centre of analysis into looking at the government works, laws, statutes, procedure through gender sensitive lenses and explain the patriarchy in the administrative law and actions. The gender is a silent dimension of public policy-making processes and outcomes, and therefore., merits serious consideration by policy makers, law makers and practitioners alike. Take any example in comparative politics, let us say pressure group. There are no any pressure groups in the World that are solely concerned about gender equality, rights and gender justice and not influence electoral system for such genuine claims .
Everywhere in the world, feminists are defining their own understanding of social, political, economic, cultural , and sexual aspects of the incident that varies from the patriarchal notion of the events. There are different variations of feminist understanding in which Liberal Feminism and Radical Feminism are very important in order to analyse comparative politics.
1.System approach:System approach is one of the pioneering models of political analysis which conceive: political activity within a framework of system or systems . Society is the most inclusive entity within which any system may be evaluated. Systems thus are abstractions of this real society and any phenomena of society may be viewed as a system or systems. All phenomena of society are interrelated; although boundaries may be drawn to delineate different systems.
Among all social sciences,economics made early contribution to system theory .In recent years computer stimulation has begun to supplant many of the econometric techniques. Computer must be used,for example,in an input-output analysis such as that developed by Wassily Leontief,who sought to analyse the relation among all segments of an economic system.Such analysis was utilized in the former Soviet Union for planning at the national level.Input-output analysis isusually statistical in nature and is thus limited for a short period; and this analysis in political science generally has been limited to qualitative rather than quantitative application.
System theory in comparative politics has its origin in physical and biological sciences.Pablo Gonzalez Casnova,a Mexican political sociologist,identified two types of systemic study; the first type has its roots in nineteenth century positivist explanation which today can be called functionalism and its major theoretician is
Talcott Parson. The second type is known as system analysis,which emphasizes on the problem of decision-making. Under certain conditions,both analyses are self-limiting and self-defeating' theories. David Easton was the first political scientist who analysed system theory.He defined politics as the 'authoritative allocation of value'which broadly constitutes the political process in the system. Any political phenomenon does not take place in a closed circuit or isolation; its ends are connected with the social process, that is open.In other words, 'allocation of value' is made because there are corresponding 'demands'from society or 'environment'. According to Easton,the political system receives 'inputs' as 'demand' and 'support' from the environment and it produces 'output' in the form of 'policies'and'decisions'. The 'output' flows back into the environment through a system of feedback 'mechanism giving rise to' demand.
This process continues as 'input, 'optput' , and feedback and any political occurrence can be understood through this methoto
Easton has identified four kinds of inputs : (i) demands for allocation of goods and services, such as wages and working conditions, educational opportunities, recreational facilities, infrastructure, etc.; (ii) demands for regulation of behaviour such as making statutes, public safety acts, rules pertaining to marriage, health, and sanitation; (iii) demand for participation in the political system, for example, right to vote, right to hold officer right to representation, right to form political association and; (iv) demands for communication and information, for example, right to information regarding policies; etc. Easton has also indentified four kinds of support : (i) material support, for example, payment of taxes, rendering services for public interest such as social work, military services, and so on; (ii) obedience to law, rules, and regulation; (iii) participatory support such as voting, political discussion, and all kinds of political activity and; (iv) paying attention to governmental communication and display of differences or respect to public authority, symbols and ceremonials. The outputs which come as policies and decisions are also sub-classified into four categories : (i) extractions that may be in the form of tribute, taxes, or personal services; (ii) regulation of behaviour, which may cover a wide range of human activities and so on; (iii) allocation of goods and services, opportunities, honours, statutes, etc., and; (iv) symbolic outputs, for example, affirmation of values, display of political symbol such as national flags, and communication of policy intent.
The framework of system analysis is very important for the comparative analysis of diverse political units, for example, for developed or developing polities. It can also be applicable to the international political studies. Yet, this theory has some drawbacks in •its generalization about the diverse political system. This approach conceived political system as preoccupied with stability, maintenance, persistence, and equilibrium, a tendency derived from biology which could not be applicable to a political system. For example, Easton referred to the 'authoritative allocation of value' as 'life processes' of the political system but this idea can lead to 3.1 : Paper V : Introduction to Comparative Government and Politics 3
some 'misleading assumptions on which to construct an adequate theory of politics'. In particular, he was unable to deal with particular change. "We can in no sense regard Easton's theory as a theory of political change as a theory which answers questions concerning why any particular political change occurred." Further his abstraction may lead to misperception about real situation, people, and the society.
2. Structural-Functional approach : Influenced by the Easton's work Of system analysis, Gabriel Almond setforth a new formulation, utilizing political system as a base and turning to a set of concepts related to structure and function. The structural-functional approach of political analysis has been more widely used in comparative politics because it provides for standard categories for different types of political system. Earlier this model of analysis has been used in social anthropology in the writings of Redcliffe-Brown and B. Malinowski followed in sociology by Talcott Parsons, Robert Merton, and Marion Levy. Gabriel A. Almond and James S. Coleman developed the structural-functional approach in their book 'The Politics of the Developing Areas' (1960).
3. Political Culture approach : The term 'culture' has diverse meanings according to assumption or perception of particular communities, such as, tribal culture, western culture, Islamic culture, African culture, and so on. In a similesense, culture is a way of life of a pårticular community. The culture of upper class teens in the cities is quite different from the tribal teens or village teens in India. The culture of southern India is different from northern India in terms of food habits, dresses, believes, norms, values, and so on. The style of speech, the moral assumptions, the gender identities, and the political outlooks will be different in China from India. Culture in this sense consists of the forms of thought, speech, and action as well as rituals, institutions, and protocols of the particular society and it may vary from one society to another, one state to another, and from one country to another. Culture can be understood as a system of symbols (political, economic, and social) and meanings that even their creator contest, which lacked fixed boundaries, that are constantly in flux, and that interact and compete with one another. It can be defined as all the ways of life including arts, beliefs, and institutions of a population that is passed down from generation to generation. It also includes codes of manners, dresses, language, religion, rituals, and norms of behaviour, and so on.
Gabriél A. Almond and Sidney Verba wrote a book entitled 'The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations' (1963) in which they studied comparative study of political culture in five states — the United States, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, and Mexico-due to the wide range of political-historical experience of these states. Powell and Verba employ the term 'political-culture' that specifically include political orientation attitudes towards political system and its various pakts, and attitude towards the role of the self in the system. It is a set of orientations toward a special set of social objects and processes. When we say political culture of a society, we refer to the political system as internalized in the cognitions, feelings, and evaluation of its population. Peoplé are inducted into it just' as they are socialized into non-political roles and social systems.' Conflicts of political cultures have much in common with other culture conflicts, and political acculturative processes are more understandable if we view them in terms of the resistance and the fusion and incorporative tendencies of cultural change in general.
The political culture of a nation is the particular distribution of patterns of orientation towards political objects among the members of a nation-state. Almond and Verba tapped individual orientations towards political object and defined as well as specified specific .models of political orientation and classes of political object. Orientations refer to the internalized aspects of objects and relationships.
4. political Economy approach : Comparative politics embraces all questions of politics but the study of politics cannot be isolated from social and economic questions. The political economy approach to the study of comparative politics is one way of looking at the relationship between politics and economics. Any social and political phenomena cannot be understood completely without the understanding of the interaction of those social or political events with economics. This approach is not only striving to see the relationship of politics and economics but all economic dimension of social, political, cultural, and institutional domain
of society that affect the individual's life. This approach, therefore, has a multidisciplinary dimension in order to enquire about any social phenomena. Having said this, it is important to point out that while the concept of political economy points at a relationship, there is no single meaning which can be attributed to the concept. The specific meaning of the concept depends on the theoretical or ideological tradition, that is, either Liberal.or Marxist, within which it is placed.
Marx's critiques of political economy influenced a number of scholars worldwide to understand the social and political phenomena very uniquely. His major work, 'Capital', is subtitled. "A Critique of Political Economy that emphasizes on commodities, money, surplus value and accumulation of capital. In the preface to 'A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, Marx began with terms such as capital, landed property, wage labour, etc. In his introduction Marx focused on "all material production by individuals as determined by society" and he indicted his predecessors Adam Smith and Pierre Joseph Proudhon, among others, for basing their conception of political economy upon illusions of an eighteenth century society of free competition in which an individual appears librated from constraints of nature. In this sense, Marx's idea influenced future scholars and a separate school was founded and named the Marxist School of Thought that solely focused on the economic question of any social and political phenomena.
5. The New Institutionalism : The new institutionalism (NI) is an approach to politics that suggest that 'behaviour is fundamentally moulded by the institutions it is embedded in (Oxford Dictionary of Politics 2009:366).' The phrase NI was first coined by James March and Johan Olsen in their seminal article, 'The New Institutionalism: Organizational Factors in Political Life' (published by American Political Science Review, 78:734-49). They emphasized on the organizational factors on political life by attaching values and norms through which these organizations would function. NI, as an approach, has immensely contributed.to political science in contemporary times. It is observed, of late, that a lot of usage of the phrase almost in all areas of political science, which entails a distinction of its features' that is established, as an, approach to the study of politics. In this direction, it can be more transparent provided a distinction is manufactured between old and new institutionalisms.
6. Feminist approach : Gender distinctions are critically linked to gender discrimination and inequality. This link is evident at all levels of social, political more so in the economic World and can be seen in the uneven patterns of change that have occurred in the gender system during the past half-century. This link between differentiation and inequality can be seen in the greater societal value and worth attached to maleness and to all things masculine relative to femaleness and things deemed feminine. The deemed feminine further catapults women to gender inequality and subordination which is perpetuated through the processes of institutionalization and legitimation.
Feminism as an academic discipline grew out of the feminist movement in the 1960s and 1970s that challenged the superiority of men. This movement was dedicated to achieving political, social, and economic equality in the private sphere as well as in the public sphere. The most indispensable goal for feminist theory is to explain women's subordination, which exists in all societies in varying degrees. The most important institution in comparative politics is the government and its various functions. Which form of government is a better form of rule? The federal, parliamentary, democratic, or authoritarian. The government and its administrative system, legislation, executions, and adjudication generally ignores the female or transgender concern most of the time. Thanks to the feminist movements, women's needs, gender equality and rights are being demanded all over the world.
Comparative political studies place gender at the centre of analysis into looking at the government works, laws, statutes, procedure through gender sensitive lenses and explain the patriarchy in the administrative law and actions. The gender is a silent dimension of public policy-making processes and outcomes, and therefore., merits serious consideration by policy makers, law makers and practitioners alike. Take any example in comparative politics, let us say pressure group. There are no any pressure groups in the World that are solely concerned about gender equality, rights and gender justice and not influence electoral system for such genuine claims .
Everywhere in the world, feminists are defining their own understanding of social, political, economic, cultural , and sexual aspects of the incident that varies from the patriarchal notion of the events. There are different variations of feminist understanding in which Liberal Feminism and Radical Feminism are very important in order to analyse comparative politics.
Comments