Nature of Politics

Politics: Science or Art?

Political science as a discipline involves the study of political ideas, institutions, processes and events.

It is essentially multidisciplinary in scope drawing from law, history, ethics , philosophy and other subjects.

Graham Wallas and Arthur Bentley were influential in starting a new approach to the study of politics, i.e an empirical orientation of political studies which would lead to an examination of political concepts such as power, authority, and political elites.They were the fore-runners of the behaviourists.

Behaviouralism is the attempt to generate and test verifiable scientific explanations about politics, its structures, processes and behaviour within these structures.

Emphasis is placed on quantification and operational definitions, the avoidance of value judgments; feedback is encouraged between empirical research and improvements in methodology.

It effects on the discipline was to encourage attempts to establish a science of politics.

Critique of Political ‘Science’

• Thomas Kuhn (1962) argued that science is characterized by a commitment to a scientific paradigm ( a framework that gives organization and direction to a given area of scientific investigation).

• Key elements of a paradigmatic science are: - concepts that provide answer the what question- a theory i.e. a set of related generalisations that answers why

and how questions- rules of interpretations that establish whether the predictions

posited by the theory are right or wrong- the identification of puzzles indicates whether the questions are

worth solving.

• Critique 1:Politics is not scientific in comparison to real sciences because it

lacks a paradigm. Researchers have not agreed upon a single set of concepts, theories and rules of interpretation and there is disagreement on the puzzles and problems that ought to be solved.

Judged by Kuhn’s standard political science is classified as pre-paradigmatic.

Critique 2:Its subject matter defies generalization. The political world is too

complex and unpredictable for systematic generalizations.

• Critique 3Its ‘scientists’ cannot be objective. The political

scientist lacks objectivity as his analysis of the world is coloured by his values, culture, ideas, life experiences, etc.

Politics as Science

• The case for politics as a science rests on four premises;

- Distinction can be made between fact and values

- Facts can be demonstrated- Knowledge is objective- Humans react to stimuli

Politics as ‘Art’

Heywood: Politics is the art of government, ie. the exercise of control within society through the making and enforcement of collective decisions.

Easton: politics is seen in the processes through which government responds to pressures from the wider society

References

• Ball, Alan. Modern Government and Politics• Danziger, James. Understanding the Political

World.• Haralambos & Holborn. Introduction to

Sociology• Heywood, Andrew. Politics