Analyzing Politics: An Introduction to Political Science

Notes:

Introduction
- With the magnitude of ideas and hermeneutics in the field of politics one is left to
wonder at the possibility of ever understanding them and that even the most
experienced and respected of political scientists have failed to accomplish. This
is the reality of the discipline.
- For political scientist David Easton: Politics involves change.
- Political science is more than the constitution or the preamble found in the
constitution, if it is, then I suggest political science be abandoned as a pertinent
field of discipline. It’s a world of flux, tensions, and transitions both domestic and
global scales.
- Politics in its myriad of arms also involves decision making over the world’s
resources as Harold Lasswell would say, politics is about deciding who does and
does not get access to what the world has to offer. It is a fact that different
countries have different capabilities that would also be apparent to the quality
of life each citizen would be enjoying, for example, the American Dream has
always been a dream for “third” world countries. In short. Politics involves the
choices governments and citizens make that would be tantamount to their best
interests. Obviously, these “best interests” are dependent on the country and the
citizens that are part of it.
- Politics is entrenched in and is a part of our common life no matter what type of
government system you belong to.
- However, just like in the idea of society, politics is based on the recognition that
our lives are shared, as long as we live in common, public spaces, such as state
territories.
- Aristotle: “Man is a political animal . . .”
- In short politics is everywhere and everything we do can always be placed under
the lenses of politics.
Political Science and Scientific Methods in Studying politics
- If you read the opening statement of the chapter on Zimbardo and his prison
experiment you may read it but it’s a hoax according to pertinent sources. For
more information on one of many psychological frauds here are the sources:
- https://www.vox.com/2018/6/13/17449118/stanford-prison-experiment-fra
ud-psychology-replication
- https://nypost.com/2018/06/14/famed-stanford-prison-experiment-was-a-f
raud-scientist-says/
- The problem with what Zimbardo is credited for is that he has testified in court
and had influence on many things, but as reputable sources would claim that it
is a fraud.
- The discipline asks these questions:

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 - Why do people vote as they do?
- Why are some people conservative and others not?
- Why are some interest groups more successful than others?
- Does money buy elections?
- Is the current election fair?
- How can we say that a particular electoral system is fair?
- Some political scientists study normative issues involving value judgement and
ethics, while others focus on the empirical side of the discipline being observable
and factual.
- Political Science, like other social sciences, have several subfields:
- Comparative Politics focuses on examining how different political systems
operate, including comparisons of systems at a macro (general political
systems) or micro (individual elements of political systems) level.
- International Relations focuses on the relationships between and among
states. It tackles issues such as war, regional integration, international
organizations, military alliances, economic pacts, etc.
- Political Research Methods focuses on a study of the many details of
empirical social sciences seeking to understand the empirical research
process in all its complexity and to develop means of achieving accurate
data.
- Public Policy focuses on how laws, regulations, and other policies are
formulated, implemented, and evaluated.
- Political Theory in some ways unique among the subfields of political
science insofar as it is concerned with normative questions. Political theory
includes the study of the history of political philosophy, philosophies of
explanation or science, and philosophical inquiries into the ethical
dimensions of politics.
- In its early years, the discipline was generally involved in the analysis of the
formal, legal, official side of political life and is known as Traditionalism.
- A Traditionalist tried to understand politics by examining laws, governmental
offices, constitutions, and other official institutions associated with politics; they
tried to describe how institutions operated by formal rules and publicly
sanctioned procedures. In short, Traditionalists would focus more on what’s
happening inside the government. They are typically historical and normative in
approach, they focus more on the formalities of politics.
- Some, however, have turned to Behavioralism as an alternative to Traditionalism.
Behaviorlism grew in popularity after World War II and can be attributed to
Charles Merriam. Merriam asserted the usefulness of looking at the actual
behavior of politically involved individuals and groups, not only the formal/legal
rules by which those individuals and groups were supposed to abide. One
example as to how a Behavioralist would do his/her job is that they examine how
members of Congress actually behave in their positions.
- A Behavioralist asks the following questions:

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 - How much time is devoted by members of Congress to such tasks as
writing laws, interacting with lobbyists, raising money for reelection, giving
speeches, studying domestic issues, attending committee and
subcommittee meetings, casting votes, meeting with foreign dignitaries,
and the like?
- A Behavioralist wants to know the motivations behind the different inclinations of
the members of the congress ranging from a plethora of social, economical, and
political factors present.
- What is certain is that both a Traditionalist and a Behavioralist would exclusively
be focused on the government instead of looking at the bigger picture of the
political scheme. But, what separates Behavioralism from Traditionalism, is that
Behavioralism is said to be based on empirical sources, X is a fact if X is
observed, and is not ruled by historical and normative forces
- Another alternative to both behavioralism and traditionalism is
Post-behavioralism. Easton puts it simply as emerging as a reaction against the
empirical orientations of behavioralism by political scientists who found such an
orientation excessive and irresponsible.
- One of the concerns of a Post-behavioralist is the religious reliance on empirical
data and denying the importance of values and ethics, ultimately creating
scientifically reliable data but “irrelevant” to the field of Political Science. For
them, understanding comes from observation, not ethical assessments. In one of
their main arguments, if Behavioralism would be distrustful towards
non-observable data, then behavioralism is as normative as traditionalism.
- PB’s argue that political science both be reliable (empirical results) and relevant
(tackles normative issues) in the issue of ethical implications since it’s assumed
that politics and men are fickle objects that vary over different circumstances.
- The tension found in traditionalism, behavioralism, and post-behavioralism have
yielded important questions for political science:
- What is the nature of scientific inquiry? How is science different from ethical
and/or religious perspectives on truth?
- How can political science be scientific? How can anyone study complex political
phenomena in a scientific manner? What are the methods of the scientific study
of politics?
- Should political science be scientific? How can anyone study complex political
phenomena in a scientific manner? What are the methods of the scientific study
of politics?
- Should science be value free? Will science be corrupted by bias if it is not value
free?
- How relevant is political science? What are the other sources of knowledge
about politics?
- Political scientists have often failed to integrate the demands of science and
humanity, falling short of Easton’s plea for relevance and reliability, even as the
discipline has opened up to include multiple research and analytical
approaches.

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- Political scientists use the scientific method of empirical data collection in a
number of ways—case studies, survey research, experiments, quasi-experiments,
and indirect quantitative analysis.

- Although the scientific collection of data has enriched human understanding of

many aspects of politics—by providing an approach to study that emphasizes
hypothesis formation, clear operational definitions of independent and
dependent variables, careful analyses of indicators, and strict attention to the
difference between ultimate causation and correlation—science is not without
limits.
- Human behavior is sometimes unique and not entirely susceptible to scientific
classification. Science is difficult to practice in a manner that is thoroughly
untouched by bias and interpretative assumptions. Not all questions about
politics can be answered scientifically. Moreover, when science investigates

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 humans, as in the Tuskegee and Cincinnati studies, it conceptualizes humans as
subjects—that is, as testable ‘‘objects’’—and, as such, runs the risk of violating
ethical principles. After all, when you use humans as test subjects, you may well
change their lives in ways they cannot imagine and might not choose for
themselves. Should science (and political scientists) have that power?

Key Concepts in Political Science

Power
- How well do we understand the concept of power in the field of politics? What
are the motivations of different institutions in their specific use of power? How is
power earned? How do we differentiate powerful and less powerful entities?
These are just some of the questions we can make in the discussion on power
and politics.
- Power: Definition and Characteristics
- Power is the ability to influence an outcome to achieve an objective or
the ability to influence someone to act in a way contrary to the way he or
she would choose to act.
- Power involves the exercise of volition (will)
- Power can be latent or manifest
- Different types of power are generally blended together when power is
made manifest
- It is one of the most important concepts in political science. In fact, some
political scientists see it as a defining element of the discipline.
- An interest group, for example, could be said to have power if it succeeded in
reaching its financial goals. The interest group, in this case, would have achieved
its objective if its assets increased to meet its stated aims. Significantly, this type of
power may or may not involve exercising power over another agent.
- Upon closer inspection, power and the person exercising such feats should, in his
agency, exhibit volition.
- Power can be exercised in physical ways (force), in a manner in which the agent
using power displays clear and openly acknowledged intent (persuasion), in a
manner in which the agent using power conceals his or her intent
(manipulation), or in a manner involving incentives to the entity over which
power is exercised (exchange). Generally, in the ‘‘real world’’ of politics, people
or groups using power combine the different types of power as they pursue their
political objectives.
- Are some forms of power unethical?
- If power is so complicated, how can we identify clearly enough to study it
scientifically?
- Is power escapable?

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- Is it possible to be free of power? Is each type of power ethical to use in pursuit of
one’s political goals? These normative questions invite intense debate among
students of politics.
- States are offices claiming ultimate (or final) authority within their boundaries.
States have numerous tasks: the provision of security to their citizens, the
collection of revenues to finance their operations, and the delineation of
ultimate rules. A state that actually has the ability to carry out these tasks is said
to possess sovereignty, and if citizens view their state as proper in its execution of
these tasks, the state is said to possess legitimacy. A state is required to possess a
permanent population, a defined territory, a government, and the capacity to
conduct international relations as stated in the Montevideo Convention of 1993
or the other one would be recognition from other states that you are indeed a
state.
- States can be highly centralized (unitary), highly decentralized (confederal), or
moderately centralized (federal). Whatever their degree of centralization or
decentralization, states interact with and sometimes compete with MNCs
(Multinational Corporations), IGOs (Intergovernmental Organizations), and NGOs
(Non-Governmental Organizations) in their exercise of sovereignty, and states
may be constrained by cultural attributes held by the citizenry or by elite
decision makers.
- Unitary states concentrate power at the central, or national, level. The
United Kingdom, France, China, and Japan are examples of unitary
states.
- Federal states create different divisions and levels of government and
divide power among those divisions and levels. The United States is a
federal state, with power accorded to offices at three levels: national or
federal offices, state offices, and local offices. Germany, India, Canada,
Brazil, and Mexico also have federal systems.
- Confederal type of organization, with power decentralized and held
primarily or exclusively by local offices. This type of state existed briefly in
the United States prior to the ratification of the U.S. Constitution. In 1781,
the Articles of Confederation established a confederation in which states
had supreme power and a central governing power was virtually
nonexistent, in that there was no central executive, no central judiciary,
and only a weak central legislature.
- Multinational corporations are international businesses with operations,
transactions, and assets in the territories of different states.
- Non-governmental organizations are non state, voluntary groups that
pursue political objectives.
- Inter-governmental organizations are political organizations in which
membership is held exclusively by states. The United Nations (UN), the
Organization of American States (OAS), the North Atlantic Treaty

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 Organization (NATO), and the UN Conferences on Trade and
Development (UNCTAD) are examples of IGOs.
- James Rosenau has argued that five forces have converged to threaten
the state’s existence as an organizational entity:
- Technological development that enhances communications and
interactions across state territories;
- Global Problems that makes states vulnerable because states
cannot keep the problems from penetrating their borders;
- Citizens’ tendencies to look to entities other than states for
information, leadership, and ethical guidance;
- Strengthening of the resources and appeals of groups within a
state’s borders, given the inability of states to keep groups from
obtaining information resources; and
- Increasing know-how on the part of citizens to analyze and resist
state authority.
- So, it is possible.
- Nations are people bound together with a sense of oneness based, usually, on
their shared language, culture, historical traditions, ethnicity, and/or religion.
Because this sense of oneness is based on feelings—which are subjective—it is
sometimes a controversial matter to determine who does or does not constitute
a nation.
- Debates in the Study of Nations: How do we know who is a Nation and
Who is not?
- Some nations possess their own states, whereas others do not. In some cases, a
nation’s demands for its own state can create extreme pressures on existing
states, as when nations within the former Yugoslavia demanded their own
separate states and prompted the reconfiguration of the Yugoslav state borders.
When more than one nation resides within the boundaries of a state, such a state
is termed a multinational state.

Source:
- Ellen Grigsby. Analyzing Politics: An Introduction to Political Science, Fourth Edition. USA:
Wadsworth, 2009.

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