Normative & Empirical App

Normative Approach
The normative conception in political theory is known by different names. Some people prefer to
call it philosophical theory, while others refer to it as ethical theory. The normative conception is
based on the belief that the world and its events can be interpreted in terms of logic, purpose and
ends with the help of the theorist’s intuition, reasoning, insights and experiences. In other words,
it is a project of philosophical speculation about values. The questions, which are asked by the
normativists, would be: what should be the end of political institutions? What should inform the
relationship between the individual and other social organisations? What arrangements in society
can become model or ideal and what rules and principles should govern it? One may say that
their concerns are moral and the purpose is to build an ideal type. Hence, it is these theorists who
have always conceived ‘utopia’ in the realm of political ideas through their powerful
imagination. Normative political theory leans heavily towards political philosophy, because it
derives its knowledge of the good life from it and also uses it as a framework in its endeavour to
create absolute norms. In fact, their tools of theorisation are borrowed from political philosophy
and therefore, they always seek to established inter-relationships among concepts and look for
coherence in the phenomena as well as in their theories, which are typical examples of a
philosophical outlook. Leo Strauss has strongly advocated the case for normative theory and has
argued that political things by nature are subject to approval or disapproval and it is difficult to
judge them in any other terms, except as good or bad and justice or injustice. But the problem
with the normativists is that while professing values which they cherish, they portray them as
universal and absolute. They do not realise that their urge to create absolute standard for
goodness is not without pitfalls. Ethical values are relative to time and space with a heavy
subjective content in them, which precludes the possibility of any creation of absolute standard.
We will do well to remember that even a political theorist is a subjective instrument in the
assessment of the world and these insights are conditioned by many factors, which may be
ideological in nature.
The exponents of empirical theory criticise normativism for:
a) Relativity of values
b) Cultural basis of ethics and norms
c) Ideological content in the enterprise and
d) Abstract and utopian nature of the project
But in the distant past those who championed normative theory always tried to connect their
principles with the understanding of the reality of their times. In recent times, again the old
sensibility within the normative theory has re-emerged and the passion for good life and good
society has been matched by methodological and empirical astuteness. John Rawls’ A Theory of
Justice is a case in point which attempts to anchor logical and moral political theory in empirical
findings. Rawls, with his imagination, creates ‘original position’ to connect normative
philosophical arguments with real world concerns about distributive justice and the welfare state.
Empirical Approach
What has dominated political theory in the twentieth century is not normativism, but another
conception known as empirical political theory which derives theories from empirical
observations. Empirical political theory refuses to accord the status of knowledge to those
theories which indulge in value judgements. Naturally, therefore, normative political theory is
debunked as a mere statement of opinion and preferences. The drive for value – free theory
started in order to make the field of political theory scientific and objective and hence, a more
reliable guide for action. This new orientation came to be known as Positivism. Under the spell
of positivism, political theorists set out to attain scientific knowledge about political phenomena
based on the principle which could be empirically verified and proved. Thus, they attempted to
create a natural science of society and in this endeavour; philosophy was made a mere adjunct of
science. Such an account of theory also portrayed the role of a theorist as of a disinterested
observer, purged of all commitments and drained of all values. This empirical project in political
theory was premised on the empiricist theory of knowledge which claims to have the full blown
criteria to test what constitutes truth and falsehood. The essence of this criterion is lodged in the
experimentation and the verification principle. When political theory was reeling under this
influence, a so called revolution started and became popular as the ‘Behavioural Revolution’.
This revolution reached a commanding position within political theory in the 1950’s and
engulfed the entire field of study and research by advocating new features.
They included :
a) Encouragement to quantitative technique in analysis
b) Demolition of the normative framework and promotion of empirical research which can be
susceptible to statistical tests
c) Non – acceptance and rejection of the history of ideas
d) Focus on micro–study as it was more amenable to empirical treatment
e) Glorification of specialisation
f) Procurement of data from the behaviour of the individual and
g) Urge for value – free research.

In fact, the behavioural climate got surcharged by an anti – theory mood and those who
lambasted theory in a conventional sense had a field day. Theory was caricatured and made
synonymous with ideology, abstraction, metaphysics and utopia. Some adventurists even
advocated farewell to theory as an enterprise. In the zeal of attaining objective knowledge, they
even reduced thought to an aspect of reality and blurred the distinction between thought and
reality. Thus, they soon attracted the ire and fire of some philosophers of science who offered a
vision for a post – positivist approach to science. Karl Popper set the new mood by laying down
the principle of ‘falsification’ as a criterion of scientific knowledge and argued that all
knowledge was conjectural, tentative and far from the final truth. The real turn or breakthrough
came in the philosophy of science when Thomas Kuhn, Imre Lakatos and Mary Hesse blasted
the so called scientific theory. Kuhn’s book The Structure of Scientific Revolution was a pioneer
in bringing out the shortcomings and failures of the positivist theory and it demonstrated how all
cognitions were dependent on understanding and interpretation as a means of inter-subjective
communication. Kuhn cogently argued that it was not only the irrational conventions which
lurked behind the construction of the semantic framework, but were also informed by rational
discourses framed by interpretation and criticism.

Normative & Empirical App

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Normative Approach

The exponents of empirical theory criticise normativism for:

b) Cultural basis of ethics and norms

c) Ideological content in the enterprise and

d) Abstract and utopian nature of the project

a) Encouragement to quantitative technique in analysis

c) Non – acceptance and rejection of the history of ideas

d) Focus on micro–study as it was more amenable to empirical treatment

f) Procurement of data from the behaviour of the individual and

g) Urge for value – free research.

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