Approaches of

Comparative Politics
- Notes

Political Science

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Approaches of Comparative Politics

Introduction

Comparative Politics is one of the three core components of Political science, the other
two being Political theory and International Relations.
The modern study of Comparative Politics emerged in the late nineteenth century.
Evolved largely due to the research in US universities, the role and influence of US
Academia research is a high point in the 1970s.
Jean Blondel noted that prior to 1914 comparative politics took two forms:
First, until the middle of the eighteenth century – the main approach was normative and
philosophical.
Second, from the middle of the 18th century to 1914- legalistic and Constitutional
approaches were.
According to Blondel, Montesquieu was the link between the two phases. Montesquieu
took into account factors like climate, geography, and location to explain the different
consequences of constitutional rule.

Evolution: Comparative Government to Comparative Politics

The change is significant, as there are a number of differences between the two, which
go much beyond that of nomenclature.
The former is described as the traditional approach while the latter is viewed as the
modern approach.
The traditional approach was much narrower in scope as it was based on a legal
approach.
In 1955 Roy Macarids differentiated between Comparative Government and Comparative
Politics. He pointed out that the traditional approach was:
Non- Comparative
Descriptive
Parochial
Static
Monographic
He also claims that the traditional approach is also excessively formalistic, historical, and
legalistic, and insensitive to theory building and theory testing.
In the 1950s and 1960s, distinguished scholars such as Harold Laswell and Gabriel
Almond took on the task of carrying out establishing the field of comparative Politics.

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The criticism of traditionalism prepared the platform for shifting the domain of
Comparative Politics from Institution to process.

Institutional Approach

According to them, the legal system of a country determines and clearly represents the
nature of the Political system in a country.
Majorly used till the 1950s as a method of political studies.
Consider Institutions as the major player in a political system.
Doesn’t recognize the importance of individual behavior in the political system.
Important characteristics of the Institutional approach according to Guy peter are –
Legalism, Structuralism, Holism, Historicism, and Normativity.
Characterized by a preoccupation with constitutions and legal -formal, and normative
values of liberal democracy.

Institutional approach: Thinkers and books

1. Lord James 1. The American Commonwealth (1888)

Bryce 2. Modern Democracies (1921)
2. A. Lawrence 1. Government and Parties in Continental Europe (1896)
Lowell 2. Public Opinion and Popular Government (1913)

3. Moisei Democracy and Organization of Political Parties (1902)

Ostrogorski
4. Harman Finer Theory and Practice of Modern Government (1932)

5. Carl Frederich Constitutional Government and Democracy (1941)

DAVID EASTON: GENERAL SYSTEMS THEORY

The Search for a systematic interpretation of society and Polity was Persuaded by David
Easton in his General System Theory.
David Easton identified the following attributes of the political system:
Units and Boundaries
Inputs and outputs
Differentiations within a system
Integration within a system

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Easton’s Diagram of Political System

The units of the political system are 'political actions'.

Inputs in the form of demands and supports feed the political system.
Demands come from the environment or arise within the system itself.
Demands become issues that are dealt with through the recognized channels in the
system.
Outputs emerge from the political system in the form of binding decisions and policy
actions.
These decisions and actions are fed back into the environment by satisfying the demands
of some members of the system.
They, in turn, generate support for the system.
Dissatisfaction may have negative results in the form of new demands on the system.
Easton elaborated that the political system is "a set of interactions abstracted from the
totality of social behavior, through which values are authoritatively allocated for a society.

Political Culture Approach

Political culture consists of attitudes, beliefs, values, and behavior of people towards the
political system
It believes that in every country the behavior or political participation of people
represents a specific culture and that can be analyzed by empirical analysis of these
political societies.
Political culture is part of the school of Behaviouralism.
Alan A. Ball argues that the concept of “political culture is composed of the attitudes,
beliefs, emotions, and values of the society that relate to the political system and to

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apolitical issues”
The political culture approach is Empirical and scientific in nature.

Civic Culture Theory

Gabriel Almond introduced the idea of political culture in modern political studies in his
article “Comparative Political System” (1956).
After this Almond and Verba’s “The civic Culture” study in 1963 become the first
systematic study of the political culture approach.
They did a comparative analysis of five countries: the USA, the UK, Germany, Mexico, and
Italy on three orientations: Cognitive, Effective, and Evaluative.

Almond and Verba classified three types of Political culture:

1. Parochial cultures - in which citizens have neither knowledge of nor interest in politics.
Examples Mexico as well as African tribal societies.

2. Subject cultures - in which citizens largely obey but participate little. Examples-
Germany, Italy, and China

3. Participant cultures - in which citizens understand and take part in politics and
voluntary associations. Example – USA & UK

Political Culture Approach: Thinkers and books

1. Gabriel 1. Politics of Developing Area (1960)

Almond
2. Comparative Politics-A development approach (1966)

3. The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five

Nations. (1963) -co-authored with Verba.
4. Comparative Politics Today (1974)

2. Lucian Pye Political culture and Political Development (1965), Political

culture Revisited (1991)

3. Sidney Verba 1. Small Groups and Political Behaviour: A study of leadership

(1961)
2. Elits and the Idea of Equality: A Comparison of Japan, Sweden,
and the USA. (1987)

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4. Samuel The Clash of Civilizations (1996).

Huntington

Political Economy Approach

It emerged as a reaction to mercantilism in the 18th century. Adam smith is considered

the father of Classical Political Economy.
David Ricardo forwarded the notion of comparative advantage of Political Economy.
This approach recognizes that economic decisions are of fundamental importance to the
state in economics and politics.
Socialist and Marxist theory contributed to the stream of Political Economy.
Development theories like Modernization by Talcott Parson, Rostow, and Dependency
theories by Samir Amin, A G Frank, etc brought the political economy approach to its
climax in Comparative Politics.

Political Economy: Thinkers and books

1. Adam Smith 1. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of
Nations (1776)
2. The Invisible Hand

2. David Hume 1.A Treatise of Human Nature (1739)

2. An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748)

3. Francois 1.Quesnay’s Tableau Economique (1758)

Quesnay

4. John Stuart 1. Principles of Political Economy (1848)

Mill

5. Karl Marx 1. Das Capital (in English, Capital; A Critique of

Political Economy) (1867)

New-Institutional Approach

New institutionalism originated in work by sociologist John Meyer in 1977.

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American Political Scientist James G March and Norwegian political scientist Johan P.
Olsen are often considered as the two leading founders of the New-institutionalism.
It tries to combine the interest of traditionalist scholars with behaviouralist scholars.
It studies how the institutional norms, rules, etc determine the actions and behavior of
Individual political actors in a political system.
It is part of Post-Behavioralism.

Thinkers and books Co-authored by March and Olsen

1. The New Institutionalism; Organizational factors in Political Life (1984),

2. Rediscovering Institutions; the Organizational Basis of Politics (1989)

3. Democratic Governance (1995)

GABRIEL ALMOND’S STRUCTURAL-FUNCTIONAL APPROACH

Gabriel Almond wrote an article in 1956 in which he said that system is an "inclusive
concept which covers all of the patterned actions relevant to the making of Political
decisions."
For him, the system was more important than the process because the system implied
totality,
interactions among units within the totality and stability in these interactions, which he
described as "changing equilibrium".
Almond’s works, “Politics of Developing Area”(1959) and “ Comparative Politics- A
Developmental Approach (1966) combinedly present his concept of Structure
Functionalism.

Characteristics of Political System

All political systems have structures.

The same political functions are performed in all political systems.
All political structures are multifunctional.
All political systems are mixed in the cultural sense.

Evolution of Political System

Political systems may be represented as modern and traditional, developed and

underdeveloped, industrial and agrarian.
Political systems have evolved through stages of development.

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Structures become more differentiated as political systems reach higher stages of

growth.
Almond divided them into primitive, traditional, transitional, and modern systems.

Political socialization and recruitment:

It is the process by which members are provided information about the political system.
They inculcate the values, beliefs, and norms of their community towards the system.
Primary socialization at home, locality, and educational institutions indoctrinate and
inculcate the members with attitudes, opinions, and orientations towards the political
phenomenon.
Such political education and mobilization enable the acclimatization and eventual
recruitment of new members.

Interest articulation:

As there are limited resources, there is a perpetual competition for attention. Coherent
demands are placed by various structures such as peer groups, pressure groups, interest
groups, associations, etc to preserve and further their interest.

Interest aggregation:

It is the process by which demands are translated into policies and decisions which could
be acted upon.

Political communication:

It is a process by which the components of a political system such as individuals, groups,

and institutions transmit and receive information regarding the functions of the political

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system. Mass media and lately social media are most suited to perform this action.

The sequence of Input Functions

(Almond & Powell Structural Functional Approach)

These input variables are translated into three output variables –

Rule-making is done primarily by the legislature (may be performed by different

structures depending upon the polity)
Rule application is done by the executive. The executive function is to implement the laws
and rules.
Rule adjudication is performed by the judiciary.

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