1.

Normative political approach

- concerned with the discovery and application of moral notions in the sphere of political
relations and practice as it deals with the inquiry into the problems of man and society

- “It is the attempt to know both the nature of political things and the right or the good political
conduct (through) critical and coherent analysis”

- Subject matter of the normative approach has principally remained the state- its evolution,
organization and purpose

Normative political thinkers seek answers to questions such as:

• What is the state and who should preside over the affairs of the state?
• What is political obligation and why should the state be obeyed?
• What ends should the state serve and how can it be structured to achieve these ends?
• What are the proper limits on state authority and when citizens refuse to obey it?
• How should the state relate to other organizations in society?
• What is justice and how best can it be guaranteed?
• What is the essence of liberty and equity?
• Where is sovereignty to be located?
• What makes political power and its exercise legitimate?
• What is a political representation and who has the right to present others?
• What is political participation and to what extent should ordinary citizens be entitled to
participate in the decision-making processes of government?

Answers are based on ethical and political values that are regarded as essential for the good
citizen and a just state

2. Institutional approach

- Concerned with the rules, procedures and formal organizations of the

political system and their impact on political practice

- One of the consequences: has encouraged the practice where it is

institutions that fail and individuals that occupy them, a reality that has
not encouraged individual

FEATURES OF CLASSICAL OR TRADITIONAL Institutional approach

1. Descriptive–inductive
2. Formal-legal
 3. Historical-comparative
4. Political values

DESCRIPTIVE–INDUCTIVE
- Induction is defined as “the process by which the scientist forms a theory to explain the
observed facts”
- Induction is the practice of inferring generalizations from past occurrences which then shape
expectations for the future.
- an extrapolation from the past to the future in the expectation that the future will continue to
behave in the same manner as in the past.
- Induction starts with an empirical observation from which explanatory generalization of
institutions, the facts of their existence, the character of their actions and the exercise of their
power.
KEY POINTS: study of political institutions displays a preference for “letting the facts speak
for themselves

FORMAL-LEGAL
– involves the study of public law and of formal government
• Provides legal protection as contained in the Constitution, legal remedies, and the study of
constitutional structure.
• normative questions like how are constitutions made?
The Constitutional structure seeks to ask the questions:
• How are constitutions made?
• What type of constitution should a country adopt?
• Should it be written or unwritten? Should it be federal, unitary, or confederal?
• What is the procedure for the amendment of the constitution?
• Should it be rigid or flexible?
• How are conflicts between the various branches of government–legislature, executive, and
judicial–resolved?
• What are the sources of the constitution?
• What sources should be given preeminent consideration in framing the constitution?
• How do constitutions affect the operation of government, and how do the operations of
government affect the development of the constitution?
What are the rights of citizens under the law?

HISTORICAL-COMPARATIVE
- develop testable generalizations by examining political phenomena across different
political systems or historically within the same political system
• political analyst seeks to develop testable generalizations by examining political phenomena
across different political systems or historically within the same political system.
• In carrying out a comparative analysis, political scientists examine the history, especially the
evolution of the institutions they are studying
 Varieties of Institutionalism
• Constitutional studies
• Public Administration

1. Constitutional Studies
- Works on constitutional studies were devoted to issues relating to the basic duties of the country’s
leaders and citizens, the types and characteristics of government, and the limits of, as well as
relationships between, various institutions and organs of government.

- RECENTLY, constitutional studies remain a prime example of formal legal methods in the study of
political institutions and its adoption in emerging democracies or post-conflict countries

2. Public Administration

• study of the institutional arrangements for the provision of public services or study of public
bureaucracies
• It concentrated attention on the authorities engaged in public administration, analyzed their
history, structure, powers and relationships, including enquiring into how they worked and the
degree of effectiveness achieved

Behavioral approach
(behavioralism)
- effort to impose standards of scientific rigor by relying on empirical evidence

Main features of the behavioral approach

Verification and Falsification:

All generalizations made about the political process must in principle be tested by
reference to relevant behavior or actual political context.

This process of empirical verification is the key criterion for assessing the validity or
utility of such generalizations

Techniques:
The acquisition and interpretation of data must be carried out via the use of techniques
(sample surveys, statistical measurement and mathematical models) that have been
rigorously examined, refined and validated.
Systematic analysis and accuracy must be developed for observing, recording and
analyzing empirical political behavior

Quantification:
Precision and accuracy of data and statement of findings require measurement,
quantification and mathematization not for their own sake but only possible relevant
and meaningful in the light of other objectives.
The political scientist should perform his research in quantitative terms if he can, and in
qualitative terms if he must.

Value-Facts Dichotomy:
Ethical evaluation and empirical explanations involve two different kinds of propositions
that for the sake of clarity should be kept analytically distinct.

However, a student of political behavior is not prohibited from asserting propositions of

either kind whether separately or in combination as long as he does not mistake one for
the other.

Systematization:
Empirical research ought to be systematic i.e. research should be theory-oriented and
theory-directed.
Theory and research should develop as closely interconnected art of an orderly body of
knowledge.
The major pattern of Behavioralists was to develop a general theory/paradigm of
political behavior in which disparate aspects/parts could be integrated

Pure Science:
Applied research is much an art of scientific enterprise as theoretical understanding.

The scientific understanding of political behavior logically proceeds and provides the
basis for an effort to utilize political knowledge to the solution of urgent practical
problems of society. Greater importance should therefore be attached to a scientific
understanding over policy formation of problematic ventures. In essence, the pursuit of
knowledge is an end in itself. The student of political behavior even if he/she were
dubious about the practical utilities of his/her work/findings would require not more
than the prospects of science to justify his/her findings

APPROACHES TO THE
STUDY OF POLITICAL SYSTEMS

1. Systems Approach
The political system “is that system of interactions in any society through which
binding or authoritative allocations are made.”
 From the environment, demands are made on the political system in the form of input
(demands and support) and these demands are subsequently processed into outputs as authoritative
decisions.

Through a feedback loop changes brought about by those outcomes after conversion, are channeled
back into the system in form of increased, intensified or modified demands and supports.

- useful as a general framework for political analysis.

Analyses of political activity is through employing the paradigm of the biological system “where
life processes interact with each other and with the environment to produce a changing but nonetheless
stable bodily state.”

Therefore, politics is the response of the political system to forces brought to bear on it from the
environment, and this makes politics to be an output of the political system.

First, is the concept of a system which “implies an identifiable set of institutions and activities in a
society that functions to transform demands into authoritative decisions requiring the support of the
whole society.”

A crucial property of a system is the interrelatedness of its parts or elements.

Furthermore, it is assumed that a system will respond to its environment and will seek to preserve itself

INPUTS
- the forces generated in the environment that affect the political system.
- can take the form of demand and support. Demands involve actions by individuals and groups seeking
authoritative allocations of values from the authorities, while support comprises of actions rendered in
favor of government such as obedience to the law and payment of taxes.

- generated from the environment

- “any condition or circumstance defined as external to the boundaries of the political system".

- fed into the black box of decision making, otherwise called the conversion box to produce outputs,
where outputs are the decisions and policies of the authorities. Within the framework of the system,
allowance is made for feedback as a mechanism through which the outputs of the political system
influence future inputs into the system.

“the concept of feedback indicates that public policies (or outputs) may subsequently alter the
environment and the demands generated therein, as well as the character of the political system itself.”

Supports
- consist of an implicit or explicit agreement with government policies or encouragement to
follow certain courses of action could be given to the political system as a whole.
 - if support is lacking, the political system cannot survive for long. The inputs are transmitted to
the decision-making centers where they are processed and converted into authoritative-
allocation of values in the form of outputs. Outputs are the policies formulated by the decision-
makers namely, rule-making by the legislature, rule application by the executive, and rule-
adjudication by the judiciary.

2. Structural Functionalist Approach

Offshoot of systems approach

Focuses largely on explaining the functions a political system must perform to
survive and defines structures or organizations which can most efficiently perform
the functions.

Structures:
political parties, pressure groups, or formal government institutions performing system-maintenance
functions such as informing the electorate on important issues and allowing for wider participation in
the political system.

it provides standard categories for a different political system and therefore useful in comparative
government/ politics.

proceeded from the understanding that a political system is made up of institutions (structures), such as
interest groups, political parties, the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government, and
bureaucratic machinery.

- the structural-functionalist approach believes that information is not sufficient to make a

meaningful comparison between two political systems. Two countries may share many of the
same political institutions, but what distinguishes the two systems are how these institutions
function.
Understanding data starts with collecting them.
There are various ways of collecting and understanding data.
This is incorporated in:
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Addresses the question:
How does the researcher answer the questions?

1. Research design

2. Respondents of the study

 3. Instrument of the study

4. Establishing and validating reliability

5. Statistical treatment

Basic elements of research methodology

– Research design – describes the research mode whether quantitative or qualitative

– Instrument of the study – describes the specific type of research instrument that will be used

– Statistical treatment – establishing the objectivity of research findings is by subjecting the data
to different but appropriate statistical formulas and processes

- Overall plan and scheme for conducting the study

- Overall strategy that a researcher uses to logically and coherently integrate various
components of the study

What is research design?

QUANTITATIVE VS. QUALITATIVE

– Quantitative research involves analyzing and gathering numerical data to

uncover trends, calculate averages, evaluate relationships, and derive
overarching insights.

– Qualitative research focuses on obtaining data through open-ended and

conversational communication.
• This method is about “what” people think and “why” they think so.
Types of Quantitative Research Designs
- Experimental Research
- Quasi-experimental Research
- Nonexperimental Research

Non-experimental research designs do not have any manipulation or control of

any variables.
It relies on descriptive, observational, or correlational data

– A research design that is capable of giving qualitative and quantitative data, but more on
qualitative, hence, more often used in social sciences

Types:

a. Descriptive – Portray a population that has been chosen because of characteristics; determine
the extent or direction of behavior and attitudes; provide a picture of a situation as it naturally
happens; depicts an image or picture of an individual or group
B. Comparative – states the similarities and differences between and among things, people, objects,
etc.

c. Correlative – shows the extent and direction of variable relationships that is, whether a negative or
positive relationship exists

d. Survey – describes the attitudes, preferences, views, feelings, and other behavioral patterns of a big
number of people; Report on attitudes, opinions, perceptions or behaviors; describes characteristics,
opinions, attitudes and behaviors

e. Ex post facto – that which is done afterwards; purpose: deriving data from things that are by nature
taking place

f. Evaluative – involves making judgment of worth or value; allows the researcher to delineate, obtain,
and provide information that is useful in judging decision alternatives when conducting a program or
incentive

DATA GATHERING TOOLS

OR TECHNIQUE
- an activity that allows the researcher to obtain relevant information regarding the research
questions or objectives

- Performed through utilizing instruments such as questionnaire, tests, interviews and

observation

Interview- method of collecting data about an individual’s behaviors, opinions, values, emotions,
and demographic characteristics using numerical data

Questionnaire - Paper-based or electronic tool for collecting information about a particular

research interest.

Observation - Can be used in quantitative studies where characteristics are observed: length,
weight, width, height, volume, area, temperature, cost, levels, age, time and speed

Tests - Used mainly to assess various skills and types of behaviors and describing characteristics