Approaches and Methods

Notwithstanding the flexibility with which the two terms, approaches and methods, are employed in the study of the social sciences, particularly political science, they must be differentiated to clearly understand their usage and scope. According to J. C. Charlesworth, we must differentiate ‘between an approach as a method and an approach as an objective’.¹⁰ Some approaches are mere manifestations of the objectives to be achieved. For example, the basic objective of a pluralist approach is to provide a critique of the monist theory of sovereignty and assert the idea of pluralist autonomy. This is an example of an approach as an objective. On the other hand, some approaches are methodological and aim to ‘weigh, count and measure the doings of real people’.¹¹ Thus, according to Charlesworth, approaches can be objective-based or method-based.

The term approach refers to a perspective or vantage point from which a subject matter is treated or looked at. It is a particular way of understanding something. It is generally associated with the question, what to inquire or study. For example, one can explore a political ideal like the principle of justice or right (normative–prescriptive approach); study political and legal institutions that are part of political arrangements (legal–institutional approach); understand political processes through the forms of negotiations, bargaining, decision-making (behavioural approach); or treat political arrangements as being part of the political system (systems approach), and so on.

Method, on the other hand, refers to a particular way of doing or solving something. As such, it is a body of systematic techniques to explore a subject matter. It is generally associated with the question, how to inquire or study. For example, one can form generalizations or conclusions from observable instances and particular observations (inductive method); draw inferences and particular references from general principles (deductive method); find conclusions by comparing different observable instances (comparative method); draw general inferences from observations and factual data (empirical/experimental/observation method); construct the shape of ideal political institutions based on philosophical and ethical grounds (philosophical method); analyse historical data to reach certain conclusions to be applied in present circumstances (historical method); understand political processes based on observable behaviour of actors, individuals, groups, etc. with scientific techniques and tools (scientific method); or analyse contemporary situations and its observable behaviour based on historical evolution (method of dialectical materialism/Marxian analysis).

Although, generally, a particular approach is associated with a particular method of enquiry, an approach may adopt more than one method of enquiry. As such, a method may be associated with more than one approach. For example, the historical approach can employ the historical method as well as comparative and empirical methods. The Marxian approach adopts the method of dialectical or scientific materialism, which involves both the historical as well as dialectical methods. Table 1.1 sets out the relationship between approaches and methods in the traditional and contemporary contexts.

Table 1.1 Differences/Similarities in Approaches and Methods

Traditional Approaches and Methods
1	Philosophical approach (normative–prescriptive) Deals with ethical and ideal principles (normative questions) and gives value judgments (prescriptive).	Deductive method (Latin deducere, ‘to lead out’) Leading from a general principle to a particular inference or conclusion; Plato used this method to draw inferences from the general idea of good and the world of being to envision his Republic; Green’s theory of moral rights as teleological end is also deductive.Inductive method (Latin inducere, ‘to lead into’) Generalization/inferences from observed instances; Aristotle used this to construct his ideal form of the State.
2	Historical-analytical approach Describes or traces growth of a principle or institution over a period of time; makes historical comparisons; seeks to establish laws of historical growth; Marx, Machiavelli and others used the historical approach to explain the present; Hegel and Marx used the historical approach to trace historical laws.	Historical method Use of historical data for analysis, drawing parallels and comparisons. Machiavelli (his suggestions to the prince based on historical analogies), Hegel (dialectical idealism), Marx (dialectical materialism), Engels (origin of State) and Sabine (investigation of political problems by thinkers) are identified with this method.Comparative method Helps to compare past and present forms of an institution or principle.
3	Legal–institutional approach Seeks to understand politics and institutions within the legal and constitutional framework; concepts analysed relate to legal institutions, formal and judicial structures; the State is viewed as a juridical entity; study of institutions has a legalistic orientation and emphasizes formal structures and aspects; Aristotle, Walter Bagehot, James Bryce, S. E. Finer, A. V. Dicey, John Austin, etc. studied institutions from the legal angle.	Juristic method Analysis of content of rules of public law and constitutions and deduction of conclusions; Montesquieu’s Spirit of Law, A. V. Dicey’s Introduction to the Law of Constitution, Granville Austin’s The Indian Constitution: Cornerstone of a Nation. etc., follow this method.
4	Descriptive-taxonomic (classificatory) approach Description of political institutions and arrangement of offices— legislature, executive, judiciary, etc.; classification of governments (democracy, aristocracy, oligarchy), level of governments (unitary, federal), etc.	Empirical method Based on the tradition of empiricism, which believes that experience is the source of all knowledge; John Lock and David Hume; the tradition of positivism, which also believes that knowledge can be acquired only through direct observation and experimentation and not through metaphysics or theology, also developed from this method; positivism also adopts the methods of the natural sciences; August Comte, known as the father of sociology, associated with this method; Aristotle (classification of constitutions), Bryce (classification and comparison of democracies) and, later, Almond, Coleman and Powell (classification and comparison of political systems and political cultures on structural–functional basis) employed this method.Method of observation Variant of the empirical method used by James Bryce to study governments and political institutions by observing their actual working.Comparative method Seeks comparisons based on historical data or concurrent practices and institutions. Mill employed the most effective manner of comparison in the form of the method of difference, that is, comparison between two polities or systems that are similar in all aspects but one; Emile Durkheim used the method of concomitant variation to establish the relationship between religion and suicide, or gender and suicide.
Contemporary Approaches and Methods
1	Behavioural approach Value-free enquiry based on observable behaviour of actors (individuals and groups); research tutored by theory and theory supported by verifiable data; search for ‘causal theory-building’; no normative or ethical issues as the basis of theory-building.	Scientific and empirical method Testing of hypothesis based on objective and reliable data; methodology of natural sciences for data collection and analysis—quantitative research methods, mathematical and statistical sampling, simulation, causal modelling, multivariate analysis, scalogram analysis, paired comparison, psychoanalysis, content analysis, case analysis, interview, questionnaire, observation and survey.
2	Political system approach System-based analytical model to explain the political process and functions of major political actors in terms of input (decision-making)–output (feedback) loop; the political system seen as part of an environment where other systems such as the physical (economic), social, psychological also exist.	Scientific and empirical methodComparative method Comparison of different political systems to show nature of input-output channel; applicable to developed and developing polities.
3	Structural–functional approach Based on the political system approach, seeks to correlate structures and functions in a polity; assumes that all political systems have to perform a specific set of tasks for existence.	Scientific and Empirical methodComparative method As part of systems approach helps in comparative analysis of polities based on differentiation of structures/functions.
4	Inter-disciplinary approach Makes use of researches, enquiry, findings and models of other social sciences like anthropology, economics, history, philosophy, psychology, sociology; verification of political constructs from the point of view of other social sciences as well.	Scientific methodEmpirical methodComparative method
5	Communication approach Based on the political system approach; uses communication channels as the medium of analysis for load-capacity, flow and lag in a system; seeks to explain how distortion can take place between the political system and recipients of government decisions if communication channel is distorted.	Scientific and empirical method Uses techniques of cybernetics and draws heavily from concepts and methods of modern information technology (communication channel analogy) and biology (nervous system analogy).
6	Decision-making approach Seeks to understand politics/political systems as a process of arriving at decisions; follows inter-disciplinary approach.	Scientific and empirical method Identification of variables in the stages involved in the decision-making process, rational choice assumptions, quantification of results of decisions in a competitive situation.
7	New political economy approach/Rational choice or Public choice theory/Game theory Understanding politics in terms of exchange based on the assumption of rationally self-interested behaviour of individuals.	Deductive method From the assumption that individuals behave as rational self-interested persons, the actions of voters, lobbyists, politicians and bureaucrats are explained.Scientific and empirical method Game theory and its techniques, empirical observations.
Marxian Approaches and Methods
1	Orthodox Marxian approach Seeks to analyse social and political processes in terms of economic relations and believes that economic factors (infrastructure) determine all other aspects (superstructure); politics is treated as part of the superstructure and ideology that helps the dominant class to maintain its domination; identified with Marx, Engels, Plekhnov, Lenin and Stalin.	Dialectical materialism Term used by Plekhnov for the process of interaction between competing forces in the economic field that results in a higher stage of development (dialectical method), e.g., class struggle leading to a new form of ownership of means of production.Historical materialism Or, according to Engels, the ‘materialist conception of history’ explains the evolution of history in material and economic terms.Historical method Analysis of history in terms of the economic factor; e.g., Engels’ The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State.
2	Neo-Marxian and Critical theory approach Without denying the role of the economic factor, focuses more on the superstructure; non-economic aspects like politics, ideas; ‘man’ as an active agent and not just influenced by economic factors; domination not only due to economic ownership but also hegemony (Gramsci); critical theory is a blend of Marxian political economy, Hegelian philosophy and Freudian psychology (Marcuse).	Analysis of superstructure using dialectical method Process of interaction between competing forces that result in a higher stage of development (dialectical method) takes place in the superstructure also, in addition to the base (economic field).

Generally, a distinction is made between traditional and contemporary approaches and methods. This relationship between approaches and methods needs to be understood first. There are some methods that are employed in both traditional as well as contemporary approaches of study and analysis, whereas some methods are associated with one (or more) approach. It is also maintained that while some approaches and their methods of exploration help in building political theory, some others are inimical to generalization and political theorization. This has led to a debate on the decline and resurgence of political theory. To understand these issues our survey and analysis can be arranged in the following order:

Relationship between approaches and methods
Traditional and contemporary approaches and methods
Debate on the decline and resurgence of political theory

Approaches and Methods

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