Category: Uncategorized

The description and classification (taxonomy) of political institutions has also been an important approach in political study. For example, Aristotle classified governments on the basis of type of constitutions/governments; Bodin on the basis of location of sovereignty; Bryce on the basis of type of democracy; and Wheare on the basis of levels of government. Some…

The legal–institutional approach is concerned, first, with the study of political institutions such as the State, legislature, executive, judiciary, office of the prime minister, cabinet, etc. And, second, it deals with the study of constitutional law, legal position of institutions, and concepts with juridical implications, such as legal sovereignty, separation of powers, rule of law,…

If history is the narrative of past events, a systematic record of what happened, then it is also the story of how political institutions came into being, how they evolved, what principles went into organizing them and how they changed over time. The historical approach attempts to present a historical account of political thought and…

Philosophical Approach The philosophical approach, as the name suggests, treats political issues as philosophical concerns. Its main concern is to find out what should be or ought to be the principles, ideals and organizing criteria of political and human society. The Greek thinkers espoused, and enquired into, philosophical issues. In the writings of Plato and Aristotle we find philosophical…

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…

While the classical and traditional political studies focused on universal principles and ideals, and legal–institutional arrangements, a new stream of studies in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, focused more on the processes—both formal and informal, which influence and condition the working of political institutions and decision-making in the political arena. An important development…

In the traditional approach, the main focus is on exploring the ideals and principles of organizing society, and defining the relationship of the individual and the State in terms of political and public relationships. Plato’s The Republic explores the principles of an ideal State, virtues of the philosopher king, principles of justice and education, and so on. Aristotle’s Politics seeks…

The study of politics is inseparable from the debate on what constitutes the realm of the ‘political’. One may take the position that whatever goes into deciding the share of each human being out of everything human society as a whole owns, produces and possesses—both in terms of the material and the moral—relates to the…