INTRODUCTION TO

POLITICAL SCIENCE
UNDERSTANDING KEY CONCEPTS

SOC SCI 2: POLITICS. GOVERNANCE WITH PHIILIPPINE CONSTITUTION LECTURE

F.A. RELOVA
Traditional Approach/
Philosophical Tradition

Empirical Tradition

Rational-choice Theory politics

New Institutionalism

Critical Approaches
Philosophical Tradition
• The origins of political analysis date back to
Ancient Greece with political philosophy.
• Involved a preoccupation with essentially
ethical, perspective or normative questions.

• Plato and Aristotle are usually identified as the

founding province of this tradition
– Ex. Plato’s idea of the Philosopher King
Normative vs. Objective
Normative Objective

The prescription of values External to the observer,

and standards of conduct demonstrable

Concerned with what Untainted by feelings,

ought to be rather than values or bias
what is
The Empirical Tradition
• Empirical : based on observation and
experiment
• Empirical knowledge is derived from sense
data and experience
• This approach is descriptive, it seeks to analyze
and explain, as opposed to the normative
approach which is more prescriptive which
makes judgements and offers
recommendations.
The Empirical Tradition
• Experience is the sole basis of knowledge.
Hypotheses and theories can be tested
through experiments.
• By the 19th Century it developed into
positivism the theory that social, and indeed
all forms of enquiry should adhere strictly to
the methods of the natural sciences
Behaviouralism
• For the first time, this gave politics reliably
scientific credentials, because it provided what
had previously been lacking: objective and
quantifiable data against which hypotheses
could be tested.
• The basis of the assertion that behaviouralism
is objective and reliable is the claim that it is
‘value-free’: that is, that it is not contaminated
by ethical or normative belief
Rational- Choice Theory
• This approach to analysis draws
heavily on the example of economic theory in
building up models based on procedural rules,
usually about the rationally self-interested
behaviour of the individuals involved.

• Individuals act based on their self-interest.

New- Institutionalism
• Institution
– A well established body with a formal role and
status; more broadly, a set of rules that ensure
regular and predictable behaviour, the ‘rules of the
game’ (Douglas North, 1991)
• While remaining faithful to the core institutionalist
belief that ‘institutions matter’, in the sense that
political structures are thought to shape political
behaviour
• Institutions can be both formal and informal.
Critical Approaches
• Feminism, critical theory, constructivism, post-
structuralism and post-colonialism
• 1. first is that they are ‘critical’ in that, in their
different ways, they seek to contest the
political status quo, by (usually) aligning
themselves with the interests of marginalized
or oppressed groups.
• 2. emphasizing the role of consciousness in
shaping social conduct and, therefore, the
political world