Political Economy

Approaches to study of Politics
Falls under Political Science
We’re made to do the impossible
Summary
1 paragraph will do.
Provide the insight
-Data
-Theory used
-approach used
- use other references to prove your point
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On approach deals with different meaning of politics
Political Science
What is Politics & its scope ?
Banned words
Politics is dirt
Politics is nothing more than a means of rising in the world Samuel Johnson
Systematic organization of hatred Henry Adams
Art of governing mankind by deceiving them. Isaac D’Israeli

BASIS of POLITICS
Intellect and Will
Man Capable of Thinking
Politics as a rational activity
Man has the capacity to think and realize his wants, needs and interest which are potentially in conflict with others’ wants, needs, and interests.
Man cannot survive on its own. He needs someone else
Politics as a social activity
2 or more persons
Politics as a social activity
2 or more persons
Associate with society
Politics is concerned with social dynamics.

POLITICS AS THE ART OF GOVt
What concerns the state
Study of government and exercise of authority
Authoritative allocation of social values
Framework
Definition does not provide
David Easton
Authoritative binding to all
Allocation done by the government
Social Values anything held important by society budget allocation, privatization, elections

Henry Mayo
3 characteristics that separate the political from non-poitical
Politics is focused on the governing function through which are: Limitation on Easton on Mayo’s concept of Politics
POLITICS DOES NOT ONLY HAPPEN IN THE GOVERNMENT

POLTICS AS PUBLIC AFFAIRS
State
DIFFERENCE OF GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS
PUBLIC
PRIVATE
State
Civil Society
Institutions of the State ( apparatus of government, infrastructure, economy, taxes
Autonomous bodies (family, kinship groups, private businesses, trade unions
Funded at the public’s Expense
Set up and funded by individual citizens
Responsible for the collective organization of community life
Responsible for the satisfaction of own interests rather than the interest of the larger society.

Private with this definition
EX: RH Bill
It should not be affair of the government.
Public Sphere vs Private Sphere
Restricted to the acitivites of the state itself and the responsibilities that are properly exercised by public bodies
Politics should not meddle on personal affairs and institutions

POLITICS AS COMPROMISE & CONSESUS
A daily activity in which differing interests within a given unity of rule are conciliated by giving them a share in power in proportion to their role in the welfare and the survival of the community
Bernard Crick
Everything will just be fine – for no matter big or small the dispute is, at the end of the day we will just arrive in a compromise.
Assumption: Conflict is inevitable
Resolving conflict through compromise conciliation and negotiation, rather than violence and coercion.
Not limited to government
POLITICS IS INEVITABLE LINKED TO THE PHENOMENA OF CONFLICT & COOPERATION
Politics as master science
Why Make use other things to make things in order.
Existence of rival opinions- conflict
People recognize that they have to work with others cooperation Hannah Arendt- Acting in Concert Otto Von Bismarck- Politics is the art of the possible.

POWER AS POWER & DISTRIBUTION OF RESOURCES
What is power?
X has power over Y insofar as Robert Dahl
X is able, in one way or another, to get Y to do something
That is more to X’s liking
And which Y would not otherwise have done.
Faces of Power
As decision-making – you shape there decisions
As agenda setting – You are preventing the person to make a decision
As thought control- You are imposing your preference in an indirect or subtle way.

Definition of Politics through POWER and allocation of resources
FIND THE FOLLOWING QUOTES OF FAMOUS SCIENTISTS
Adrian Leftwich- Politics is at the heart of all collective social activity, formal and informal, public and private, in all human groups, institutions and societies.
Harold Lasswell Politics is, in essence power: the ability to achieve a desired outcome, through whatever means.
Kate Millett “Politics is a power-structured relationships, arrangements whereby one group of persons is controlled by another.
“POLITICS”- as the constrained use of social power. Robert Goodin & Hans- Dieter Klingemann
Constrained because there are already laws establish.
Politics takes place in all social activities; politics happen at every level of social interaction
Politics concern production, distribution and use of resources in the course of social existence.
-Ability to achieve a desired outcome, through whatever means .

Approaches to the study of Politics
Ontology- the nature of being
Epistemology- How do you know what we know?
Theoretical – concept & idea
Empirical- Evidence, observation
History- both theory and experience
Methodology- How do we exactly know what we know

MAKE A MATRIX OF THE DIFFERENT APPROACHES USING THE FOLLOWING:

Nature Ontology Epistemology Methodology

Studying Politics requires that we use approaches
Approaches presecrbies different ways of studying politics
Approaches tell the researcher:
Ontology
Epistemology
Methodology
Approaches are lenses in which you see the world In politics
Normative
Institutional
Behavioural
Discourse Analysis
State-Centered
Pluralism
Elitism
Marxism

Brief History of its Development
-Philosophical Tradition
-Empirical Tradition
-Scientific Tradition
-Recent Developments Rational Choice Public Choice Discource