Sunday, 19 February 2012

GENERAL ASPECTS OF COMPARATIVE POLITICAL ANALYSIS

GENERAL ASPECTS OF COMPARATIVE POLITICAL ANALYSIS


  • Is a multidisciplinary effort to understand different political realities.

  • Come to exist formally after the World War II, distinguishing itself from previous comparissions among states and not broad political realities.

  • The fast proliferation of new nations increased the demand for comparing broader political systems instead of only state structues.

  • Come out first as a modeling effort and very dependent on classificatory schemes.

  • Its first influences resorted to previous thinkers:

    • The Weberian notion of value judgment, neutrality and objectivity.

    • Durkheim's attempt to describe and define the method in the study of social facts.

    • Chilcote points that Marx, unlike Weber and Durkheim, did not prepare a manual on theory and method, but those concerns are apparent through his writings.

  • The attempts to theorize CPA come first:

    • Maurice Duverger (1964), who tracked the historical development of the social sciences, discussed techniques of observation and examined the use of theory and hypotheses as well as classifications and conceptualization in research.

    • Frohoc (1967) accessed method in terms of search for paradigms.

    • Howard Scarrow (1969) offered a brief methodological introduction.

    • Holt and Turner (1970), Przeworski and Teune (1970) explored more deeply the subject of political inquire.

    • Galtung (1967) looked critically at theory and method.

  • Main areas of CPA:

    • System Theory (Prominent during the 1950's).

      • GENERAL INSPIRATIONS

        • Weber's concept of gradual changes

        • Newtonian physics in search for general laws that have universal application

        • Biology (Ludwig Von Beralanffy)

        • Cybernetics (Norbert Wiener)

        • Operations research and systems analysis

        • The social sciences

          • Simulations, input-output

        • Game theory

      • GENERAL IDEAS

        • Systems are abstractions of the real society

        • Elements close to each other are taken to define the boundaries of the system.

          • Those elements usually can be measured, therefore being called variables if they can change theirselves or constants (parameters) if they are insulated from change.

            • Elements of any system may include structures, functions, actors, values, norms, goals, inputs, outputs, response and feedback.

        • Pablo Gonzales Casanova highlights 2 types of systemic studies:

          • Functionalism (inspired on XIX Century positivism and linked to Talcott Parsons)

            • Also called grand theory and ahistorical oriented

            • David Easton

          • Systems Analysis ()

            • Gabriel Almond

      • David Easton (1953/57) set forth the concept of the political system together with its inputs and outputs, demands, supports and feedbacks.

        • Inspirations

          • Karl Deutsch; Morton Kaplan and Herbert Spiro

          • Charles Merrian, George Catlin and Harold Lasswell started the 'revolution in Political Sciences'

          • Occasional references to Redcliff-Brown and Malinowski

          • His system of input-output, feedback, maximization reminds Adam Smith's economics approach

        • Core ideas

          • Was one of the pioneers on defending the shift from State Comparative Analysis to Political Systems Analysis.

          • His work took 3 different moments:

            • Presented the case for a general theory of political sciences

            • Set forth the major concepts for development of such a general theory

            • Attempt to elaborate concepts to expose the theory empirically

          • Political life is a balancing game, accounting for changing but also presenting a counter-tendency of equilibrium.

          • Power is seen as the ability to influence actions of others

          • Picture 5.1 !!!

          • Acknowledges the possibility of separating political life from the rest of society (environment)

        • Critiques

          • Dictatorship times in Latin America raised the issue of increasing importance of State despite of the claims for a less Estate centered analysis. This position was supported by:

            • Guillermo O'Donnell

            • Ralph Miliband

            • Nicos Poulantzas

            • Peter Evans

            • Theda Skocpol

          • W. Mitchell pointed that he (David Easton) was unable to deal with particular changes

          • Austin points that his (David Easton) theory is not empirically testable

          • Eugene Miller pointed that he failed to identify the object of political inquire

          • Theodore J. Lowi said it was everything therefore it was nothing

          • The fact that rational choices may not always be the most logic lead critiques like Anthony Down, James Buchanan, Gordon Tullock, Willian Riker, Robert Bates, John Elster and Barry Hindess... to overcome the classic functionalism and access the context in which choices occur.

      • Gabriel Almond and the theory of systems as structure and functions (Macro-structural functionalism)

        • Inspirations:

          • Functionalist antropologists like Bonislaw Malinowski and A. R. Radcliffe-Brown

            • Needs that serve to maintain the system

          • Sociologists like Max Webber and Talcott Parsons

            • Despite opposing much of Parsonian functionalism, the notions of action and social system were kept, as well as his notions of maintenance and adaptation

            • Was also interested in the Parsonian emphasis on the cultural secularization of developing systems

          • Political Scientists Arthur Bentley, David Truman (Group Theory) and David Garson (pioneers in the middle-range approach)

          • Karld Deutsch's resort to Norbert Wiener cybernetic theory in postulating a systemic model of politics

          • Aristotle, Eisenstadt, Shils, Coleman, Apter

          • Levy and Merton and Robert Dahl (whose attention to plurality of interests within the system may be labeled a pattern of micro-structural functionalism)

        • Core ideas

          • Turned away from grand theory to middle-range concerns

          • Offered an inclusive concept which covers all the patterned actions relevant to the making of political decisions

          • Instead of institutions, organizations or groups, he turned to the roles and structures, and centered the role as the interacting units and the structure as the interacting patterns.

          • Introduced the concept of political culture

          • Thesis that political systems have universal characteristics

          • Stressed interdependence, and not harmony, between inputs and outputs, parts, boundaries and environment

            • That made his theory less static and conservative while putting the emphasis on equilibrium or harmony of parts

          • Pointed out four political systems with respective categories of structuring and functioning and related those concepts to culture and development.

            • Anglo-American; Continental European; Totalitarian; Preindustrial system

            • Or else: primitive (minimal structural differentiation and parochial culture), traditional and modern systems (very intense differentiations and secular)

          • Constructed the parameters and concepts of a political system

          • Despite valuing the shift to Political Systems instead of States comparative analysis, he recognized that Political Science owe its existence to the analysis of the Estate.

        • Critiques

          • Chilcote says it strives to holistic but tends toward ahistorical and middle-range analysis

          • His outputs were government functions corresponding to the traditional use of three separate powers within government in U.S. And European specific realities, therefore biasing his scheme

          • Chilcote call it determinist, conservative, restrictive, or simply false

          • I. C. Jarvie says it lacks explanatory power

          • Economist Sherman Roy stressed the functional character tendency to exaggerate cohesiveness of such system

          • Sociologist Don Martindale:

            • Conservative ideological bias

            • Preference for status quo

            • Lack of methodological clarity

            • An overemphasis on the role of closed systems in social life

            • Fail to deal with social changes (also backed up by Barber and Buckley)

          • Hempel called it illogical

          • David Apter discussed a number of weaknesses

          • Groth pointed out the difficulties of defining a system and its boundaries

          • Powell:

            • Ambiguous in terminology

            • Difficulties in determining political relationships

            • Confusion in the use of facts and values

          • C Writ Mills and Ralf Dahrendof said his functionalism was neither relevant for facts nor reached the level of theory

          • Sanford says it was designed to make propaganda of liberal democracy and liberal pluralism

          • Finer said it was a very unclear language

          • Holt and Turner pointed the difficulty on refining, operationalizing and testing hypotheses

      • F. X. Sutton

        • Agricultural and industrial systems

      • James S. Coleman

        • Competitive, semicompetitive and authoritarian systems

      • David Apter

        • Dictatorial, olygarchical, indirect representational and directly representational systems.

      • Fred W. Riggs

        • Fused, prismatic and refracted systems

      • S. N. Eisenstadt

        • Primitive systems, patrimonial empires, nomad or conquest empires, city-states, feudal systems, centralized bureaucratic empires, modern systems (democratic, autocratic, totalitarian and underdeveloped)

      • Leonard Binder

        • Traditional, conventional and rational systems

      • Edward Shils

        • Political democracies, tutelary democracies, modernizing oligarchies, totalitarian oligarchies and traditional oligarchies

      • Arendt Lijphart

        • Majoritarian and consensus models of democracy with focus on the experience of twenty-two democratic regimes.



    • Culture Theories (prominent during the 1960's).

      • Gabriel Almond () was one of the pioneers

        • Inspirations

          • Traditional work on culture from anthropology

          • Socialization and small group studies from Sociology

          • Personality studies in Psychology

        • Core Ideas

          • Political Culture consisting on beliefs, symbols and values that define situations in which political action occurs.

          • Subjective orientations of people toward their national system.

            • Types of Political Cultures that characterizes systems:

              • Parochial

              • Subject

              • Participant Political Culture

          • Each of those types reflect the psychological and subjective orientations of people toward their national system.

        • Critiques

          • Inherent bias towards an Anglo-American model of politics.

      • Sidney Verba () was one of the pioneers

        • Worked on Political Culture with special regard to the role of Communication

      • Lucian Pye

        • Tried to reduce the Aglo-American bias by trying to relate Political Culture to the politics of specific nations (e.g. Burma).

      • James S. Coleman

        • Worked on Political Culture with special regard to the role of Political Socialization


      • In the 70's there was a large investigation on agencies shaping political attitudes

      • In the 80's there was a large investigation on individual choice

        • Non-Marxist contribution from Ronald Inglehart

        • Marxist perspective of Adam Przeworski


      • GENERAL INFLUENCES

        • Those authors recounted the contribution of the classics (Montesquieu, Compte, Durkheim, Marx and Weber) to the concept of Political Concept:

          • Michael Thompson

          • Richard Ellis

          • Aaron Wildavsky


      • GENERAL CRITIQUES

        • Chilcote says that culture Theories tend to reflect the conservation of values, attitudes and norms, therefore emphasizing stability and continuity in political life.


    • Development Theories.

      • GENERAL INFLUENCES

        • It come as an outcome of the emergence of many new states in the Third World.

      • 5 cathegories:

      1. Traditional notions of democracy and political development turned in to a more complex/abstract terminology

      • Gabriel Almond

        • Inspirations

          • His ideas come as an attempted to link his structural and cultural ideas with the potential of development he saw in some backward areas

        • Core Ideas

      • Walt Rostow (Stage development)


        • Critiques

      1. Conceptions of Nation Building


  • Hans Kohn

  • Karl Deutsch (stressing the role of communication in this process.)

  • Kalman Silverts


      1. Structural-functionalism to create a theory of modernization


  • Marion J. Levy

  • David Apters


      1. Studies of change


  • Samuel Huntingtons Political Order in Changing Societies.

    • Studies about how to preserve order in changing process, which are aimed to be gradual and moderated.


      1. Critiques of ethnocentric development studies

  • Ideas of development and underdevelopment

    • Non-Marxist ones:

      • Desarrollista (Prebisch)

      • Structuralist (Furtado)

      • National Autonomous Development (Sunkel)

      • International Colonialism (González Casanova)

      • Poles of development (Andrade)

    • Marxist ones:

      • Monopoly Capitalist (Baran and Sweezy)

      • Subimperialism (Marini)

      • Capitalist development of underdevelopment (Frank, Rodney)

      • New Dependency (Theotônio dos Santos)

    • Dependent capitalist development (Cardoso)


    • Class theories (to be developed yet...)

    • Theories of Political Economy ( to be developed yet...)

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