Approaches to the Study of Political Science

Dr. Avinash SamalAssistant Professor

Hidayatullah National Law UniversityRaipur, Chhattisgarh

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Systems approach considers politics as a set of interactions taking place within an environment. But the system is analytically distinct from the environment.

It is a particular method of describing and analyzing political behaviour.

David Easton sees it as an approach to the study of political structures, institutions and processes.

Systems Approach

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“Complex whole, set of connected things or parts, organized body of material or immaterial things…”Concise Oxford English Dictionary

“Every organism represents a system by which term we mean a complex set of elements in mutual interaction.” - Ludwig von Bertallanfy

A system is a whole consisting of parts or elements which have some characteristic relationship with one another and which interact with each other.

A system is thus organized or connected, and refers to some kind of patterned interactions among various elements.

What is a system?

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Set of InteractionsA system is a set of interactions taking place within itself. It consists of all those elements or variables, which remain interdependent on each other. It implies that a change or manipulation made at some point brings about changes in other parts, which has an impact on the whole system.

Boundary The very concept of a system implies that it has a boundary. It ends at some point from where other systems begin. The boundary sets one system off from the other.

EnvironmentAll these systems are included and absorbed in environment and it is within an environment that a system operates.

Properties of a system?

David Easton The Political System: An Inquiry into

the State of Political Science (1953)Put forth his general argument for the need for a general theory

A Framework for Political Analysis (1965a)Sets forth the general system model

A Systems Analysis of Political Life (1965b) Elaborates on the general model and attempts to make the model empirically relevant

Easton’s Model of Systems Analysis A given society is full of interactions of all kinds, but it is

a particular set of such interactions which constitute the political system.

What distinguishes political system from non-political ones is the binding nature of political decisions.

Politics as “Authoritative allocation of values for society”. Political decisions are of overriding validity and are

accepted as binding on all subject to the political system.

Easton’s Notion of Political Life

“A system of behaviour embedded in an environment to the influences of which the political system itself is exposed and in turn reacts.”

Coexistence of other systems such as social, economic, cultural, physical, psychological, biological etc.

All these outside systems constitute the environment of the political system.

The political system is in constant interaction with its environment and yet it is different and distinguished by its authoritative allocation values for the members of the society as whole.

Environment: Extra Societal and Intra Societal Intra-societal environment consists of social,

economic, cultural, physical, biological, etc. . They shape and influence the conditions under which a political system must operate.

Extra-societal environment includes all those systems, which lie outside a given society.

- Components of the emerging international society, which may otherwise be called supra-society.

Systems Analysis:David Easton (1965)

INPUTSDemandsSupports

OUTPUTSPolicy Decisions

Laws & Rules

POLITICALSYSTEM

FILTER

SocialEnvironment

Cultural Environment

Economic Environment

Physical Environment

Feedback Loop

Feedback Loop

Demands

Raw materials out of which finished products called decisions are manufactured.

Demands for allocations of goods and services such as wage and hour laws, educational opportunities, housing and medical facilities, etc.

Demands for regulation of behaviour such as control over markets, provisions for public safety, rules relating to marriage, health and sanitation etc. 

Demands for participation in the political system such as right to vote, to seek election, to hold office, to organize processions, to petition public officials, etc. 

Demands for communication and information such as communication of policy intent from the political elites or display of the power of the political system in periods of threats or ceremonial occasions.

Supports

Energy in the form of actions or orientations promoting a political system, the demands arising in it, and the decisions issuing from it.

Material support such as payment of taxes  Obedience to law, rules and regulations  Participatory such as voting, political discussion, and other

forms of political activity  Attention paid to government communication and giving

respect to public authority, symbols and ceremonials.

Outputs Extractions such as taxes or personal services Regulations of behaviour Allocations or distribution of goods and

services, opportunities, honours and the like Symbolic outputs such as policy statements,

affirmation of values, display of political symbols