Reading 1

Question 1

what does Herbert Simon say about plurality of approaches in political science

Answer 1

there’s a high chance that a direction is wrong, therefore it is good if other people are exploring other directions

Question 2

Gap between domestic politics and international relations

Answer 2

Gap has narrowed

• domestic politics is increasingly influenced by transnational forces
• breadth of the issues to be addressed at the international level has extended into a range of previously domestic concerns (e.g. financial, health, human rights)

! questions to be asked about politics at local, national and global levels are fundamentally the same
- what are the roles of competing interests and identities? how is coordination and cooperation achieved?

Question 3

role of normative theory

Answer 3

each approach has normative aspects + the normative theory is one of the most traditional approaches in political science

Baubock: empirical research can be guided by normative theory + normative theory can be improved by empirical research

Question 4

What is politics?
What do political scientists study?

Answer 4

• differences about the terrain of study

two definitions:
- politics as an arena (narrower)
- politics as a process (broader)

all approaches recognize: politics is about power + we need to widen significantly an arena definition of politics
- Goodin and Klingemann: politics as the constrained use of social power

political science is about what shapes and constrains choices

politics enables people to do things they otherwise couldn’t do, but also constrains them from doing what they otherwise might do

!! important to look at collective or public arena that takes us beyond the narrow machinations of the political elite

Question 5

arena definition politics

Answer 5

• focus on Parliament + executive + public service + parties + interest groups + elections (+ later on also: judiciary, army and police)

focus upon
the formal operation of politics in the world of government and those
who seek to influence it

• behaviouralists, rational choice theorists, some institutionalists

Question 6

process definition of politics

Answer 6

• idea that power is inscribed in all social processes
• feminism, constructivism, poststructuralism, marxism

criticism: ‘conceptual stretching’ or ‘boundary problem’: if we see politics in all social interactions, than there is no separation between the political and the social

Question 7

what definition of politics might all approaches agree upon?

Answer 7

Goodin and Klingemann: politics as the constrained use of social power

Question 8

What is a scientific approach to politics?

Answer 8

minimalist approach: political science in the sense that it offers ordered knowledge based on systematic enquiry

different approaches have different definitions for science + it is not straightforward to divide the approaches on the basis of their epistemological position

• positivist approaches (rational choice + behavioralism)
• constructivist approach

Question 9

constructivisms double hermeneutic

Answer 9

• about ontology
• Giddens

there are two levels of understanding
1. world is interpreted by actors
2. actors’ interpretation is interpreted by the observer (= researchers’ interpretation is partial)

(theorists explore their own interpretation of the interpretations made by actors about their behavior)

Question 10

positivist approaches

Answer 10

try to understand the world through causality

• behavioral approach (identify general laws about political action/life)
• rational choice approach (predictive capabilities of models)

positivist approaches increasingly acknowledge the first level of hermeneutic (individual’s action may reflect how they thiink abut the world), but have trouble with the second level of hermeneutic (most positivists defend the idea that a researcher can be objective)

constructivists question the possibility to explain/understand/predict behavior based on causality

Question 11

constructivist approach epistemology

Answer 11

different positions within constructivism

• there is no real world, independent of the social construction of it + we should focus on understanding (meanings attached to actions), not on explaining (causality)
• action depends on meaning, but there can be explanation of why certain people do certain things: actions can be explained by looking at how action is shaped by social constructs
  *second doesn’t sharply break with science and causality

Question 12

The discipline of political science: a celebration of diversity?

Answer 12

• political science has become more diverse and cosmopolitan in character
• '’scientific treatment of the subject’’ expected that the scientific revolution would lead to unity in understanding of political science, this hasn’t happened

there is public acceptance of plurality, but in private different approaches aren’t peaceful + approaches see the work/help of other approaches as unhelpful or belittling

ILM: three factors that support the case for a plurality of approaches
1. epistemological gain
2. there is a danger of too much plurality (fragmentation making dialogue impossible), but this has never been reached: there are implicit shared standards in most work
3. pluralistic world (without one specific principal or governor or prince, as economists imagine), seems likely to require a diversity of approaches

ILM: important that political science isn’t a club of likeminded people
- no campaign for unity, but for diversity
- there should be interaction between approaches rather than isolation
- political science is enriched by the many approaches

Question 13

three factors that support the case for a plurality of approaches

Answer 13

1. evidence of epistemological gain through the richness of approaches (approaches are forced/challenged to rethink their thinking due to pressure of other approaches)
2. there is a danger of too much plurality (fragmentation making dialogue impossible), but this has never been reached: there are implicit shared standards in most work
3. political science steps up its commitments to relevance (less economist-envy (one-size-fits-all) + more accessible findings). a plurality of approaches could be an advantage in this: pluralistic world (without one specific principal or governor or prince, as economists imagine), seems likely to require a diversity of approaches

Question 14

LMS

Answer 14

Vivien Lowndes
David Marsh
Gerry Stoker

Question 15

Daniel Heinsius

Answer 15

1602-1655

first chair in Political Science: Heinsius appointed ‘Professor Politices’ in Leiden in 1612
- Petrus Cunaeus succeeded him when Heinsius became university librarian