Modern political science differs significantly from conventional political science. It has enlarged its topic of research, refined its analytical tool, and demonstrated sensitivity to a wide number of factors. It has absorbed a great deal from other social sciences and is really interdisciplinary in nature.
Distinction between Traditional and Modern Perspective of Political Science
The following aspects demonstrate how it varies from the usual one:
1. Unlike the traditional method, which focuses on the state, the modern approach focuses on the political system. It is concerned with both state and extra-state entities. Its notion is larger than that of the state.
2. Modern Political Science encourages the study of political processes and patterns of people’s political behaviour, whereas traditional Political Science advocates the study of political institutions.
3. Modern Political Science is concerned with the realistic study of people’s actual behaviour in all countries, whereas traditional Political Science is concerned with the legal-institutional and philosophical normative study of the state’s formal political institutions.
4. The study of the environment, social, economic, cultural, and psychological that surrounds political organisations and structures is a major focus of modern political science. This aspect receives little consideration in traditional Political Science.
5. Modern Political Science is the use of scientific methodologies to political inquiry. Traditional Political Science recommends that knowledge of Law, History, and Philosophy be used for this goal.
6. Modern political science is concerned with explanation, prediction, and theory development, whereas traditional political science is concerned primarily with description.
7. Modern political science is the empirical examination of significant political realities. It devotes only a small portion of its time to the study of values. Traditional Political Science, on the other hand, emphasises the study of value as a fundamental component of all political studies.
8. Modern Political Science studies all political systems, including their processes, structures, and functions. It also includes the non-Western globe. Traditional Political Science, on the other hand, was limited to the study of European countries.
9. Modern political science considers the state’s overall social foundation. Traditional Political Science pays insufficient attention to the general socioeconomic framework of the state. In other words, the context in which institutions and constitutions functioned was overlooked.
10. Traditional Political Science was culture-bound in its approach and orientation, but modern Political Science strives to be trans-cultural.
11. Modern political science is concerned with the parallels and uniformities that exist across numerous systems. It is generic and legalistic. Traditional Political Science was happy to examine certain countries’ constitutions and institutions. It leaned toward an idiographic method.
12. Modern Political Science is concerned with improving research methods. Insensitivity to methodological characterises traditional political science.
13. Traditional approaches are typically defined as philosophical, historical, legal, and institutional perspectives. On the other hand, contemporary approaches are confronted with the problem of disciplinary identity.
They are particularly interested in the phenomena of polities as a process as evidenced in the behaviour of various actors in a political situation that is to be investigated scientifically. As a result, the behavioural approach is a typical modern technique. Then, utilising various political analysis models, politics as a process is attempted to be analysed.
All of these modes are covered by the contemporary approach. Furthermore, current political science aims to enrich itself by incorporating significant results from other social disciplines, leading to an interdisciplinary approach. Hence interdisciplinary approach is also a contemporary approach.
Related Post
What are the Differences between Traditional and Modern Perspective of Political Science ?
The following aspects demonstrate how it varies from the usual one:
1. Unlike the traditional method, which focuses on the state, the modern approach focuses on the political system. It is concerned with both state and extra-state entities. Its notion is larger than that of the state.
2. Modern Political Science encourages the study of political processes and patterns of people’s political behaviour, whereas traditional Political Science advocates the study of political institutions.
3. Modern Political Science is concerned with the realistic study of people’s actual behaviour in all countries, whereas traditional Political Science is concerned with the legal-institutional and philosophical normative study of the state’s formal political institutions………………………..
References
- Foundations of Political Science, Dr. Sunita Gangwal
- J.C. Johari, Political Science
- Prof. H.C. Verma, Modern Political Theory
- Prof. S.L. Verma, Modern Political Theory
- V.D. Mahajan, Political Theory
- M.P. Jain, Political Theory liberal and Marxiam
- R.C. Agarwal, Political Theory
