"I don’t want to exaggerate and say we are anywhere near achieving a final, conclusive body of
knowledge; we never will be. "
In Munck and Snyder article "What has comparative politics accomplished?" in APSA.
(more)
Monday 12 October 2009
Eckstein (1963) A Perspective on comparative politics, past and present
In "Comparative Politics", Ed. Eckstein and Apter
Notes: (more)
Notes: (more)
The Chicago School in Comparative Politics
Looking at the formation and influence of the Chicago school, prominent in the 1920s and 1930s.
Footnote in Munck and Snyder (1997, p. 41). Key members of the school were Merriam, Harold Gosnell, Lasswell, White, Wright - extended to graduate students trained at Chicago, e.g.
Gabriel Almond, V.O Key Jr. David Truman, Herbert Simon (the only political scientist ever awarded a Nobel prize, in economics).
On the Chicago school and its members see Almond (1990, 309-28)
(more)
Footnote in Munck and Snyder (1997, p. 41). Key members of the school were Merriam, Harold Gosnell, Lasswell, White, Wright - extended to graduate students trained at Chicago, e.g.
Gabriel Almond, V.O Key Jr. David Truman, Herbert Simon (the only political scientist ever awarded a Nobel prize, in economics).
On the Chicago school and its members see Almond (1990, 309-28)
(more)
Merriam (1921) The present state of political science
In American Political Science Research now titled American Political Science review
Volume 15 no.2.
Link to PDF
Notes
Merriam's manifesto proposed a model of political science that distinguished it from history.
Cited by Munck (2007) as the birth of the Behavioural Revolution in comparative politics.
Calls for increase availability and collection of empirical data relevant to political science.
Calls for a broad based professional body - encompassing institutions from many countries, classes, races etc. - to transcend the biases of country, class race.
Wants to avoid political science falling into a category that is neither scientific science or practical politics.
Notes the benefits of the use of statistics within reason - suggests its use is increased.
"Modern psychology also offers material and methods of great value to politics, and possibilities of still greater things"
"undertakings in charge often of isolated observers and workers. The political research of our nation and of others is ill-organized, especially for a branch of knowledge that deals with organisation and administration as its central topics "
(more)
Volume 15 no.2.
Link to PDF
Notes
Merriam's manifesto proposed a model of political science that distinguished it from history.
Cited by Munck (2007) as the birth of the Behavioural Revolution in comparative politics.
Calls for increase availability and collection of empirical data relevant to political science.
Calls for a broad based professional body - encompassing institutions from many countries, classes, races etc. - to transcend the biases of country, class race.
Wants to avoid political science falling into a category that is neither scientific science or practical politics.
Notes the benefits of the use of statistics within reason - suggests its use is increased.
"Modern psychology also offers material and methods of great value to politics, and possibilities of still greater things"
"undertakings in charge often of isolated observers and workers. The political research of our nation and of others is ill-organized, especially for a branch of knowledge that deals with organisation and administration as its central topics "
(more)
MT09 - Comparative Government Introduction - Lecture 1
Mondays at 12, Exam Schools.
Lecture delivered by Eddie Keene. His work is mainly on the History of Ideas, Historical Sociology in the 16th - 19th Century.
Understanding the modern world involves understanding the early, or pre-modern world. The idea of The State is at the heart of the study of politics. Politics happens within states; IR happens between states. States help us to define what demarcates politics and IR.
Methodology:
Very few methods are unique to the study of politics. The field is interested in a cluster of questions - and borrows methods from other disciplines.
1. The world is divided into states (how?)
2. Words are very important in the study of politics. How ambiguous are "words"? The way we use words may in itself be a form of political action, with political consequences.
Skinner: words are important and form of political action. A skilful player of the language game can change the rules through the use of words. Important writers in the discourse of politics, e.g. Machiavelli and Hobbes, can transform the meaning of words.
The word "State" has a number of connected words, e.g. estate (territorial concept/segment of society or a class), Status (standing, position in heirarchy, the state we're in), state craft (art of state/art of war). Reason of state, statistics (originally political arithmetic, science of measuring the states).
Visions of politics volume 2 (Skinner) - in its final Hobbesian moment the word State acquires its modern form. The "State" of the ruler usually referred to the standing of the leader. Renaissance writers add the concept of the estate (territories).
AND the group of men working for the prince carrying out his orders (regime).
Doesn't yet include the notion of sovereignty.
The next moment is the republican conception which involves "the people".
People are a community living in original state of natural liberty, trading some of these liberties for stability.
But once the people give powers to the sovereign they've lost them forever.
The State is now an artificial being in charge of these things (Hobbes). People cannot have a form of community until/unless they have an artificial person representing them (i.e. the state). This was the first time the word State was used in this context.
Skinner ends the story with Hobbes. Through the 18th Century treaties were made by Monarchs/Princes. This is still 100 years after Hobbes. How does the artificial personality of the state become capable of "signing" treaties. Alexander West says that states are people too. He has a disagreement with Skinner because many of the leading powers call themselves Empires. A Union is another idea out with a state. Most powerful states were usually unions, e.g. Dutch, UK, USA, Soviet Union. Unions of states.
Historical sociology looks at the practical process of state formation. Linkages between the subjects. The inside out story looks at domestic consolidation within states. Feudalism to absolutism nationalist biases of 19th Century historiography. Concerned with the internal processes e.g. in Germany they were attempting to assert the pedigree of their newly formed and weakly connected states.
A different approach arose in the 20th Century - an Outside in story in which war makes the state and vice versa. States are protection rackets and war machines.
(more)
Lecture delivered by Eddie Keene. His work is mainly on the History of Ideas, Historical Sociology in the 16th - 19th Century.
Understanding the modern world involves understanding the early, or pre-modern world. The idea of The State is at the heart of the study of politics. Politics happens within states; IR happens between states. States help us to define what demarcates politics and IR.
Methodology:
Very few methods are unique to the study of politics. The field is interested in a cluster of questions - and borrows methods from other disciplines.
1. The world is divided into states (how?)
2. Words are very important in the study of politics. How ambiguous are "words"? The way we use words may in itself be a form of political action, with political consequences.
Skinner: words are important and form of political action. A skilful player of the language game can change the rules through the use of words. Important writers in the discourse of politics, e.g. Machiavelli and Hobbes, can transform the meaning of words.
The word "State" has a number of connected words, e.g. estate (territorial concept/segment of society or a class), Status (standing, position in heirarchy, the state we're in), state craft (art of state/art of war). Reason of state, statistics (originally political arithmetic, science of measuring the states).
Visions of politics volume 2 (Skinner) - in its final Hobbesian moment the word State acquires its modern form. The "State" of the ruler usually referred to the standing of the leader. Renaissance writers add the concept of the estate (territories).
AND the group of men working for the prince carrying out his orders (regime).
Doesn't yet include the notion of sovereignty.
The next moment is the republican conception which involves "the people".
People are a community living in original state of natural liberty, trading some of these liberties for stability.
But once the people give powers to the sovereign they've lost them forever.
The State is now an artificial being in charge of these things (Hobbes). People cannot have a form of community until/unless they have an artificial person representing them (i.e. the state). This was the first time the word State was used in this context.
Skinner ends the story with Hobbes. Through the 18th Century treaties were made by Monarchs/Princes. This is still 100 years after Hobbes. How does the artificial personality of the state become capable of "signing" treaties. Alexander West says that states are people too. He has a disagreement with Skinner because many of the leading powers call themselves Empires. A Union is another idea out with a state. Most powerful states were usually unions, e.g. Dutch, UK, USA, Soviet Union. Unions of states.
Historical sociology looks at the practical process of state formation. Linkages between the subjects. The inside out story looks at domestic consolidation within states. Feudalism to absolutism nationalist biases of 19th Century historiography. Concerned with the internal processes e.g. in Germany they were attempting to assert the pedigree of their newly formed and weakly connected states.
A different approach arose in the 20th Century - an Outside in story in which war makes the state and vice versa. States are protection rackets and war machines.
(more)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)