Decline of Political Theory

Comment on the decline of Political Theory. UPSC 2018 Paper 1A Qn 1b, UPSC 2023 Paper 1A Qn 1e

The rise of behaviouralism, methodological pluralism, and the dominance of empiricism spurred the debate on the decline of Political theory. Increased reliance on empirical methods, quantitative analyses, and behavioral approaches shifted the focus of politics from philosophical questions to more measurable, predictive analyses of political behavior, voting patterns, and institutional performance.

Another element that suited the debate on the decline of political theory has become abstract and disconnected from concrete political realities. David Easton argued that while economists and sociologists had produced a systematic study of human behavior in their respective spheres of investigation, political scientists lagged behind.

Easton therefore appealed for building a behavioral political science, to take its due place in decision-making. He advised political scientists to focus only on building cause-effect theory to explain political behavior.

With the launch of post-behaviouralism in the late 1960s, Easton sought to convert political science from a 'pure science' to 'applied science', which involved concern for values that were excluded in the behavioral approach.

Dante Germino stated that the rise of Positivism (Scientific approach) and the prevalence of Marxism were reasons for the decline of Political theory. But it regained its strength with the ascendence of a new generation of thinkers like Hannah Arendt, Leo Strauss, John Rawls, C.B. Macpherson, Robert Nozick, Habermas, and MacIntyre.

Political theory regained its strength in analyzing complex large-scale contemporary politics. Cobban concluded that Political theory still has scope that is left by other social science disciplines.

Comment on the Behavioral approach. UPSC 2021 Paper 1A Qn 2b

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