Historical Explanation and the Study of Politics

1969 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. H. Birch

MY STARTING POINT IS THE RATHER PLATITUDINOUS PROPOSITION that political science is a branch of scholarship which can be defined in terms of the activity studied but not in terms of the method adopted, which is to say that it is not a discipline like history or physics. To say that these subjects are disciplines is to indicate that historians and physicists are committed both to a certain method of acquiring data and to a certain mode of explanation. Because political scientists are not so committed they are inevitably involved in controversies about method and explanation, and the view I propose to discuss here is the view that, although several modes of explanation are open to students of politics, only the historical mode, and on a different level the philosophical mode, are appropriate. Those who hold this view lean heavily on the writings of Professor Michael Oakeshott and I shall begin with a very brief reference to Oakeshott's account of the main modes of experience and explanation. Subsequent sections will discuss the relevance of this account to students of politics, the nature of historical explanation, and the possibility of alternatives such as sociological explanation.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
April Lindgren ◽  
Christina Wong

Critics have suggested that scholars seeking to advance journalism studies must adopt a more multidisciplinary approach to research, one that looks beyond the strict confines of sociology, history, language studies, political science, or cultural analysis. This paper argues that the geography of news coverage is a valuable starting point for scholars who wish to understand what local news gets reported, why and how it gets reported, and the potential consequences of such news coverage. The work of the Local News Research Project at Ryerson University is introduced to illustrate how maps that reveal the geospatial aspects of local news can foster multidisciplinary investigations that push researchers beyond the traditional silos of journalism scholarship.


2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sultan Tepe ◽  
Betul Demirkaya

AbstractIn this analysis, we expand the debate on the place of religion in political science by using the predictions of Wald and Wilcox as our starting point. Following in their footsteps, we ask how political scientists have studied Islam since 2002 and identify the studies on Islam and Muslims at the flagship conference of the discipline, the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association. We evaluate not only the quantity but also the approaches employed by these studies. In order to gauge the balancing of roles (or lack thereof) between the discipline and area studies, we also take a closer look at the Middle East Studies Association, the largest association focused on the Middle East, North Africa and the Islamic world and its annual meetings during the same period. Our findings suggest that, unless carefully addressed, the prevailing patterns are likely to result in a crippling knowledge gap among political scientists.


2010 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-101
Author(s):  
Kenneth B. McIntyre

AbstractBecause of the public identification of both Michael Oakeshott and Leo Strauss as conservative political philosophers, there have been numerous comparisons of their political thought. Whatever similarities or differences that do exist between them, it is certainly true that they shared a keen interest in the history of political thought. However, they understood the character of history in widely divergent ways. In the following paper, I examine the way in which each writer understood the logic of historical explanation, and there are two primary reasons for wanting to do so. First, there have been few examinations of either writer’s arguments concerning historical understanding, despite the stature of both as historians of political theory. Second, the differences between Oakeshott and Strauss on history are central to two fundamentally opposed ways of understanding the past, each of which has manifested itself in the contemporary practice of the history of political thought. I will argue that Strauss’s approach to the past is primarily a practical one and yields a concern with a legendary or mythical past constructed primarily to address contemporary political problems, and that his specific methodological propositions are either irrelevant to a specifically historical understanding of the past or inadequately argued and unconvincing. Conversely, I will suggest that Oakeshott offers a coherent and compelling account of the logic of historical understanding, which involves both a defense of the autonomy of historical explanation and an elaboration of the character of historical contextualism.


1973 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael A. Weinstein

This article will sketch a political science that is founded on principles different from those underlying the discipline at present. The major thesis is that contemporary American political science is Newtonian and interactionist in orientation in a world in which scientific thought has become field-oriented and transactionist. Political scientists are still primarily concerned with defining abstract units of analysis and exploring the relations among these units, while many natural scientists and even novelists like Lawrence Durrell have advanced to the stage of studying fields of behavior and domains of human activity. What would a transactionist political science look like? What are some of the reasons for adopting such a political science as a starting point for research and analysis?


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
April Lindgren ◽  
Christina Wong

Critics have suggested that scholars seeking to advance journalism studies must adopt a more multidisciplinary approach to research, one that looks beyond the strict confines of sociology, history, language studies, political science, or cultural analysis. This paper argues that the geography of news coverage is a valuable starting point for scholars who wish to understand what local news gets reported, why and how it gets reported, and the potential consequences of such news coverage. The work of the Local News Research Project at Ryerson University is introduced to illustrate how maps that reveal the geospatial aspects of local news can foster multidisciplinary investigations that push researchers beyond the traditional silos of journalism scholarship.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 81
Author(s):  
Romilson Silva Sousa

A grande mortalidade de negros e pobres em nossa contemporaneidade, abre uma reflexão sobre a vida, a ética e a justiça e suas relações com a necropolítica nos forçando a repensar o Estado e sua racionalidade ético-civilizatória (SOUSA, 2020b). Compreender o Estado, a Ciência Política e seus arquétipos é necessário para entendermos as origens das relações de poder e as relações étnico-raciais que marcaram e marcam a formação e a reprodução da iniquidade na história da raça humana. Denunciada pela literatura marginal dos pesquisadores e intelectuais negros (SOUZA, 2000) a literatura oficial carece de suplementação de outras perspectivas. Considerando que apesar de tradições historiográficas diferentes, tanto para Nietzsche como para Foucault e Paul Ricoeur, a verdade é histórica, pensar a interdisciplinaridade entre história, filosofia e literatura, implica em construir um tipo de genealogia das relações de poder sob a ótica de uma ética que é civilizatória e epistêmica. Considerando que as narrativas míticas podem recompor um saber eticamente comprometido com novas epistemologias e novas perspectivas interpretativas. Deste modo a importância da literatura mítica (SOUSA, 2020, 2020b) para a recomposição epistemológica de discursos na literatura bíblica. Uma pergunta foi o ponto de partida: quais as contribuições da literatura mítica para a compreensão da Ciência Política? Nosso objetivo então foi identificar aspectos da literatura mítica capaz de contribuir para uma outra interpretação para a ciência política. Tivemos por objetivos específicos: compreender a razão e a racionalidade de estado; analisar a racionalidade ético-civilizatória no Estado; identificar o papel dos arquétipos na literatura mítica e suas contribuições para a formação do Estado.  Partindo dos processos de formação histórico-cultural e da dialética presente nas relações étnico-raciais nas racionalidades ético-civilizatórios, a literatura mítica (SOUSA, 2020) utilizamos como referências principais no estudo da cultura e civilização egípcia:  Camara (2011), Diop (1974, 1991, 2014). Serviram também como fonte de pesquisa bibliográfica a literatura bíblica e a egípcia. Utilizamos uma metodologia baseada na bricolagem (KINCHELOE & BERRY, 2007). Sugerimos em nosso trabalho sugere a necessidade de considerarmos a literatura mítica na análise das relações entre poder e o Estado, a partir dessa literatura como um lócus epistêmico para a outra compreensão da materialidade teoria do Estado. AbstractThe high mortality of blacks and the poor in our contemporaneity opens a reflection on life, ethics and justice and its relations with the necropolitics, forcing us to rethink the State and its ethical-civilizing rationality (SOUSA, 2020b). Understanding the State, Political Science and its archetypes is necessary to understand the origins of power relations and the ethnic-racial relations that have marked and mark the formation and reproduction of inequity in the history of the human race. Denounced by the marginal literature of black researchers and intellectuals (SOUZA, 2000), the official literature needs supplementation from other perspectives. Considering that despite different historiographical traditions, both for Nietzsche and for Foucault and Paul Ricoeur, the truth is historical, thinking about the interdisciplinarity between history, philosophy and literature, implies building a kind of genealogy of power relations from the perspective of an ethics which is civilizing and epistemic. Considering that mythic narratives can recompose knowledge ethically committed to new epistemologies and new interpretative perspectives. Thus, the importance of mythical literature (SOUSA, 2020, 2020b) for the epistemological recomposition of discourses in biblical literature. One question was the starting point: what are the contributions of mythical literature to the understanding of Political Science? Our aim, then, was to identify aspects of mythical literature capable of contributing to another interpretation for political science. We had for specific objectives: to understand the reason and rationality of state; to analyze the ethical-civilizing rationality in the State; to identify the role of archetypes in mythical literature and their contributions to the formation of the State. Starting from the processes of cultural historical formation and the dialectic present in the ethnic-racial relations in the ethical-civilizing rationalities, the mythical literature (SOUSA, 2020) we used as main references in the study of Egyptian culture and civilization: Camara (2011), Diop (1974, 1991, 2014). Biblical and Egyptian literature also served as a source of bibliographic research. We use a methodology based on DIY (KINCHELOE & BERRY, 2007). We suggest in our work suggests the need to consider mythical literature in the analysis of the relations between power and the State, from that literature as an epistemic locus for the other understanding of the State theory materiality.


Author(s):  
Magdalena Lorenc

This article aims to demonstrate the applicability of grounded theory in the analysis of the Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk in terms of political science. The fundamental question is how to examine the sources which exhibit the ideological character of the space of public museums? In order to answer this question, the concepts by Kathy Charmaz and Adela Clarke are referred to, which have been noticed to offer unused potential for qualitative research conducted in the field of political science. This meant departing from the “classical” versions of grounded theory, created by Barney G. Glaser and Anselm L. Strauss, in favor of what is called “a postmodern turn,” and approaches which synthesize constructivism and social constructionism. Data obtained from primary and secondary sources concerning the main axis of the core exhibition were analyzed. The starting point was my own field research, the results of which were compared with the data from an interview with the museum’s architects and the transcription of a photograph. Inspired by procedures compliant with the non-classical versions of grounded theory, it was demonstrated that the main axis of the core exhibition was designed as a liberal manifesto of freedom. This determined the subject of analysis to be a part of the research field of political science. The spatial solutions applied testified to their designers’ intention to provide visitors with freedom of movement and assembly. They were considered as conceptual categories, related to the absence of a dedicated sightseeing route and the vastness of the space left for visitors. A comparative analysis of codes and categories, however, made it possible to identify yet another interpretative trope, related to the identification of freedom with alienation. In this way, “liberty” has become problematized.


1929 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesse S. Reeves

The American Political Science Association was founded December 30, 1903, at New Orleans. Its organization was the outgrowth of a movement looking toward a national conference on comparative legislation. A group having the matter in charge held a meeting in December, 1902, at Washington, the call for which stated that the formation of an American Society of Comparative Legislation had been suggested as “particularly desirable because of the complexity of our system of federal government.” Interest in legislation in general and in the problems presented by the lawmaking activities of the federal and state agencies in particular was, therefore, the starting point from which proceeded the wider range of interests which gave rise to this Association. The preliminary meeting in Washington indicated that if a new national society were to be formed it might be well to enlarge its scope so as to embrace the whole of political science, of which comparative legislation is an important part. A year later, thanks to the coöperation of the American Historical Association and of the American Economic Association, which were having joint meetings in New Orleans, opportunity was given to the group to form an organization, the members of which were in large part members of one or both of the older Associations. The adoption of the constitution of this Association was the result. In a way, therefore, the American Political Science Association is the god-child of the American Historical and the American Economic Associations. All but two annual meetings have been held jointly with one or both of the older bodies, indicating not only a factor of common membership but also a large measure of common interests and kindred endeavors.


2017 ◽  
pp. 179-190
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Gasztold

The main goal of this article is to present problems related to using a feminist approach in security studies. The starting point are some of the basic terms used in the internally diverse sphere of feminist theory and their application in the field of political science. An attempt is also made to define the objectives of selected feminist studies that can be used in the analysis of domestic and international security issues. The main thesis of the article is the assertion that security studies are dominated by assigned gender stereotypes and meanings embedded in the so-called male gaze.


2021 ◽  
pp. 107-140
Author(s):  
Keith Tribe

This chapter outlines the final phases of Alfred Marshall’s campaign to expand the teaching of economics in Cambridge by creating a three-year bachelor’s degree as the exclusive vehicle for the teaching of economics. Detailing the university politics and arguments employed for and against the teaching of economics, it shows why the particular content and structure of the curriculum took the form that it did. Some of this is a familiar story; but the founding of the new Tripos was only a new starting point, and too often it has simply been assumed that there is no need to consider how this new Tripos actually functioned in the ensuing years—the ‘success’ in creating the degree is read across to its subsequent history. By examining a database of student results over the first 50 years, a more nuanced picture is obtained. In particular, Marshall had laid great stress on a three-year programme. However, the degree was divided into a two-year Part I and a one-year Part II (revised to a one-year Part I/two-year Part II after 1930) and it can be shown that for some time a minority of students of economics completed three years: some just studied Part I, some just Part II. Furthermore, it can also be demonstrated that for most of the interwar years, students studying for three years were less successful in the final classification than those who had studied for Part II only.


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