BEHAVIOURALISM AS AN APPROACH TO CONTEMPORARY POLITICAL ANALYSIS: AN APPRAISAL
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Abstract
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Limitations inherent in traditional orientations of analysing political phenomena are
reasons behind the search for new paradigms aimed at increasing epistemic knowledge
when analysing political issues in the 21st Century. Against the existing institutionalists,
pluralists and elitists approaches, contemporary thinkers have adopted the
behaviouralists approaches which has capacity to increase the empirical status of
knowledge in contemporary political analysis. The traditional method of analysis in
philosophy was used to analyse all current literature, arguments and archival materials
on the subject of this paper. The paper critically evaluates most of the criticisms levied
against the behavioural approach with the view to identifying the edge which the
behavioural approach offers contemporary analysts in political science. The paper
concludes that despite these criticisms, not all the examples of the approach are flawed.
Behaviouralism has brought with it, new concepts, sophisticated tools of analysis and
mathematical models which tend to make us all behaviouralists.
Keywords
JA Political science (General)