PSC 3304 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Gabriel Almond, Robert A. Dahl, Voluntaryism
17 Feb 2017
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Helps us understand things: separates useful from useless; helps us sort through nonsense by asking questions. Theory is merely causal statement; not just cause and effect. 19th century: researching only the u. s. -- function of government institutions. Woodrow wilson only political scientist to become president. Focuses on the visible functions of government. Want to broaden scope of field and create scientific approach to theory and methods. Focus on the individuals -- interest groups, political parties, political culture, etc. Drawing connections between people"s" attitudes and the political system. If the people think [a], then it"s likely that they will have gov"t system [b]. Focus on the functions of individual elements of a political system. The individual ingredients may function differently in different systems. First to use the term political system gives us an attempt to generalize; parsimony is good in political science. Suggested answer to these differences: different political cultures. Focus on building classification of political systems.
