Does Political Theory Have Any Importance for the Study of Politics - Term Paper Example

Running Head: Political Theory Political Theory [Institute’s Political Theory Introduction Thousands of years back, when our earliest ancestors started settling by forming groups and societies, they evolved the basic system of governance by which they would take decisions that would affect the society or community as a whole. Since then until today, the system has evolved significantly and whether directly or indirectly every citizen is affected and influenced by the political happenings. Moreover, citizens also affect the political events in one way or the other, either directly or indirectly. Therefore, we all live in a society where most of us are passive political actors or audience, in either case, closely connected to the system (Hoffman & Graham, pp. 403-408, 2006). Over the past centuries, experts and authorities have developed a theoretical framework to help us understand political behavior and events. However, the fundamental questions that arises here is that how this political theory or political philosophy helps us to understand the political behavior or facilitates our study of politics. The rest of this paper would attempt to explore and examine the answer to the same by extensively looking at examples of various political theories and the way they fit in the wider picture of political happenings. Discussion By definition, political theory may refer to “an orientation that characteristics or classifies the thinking of a nation or a society” (Dryzek, Honig, & Philips, pp. 325-326, 2006). A more specific approach would be to say that Political philosophy refers to the study of issues and fundamentals like law, liberty, justice, rights, government, authority, public interests, and others, and attempts it to combine and look it in boarder sense. It is imperative here to look at the significance of the word “theory” here. This word comes from Greek language and has five root words from which it is derived. Thea, Theorien, Theoros, Theoria and Theorema and surprisingly all these words have somewhat a similar meaning (Boix & Stokes, pp. 32-33, 2007). These words refer to observing at something about which some basic information is known and then asking questions about it. Moreover, it is a continuous activity and does not seek to get the right or wrong answers. It is an effort to understand and not about validating a point or necessarily reaching to a conclusion (Gaus & Kukathas, pp. 210-216, 2004). Many political philosophies and theories facilitate our study of politics. Let us have a look at a few of them. One of them was progressivism or the progressive movement that gained immense attention during the end of 19th century and in the early decades of the 20th century (Boix & Stokes, pp. 32-33, 2007). This was the time when the United States had effectively transformed itself into an industrialised economy since this was the only way to compete and progress (Leopold & Stears, pp. 176-177, 2008). However, at the same time, the side effects of this fast track industrialisation were also becoming increasingly evident (Boix & Stokes, pp. 32-33, 2007). Progressivism stood for a political system where a common person has much for authority and say in the day-to-day operations of management. Progressives were major supporters of “direct democracy”, “recall”, “initiative”, “referendum”, and other direct democracy systems (Rawls, 59-62, 2005). They believed that uneducated politicians have led the US economy to a disastrous crisis and their proper education can be a solution. They were against monopolies and cartels and strongly advocated government intervention. A careful study of progressivism would help us to understand the problems with the conservative poetical approach. Progressivism also reveals that under what conditions direct democracy may be inevitable or necessary. Moreover, it introduces concepts like education for politicians and efficiency in politics (Hoffman & Graham, pp. 403-408, 2006). Populism was another political philosophy that emerged alongside of progressivism but had different stands on some issues. Populists were mostly farmers and small town people who were hurt badly but the capitalistic policies of the United States (Box-Steffensmeier, Brady, & Collier, pp. 115-121, 2008). Quite understandably, a capitalistic society aims for concentration of wealth since they believe that that this concentration of wealth in a few competent hands will create investment and new ventures, which would in turn result in more employment activities (Freeden, pp. 46-48, 1998). Advocates of this political approach hope for a trickle down effect of wealth and hope that it this approach would eventually benefit everyone in the society in the end. However, the same did not happen in practice in United States. Due a tight monetary policy of the US, there efforts went in vain (White & Moon, pp. 11-12, 2004). These farmers produced more in hope for earning however; however, due to the absence of money in the economy, there were no purchasers for the extra crops. In fact, this created a new problem for those farmers. Due to excess supply, the prices of the crops were pushed even further down (Shaw, pp. 251-253, 2008). Moreover, when these farmers looked towards banks for credit, the poor credit policies became another disappointment. Additionally, these farmers had to face disenchantment when government did not seem to react or intervene since they had to follow the free market policies (Jackson & Sørensen, pp. 62, 2007). These events triggered a new political theory of populists, which advocated the end of monopolies, cartels, banks, unlimited supply of silver coinage, government intervention, and provision of basic facilities by government and reduction in labor hours (Box-Steffensmeier, Brady, & Collier, pp. 115-121, 2008). The populist theory of politics helps us to understand the possible drawbacks of capitalistic approaches and the reason why politicians who advocate too much of free market and capitalism fail to win the hearts of lower middle class people (Beitz, pp. 15-19, 1999). Study of conservatism provides us with insights that why political parties like Pakistan Muslim League in Pakistan, conservative party of United Kingdom, Republican Party of United States, Liberal Democratic Party of Japan and many others oppose the view of revolution or complete change in the constitution of the system of government (Rhodes, Binder, & Rockman, pp. 44-47, 2008). Instead, these political parties are more interested in trying to maintain the basic status quo or are keen to go back “what we used to” (Gaus & Kukathas, pp. 210-216, 2004). Study of Geolibertarianism exposes the reasons that why politics and politicians also have debates on land value taxes and why it holds so much of importance. Henry George, the father of Geolibertarianism was of the view that no human being alone owns the land of this planet but it is a collective property of all the people (Leopold & Stears, pp. 176-177, 2008). Therefore, the one who uses the land should pay the rent of it to the society in form of land value tax. Besides, no other tax shall be imposed on the citizens since what they earn is their property and the state does not have any right to tax or take away any part of any citizen’s income (Pruthi, pp. 16, 2005). Too often, in the study of politics, we find out that even in direct democracies, many groups that are not in government end up making considerable influence on the governmental polices (Box-Steffensmeier, Brady, & Collier, pp. 115-121, 2008). Classical pluralisms puts up an explanation that why the same happens. It asks the governing body to understand and acknowledge the fact that one should embrace and respect diversity in every walk on life. Even the minorities should get their say in governmental decisions (Kranenburg, pp. 16, 2006). This sort of political system asks the society to engage into a process of constant conflict and dialogue assuming that this would lead to “common good” of the society. It also considers the presence of many political parties as the pre-requisite to a good government. Many political systems, today, have embraced some elements of pluralism (Squires, pp. 145-148, 2000). However, as we see in our everyday lives that despite the fact that on paper, we are living in democratic society but the same does not feel in common practice. The answer is embedded in the Elite theory of political philosophy. Indirectly or behind the screen, in many states, a small elite minority, military, economic, social, or political, keeps on controlling the affairs of the state, while disregarding the interests of the people (Heywood, pp. 363-365, 2004). This is an opposite view of pluralism where the government has to take very body onboard. This explains why governments that are elected by people and responsible for protecting the sole interests of the people always seems to be working in some other direction, protecting the interests of a small group of rich people who keep on getting richer and richer regardless of the governments (Vincent, pp. 52-59, 2007). If not elite theory then it appears that as a society or a nation we appear to be moving towards a model of totalitarian democracy where despite the voting rights of citizens, the people have no say in the decisions of government (Goodin, pp. 106-107, 2009). In name of protecting the interests of the people, the government keeps on controlling the private and public lives of the people (Dalton & Klingemann, pp. 79-83, 2007). These people think that there is only one perfect and original truth and people that are oppose this form of government have yet to reach to this conclusion (Beitz, pp. 15-19, 1999). This explains why at times government appears to doing things, which the public on a whole seems to be rejecting. Conclusion Towards the end of this paper, we are in comfortable position to conclude that different political theories or philosophies provide us with different views to look at the question of “how to run the political system? Finally, reasons of or answers to many political discussions of today are present in these political theories (Rhodes, Binder, & Rockman, pp. 44-47, 2008). They not only broaden your horizon to look at politics but also facilitate your better understanding of the same by providing you with different lenses of historical approaches and problems to look at new issues and developments (White & Moon, pp. 11-12, 2004). References Beitz, Charles R. 1999. Political theory and international relations. Princeton University Press. Boix, Carles, & Stokes, Susan Carol. 2007. The Oxford handbook of comparative politics. Oxford University Press. Box-Steffensmeier, Janet M., Brady, Henry E., & Collier, David. 2008. The Oxford handbook of political methodology. Oxford University Press. Dalton, Russell J., & Klingemann, Hans-Dieter. 2007. Oxford handbook of political behavior. Oxford University Press. Dryzek, John S., Honig, Bonnie, & Philips, Anne. 2006. The Oxford handbook of political theory. Oxford University Press. Freeden, Michael. 1998. Ideologies and Political Theory: A Conceptual Approach. Oxford University Press. Gaus, Gerald F., & Kukathas, Chandran. 2004. Handbook of political theory. SAGE. Goodin, Robert E. 2009. The Oxford handbook of political science. Oxford University Press. Heywood, Andrew. 2004. Political theory: an introduction. Palgrave Macmillan. Hoffman, John, & Graham, Paul. 2006. Introduction to Political Theory. Pearson Longman. Jackson, Robert H., & Sørensen, Georg. 2007. Introduction to international relations: theories and approaches. Oxford University Press. Kranenburg, R. 2006. Political Theory. READ BOOKS. Leopold, David, & Stears, Marc. 2008. Political theory: methods and approaches. Oxford University Press. Pruthi, R K. 2005. The Political Theory. Sarup & Sons. Rawls, John. 2005. Political liberalism. Columbia University Press. Rhodes, R. A. W., Binder, Sarah A., & Rockman, Bert A. 2008. The Oxford Handbook of Political Institutions. Oxford University Press. Shaw, Karena. 2008. Indigeneity and political theory: sovereignty and the limits of the political. Taylor & Francis. Squires, Judith. 2000. Gender in political theory. Wiley-Blackwell. Vincent, Andrew. 2007. the Nature of Political Theory. Oxford University Press. White, S.K. & Moon, J. D. 2004. What is political theory? Sage Publications. Read More