Introduction

• The study of comparative politics is both significant and interesting because of the diverse approaches, methods, and techniques used to understand and explain political reality.
• Leading writers in the field hold divergent points of view and adopt different ways of studying politics, which leads to the use of various terms like approaches, methods, techniques, models, paradigms, and strategies, often seen as inter-related or synonymous.
• The existence and utilization of several approaches in the study of politics create a complex framework for analysis and understanding.
• Different approaches to studying politics have had periods of dominance, but their influence often wanes as new approaches emerge to take their place.
• The differences between various approaches are significant, and the debate among their proponents has been intense, with each group striving to prove the superiority of their chosen approach.

Meaning and Nature of ‘Approach’

• An approach is a way of looking at and explaining a phenomenon, which can range from a broad global perspective to a more focused study of local, regional, national, or international politics.
• Approaches involve the collection, selection of evidence, and the analysis of a hypothesis for academic purposes, and consist of criteria for selecting the problems or questions to consider and the data to include or exclude.
• Approaches and methods are closely inter-related. While an approach involves criteria for selecting problems and data, a method refers to the procedures for obtaining and utilizing that data.
• Methods may involve epistemological assumptions and operations for acquiring and processing data. Modern political science often borrows methods from other disciplines like economics, psychology, sociology, biology, and anthropology to address political study challenges.
• A method may also be referred to as a technique, but a technique is often more routine and mechanical, requiring less imaginative intelligence once mastered.
• An approach is distinguishable from a theory. While an approach determines the way of generalization, explanation, prediction, and prescription (all functions of a theory), it serves as the precursor to a theory.
• Theory is a more abstract or generalized statement summarizing the actions of variables, and it may be macro or micro in scale.
• Approach becomes a theory when it extends beyond simply selecting problems and data, leading to the formation of more generalizable principles.
• Paradigm is a framework of ideas that sets the context of analysis, combining philosophical assumptions and criteria of valid knowledge.
• Theory is a generalized statement summarizing the actions of dependent, independent, or intervening variables within specific conditions or parameters.
• Method organizes a theory for application to data and can be comparative, configurational, historical, simulative, or experimental.
• Technique links method to relevant data, representing various ways of observing and recording empirical information, such as sampling, opinion testing, interviewing, and regression analysis.
• Model is a simplified description of relationships, constructed from a paradigm, theory, method, or technique. Models may be typological, descriptive, formal, mechanical, organismic, or biological.
• Strategy is the way of applying one or more of the above methods and techniques to a research problem, requiring quality and integrity in combining theory, methods, and techniques systematically.
• Research Design is the operational plan for fieldwork or an experiment, converting strategy into a concrete plan for research.
• In comparative politics, many related themes like paradigm, method, model, and strategy are often used synonymously to present an empirical study of politics.
• The purpose of using a new methodology in politics is to adopt new techniques for acquiring knowledge, new criteria for judging the validity of knowledge, and new analytical tools to improve the precision and logical inference in political analysis.