Behavioralism

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Behavioralism
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The Behavioral RevolutionPremises.

• Political science could be, should be, and very
  shortly would be a scientific discipline. (25)
• Hard facts should be found (empiricism) and
  should be summarized in formal propositions
  (theory building).
• Positivist background Need of collecting
  empirical data and of testing theoretical
  propositions against the data.

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Behavioralism ? Traditional political science

• Traditional political science was accused of
• Being merely descriptive, and even worse,
  narrowly descriptive.
• Being only normative (and biased)
• Focusing on Ideas instead of FACTS (i.e., studies
  on constitutions)

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David Easton

• In 1953, Easton argued that political science had
  not made any progress in 2,500 years.
• Political science could neither define its terms
  nor tell which data were relevant.
• Solution embracing the scientific method, with
  political theory on the lead (the latter was true
  for Easton only most Behavioralists dismissed
  theory)

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Poppers Falsacionism (implicit)

• In order to be valid (scientific) a theory must
  be falsifiable, that is open to empirical
  refutation.
• The Behavioral Revolution consecrated a like
  understanding of theory.

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The Revolution...

• Was not a unified event, but
• The concurrent work of many separate
  individuals and different works, which
• Defined a new frontier the political science
  community decided was worthy to explore...
• In order to become more Scientific

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• Challenge to grasp the highly complex and
  changing universe of politics in some scientific
  conceptualization.
• Politics, the Enemy?

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Diversity of Approaches.

• Works based on the collection of empirical data
  from mass public opinion surveys. The American
  Voter (1964), The Civic Culture (1963).
• Works based on economic reasoning that provide
  models to understand empirical political data. An
  Economic Theory of Democracy (1957).
• Works inspired on sociological approaches
• On aggregate data and class-based analysis.
  Political Man (1963)
• On grassroots micro-sociological analysis. Who
  Governs? (1961)
• On System Theory (Easton)

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1. Works based on public opinion surveys

• The use of opinion surveys came from the field of
  sociology (expansion in the 1940s).
• In political science, the University of
  Michigans Survey Research Center became (and
  still is) the standard for this style of
  research.
• Important DATA COLLECTION
• Socioeconomic, political, psychological, and
  voting behavior questions.
• National Election Studies (microscope)
• The survey approach became a microscope to look
  at grassroot behavior that was never before given
  attention
• Allowed to reject traditional assumptions on
  democracy

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Main Works

• The American Voter (1960) (Campbell, Angus,
  Philip E. Converse, Warren E. Miller, and Donald
  E. Stokes)
• The Civic Culture (1963) (Almond, Gabriel, and
  Sydney Verba)

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The Civic Culture

• Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five
  Nations.
• The present book is based about one thousand
  interviews carried on in each of five nations
  (about five thousand interviews in all). In each
  case an attempt was made to obtain a national
  cross-section sample.(...)The cross-section
  interveiws were carried on in June and July of
  1959 in all of the nations except in the United
  States the interviews in the United States were
  carried on in March, 1960. In most cases the
  follow-up interviews took place about six months
  to a year after the first interviews. (Almond
  Verba 40).

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Study on political culture

• Political culture refers to the specifically
  political orientationsattitudes toward the
  political system and its various parts, and
  attitudes toward the role of the self in the
  system. (12)
• Three types of citizen
• Participants
• Subjects
• Parochial

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The Civic Culture

• Consists of a pluralistic culture based on
  communication and persuasion, a culture of
  consensus and diversity, a culture that permitted
  change but moderated it. This was the civic
  culture. (6) (developed in Great Britain)
• The civic culture and the open polity, then,
  represent the great and problematic gifts of the
  West. (...) Can the open polity and the civic
  culture...spread as well? (7)

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Goal to see the likelihood for the expansion of
the Civic Culture

• Discovery of National Patterns
• The Data contradicted established assumptions and
  prejudices
• (i.e., neither the U.S. Nor Great Britain did as
  well as expected)
• The study settled a very high standard for
  comparative research (discouraging effect)

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2. Works based on economic reasoning.

• Anthony Downs, An Economic Theory of Democracy
  (1957).
• Method economic approach, which assumed
  individuals are rational (maximizers)
• Rational behavior was understood as directed by
  goals, based on self-interest, and, in Downs
  analysis, related to government selection.
• Foundation of the RATIONAL CHOICE approach
  (dominant these days).

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Downs Main Hypotheses

• Political parties make policies only to win
  votes.
• Voters vote for the candidate/s they think will
  give them more benefits.
• Government decisions are based on marginal
  expenditure, that is programs are expanded until
  the vote gain from each dollar spent equaled the
  loss of votes resulting from increased taxes.
• All parties must find out what the voters want
  and compete to do it better.
• Parties must frame their discourse vaguely so
  they can attract as many voters as possible.

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Basic Democratic Model 8 rules.

1. All adults are allowed to vote
2. Every adult gets one vote
3. Existence of at least two political parties
4. Periodical elections
5. A single party/coalition is chosen in each
   election
6. The party that gets the majority of votes wins.
7. Losers dont prevent winners from taking office
8. Winners dont attempt to wipe out the losers.

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Main Hypothesis

• Political parties in a democracy formulate
  policy strictly as a means of gaining votes.
• Parties social functionto carry out policies
  while in governmentis accomplished as a
  by-product of their private motivewhich is to
  attain the income, power, and prestige of being
  in office. (137)

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Other Hypotheses

• Voters vote for the candidate/s they think will
  give them more benefits.
• Government decisions are based on marginal
  expenditure, that is programs are expanded until
  the vote gain from each dollar spent equaled the
  loss of votes resulting from increased taxes.
• All parties must find out what the voters want
  and compete to do it better.
• Parties must frame their discourse loosely so as
  to attract as many voters as possible.

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In analyses such as Downs, once the premises are
accepted, there is no way of avoiding the
conclusions.
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Problems

• Individuals uneven access to information
• Situations for which there is no rational
  solution
• Dilemma When politicians act rationally, voters
  cannot do so, and viceversa
• Consequence The system is inconsistent, and the
  search for a rational basis of politics fails.

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Problem imperfect knowledge fosters...

• Persuasion (exposure to a biased selection of
  facts) Specialists/Gvt. Representatives.
• Ideologies (help voters to rapidly identify
  differences between parties). Parties then invent
  ideologies to attract voters
• Rational Ignorance (may lead to apathy, which is
  very rational considering the costs of
  information).

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Dilemmas (Hardin 1968)

• Cold War dilemma of steadily increasing
  military power and steadily decreasing national
  security. (1243)
• How can I win the game of tick-tack-toe? It is
  well known that I cannot if I assume that my
  opponent knows the game.
• Maximizing population does not maximize goods
• The tragedy of the Commons in a pasture open
  to all, each herdsman will add as many animals as
  possible, until the grass disappears. So,
  individual freedom contradicts the common good.

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Different Party Systems...

• Depends on the statistical distribution of the
  electorate.
• If the curve is normal, it produces a two-party
  system, with parties quite alike
• If the electorate is polarized, there will be a
  two-party system with increasing differences
  between the partieseach party gains more votes
  the more differences it poses to the
  opposition... Ultimately this leads to CHAOS
  (continuous dramatic changes in policy)
• A multimodal distribution produces a multi-party
  system

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Downs anticipates the problem of the free rider

• In a democracy policies benefit all citizens
  evenly. Thus, my own participation do not
  increase my gains, unless my vote is going to
  decide the election.
• So, apathy and withdrawal from political
  participation are rational.

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3. Works inspired on sociological approaches

• Relying on aggregate data and class-based
  analysis. Lipsets Political Man (1960).
• Economic foundation of democracy
• Industrialization/Urbanization/Wealth/Education
• ?
• Class Struggle
• Wealth fosters democracy...
• (Or the other way round?)
• The direction of causation was not clear.

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b. Based on grassroots micro-sociological
analysis. Robert Dahls Who Governs?

• Study of Local Government
• Focus on leaders and Networks of power (petty
  sovereignties).
• Thesis although the U.S. is a democratic
  society, elites are the actual rulers...
  Foundation for pluralist theory.
• Classification of different elites (Patrician,
  entrepeneurs, plebeian)

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c. Based on System Theory (David Easton)

• Easton defines politics as the authoritative
  allocation of values for a society.
• Political System Black box with inputs and
  outputs within an environment
• Main question How do systems manage to
  persist, or to balance the stress coming from
  the environment with the support coming from the
  members?
• Attempt to develop a comprehensive and universal
  theory of politics.

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Criticisms

• Universal but empty concepts
• Vague concept of equilibrium
• Depoliticizing views of politics