Historical Approach To The Study Of Politics

It is one of the oldest approaches. Aristotle in the ancient times, Ibn Khaldun in the Middle Ages and Machiavelli, Montesquieu and many others in the modem times, have applied it in the study of politics. It is really a descriptive approach, i.e., describing the historical origin and evolution of various political institutions and problems, such as the origin of die State, and development of the parliamentary or cabinet system, etc. In fact, every political institution can be approached as a product of history.

For this purpose, historical documents and other source-materials can provide the knowledge of the way they came into being and can predict their future evolution. For instance, it may be asked: how did the parliamentary or cabinet system evolve in England? The growth of a political theory is another interesting problem. Although every theory is a product of the times and circumstances in which it was first expounded, but it has also significance for all times to come. It is, therefore, useful to know the conditions and motives of the historical situation in which it was first produced.

Historical approach has, however, some limitations. First of all, it is sometimes not possible to have all the necessary documents, records and other source-materials on a problem of the past. This is particularly difficult in many developing countries, where libraries and archives are either non¬existent or deficient Secondly and more importantly, to discuss a problem irl terms of its history may not throw much light on what it is today.

This approach is useful few a historian. But a political scientist is more concerned with the living problems of the present. In spite of this criticism, historical approach is immensely important in Political Science. The more we study political events, institutions and theories as they existed in the past or as they were expounded by earlier writers, the more we understand their present structure and the application of the theory and we can also know how they will change in the future.

 

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