From Institutional to Systemic Approach:
Institutional approach in the study of politics has been common in die past Political Science was believed to be mainly, even exclusively, concerned with die study of such political institutions as the State and government, their various activities, pans and functions. In this approach, no attempt was made to see any relationship or effects both within and outside an institution.
However this approach began to change at the end of the nineteenth and in the beginning of the twentieth century. It was brought about by a new approach to the study of politics, which is known as systems analysis. It was also due to the need for comparing different kinds of States and governments in the world, especially after the World War Q.
Systems Analysis:
From about 1930’s and especially since die behavioural revolution in 1950’s the study of politics has been influenced by the concept of systems analysis. This concept is derived from biology and physical sciences, in Which the focus is on systems. “Systems are bounded regions in space-time, involving energy interchange among their parts, which are associated in functional relationships”. In simpler words, it means that every living and non-living body consists of two or more parts, which are constantly acting and interceding with each other as well as with the environment around it, as a single operating whole, or as a system. Examples of such operating wholes or systems are countless, for the whole universe is full of them.
Some are very small and others immense in dimensions. “The atom is a system, and so are molecules, crystals, viruses, clocks, engines, ocean fleets, animals (including humans), small groups, like families or schools, societies (including States or political systems), planets, solar systems, galaxies, etc. “If, however, we restrict ourselves to living systems, they are really behavior systems, which extend from viruses and animals to human societies and political systems.
Moreover, a system consists of two or more subsystems. For instance, human body, which is in itself a system, consists of several subsystems, such as the nervous system, the digestive system, the circulatory system, etc. In its turn, the circulatory system consists of such organs as the heart, the lungs, the arteries and veins and the blood, each of which is a subsystem in itself. Now each of these organs performs its own functions, but in an integrated and interdependent manner, which keeps the body healthy and alive. Heart’s function is to exchange carbon dioxide in die blood for oxygen, inhaled by the lungs from the atmosphere outside.
If any one part fails in its function the whole system will be affected. If the failure is serious, the body will become sick and may even die. Health or the proper functioning and maintenance of the system is its end or purpose. This is the systemic approach which behavioral and certain other political scientists have applied to the study of politics.