Dictionary says that an approach is the act of drawing near an object from a given point or direction. In Political Science, it means the criterion or perspective adopted by a political scientist while studying political phenomena. It is the standard by which he collects and explains political events, processes, etc., by including or excluding such data and questions which are not relevant to his perspective or standard.
In short, an approach means the relevance of a problem or data to the criteria or standards the political analyst holds in his study of a political problem. As we know, politics is a vast field of conflicting activities. It is, therefore, necessary to include in its study only such problems, questions and data which are relevant to the criteria of the study.
Approaches are of different kinds. However, they can be broadly divided into two categories: the traditional approaches, derived from various academic disciplines or subjects, and the scientific approaches, derived from various academic disciplines or subjects, requiring the observation of the processes of political activities and behaviour.
Traditional Approaches:
The traditional approaches are derived from such academic disciplines as history, economics, law, sociology, anthropology, psychology, geography, etc. We shall now discuss each of them separately.