Approaches to the Study of Political Development

Abstract

Interest in the politics of the developing areas has increased steadily since World War II, and scholars have now produced a sizable collection of single-country monographs, several regional studies, and at least one attempt at a global synthesis.1 This literature has tended to stress various conditions as the primary correlates or determinants of political development. This research note offers a taxonomy of five approaches to the study of political development. The taxonomy draws upon both traditional and contemporary sources, and studies of both “developing” and “developed” areas, to derive a framework for ordering the literature on political development produced in the past two decades. The five approaches are (I) “legal-formal,” (2) “economic,” (3) “administrative,” (4) “social system,” and (5) “political culture.”

Political Instability in Latin America: The Cross-Cultural Test of a Causal Model

“…":" Such positions on legitimacy have moved other researchers to think of it in terms of political culture, that is, a set of attitudinal and personality characteristics that enables the members of the poliical system to both accept the privileges and to bear the responsibilities of a political process. 42 Political allegiance, or what David Easton would call "supports," or "orientations of the mind," or what Almond and Verba would see as "positive affect" on the part of the member of the political system, can be ascribed to various levels of authority. According to Easton, for example, support can be fed into the political system at essentially three levels: (i) the political community, (ii) the regime, and (iii) the government.43 With respect to the "political community," Easton appears to be using it synonymously with "society" or "social system," with the additional qualification that integration, or a sense of belonging ("we group" feeling) also characterizes a community.…”