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Discuss the interpretive approach to the study of comparative politics. 10 Marks (UPSC CSE Mains 2024- Political Science and International Relations, Paper 2)
- Interpretive approaches to political studies focus on the meanings that shape actions and institutions, and the ways in which they do so. Interpretivism focusing on meaning-making processes draws heavily from ideas derived from hermeneutics and phenomenology.
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- An interpretive approach follows from two premises. The first straightforward premise is that people act on their beliefs and preferences. The second premise common to interpretive approaches is that we cannot read-off people’s beliefs and preferences from objective facts about them such as their social class, race, or institutional position.
- Social embeddedness and the value-laden character of the scientific process bring to bear porousness between theory and policy. For example, the democratic peace thesis claim that democracies do not wage war against other democracies, which is widely regarded as one of few laws in IR – is a historically specific and value-laden agenda. Democratic USA wages more wars a contradiction to this illustrates that different people attach different meanings based on what they perceive and prefer.
- The interpretive approach hence tries to understand the reasons, intentions, beliefs, logical progression etc. of individuals, that ultimately shape actions. IR has been incorporating interpretive theorising and engaging in interpretive empirical research because, quite simply, old frameworks are no longer that useful for making sense of international politics in the contemporary era.
- Interpretivists claim that the positivist criteria of objectivity, replicability and falsification are inapplicable to social analysis, because its subject – social reality – differs fundamentally from the natural world. While positivists treat social reality as stable, external to human experience, but still knowable by human researchers, interpretivists draw an important distinction between social and physical phenomena. Central to the interpretive framework is the notion of Verstehen or understanding (first discussed byMax Weber). This framework focuses on understanding and ‘meaning-making’ rather than explanation.
- As comparative politics involves the study of different political systems, coming from different societies and cultures, the interpretative approach assumes much significance. Interpretivism contrasts with structural or institutional approaches that focus on objective systems and measurable factors and goes a step further to understand the basis of political action better.
POSTED ON 04-02-2025 BY ADMIN
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