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Unit 1: Nature and Scope of Comparative Politics

other hand comparative politics concentrates on analytical study of the various political Notes
institutions. Investigation and experimentation constitute prominent features of comparative
politics.
4. Finally, comparative government concerns itself only with the political activities of the political
institutions, while comparative politics also takes into account the economic, cultural and
social factors. In other words it tries to examine the political institutions through inter-
disciplinary approach.
Politics is a continuous, timeless, ever-changing and universal activity having its key manifestation
in the making of a decision to face and solve a ‘predicament’. It “flows from a special kind of
activity, a form of human behaviour.” It refers to the making or taking of a decision in which
some political action is involved. It is a different thing that political scientists define and interpret
the term ‘political action’ in their own ways that ascribes to them the title of being a conservative,
or a traditionalist, or a modernist. It is for this reason that while Oakeshott defines political
activity as “an activity in which human beings, related to one another as members of a civil
association, think and speak about the arrangements and the conditions of their association from
the point of view of their desirability, make proposals about changes in these arrangements and
conditions, try to persuade others of the desirability of the proposed changes and act in such a
manner as to promote the changes”; David Easton treats it as an action for the ‘authoritative
allocation of values’; Harold Lasswell and Robert Dahl describe it as ‘a special case in the exercise
of power’; and Jean Blondel lays emphasis on the point of ‘decision taking’. However, a fine
interpretation of the term ‘political activity’ is thus given by Oakeshott who says: “In political
activity, then, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea; there is neither harbour for shelter nor
floor for anchorage; neither starting place nor appointed destination. The enterprise is to keep
afloat on an even keel; the sea is both friend and enemy.”
In the field of comparative politics, the term ‘politics’ has three connotations—political activity,
political process and political power. As already pointed out, political activity consists of the
efforts by which conditions of conflicts are created and resolved in a way pertaining to the
interests of the people, as far as possible, who play their part in the ‘struggle for power’. The
reduction of tensions or the resolution of conflicts naturally takes place through the operation
of permanent mechanisms of tension reduction as well as, from time to time, by the introduction
of further ‘reserve’ mechanisms designed to reduce the amount of tensions and conflicts in
emergencies. If politics means the authoritative allocation of ‘values’, some measure of conflict is
bound to arise between ‘values’ as desired by the people and ‘values’ as held by the men in
power. Thus arise conflicts that demand their solution and what leads to efforts in this regard
constitutes political activity. It is the government that “has to solve these conflicts by whatever
means are at its disposal, the only limitation being that in so doing it must prevent the break-up
of the polity. Politics ceases where secession, and indeed civil war begins, as, at that point, there
is no longer an authoritative allocation of values, but two sides allocating their values differently”.
It should, however, not be inferred from this statement that there is nothing like political activity
during the days of civil war or some revolutionary upheaval, it simply means that as such an
eventuality “constitutes a high point of tension in the life of a community, the role of political
action must consist of preventing the community from reaching such a point.
Political activity emanates from a situation of ‘predicament’—a form of human behaviour in
which the interests of persons, more than one, clash or interact for the purpose of having an
allocation of binding values in their respective favours. The moment a voice is raised in a group
or a community of people for a common rule or policy on any issue whatsoever, a predicament
is created in the sense that even to decide against the demand requires to take a decision. The
matter does not stop here. Further problem arises when the members of a group or a community
advocate mutually exclusive policies. The result is clash of interests and the stage of resolution of
conflicts can be achieved either by peaceful means of reasoning, persuasion, adjustments,
diplomacy or compromise or by the violent means of force and coercion. While, in the former
case, competing agents may come piecemeal to abandon a part of their demands in order to have
a mutually acceptable solution, in the latter case, the policy of one section may, wholly or largely,

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