POLITICAL SCIENCES

Political Sciences



Political Science

Political Science

The scientific study of politics bears a rather short history. It was not until the 1950s that political science reached its attic as a distinct academic discipline. The less-than-a-century time frame, however, has seen significant developments in terms of theoretical and methodological divides. From positivism and interpretivism before the 1980s to a synergy of both thereafter, each of these prominent paradigms not only advocates different approaches to political analysis but also shares varying assumptions about the science of social inquiry. This chapter offers a general overview of the evolution of science and scientific methods. (Shepsle, 2003, 131)

"In standard political terms and in order to help distinguish ecologism from other political ideologies, it is useful to examine the widespread green claim to 'go beyond' the left-right political spectrum: 'In calling for an ecological, nonviolent, nonexploitative society, the Greens transcend the linear span of left-to-right.' (Spretnak and Capra, 1985). Jonathan Porritt translates this into a transcendence of capitalism and communism and remarks that 'the debate between the protagonists of capitalism and communism is about as uplifting as the dialogue between Tweedledum and Tweedledee.' (Porritt, 1984). The basis for this claim is that from an ecocentric green perspective, the similarities between communism and capitalism can be made to seem greater than their differences:

Both are dedicated to industrial growth, to the expansion of the means of production, to a materialist ethic as the best means of meeting people's needs, and to unimpeded technological development. Both rely on increasing centralization and large-scale bureaucratic control and co-ordination. From a viewpoint of narrow scientific rationalism, both insist that the planet is there to be conquered, that big is self-evidently beautiful, and that what cannot be measured is of no importance. (Porritt, 1984)

"The name generally given to this way of life is 'industrialism,' which Porritt goes so far as to call a 'super-ideology' within which communism and capitalism are inscribed, and which he describes elsewhere as 'adherence to the belief that human needs can only be met through the permanent expansion of the process of production and consumption.' (in Goldsmith and Hildyard, 1986). This observation is central to green ideology, pointing up both the focus of attack on contemporary politics and society-- industrialism--and the claim that ecologism calls into question assumptions which we have lived for at least two centuries." (Shepsle, 2003, 131)

Green Political Thought

An image of the Earth, taken from the outside, is available, a new concept as powerful as any other in annals will be let loose.' Astronomer Fred Hoyle in the 1940s, as cited in Green Political Thought. (Marsh, 2002, 60)

In 1968, the cameras of Apollo 8 brought back an image of a blue-white planet soil, hovering like a living pearl overhead the horizon of the moon. It would not be too fanciful to claim that Fred Hoyle was right, and that that one image crystallized the beginnings of the modern green movement -- that new and most powerful idea whose time is yet to ...