Theories Of Comparative Politics

Theories of comparative politics analyse the domestic politics of individual nations in an attempt to explain how and why certain political outcomes occur. These theories are concerned with the inner-workings of political institutions and the long-term patterns of political behaviour within the state boundary. Ultimately, theories of comparative politics aim to explain how and why a political system functions in the way that it does. However, owing to the multitudes of conceptions that have been put forward, a consensus on which theory offers up the best analysis of the performance of political systems has not been reached. As a result of this factor, major debates have arisen. This paper will examine three prominent theoretical approaches

A political theory needs to explain real-world phenomena – a theory that attempts to hypothesize about something that does not ultimately have any effect on reality, will be unlikely to have any notable effect on how the world comes to view and react to certain aspects of political study. Political theories also need to be falsifiable. A theory that is unfalsifiable cannot come into conflict with any form of observation – no possible experiment that one could perform would be able to contradict it. Theories need to be testable, as one cannot merely assert that a hypothesis is true or false without going through a process of experimentation where one tests the actual validity of the claim. Finally, theories should be able to be adapted and altered slightly over time to ensure that they stay relevant. A theory that only explains a particular set of phenomena for a very specific period of time or a specific place, will become irrelevant and

Demands that are being made by the citizens of the country, are often ignored or set aside. And demands that are turned into inputs, often do not get processed into outputs. The issue of sanitation in the township of Khayelitsha, provides one with a view into a broken political system. The City of Cape Town Municipality has been pressured by the residents of the settlement to draw up a revised sanitation plan to solve the current problems. According to a social audit that was conducted by the Social Justice Coalition, the current situation is unsanitary, unsafe and many people lack access to this basic facility. However, despite the demands made to the local municipality, the situation has not changed. Thus, while there is a very clear input that government should be processing through the political system in order to turn it into a favourable output, the sanitation issue in the township has stayed a mere demand. Despite the fact that South Africa does have a seemingly effective political system, it appears as if the pressure from citizens on government to turn their demands into policy, is essentially not