Revision summary
The normative approach asks what political life ought to be and argues about justice, liberty, and obligation. Plato, Aristotle, the contract theorists, Mill, and Rawls are central practitioners. Easton and Dahl supply empirical maps of systems and decisions that cannot replace the question of right. Communitarian critics warn that abstract persons can hide real communities. Indian Parts III and IV show that a constitution is itself a public set of ought-statements.
Model answer
Introduction
The normative approach in political science asks what political life ought to be, not only what rulers and voters in fact do. It treats justice, authority, liberty, and obligation as claims that can be argued, not only as survey items.
Body
What the approach does
- A normative inquiry defines concepts such as the state, right, and legitimacy, and then tests a claim against a rival claim.
- Plato and Aristotle set the pattern by asking which regime is just, not only which city was strong.
- Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau used contract arguments to say when coercion is justified.
- John Rawls rebuilt that tradition as justice as fairness: equal basic liberties, fair opportunity, and the difference principle.
- J. S. Mill treated liberty of thought and discussion as a condition of human development, which is a value claim, not a vote count.
Contrast with empirical work
- David Easton defined politics as the authoritative allocation of values and asked for observable systems of demand, support, and output.
- Robert Dahl asked who actually prevails in decisions, which is a behavioural test of power.
- The normative approach does not replace those methods. It supplies the standard by which an allocation or a decision can be called just or unjust.
- Behavioural critics said norms were untestable metaphysics. The reply is that measurement cannot invent the question of right.
Limits
- Normative theory can ignore institutions and history if it stays with ideal persons only.
- Michael Sandel and Michael Walzer later showed that abstract persons may hide the communities in which people actually live.
- The approach remains necessary because a constitution, including India’s Parts III and IV, is itself a set of ought-statements that courts and legislatures must interpret.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD N[Normative approach] --> O[Ought claims] N --> T[Plato Mill Rawls] E[Easton Dahl] --> I[Is: systems and decisions] O --> J[Justice and legitimacy] I --> J
Conclusion
The normative approach studies politics as reasoned argument about what ought to bind. Easton and Dahl describe allocation and decisions; Plato, Mill, and Rawls judge them. Political science needs both, because facts do not by themselves yield justice.
Quick related
Students also ask
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Multicultural perspective on rights.
Next question on this syllabus topic (2023 · Q1(b)). View answer →
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Is the normative approach the same as moral preaching?
No. It is public argument with reasons that others can contest. Preaching asserts a duty without that test.
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Can surveys replace it?
Surveys report preferences. They cannot by themselves say whether a preference is just or whether majority will is legitimate authority.
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