Revision summary
The behavioural approach studies observable political behaviour, attitudes, and systems rather than constitutions alone. Easton defined politics as the authoritative allocation of values in a system of demand, support, and output. Dahl tested power through actual decisions; Almond and Verba linked democracy to civic culture. The method is empirical, comparative, and often quantitative. Post-behavioural and institutional critics restored justice, the state, and rules that surveys cannot invent.
Model answer
Introduction
The behavioural approach studies politics through observable acts, attitudes, and regularities rather than through the wording of constitutions alone. It asks how people vote, demand, support, and obey. David Easton and Robert Dahl made this the mid-twentieth-century programme of political science.
Body
What it studies
Behaviouralists take the unit of analysis as behaviour that can be described and, where possible, measured: voting, party identification, elite decision, and civic attitude. Easton defined politics as the authoritative allocation of values and pictured a political system with inputs of demand and support and outputs of decisions. Dahl studied who actually prevails in community decisions, which is a behavioural test of power. Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba linked stable democracy to a civic culture of attitudes, not only to a written constitution.
The method is empirical, comparative, and often quantitative. Concepts should be operationalised. The Chicago school and Charles Merriam prepared the ground. The claim was that political science could accumulate findings across countries instead of restating legal forms.
Limits
Critics said the approach evacuated justice, the state, and historical structure. Easton’s own post-behavioural turn after 1969 asked for relevance. New institutionalists later showed that similar attitudes produce different outcomes under different rules. The approach remains necessary for what citizens and elites actually do. It is not a complete theory of right or of constitutional design.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD B[Behavioural approach] --> O[Observable acts and attitudes] B --> E[Easton system] B --> D[Dahl decisions] B --> C[Civic culture] B --> L[Post-behavioural limits]
Conclusion
The behavioural approach made political science a study of observable political conduct, systems, and attitudes. Easton, Dahl, Almond, and Verba set its core. It must sit beside institutions and normative theory, because measurement does not by itself say which allocation of values is just.
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Why did institutions return after the behavioural revolution?
Similar voter attitudes produced different rights and coalitions under different electoral and federal rules, which a survey of individuals could not explain by itself.
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