the behavioral tradition and the revision of political theory

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THE BEHAVIORAL TRADITION AND THE REVISION OF POLITICAL THEORY

In this article, I draw on recent scholarship in the history of political science to trace the

discursive evolution of the concept of "political theory" after the behavioral revolution. Today's

situation of eclecticism and diversity can be traced to the 1950s and early 1960s, when early

behavioralists such as Heinz Eulau, Robert Dahl, and David Easton, defined a new form of

"empirical" theory in opposition to what they called "traditional" theory. This was the beginning

of the mid-twentieth century revision of political theory. I find that although there was a

temporary narrowing of the kinds of practices in political theory during the behavioral era, thenet effect was a rejuvenation and proliferation of approaches to political theory after the

behavioral revolution.

[It] became destructive as it came to an end to say nothing

of the confusion and helplessness which came after

the tradition ended and in which we live today .1

Living in the shadow of the behavioral revolution today, contemporary political theorists

are confronted with the question what is political theory ? (Nelson 1983; Ball 1991; White and

Moon 2004). In this article, I focus on the rise of a new form of political theory in the 1950s

known as empirical political theory. Although the tradition of empirical political theory as

David Easton imagined it as a form of general and causal theory is only one among many

forms of political theory today, the efforts of early behavioralists to create a general theory of

politics still casts a shadow on the discipline. The shadow metaphor is apt in suggesting that we

in the present continue to live with the legacy of the behavioral revolution of the 1950s and


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1960s. At all points its crucial to keep in mind the idea of multiple traditions and recognize that

at any given time there is never a monolithic political theory. I nstead, I approach the question

of political theory in contemporary political science by recognizing multiple and often

conflicting traditions of political theory. My goal is to clarify the origins of the historical

division of political theory into two competing traditions, which then makes it possible to

understand the contemporary situation of diversity and multiple meanings of political theory

today.

I draw on contemporary work in disciplinary history to better understand the changing

meanings of political theory after the behavioral revolution of the 1950s and 1960s.Contemporary work on the history of political science has recovered many vital components

central to the genealogy of the discipline of political science and the subfield of political theory.

I focus on historical narratives about the rise of a particular tradition of political theory,

behavioral or empirical political theory, and I highlight how this original dicho tomy of

empirical-traditional later became an empirical-normative one. Authors discussing the history of

political science are not immune and they routinely juxtapose the empirical and the

normative as distinct and mutually exclusive forms of politica l theory. 2 Today, the scope of

activity at work in contemporary political theory is poorly described by the labels of empirical,

normative, or traditional. Surely the label normative is far too restrictive; and while the

label traditional once may have been adequate, its meaning can exclude many post-behavioral

developments in political theory (Miller 1989). Similarly, today its difficult to conceive of a

coherent tradition of normative political theory. For example, can the traditions of p olitical

theory listed in Table 1 be reduced to the categories of empirical or normative? 3


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[Insert Table 1 Here]

Not only is traditional or normative political theory an amorphous concept referring to

different objects for different authors but the history of the concept is tied to its evolution as an

epistemological other for different emerging traditions like empirical or behavioral theory, epic

theory, and positive theory.

A rough dating of the behavioral period in political science might begin in the early

1950s, perhaps with David Eastons 1953 The Political System and after a period of dominance

peaking in the late 1960s, perhaps with Eastons 1968 APSA presidential address The NewRevolution in Political Science. In the beginning of the behavioral era, the new empirical

political theory was defined in opposition to what was termed traditional political theory.

Traditional political theory is often said to have consisted of legal and constitutional studies of

the formal kind, historical research, and reformist literature (e.g. Mahoney 2004; Adcock 2007).

I argue the behavioral revolution was and continues to be a major catalyst for conceptual

change with respect to the meaning of political theory and that a post-behavioral settlement

resulted in a plurality and a diffusion of types of political theory. In addition, I argue the legacy

of the conceptual distinction between traditional and empirical theory first articulated in the

behavioral era are still powerful today; especially in the linguistic distinction between

empirical and normative political theory. The behavioral revolution was and continues to be

a catalyst for conceptual change in the meaning of political theory. Today, one legacy of

behavioralism after the behavioral revolution is the empirical-normative dichotomy. This

linguistic legacy of the behavioral revolution is particularly evident in the vocabulary of the

contemporary discipline, which is highly prone t o making a distinction between normative and


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empirical statements and theories as well as in the commonsense belief that political and social

scientists ought to ground their work in empirical evidence. The seeds of the empirical-

normative dichotomy were sown in the early history of academic political science. The strong

distinction between empirical and normative still active today, however, first passed through a

positivist phase whereby facts were juxtaposed to values and behavioral political science defined

itself in opposition to any approaches relying on value analysis, including many forms of what

came to be called traditional political theory (Barrow 2008; Gunnell 2010).

THE EVOLUTION OF TRADITIONAL AND EMPIRICAL THEORYThe conceptual di stinction between empirical and traditional political theory has a

history. One can detect a widespread questioning of the nature and scope of political theory after

the World Wars when political scientists began to wonder about the meaning and identity of

political theory. David Easton is often credited with being a founder of behavioralism and for

being a driving force behind the introduction of the idea of empirical political theory (Graziano

2014; Gunnell 2013; Gunnell 1993). In his 1965 A Systems Analysis of Political Life Easton

discusses the emergence of a new vision of theory in political science, which now rises to

shatter the old image of the nature and tasks of theory [and] may be described as descriptive ,

empirically-oriented , behavioral , operational or causal theory (5; emphasis added). Easton

adds that for all intents and purposes, the terms are synonymous (5). Easton is rebelling

against his training and experience with mainstream political theory of the 1940s and early

1950s , which he refers to as traditional political theory and explicitly equates with political

philosophy. The problem with traditional theory as political and moral philosophy is it narrows

the range of inquiry and makes it hard for political scientists to grasp the importance of the new


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type of theory Easton is advocating (5-6). Similarly, in his 1965 A Framework for Political

Analysis , Easton says empirically oriented political theory is often referred to as behavioral

theory (3), which was a moveme nt of a diffuse and informal group of academic rebels against

traditions (10). In the closing section of Chapter One, titled Historical Perspective, Easton

mentions the behavioral movement three times and defines empirical theory in opposition to

traditional political theory: Unlike the great traditional theories of past political thought, new

theory tends to be analytic, not substantive, explanatory rather than ethical, more general and less

particular (22). In his 1968 contribution to the International Encyclopedia of the Social

Sciences , titled Political Science, Easton is explicit about the impact of the behavioralrevolution and how it helped throw off the yoke of the Greek classical tradition (296). 4

For their part, political theorists of the traditional mold rebelled in turn to what they saw

as a threat to their vocation. For example, the disciplinary historian John Gunnell discusses the

estrangement or alienation of the subfield of political theory from the mainstream and

increasingly behavioral political science in the late-1960s and beyond (Gunnell 1993). 5 Another

part of the story is highlighted by Gunnell in his 1993 The Descent of Political Theory . Here,

Gunnell crafts a narrative of decline, in which the strictly political vocation of traditional theory

was lost among many news strands of behavioral and postbehavioral theory. During the

behavioral period, traditionalists responded to the rise of behavioralism by first strongly

critiquing it; and then in the postbehavioral era, by walling itself off from the new behavioral

mainstream; effectively creating an enclave within the discipline. After the behavioral

revolution, as Gunnell puts the matter, the subfield of political theory began to manifest a

number of latent tensions and fractured into a number of parochial professionally and

intellectually inspired discursive enclaves (268). Gunnell sees in these developments, an


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academic political theory increasingly alienated from the mainstream in political science and,

crucially, estranged from itself as a discourse speaking to and about the political world. 6

In a 2013 article, The Reconstruction of Political Theory: David Easton, Behavioralism,

and the Long Road to System, Gunnell highlights the narrative of decline of political theory

in the 1950ss as well as its association with the founders of behavioral political science. Thus,

Eastons 1951 essay The Decline of Modern Political Theory is cited by Gunnell to hig hlight

the decline of political theory narrative in the early 1950s (191). Robert Dahl and his canonical

1961 APSR article Epitaph for a Monument to a Successful Protest is also cited which,

according to Gunnell, rejected the work of speculative theorists, historians, legalists, andmora lists or traditional political theory (191).

Gunnell reinforces the connection between the rise of behavioralism and empirical

political theory in opposition to traditional political theory. For example, while discussing

Eastons 1953 classic, The Political System , Gunnell takes a moment to register his skepticism

about the revolutionary nature of the behavioral movement. Even though The Political System

has been considered a central element in the behavioral revolution, that revolution was

actually in many respects a counterrevolution against these new directions in political theory

(199; Farr 1995 ). This counter -revolution is directed by the mainstream of political science

against the perceived threat of the many anti-behavioral European migr philosophers who

often defended traditional political theory. Gunnell primarily has in mind for traditional political

theory Continental thinkers and migr scholars like Hannah Arendt, Theodore Adorno, and Leo

Strauss. Thus, the initial conflict between traditional and empirical political theory, led to

the official disciplinary fracturing of political theory into empirical, historical, and normative

components (199). Each camp, of course, defined themselves in opposition to the other.


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Whereas anti-behavioralists often defined themselves in terms of tradition against the new

empirical and/or behavioral theory; members of the behavioral mainstream persistently defended

an image of a new form of theory called empirical, behavioral, or scientific theory defined, once

again, against these traditional forms. 7

Here Gunnells historical narrative ends in the late 1960s, with the fracturing of political

theory into three exclusive traditions and the effective estrangement of both historical and

normative or traditional forms of political theory from the mainstream. Many of the accounts

in disciplinary history are focused on the period of behavioral ascendency in the 1950s and

1960s. The disciplinary historian and political theorist Robert Adcock s (2007) I nterpretingBehavioralism begins to provide insight into the discursive evolution and conceptual opposition

between empirical and traditional/normative political theory. In its first twenty years the image

of a behavioral revolution thus evolved from a rallying cry of young behavioralists looking

confidently to the future, into the feared other of antibehavioral scholars bemoaning the present

(181).

Adcock appeals to difference by insisting our image of behavioralisms place in the

evolution of American political science should take on varying characteristics depending on

whether we attend to the topics the movement wished the discipline to research, the empirical

techniques it promoted, or the kind of theory it sought to develop and bring into interplay with

empirical research (207; see also Adcock 2010; Hauptmann 2012). Many of the topics now

considered to be behavioral were already being studied by political scientists prior to the 1950s

(e.g. public opinion and interest groups). 8 The empirical techniques, however, were genuinely

revolutionary and it is thus unsurprising that when political scientists today envision


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behavioralism as a turning point in the history of the discipline, they most commonly have in

mind research employing quantitative and statistical techniques (207 ; Easton 1965b).

This common association between the behavioral revolution and the rise of

quantification and statistics often makes it hard to appreciate the other great contribution of

behaivoralism or the transformation of theory in political science (207). During the behavioral

revolution a new conception of theory centered on the use of self-conscious abstraction to

produce analytic frameworks arose; which is important to the project of empirical theory, i.e.,

the interactive refinement between such theory and systematic empirical research (207, 208).

Behavioralists success transforming the dominant techniques in the discipline was possible because, as Adcock puts the matter, behavioralism promulgated a transformed conception of

what it meant to be scientific, often but not always including a preference for quantification

and statistics (191 ; Adcock discusses Da hl 1961 essays focus on the survey method ).

Although the image of political theory as empirical theory in the fashion championed

by Easton has been overshadowed by other developments in the discipline, there still lingers a

need to understand the present institutional and intellectual configuration of the discipline in

terms of its behavioral past. While Eastons contribution to empirical theory and systems

theory were less enduring, Adcock finds, the systematic collection and analysis of data was far

more successful. It lies, as a result, at the core of most retrospective images of behavioralism

(190). As weve seen once again, in the 1950s and 1960s, an image of a new form of

empirical political theory challen ged and in many respects replaced the old traditional

political theory. This story is central to understanding the ongoing legacy of the behavioral

revolution today.


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In The Remaking of Political Theory, Adcock and Bevir (2007) also see questions

about the meaning and identity of political theory taking on a new sense of urgency in the wake

of the behavioral revolution. 9 In the 1950s and 1960s, say Adcock and Bevir, behavioralists

began to articulate a new vision of what political theory should be and early behavioralists

such as Harold Lasswell and later David Easton charged theorists with failing to provide an

adequate conceptual framework for empirical research and called for a new kind of theory

empirical theory (214). 10 Adcock and Bevir discuss how prior to the behavioral revolution,

the tradition of political theory was characterized by at least three inter-related traditions in

Europe and the U.S.: moral philosophy, ideas and institutions, and state/constitutional theory.These traditional approaches to political theory continue to predominate in the discipline until

WWII (213). Until this time, the authors maintain, there are few signs of a significant

redefinition of political science characterized by a behavioral mainstream defined in opposition

to traditional political theory.

What is empirical theory and how was political theory remade? Adcock and Bevir

offer three characteristics of empirical theory as it was advocated by its champions in the

1950s and 1960s. 11 First, empirical or behavioral theory was defined in opposition to the

traditional institution and ideas approach and the history of political thought which were deemed

irrelevant historicist preoccupations and even as active obstacles to a proper scientific

theory (215). Second, behavioralists were inspired by logical and empirical positivism and

sought to model their understanding of theory on the scientific method of the natural sciences.

Finally, there was a widespread rejection of the normative concerns of earlier traditions of

political theory (215). Through a process of definition by opposition, political scientists who

advocated for empirical theory increasingly contrasted the empirical theory they sought over


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against normative theory an amorphous category that encompassed pretty much every form of

theorizing that they saw as irrelevant or hostile to behavior al political science (216). In the

1950s and 1960s, however, the majority of those who sought to advance empirical theory

worked outside the subfield of political theory and it consequently made little impact on the

subfield of political theory (216).

Although the calls for a more rigorously scientific political science at the University of

Chicago in the 1930s and 1940s are reminiscent of the behavioral revolution, Adcock and Bevir

argue, it did not provoke a split between political theorists and political scientists at that time

(214). The remaking of political theory began later, in the 1950s and 1960s, when politicalscientists at the University of Chicago like Harold Lasswell and David Easton, began to

explicitly call for a new type of theory in political science. Once again the new was defined in

opposition to the old political theory, i.e. traditional, moral, state and constitutional theories. 12

Adcock and Bevir argue, finally, the division between the two camps was complete by the end

of the 1960s as symbolized by the publication of the political theorist Sheldon Wolins classic

1969 APSR article Political Theory as a Vocation (216). 13

POLITICAL THOERY AFTER THE BEHAVIORAL REVOLUTION

In all the accounts above, the story of political theory ends in the late 1960s, with the

differentiation of empirical from traditional forms of political theory. What happened to images

of political theory after the behavioral revolution of the 1950s and 1960s? How can we account

for the rise of multiple traditions of political theory after the revolution? Indeed, how did a

conflict between empirical and traditional political theory result in a situation of diversity,

multiple traditions, and a normative empirical dichotomy ? An article by the political


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theorist and disciplinary historian James Farr helps shed some light on this question. In his 1995

chapter Rem embering the Revolution: Behavioralism in American Political Science, Farr

begins with changes in the meaning of political theory during the behavioral revolution before he

turns to discussing developments after 1970. 14 The behavioral revolution began as an initial

protest against tradition [and] soon became a movement of widespread change (198). Farr

recounts the critical attitude of behavioralists toward traditional political science which had long

made much ado over the formalities of the state, constitutions, and law, as well as the normative

ideals of th e great political philosophers like Plato, Locke, and Mill (202).

Political scientists like Easton and Heinz Eulau are behavioral revolutionaries whoworked to reshape research in political science. No longer was theory in political science to

be theoretical in a normative sense or in a sense allied to the histor y of political thought (203). 15

In terms of research techniques, behavioralists sought to model their methods on the natural

sciences, the scientific method, and factual or empirical inquiry (203 ; 213). As weve seen in

Farrs historical narrative, one feature of traditional political theory that was rejected was its

normativity or its failure to separate facts and values bracketing the latter in the process of

scientific analysis. Th e new theory in political science, Farr continues, was to be empirical and

explanatory, value -free and objective, and understood in opposition to traditional political

theory (204). Champions of behavioralism in political science like Heinz Eulau thought

traditional political scientists not only studied the wrong things, the behavioralists proclaimed;

they did so in the wrong way, whether by prescribing what it was to be a good citizen or a just

state (204). 16 Thus, Farr concludes, these three proclamations about behavior, science, and

liberal pluralism were sufficiently precise to galvanize many political scientists into a

behavioral movement conjured against a traditional political science (205).


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Farrs historical narrative recounts h ow after the behavioral revolution a new generation

of students were to emerge with increasingly sophisticated methodological skills and a

behavioral self- understanding even though as Farr concedes, it was without much of an

informed judgment or historical memory about the deficiencies of traditional political science or

about what occasioned the revolution i n the first place (216). Here the story shifts to the

transition to a post-behavioral era and the way the behavioral revolution continues to influence

debates in the discipline as it began a period of diversification. After the behavioral revolution,

the study of politics had come to mean a lot of things (Farr mentions intentional actions,

deliberate decisions, procedural rules, negotiated barga ins, role playing as well as inputs andoutputs of whole systems); but one thing these diverse strands had in common was their

ongoing and resounding dismissal of the traditional in modern political science (216).

Farr turns to the role of the anti-behavioralists in the late-1960s, many of whom had

been stigmatized as traditionalist , as well as others who saw behavioralism as too pro -

mainstream and not sufficiently reform-minded (216). The critics of behavioralism singled-out

for approbation t he repeated behavioralist claim that the traditional study of institutions,

ideals, and legal formalities was replaced by a positivist conception of science (216). These

critiques focused on what was assumed to be the impossibility of explaining political outcomes

in value -free terms or of try[ing] to remain value-neutral about the political world (216; Farr

cites Sibley 1962, Taylor 1967, McCoy and Playford 1967). With the upheavals of the long-

1960s, anti-behavioralists were emboldened to rebel once more, leading eventually to the

establishment of the Caucus for a New Political Science in 1967 (218). Two years later in his

1969 APSA presidential address, Easton proclaims the onset of a new revolution in political

science, a post-behavioral revolution (218). 17 Despite Eastons straightforward concessions to


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The political theorist and disciplinary historian Emily Hauptmann s 2005 chapter titled,

Defining Theory in Postwar Political Science sheds further light on the diversification of

political theory after the behavioral revolution. In her chapter, Hauptmann identifies three

distinct traditions of political theory: (1) behavioral or empirical theory championed by David

Easton, (2) traditional or epic theory led by S heldon Wolin, and (3) rational choice or

positive the ory spearheaded by the work of William Riker. Importantly, mainstream

behavioralists were not alone in defining theory in opposition to traditional political theory.

As Hauptmann points out, radica l or epic political theorists like Wolin, as well as positive

rational choice theorists like Riker, also defined their preferred form of theory in opposition totraditional political theory. Hauptmann points out, Easton, Wolin, and Riker all received their

Ph.Ds. from Harvard University at about the same time, and all three rebelled in their own way

against the ideas and institutions approach to political theory (208). 19 All three theorists

crafted a unique take on the meaning and practice of political theory, and as Hauptmann points

out, each creating his own conception of political theory in opposition to what each saw as the

kind of theory in which he had been trained (208).

What was traditional political theory before the behavioral revolution? Hauptmann

explains the meaning and limitations of the traditional theory construct in a footnote:

The adjective traditional in the label traditional political theorist indicates

an approach to political theory that emphasizes a tradition of theorizing from

ancient Greece up until the present. Although the label helps distinguish

among different approaches to political theory in the 1950s and 1960s, people

in the subfield of political theory no longer use it of themselves (230). 20


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Drawing on Gunnell (1993), Hauptmann briefly discusses the empirical theory of Easton and

other behavioralist political scientists. Hauptmann recounts how empirical political theory in the

form of Eastons general -systems theory was dominant for a time, how this position of

dominance afforded behavioral scholars an opportunity to ignore traditional political theorists

who, and as weve seen above, were driven into the enclave of the subfield of political theory

(214-215). 21

Hauptmanns chapter is not focused on empirical political theory. Instead, she shifts the

focus to one form of theory or epic political theory and to one of its main contenders in the

contemporary discipline, ra tional choice or positive political theory . Both epic and positive political theory are defined in opposition to their epistemological other: Epic theory is defined

against behavioral theory and positive theory is defined against traditional political theory.

Drawing on Wolin s famous 1969 APSR article Political Theory as a Vocation, Hauptmann

discusses how in its initial formulation epic theory is defined in opposition to

behavioral/empirical scientific theory (218).

In Wolins terms , political theory is a creative act of vision which is as radical as it was

critical in its stance toward the political world (218). During the behavioral period the clash

between two rival conceptions of how to theorize about politics was intense, an d often turned

on statements of identity defined in opposition to the other camp (e.g. traditional/epic political

theory vs. behavioral/empirical political theory and positive/rational choice theory vs.

behavioral/empirical political theory). Unlike the new behavioral theory, Hauptmann points out,

Wolin argues for political commitment and an engagement with the past; two features of

theory that were anathema to behavioralists (211). Hauptmann summarizes Wolins vision of

political theory as the image o f the political theorist as one who sees form some intellectually


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constructed distance and who by virtue of that sight critically reimagines that world (218 ; cf.

Wiley 2006). For some in the subfield of political theory today, the image of epic political

theory put forward by Wolin still resonates with their own understanding of what political theory

is or can be. 22 In this tradition, epic political theory is often defined in opposition to

empirical or behavioral political theory. For exa mple, in his Political Theory as a

Vocation, Wolin discusses the rejection of the tradition of political theory by the mainstream

of the discipline: There is a widely shared belief that the tradition was largely unscientific

where it was not antiscientific and that the defining characteristic of a scientific revolution is to

break with the past (1969, 1068). On the contrary, epic political theory draws on the past tospeak to the present and to intervene in the political world.

In Hauptmanns narra tive, a third tradition of rational choice theory is hegemonic today

overcoming the influence of behavioralism some time ago (227). What is distinctive about

rational choice tradition or in the formulation of William Riker positive theory? Drawing on

the work of Riker and others, Hauptmann describes positive and rational choice theory as

formal in the sense of being reliant on mathematical abstraction, general in the sense of

being both axiomatic and deductively driven, and highly prone to one form of formal-general

positive theory, game theoretic approaches (221). 23 Rikers work to establish positive political

theory was done in opposition to traditional political theory. Hauptmann quotes Riker (1962,

viii): These traditional methods i.e. history writing, the description of institutions, and legal

analysis have been thoroughly exploited in the last two generations and they can produce

only wisdom and neither science or knowledge (223). Here several forms of political theory are

maligned as non-scientific and the intent is to promote one type of political theory at the expense

of others. In sum, although the debate between behavioral and traditional theory may have


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subsided, the legacy of the behavioral revolution lives on in the identity construction of both epic

and positive political theory.

Hauptmann concludes her essay by agreeing with Wendy Brown and other contemporary

political theorists who recognize diversity within contemporary political theory and recognize

how many forms of political theory no longer define themselves against behavioral or empirical

theory. Indeed, as Hauptmann puts the matter, much of the relevant outside for contemporary

political theorists now lies outside the discipline of political science itself (230). Hauptmann

observes how the behavioral revolution temporarily narrowed the way political theory could be

practiced and that this was a momentary condition as this same narrowing began to wane bythe early 1980s ( 2005, 216; see Appendix I ). Thus, it s as important to recognize the

transformation of political theory by the behavioral revolution as it is to recognize its

rejuvenation and the rise of multiple traditions making up an eclectic and diversifying subfield

today.

CONCLUSION: THE MANY TRADITIONS OF POLITICAL THEORY

Political scientists and political theorists from diverse backgrounds have inquired into the

scope and nature of political theory. Indeed, some early inquirers wondered aloud whether

political theory was not already dead ( Laslett 1956, vii; see Miller 2014). In the introduction to

the Oxford Handbook of Political Theory (2006), the editors John Dryzek, Bonnie Honig, and

Anne Phillips discuss the many traditions in post-behavioral political theory. 24 The subfield

diversified greatly since the 1950s, when the old tradition of political theory reputedly took a

morbid turn (Dryzek , Honig, & Phillips 2008, 13). A section titled Relationship with

Political Science begins as follows: Political theorys relationship to the discipline of political


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science has not always been a happy one (6). The soft other for the new science, the editors

elaborate, has sometimes been journalism, sometimes historical narrative, sometimes case-study

methods. It has also, very ofte n, been political theory (6). 25 Traditional political theory became

the soft other of rational choice theory and aided in part by the work of Riker who explicitly

reject ed belles letters, criticism, and philosophic speculation along with phenomenology and

hermeneutics (7 ; Riker 1982, p. 753). The editors observe, for those driven by their scientific

aspirations, it has always been important to distinguish the true scientific study of poli tics from

more humanistic approaches and political theory has sometimes borne the brunt of this (7). In

many respects, the project for a positive political theory was made possible by the originalcontest between empirical and traditional political theory, and like the behavioralists, Riker finds

traditional political theory a convenient other to serve as the constitutive other of his

preferred form of theory. Even so, in a post-behavioral era, its important to recognize the

eclectic and diverse nature of contemporary political theory, which as Dryzek, Honig, and

Phillips memorable phrase is an unapologetically mongrel sub -discipline with no dominant

methodology or approach (5; 34).

In this article, Ive focused on the evolution of different f orms of political theory. Given

a situation of diversity and methodological pluralism in the discipline, how can we make sense of

the ongoing persistence of the empirical-normative dichotomy? 26 Weve seen how in the process

of constitution empirical political theory defined itself in opposition to traditional political

theory. Ive also highlighted how in the vocabulary of the discipline this distinction has been

modified so that the normative now stands in for the traditional. The political theorist and

disciplinary historian Terrence Ball (1987) gives us some insight into these matters in his

introduction to Idioms of Inquiry: Critique and Renewal in Political Science . Playfully


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comparing the discipline to a medical patient, Ball discusses the many ills that beset the

profession of political science in the late 1980s. Among the most acute ailments for Ball is

hypochondria or the repeated tendency to treat the discipline as an ailing body in need of some

super-cure. More importantly, however, is the amnesia that besets the profession whose memory

rarely extends further back than the contemporary period (1). Ball explains with a note of good

humor:

We cut ourselves off from our own history in any number of ways, one of them

being our penchant for dividing our past into two periods. The first, and by far

the longest, is the Dark Age before behavioralism, in which superstitionreigned, statistics had not yet been invented, empirical questions were

entangled with normative ones, and the state rewarded political inquirers by

giving them hemlock instead of research grants (1).

Referring to his playful but foreshortened history, Ball relates how before the Behavioral

Revolution of the late 1950s and early 1960s could be consolidated into a legitimate regime,

there occurred, not a counterrevolution launched by disgruntled traditionalists, but a revolution

within the revolution (2). Finding themselves in positions of power and prestige in the wake of

the behavioral revolution, behavioralists no longer wanted to be revolutionary but wanted to get

down to the work of doing behavioral research, even as their critics now attacked them on the

level of the philosophy of science (2). The behavioralists strategy in the 1980s was one of a

protectionist policy of intellectual isolationism and they largely ignored the critics which t hey

could afford to ignore (2). 27 Much the same sort of thing happe ned earlier, Ball continues,

when the behavioralist revolutionaries dismissed their elders old -fashioned historical and

institutional approach to the study of politics (2). Ball giv es the example of how the concept of


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the state was berated as unscientific and ought to be replaced by structural -functionalism and

general systems theory (2; Ball cites Easton 1953, 1965, 1981).

The history of political thought, Ball tells his readers, was one in which the behavioral

revolution and its aftermath comprises only one of the more recent episodes is the story of

older orthodoxies being criticized and replaced by revolutionary challengers (2 -3). For Ball, the

history of political thought demonstrates how intellectual change in the discipline is an ongoing

process constantly modifying the mainstream (3). So why is that political scientists seem unable

or unwilling to move beyond a time-bound movement in the mainstream occurring in the 1950s

and early 1960s? Political theory today is well-characterized by a situation of pluralism in whichmany traditions of political thought vie for attention and address theoretical and practical issues

of the day in different ways. This idea of pluralism is widespread despite the fact that some

contemporary authors still write as though it is possible to bring unity to political science through

the adoption of a common way of thinking about (empirical or behavioral) political theory (e.g.

Kim Quaile Hill 2012). 28

How is it possible that these two major interpretations of political theory one eclectic,

the other hegemonic can coexist at the same time and in the same academic discipline? Ball

offers three general reasons for the persistence of behavioralism and its image of (empirical)

political theory: (1) institutional inertia, (2) the nature of graduate education, and (3) the

allocation of research funding (3). Once an orthodoxy has set upon a mainstream and found

institutional support it is very hard to dislodge. More importantly, the orthodox views are passed

on from generation to generation through a process of matriculation . Graduate education, Ball

observes, tends to be in the hands of yesterdays revolutionaries [who are] still concerned to

keep the faith pure and to guard the memory of the revolution, they create the young in their own


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image (3). Finally, research funds are allocated to the mainstream and orthodox positions

within it.

As weve repeatedly seen, one reason for this enduring theme is the cognitive -linguistic

phenomenon whereby one entity is defined in opposition to another or what some might call

social constructivism and the dynamics of identity construction. 29 Thus, Ball might have also

mentioned the linguistic legacy of identity construction by different combinations of opposing

forms of political theory: traditional, empirical, epic, and positive. If part of the

behavioralists revolt was to define their movement in opposition to what they simply called

traditional and later normative political theory, today these conceptual distinctions betweenopposing traditions of empirical and traditional , epic and empirical, and positive and

traditional is misleading.

In the language of contemporary political science, the concepts of empirical and

normative are often employed as adjectives describing different traditions of political theory.

These concepts have a history going back to the efforts of the founders of the behavioral tradition

to outline what was for political scientists like Easton a new form of empirical political theory.

Today the concept of normative theory is quite amorphous including within its boundaries a

number of distinct approaches including moral and ethical theory, classical and political

philosophy, and many others. In this article, I focus on the original contest between traditional

and empirical political theory and only hint at the later development of the empirical-normative

dichotomy. Eventually, the adjective normative would replace the adjective traditional as

the epistemological other for empirical and other forms of political theory. This change occurred

roughly at the same time as the so-called rebirth of political theory in the early 1970s. The label

of normative is more common today, but in the 1950s and 1960s this term was rarely used in


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opposition to the new empirical theory. In the beginning, it was traditional political theory

which was invoked as the epistemological other to the new empirical political theory.

Today there are multiple traditions of political theory at work in the discipline and none

of them have any claim to hegemony. Following contemporary disciplinary historians, Ive

traced the evolution of the meaning of political theory since the behavioral revolution of the

1950s and 1960s. Ive found that t he legacy of debates among political scientists and political

theorists about the meaning of theory in political science is still with us today, and the behavioral

tradition in political science continues to be an active catalyst for conceptual change with respect

to the meaning of political theory. The idea of theory in political science went through afundamental transformation in the wake of an ascendant behavioral tradition, and the behavioral

tradition created a new form of theory called general, causal or empirical theory opposed

to traditional and later positive forms of political theory. But this was just one of many traditions

of political theory that emerged after the behavioral revolution. Weve also seen how the

behavioral revolution made it possible for epic theory and positive theory to emerge as forces in

the discipline today. In a post- behavioral era, its time to step out from the shadow of the

behavioral revolution and away from the sterile behavioral empirical-normative dichotomy. In

the history of political science there are and probably will be multiple traditions of political

theory and, I submit, this is a good thing.


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[5] Political theorist of the traditional mold often mentioned in th is context are the German

migr scholars Hannah Arendt, Theodore Adorno, Leo Strauss, and the American Sheldon

Wolin.

[6] This is a different thematic focus than the triumphal mainstream narrative of the behavioral

revolution. The impact of the migr scholars on the identity and practices associated with

postwar political theory and the discussion of the impact of the University of Chicago before the

Worlds Wars combine to form a counter-narrative with the implication of continuity with earlier

positivist and pluralist trends rather than rupture in the character of the discipline after the rise of

behavioralism in political science. See for example, Gunnell 2004 The Real Revolu tion inPolitical Science. See also Dryzek (2006) Revolutions without Enemies who similarly

downplays the revolutionary nature of the behavioral movement which he characterizes as a

selective radicalization of existing disciplinary tendencies (490).

[7] In his 1993 The Descent of Political Theory , Gunnell discusses the 1968 official separation

of political theory into the three categories of historical, normative, and empirical (251;

261). As Ill discuss more below, even this attempt at describing the scope of political theory

after the behavioral revolution is inadequate as it fails to include, for example, developments in

positive or rational choice theory. Also, where do political theorist of the Straussian

persuasion fall are they historical, normative, or both? See also Gunnells discussion of the

state of the discipline and its subfields in a 1968 symposium in the Journal of Politics (264).

[8] James Farr and Raymond Seidelman report, the period between 1946 and 1966 witnessed the

decline of traditional political theory as well as the emergence of the concepts of political

behavior, public opinion, pressure groups, and the political system in the American profession

of political science (1993, 202). See also Box- Steffensmeir, Brady, and Colliers (2008)


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Introduction to the Oxford Handbook of Political Methodology titled, Political Science

Methodology."

[9] Adcock and Bevir open their article by noting that the notion of the death of political

theory in the 1950s is among the biggest clichs in the history of contemporary political theory

(207). P olitical theorists often invoke Laslett (1956) or Isaiah Berlins 1961 Does Political

Theory Still Exist? and these obituaries for political theory are involved most often as a

prelude to a celebration of its rebirth (207).

[10] For an earlier example , see Lasswell (1947) The Analysis of Political Behavior: An

Empirical Approach. [11] See also Adcocks entry on Empirical Theory in the 2010 Encyclopedia of Political

Theory . Its interesting that there is no entry on normative political theory.

[12] Easton received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1947 and taught at the University of

Chicago from 1947 until 1984; while Lasswell received his Ph.D. from the University of

Chicago in 1927 and taught at Yale University.

[13] See also Hauptmann (2 004; 2005) on Wolins role in the development of a tradition of

epic political theory.

[14] This article appears in a volume of essays edited by Farr, John S. Dryzek, and Stephen T.

Leonard, titled Political Science in History: Research Programs and Political Traditions (1995).

Along with Raymond Seidelman, Farr also edited Discipline and History: Political Science in the

United States (1993).

[15] Here I think Farr is relying on his tacit knowledge of positivism in this use of normative

which means that it is value-laden a feature which positivist behavioralists wanted to bracket in

their scientific theory.


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[16] In his 1963 The Behavioral Persuasion in Politics , Eulau describes the formal aspects of

traditional political theory which many behav ioralists found wanting: Much traditional political

inquiry has been purely formal in the sense that it was limited to the observation of patterns and

took the meaning content of behavior for granted. Political institutions or constitutions were

described and their formal similarities and differences were noted, but what these patterns meant

to the people involved was not investigated. Rather meanings were ascribed, usually on the basis

of the observers culture understandings (69).

[17] Earlier in his essay, Farr describes Eastons 1953 The Political System: An Inquiry into the

State of Political Science as the single -most important manifesto lodged against traditional political science during the behavioral revolution (207).

[18] In his 1988 The History of Political Science, Farr puts the matter this way: What is or

should be scientific about political science? What is or should be political about political

science? The identity of political science depends upon the answers we give to these questions,

and since our answers ineluctably will involve judgments about the history of our discipline, we

can see in conclusion how our identity depends upon how we understand our history (1194).

[19] On this point, see also John Gunnell 2013, pp. 192-193.

[20] Hauptmann also notes how the subfield of political theory in political science departments

today is mostly made up of people who were trained by traditional political theorists rather than

empirical or rational choice theorists (214). Interesti ngly, this tradition of political theory is

criticized by Gunnell for its mythological properties see especially, Gunnell 1978 and 1986.

[21] Along these lines, Hauptmann also discusses Wolins unsuccessful efforts to form a new

department of political theory at the University of California, Berkeley (212-213).


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[22 ] This is especially true for many of Wolins students e.g. Wendy Brown, Nicholas Xenos,

Aryeh Botwinick, Kiristie M. McClure, etc. For a collection of essays by many of Wolins

students a nd other prominent epic political theorists, see Democracy and Vision: Sheldon

Wolin and the Vicissitudes of the Political (2001; Aryeh Botwinick and William E. Connolly,

Eds.).

[23] Since the time this article was written, Hauptmann has updated her views on positive

theory: I would say that today, theres more of an effort on the part of formal theorists to deepen

the empirical dimensions of their work. For example, there is a workshop called Empirical

Implications of Theoretical Models (EITM) (personal communication, October 2014).[24] Under the heading Contemporary Themes and Developments Dryzek, Honig, and

Phillips discuss a number of ideological traditions including liberalism, Marxism,

communitarianism, feminism, post-structuralism, as well as other contemporary traditions such

as Democracy and Critical Theory, and Green Political Theory.

[25] See the example of teaching theory to graduate students at Pennsylvania State University

described in notes two and three in Timothy Kaufman-Osb orns (2010) Political Theory as

Subfield and as Profession?

[26] This way of constructing the empirical-normative dichotomy highlights the limited

usefulness of the construct. While the association of behavioral and empirical is relatively

straigh tforward (that is as long as one is willing to cede to behavioralists the label empirical

political theory) but the association of traditional with normative is rife with difficulties. For

one, where does Rikers positive political theory fit in? Positive or rational choice theory, at

least initially, was neither empirical nor normative in its orientation to theory.


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[27] This is an earlier iteration of the Revolution without Enemies theme (Dryzek 2006)

except that instead of an absence of opposition to the rise of behavioralism, Ball argues the

behavioralist, finding themselves in a position of dominance in the mainstream, ignored their

critiques thus making it appear, at least in the most widely distributed writing of the discipline,

there was no opposition (see also Dahl 1961).

[28] Kim Quaile Hills recent article in The Journal of Politics , In Search of General Theory,

represents another attempt to prod the discipline to adopt the path to rigorous, systematic, and

general scientific theory. Since before the behavioral revolution, modern political science has

been in search of general theory and there is nothing new to these admonitions to the disciplineand calls to refocus our efforts and work together to develop a general theory of political life.

For a classic example, see King, Keohane, and Verba (1994) Designing Social Inquiry ; see also

Gunnell 1993, p. 262.

[29] For example, the political theorists Wendy Brown succinctly summarizes the construction

of identity via oppositi on Ive highlighted in this essay: The outside constructs the inside and

then hides this work of fabrication in an entity that appears to give birth to itself. Thus to inquire

What is political theory? is to ask about its constitutive outside as well a s its techniques of

dissimulating this constitution (Brown 2002, 556; see also Hauptmann 2005).

TABLE 1: MULTIPLE TRADITIONS OF POLITICAL THEORY TODAY

Analytic Philosophy Institutional TheoryClassical Political Theory Legal TheoryCritical Theory Literary CriticismDemocratic Theory Political PhilosophyEmpirical Theory Positive TheoryEpic Theory Post Structural TheoryFeminist Theory Race TheoryHistory of Political Thought Rational Choice Theory


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APPENDIX I: POLITICAL THEORY BEFORE, DURING, AND AFTER THEBEHAVIORAL REVOLUTION

Before the Behavioral Revolution (1900 1950)

History of Political ThoughtInstitutions and IdeasLegal TheoryLiterary CriticismMoral and Ethical TheoryPolitical Philosophy or Classical Political TheoryState Theory and Constitutional Theory

During the Behavioral Revolution (1950s and 1960s)

Empirical TheoryEpic Theory and the History of Political ThoughtDemocratic TheoryStructural-Functional TheoryPolitical Philosophy and/or Classical Political TheorySystems Theory

After the Behavioral Revolution (1970s present)

Analytic PhilosophyCritical Theory

Feminist TheoryPostmodern TheoryPost Structural TheoryRace Theory

Democratic TheoryEmpirical TheoryFeminist TheoryHistory of Political ThoughtHistorical Theory

Neo-Institutional Theory Neo-Marxist Theory

Moral and Ethical TheoryPolitical Philosophy and Classical Political TheoryPositive TheoryRational Choice TheoryState Theory


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the behavioral tradition and the revision of political theory

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