Functions and defects of traditional politics

Traditional political science once laid the discipline foundation of political science, but it has been constantly challenged by various aspects since the beginning of the 20th century. First, the "New Political Science Movement" in the 1920s introduced natural scientific methods into political science, and then the "Behaviorist Revolution" totally denied the theories and methods of traditional political science. Traditional political science is considered to have major defects in the following aspects: ① it pays too much attention to the discussion of values such as freedom, equality, rights, democracy and justice, and ignores the study of social and political reality, thus weakening the application value of political science. ② Static analysis method can't adapt to the dynamic nature of political behavior. Although it emphasizes the study of political process, it does not use dynamic methods. Moreover, due to the lack of systematization and quantification, politics has long been blocked from scientific methods. The research results of legal research and historical research cannot explain the complex laws of political society, and the description of "causality" cannot solve the problem essentially because of its lack of inevitability. ④ Deductive reasoning can't rule out the role of transcendental elements and subjective values, and the scientific nature of the conclusion is criticized. ⑤ The research object focuses on the country itself, which limits the research field of political science, and fails to pay attention to a large number of political phenomena produced by the country and many factors affecting the political activities of the country. These criticisms have left traditionalist politics in the cold. Until the 1960s, post-behaviorism politics rose, and traditionalism politics once again attracted the attention of political scholars, such as the revival of political philosophy and the affirmation of normative theory.