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As the modern political theory is still in the process of making, its nature cannot be anticipated or predicted with certainty and the required specificity.
However, to make scholars aware of its growth and development, certain trends can be discerned below:
(a) Openness:
Attempts to make a modern political theory feel free to pick up events and phenomena for study from everywhere, even if they belong to different disciplines like sociology, economics, geography etc., all types of persons and groups, various strata, patterns of activity or interrelations, forms of control or influence, psychological motives, etc. Even unconscious mind has come within its import or spread. With the avowed objective to regain an architectonic stature or status of master-science scholars take up topics relevant to the making of a broad political theory.
(b) Empiricism:
Great emphasis is given to knowledge obtained through human senses. All of them look for empirical, positivist, or experience-based understanding, so that it can be tested or verified. Knowledge thus acquired is subjected to observation, measurement techniques, and logical consistency. Observation and description precede explanation.
(c) Methodology and Value Relativism:
Contemporary theory-building tends to be objective and value-neutral. Natural sciences are the main source of this inspiration. A large number of methods, tools and techniques have been borrowed from other physical and social sciences. But it can be said that in due course of time, Political Science would also evolve its own methodology. The researcher isolates his own values and ideology from his studies though ultimate values remain beyond the purview of scientific method, yet secondary values have begun to be empirically studied.
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(d) Close Relation between Research and Theory:
Theory seeks to march side by side with empirical research. Theory suggests new gaps and areas, and research confirms or verifies previous findings, and enriches theory.
(e) Assertion of Autonomy:
The whole community of Political Scientists has begun to assert the autonomy of the subject, and engaged in bringing about coherence, unity, and integrity, mainly through the development of an empirical theory. Easton, Lasswell, Dahl, Cathn all have had been making Herculean efforts to achieve that goal.
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It can be claimed by now that they have been successful in establishing their all-acceptable identity among other social sciences. It can be assumed that Political Science is fast coming up as a basic discipline which can give direction and prove useful to other disciplines. As politics is directly related to control and regulation of society, its originality and predominance emerges automatically.
(f) Interdisciplinism:
As its basic unit of study is either behaviour or interaction imbued with will, which instantaneously is related to almost all aspects of man and society, scholars seek lead from other disciplines. This necessitates an interdisciplinary approach, which means looking at the social phenomenon from the viewpoints of various disciplines.
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However, the task of integrating and accommodating these viewpoints is done by the political scientists who regard their approach as trans-disciplinary or pan-disciplinary. In consequence, the conventional walls of rigid departmentalism are pulled down. It does not mean that trespassers from other disciplines are free to cross over and claim the areas of Political Science as their own. Political Science continues to maintain its identity and crossable boundary lines.
(g) Variety and Heterogeneity:
Theory-making efforts by various scholars at different levels and in unconventional areas have contributed to variety and heterogeneity to Political Science. A large number of models, paradigms, approaches, frames of reference, conceptual schemes, perspectives etc., have enriched the field of political studies. Some of them are either too wide and general or too narrow to be hardly considered more than factual descriptions. However, their ultimate goal is to move towards or contribute to a general theory of politics.
(h) Applied Aspects and Social Relevance:
In the early phase of behaviouralism, the goal of Political Scientists was to make out a ‘pure science’ of politics patterned after natural sciences. They cut off themselves from values, social demands, and problems. With the advent of post-behavioural revolution, they entered the field of applied research, and openly came forward to support societal values. They engaged themselves to find out solutions to emerging crises and problems. Their profession, to a large extent, became socially relevant, as it was in ancient times and recent or modern period.