RELEVANCE OF CONTEMPORARY POLITICAL ANALYSIS

DAVID GODSPOWER

CONTEMPORARY POLITICAL ANALYSIS IS NECESSARY FOR THE UNDERSTANDING OF POLITICAL ISSUES IN ANY SOCIETY. DISCUSS?

ABSTRACT It is an obvious fact that the world today is being plagued by a myriad of political issues that cuts across different spectrum of the world’s society. More obvious is the fact that political scientists have sought to explain the causes of these events and more importantly, prescribe feasible solutions which has been made possible via the tools that have been made use of; referring to political analysis. But the changing dynamics of issues in the 21st century has also compelled political analysts to develop a more suitable means of analyzing political issues, which led to the concept of contemporary political analysis. This write-up shall therefore attempt to examine how contemporary political analysis has been of immense help and importance to the understanding of political issues in this current dispensation. It shall also examine the tools that contemporary political analysis makes use of in the process of analyzing political issues for better and lucid understanding.

Keywords: political, analysis, contemporary, issues/phenomenon. WHAT IS ANALYSIS To chemists, analysis means breaking things down into their constituents parts; to biologists, sorting things into categories; to mathematicians, deriving conclusions from premises, to social scientists, identifying the causes of various kinds of human behaviour; to moral philosophers, showing which actions are good ones. A common thread that runs through all these definitions is the attempt to answer one kind of question or another: what is the nature of this substance? What

species of animals do we have here? What is the solution to this problem? Why did she refuse to vote in the election? Thus, to analyse something means to ask a question; give an answer, and then give the reasons for the answer. WHAT IS POLITICAL ANALYSIS? Political analysis refers to processes, methods and approaches in political science that seek to explain why certain political events occur, how they occur, when they occur and how such events can be controlled. According to Osaghae (1988) political analysis has three main goals: now what is important in politics, i.e. those things that influence or determine the outcome of events.

individually and collectively; and real or true by systematically subjecting our guesses, impressions, popular belief, even rumours, to verification. WHAT IS CONTEMPORARY POLITICAL ANALYSIS? Contemporary political analysis can be defined as new processes, approaches and strategies that guide the political scientists in studying political phenomena. Contemporary political analysis requires adopting new tools, methods, and concepts in dissecting political phenomenon in other to explain why an event occurred, how it occurred, when it occurred and how a political analyst can predict and control political events. In order to fully appreciate the importance of contemporary political analysis in understanding political issues, it would be of tremendous importance to examine the tools it uses in analyzing political issues TOOLS OF CONTEMPORARY POLITICAL ANALYSIS APPROACHES An approach to political inquiry refers to a general strategy for studying political phenomena (Isaak, 1985:185). In other words, approaches are attempts to develop strategies for directing research activities of political scientists. They represent a set of assumptions that structure the research of any political scientists.

Approaches provide political scientists with underlying assumption and organising concepts or set of concepts that orients research and coordinate empirical data from several sources. A list of all the observations, one makes in a day will be useless, unless the observations are selected and organised according to a set of assumptions or an approach. In essence, approaches articulate the basic assumptions that shape political science research. They are tools that are useful in opening the political scientists mind to new concepts, hypothesis and theories.

MODELS Generally, a model is defined as a theoretical construct that represents political processes by a set of variables and a set of logical and/or quantitative relationships between them. Models are simplified frameworks designed to illustrate complex processes, often but not always using mathematical techniques. Models are abstraction of a real-life system used to facilitate understanding and to aid in decision making. In political analysis, models refer to a representation of some phenomenon of the real world made in order to facilitate an understanding of its workings. A model is a simplified and generalized version of real political events, from which the incidental detail, or ‘noise’, has been removed. PARADIGMS The historian of science Thomas Kuhn gave paradigm its contemporary meaning when he adopted the word to refer to the set of practices that define a scientific discipline at any particular period of time. Kuhn himself came to prefer the terms exemplar and normal science, which have more precise philosophical meanings. However in his book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions Kuhn defines a scientific paradigm as:

subject red

. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK. Conceptual frameworks also known as theoretical frameworks are a type of intermediate theory that attempt to connect to all aspects of inquiry (e.g., problem definition, purpose, literature review, methodology, data collection and analysis). Conceptual frameworks can act like maps that give coherence to empirical inquiry. Because conceptual frameworks are potentially so close to empirical inquiry, they take different forms depending upon the research question or problem. Having examined the tools that makes it possible for contemporary political analysis to enable the understanding of political issues. Some points shall be given as to how necessary contemporary political analysis is.  It helps in the identification of political issues that can affect the political system and helps to analyse them using the various tools (mentioned above) of analysis at its disposal  Contemporary political analysis adopts new tools, methods, and concepts in dissecting political phenomenon in other to explain why an event occurred, how it occurred, and suggest feasible solutions to such political phenomenon.  It helps political analysts predict and control political events.  Without contemporary political analysis, contemporary political issues would be tackled using outdated/traditional method of political analysis which would be unable to solve such issues effectively as it is deficient and archaic.  Without contemporary political analysis, political analysts would be unable to give explanations for contemporary political issues not to even think of postulating practicable solutions.  With the various tools at its disposal, contemporary political analysis is better suited and capable of explaining contemporary political phenomenon which the traditional analysis may not be able to do.  Contemporary political analysis also aids in the understanding of the various approaches to the study of politics & political science.  Contemporary political analysis also aids in understanding the various/myriad of theories inherent in the study of politics.

 Contemporary political analysis enables political researchers/scientists in getting valid results in their research work. In summary of all that has been written above, it is conspicuous that the importance of contemporary political analysis in the understanding of political issues cannot be undermined, neither can it be overemphasized. Being a successor of the traditional political analysis, contemporary political analysis has proved its worth over and again in tackling contemporary political issues ranging from elections, democracy, types of government, terrorism etc. It is on this note that I hereby declare beyond all reasonable sceptism that contemporary political analysis based on the reasons and tools given above is crucial and extremely essential in the understanding of contemporary political phenomenon/issues.

REFERENCES

Singer, David J (1989) “The Levels-of-Analysis Problem in International Relations,” in G. John Ikenberry (ed.) American Foreign Policy: Theoretical Essays. New York: Harper Collins Publishers. Rotimi Ajayi & Yinka Fashagba (2012) Introductory Text In Political Science Published By Department Of Political Science & International Relations, Landmark University, Omu-Aran, Kwara State Nigeria. John Ayam (Ed.) (2004) Introduction To Politics Published By Department Of Strategic Studies Covenant University, Canaanland, Ota Ogun State, Nigeria