The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics (206 page)

Term coined by Sir William Petty (1623–87) to denote vital and economic statistics, of which he was the first systematic gatherer.

 
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The study of the behaviour of political actors such as voters, lobbyists, and politicians. It was a banner under which sociologists, survey researchers, and other empiricists gathered in the 1950s to distinguish themselves from those who studied constitutions, philosophy, or history. Much of the best work in politics studies behaviour as well as—not instead of—one or more of these other approaches.

 
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See
political economy
.

 
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Term, originally derisive, but accepted by some of its targets, for an influential movement on US campuses beginning in the late 1980s. Appealing to the principle of
affirmative action
and to various understandings of ‘multiculturalism’, the movement for political correctness sought changes in undergraduate curricula to emphasize the roles of women, non-white people, and homosexuals in history and culture, and attacked the domination of ‘Western’ culture by dead white European males. It promoted anti-sexist and anti-racist speech and behaviour codes, which opponents denounced as illiberal. By the early 1990s political correctness was in retreat, pursued notably by David Mamet's denunciation of it in his play
Oleanna
.

 
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The attitudes, beliefs, and values which underpin the operation of a particular political system. These were seen as including knowledge and skills about the operation of the political system, positive and negative emotional feelings towards it, and evaluative judgements about the system. Particular regional, ethnic, or other groups within a political system with their own distinctive sets of values, attitudes, and beliefs were referred to as subcultures. A greater awareness developed over time in the literature of the importance of studying élite political cultures, given that the influence of individuals in the political process varies significantly. One of the principal objections to political culture is that it can be used as a ‘garbage can variable’ to explain anything which cannot be accounted for in any other way. Hence, whilst appearing to explain everything, it actually explains very little. Cultural explanations can, nevertheless, assist the understanding of how reactions to political events and developments may vary in different societies, while the analysis of subcultures remains important in understanding tensions and cleavages within particular societies.
WG 

 
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Broadly, the development of the institutions, attitudes, and values which form the political power system of a society. Political development has been defined in a number of ways that reflect the passage of societies' and analysts' preoccupations.
One formulation dwells on the emergence of national sovereignty and the integrity of the state as an actor, able to exact respect and uphold commitments in the international system. Other accounts draw attention to the domestic attributes of constitutional order and political stability, attained through the formation of a settled framework of government, reliable procedures to ensure leadership succession, and a consolidation of the territorial penetration and the administrative reach of government institutions. This conspectus is due in part to the fascination exerted by nation-building and state-building in the new states of Africa and Asia in the 1960s. However, it also bears some relation to earlier studies of legal-rational authority, as an endowment of coercive powers and the ability to command obedience. Connected with this is the establishment of
bureaucracy
, which displays such internal characteristics as division of labour and functional specialization, hierarchy and chain of command, and recruitment of officers on the basis of merit.
Thus, political development enhances the capacity of the state to mobilize and to allocate resources, and to process policy inputs into implementable outputs. Such development serves the purposes of problem-solving, adapting to changes in the environment of government and of the political system, and realizing national goals. The notion of good governance, which is fashionable in North-South dialogues, also focuses on efficient, effective, and non-corrupt public administration.
Marxists may choose to define political development in advanced industrial societies in terms of the growth of the class consciousness and political organization of the proletariat, leading, ultimately, to the overthrow of capitalism and the approach of communism. A more widely held (though ethnocentric) view of political development in the West is progress towards liberal democracy. That involves accountable government, and opportunities for popular participation (also seen by some as an aspect of modernization, rather than development), through the exercise of freedoms of association and expression.
The linkages between economic progress and political development are the subject of much debate. There has been a tendency in the past to see the former as a begetter, or a facilitator, of the latter, through the agency of such intervening variables as the spread of literacy and modern communications, and the rise of plural interest groups. A concentration of the political resources based on traditional authority, personality, and military might comes to be counterbalanced by the more widely dispersed accumulation of financial power and economic strength in society. The emergence of cross-cutting
cleavages
, due in part to greater economic specialization and differentiation, moderates social conflict.
Following the collapse of one-party states and socialism in Central and Eastern Europe, the introduction of good government has been portrayed as a condition for economic development to take place on a sustainable basis in the developing countries. Good government is publicly accountable, embraces the rule of law, and respects
human rights
. Good government may not be a necessary condition, and is certainly not a sufficient condition, for economic progress. Nevertheless the claim is made that it is less likely than other forms of government to appropriate the country's economic surplus for purposes that are inimical to the public good. Furthermore good government will guarantee the people freedom, including in their role as economic actors and entrepreneurs. Freedom provides space for innovation and leaves intact the personal incentive to create wealth.
The enduring problem of political development for some divided societies, especially in the
Third World
, remains how to combine political stability with the political pluralism which good government entails. For some other countries, there is a more transitional problem, of how to safeguard the introduction of democracy in an environment of drastic economic restructuring ( see
structural adjustment
). Such restructuring can engender popular dissatisfaction and breed political extremism. In other words, political development is not only a matter of institutional change, it is also about attitudes and the
political culture
.
In none of the definitions should political development be seen as an irreversible process; not all countries are experiencing it, and some endure periods of political decline and decay, while a few suffer terminal political breakdown, like the former USSR.
PBI