Transcultural Comparative Political Theory
The Transcultural Comparative Political Theory is a young field of research within the political science that the comparative analysis of political ideas and concepts in different cultures has taken on the task. The main focus is on transcultural interactions and entanglement processes.
background
In 1997, Fred Dallmayr established Comparative Political Theory (CPT) in the USA, a research field that deals with the comparative analysis of political ideas from different world regions and cultures against the background of globalization . For Dallmayr, today's global markets and advances in communication represent a challenge for the classic canon of political theory . Comparative Political Theory questions concepts such as Eurocentrism and hopes that the resulting decentration will provide new insights. As a reaction to the research efforts in the USA, the research group Transcultural Comparative Political Theory was established in September 2011 under the umbrella of the German Association for Political Science (DVPW) in Göttingen. This created a basis within German political science for scientists who deal with political thinking that transcends the western canon.
aims
According to their own statement, the aim is to expand the western canon by collecting information about the political way of thinking in non-western societies and by examining transcultural interactions against the background of various aspects of political thought. The term political thought is understood to mean the current political theories and discourses of scientists, political actors, political philosophy and the history of political ideas . In contrast to other research directions, the scientists pursue an open approach, which is why the research field can be described as broad and dynamic. This can also be seen in the combination of various research approaches, such as intercultural philosophy and post-colonial theory with classical political theory and the history of ideas content and methods. Cooperation with regional sciences is also an integral part, as language barriers and foreign social contexts have been identified as difficulties. The connection between the two approaches - transcultural and comparative - is justified by the fact that "a comparison without taking into account the interweaving dimension is epistemically and historically naive, while the depiction of interweaving without a comparative element is politically blind to existing differences". The simple comparison of two cultures would therefore always be characterized by an ethnocentrism . Representatives of this new research direction criticize political theory teaching for its "usual canon [...], which marginalizes perspectives that will be of increasing importance for the subject in the future."
application
As an example of transcultural comparative political theory, Sophia Schubert cites the question of whether democracy is currently perceived by citizens around the world as similar or dissimilar. Her research is based on data from the World Values Surveys and shows that there is a widespread basic conception of democracy, even if there are differences.
criticism
Scientists see the current openness and diversity of the still young transcultural comparative political theory at the same time as its attractiveness and the danger of disintegration. The objects of analysis are often the great theoretical traditions, the thinking of individual authors or current discussions. However, the analysis objects have not yet been explicitly named and justified. With regard to the analysis methods, the significance of the comparison and the possible integration and combination of quantitative and qualitative methods must be clarified. With regard to the interest in knowledge, the question remains open as to whether it is mainly a criticism of the Eurocentrism of political theory, an expansion of the Western canon or an attempt to reform comparative political science .
literature
- Sybille de la Rosa, Sophia Schubert, Holger Zapf 2016: Introduction, in: dies. (Ed.) Transcultural Political Theory. An introduction . Wiesbaden: Springer, pp. 1-11.
- Fred Dallmayr: Comparative Political Theory. What is it and what is it good for? ( PDF ), accessed on February 11, 2017
- Fred Dallmayr 2004: Beyond Monologue: For a Comparative Political Theory , in: Perspectives on Politics, 2 (2), 249-257
- DVPW: Read more on the Project ( online ), accessed on February 11, 2017
- Andrew March 2009: What is Comparative Political Theory? In: The Review of Politics, 71 (4), pp. 531-565
- Sophia Schubert 2012: What significance / s does' democracy have worldwide? Current findings from empirical political cultural research as an example of a variant of comparative transcultural political theory, in: Holger Zapf (Ed.): Non-western political thinking. Trans- and intercultural political theory and history of ideas, Wiesbaden: Springer, 185–212
- Ulrike Spohn 2011: The DVPW thematic group “Transcultural Comparative Political Theory” has started work> , in: Theoryblog.de ( online ), accessed on February 11, 2017