Political analysis involves both normative and empirical approaches. Which of the following statements is/are correct about the two approaches? 1. Knowledge acquired through the empirical approach is value-loaded. 2. Knowledge acquired through the normative approach is objectively neutral. Select the correct answer using the code given below.
- (a)1 only
- (b)2 only
- (c)Both 1 and 2
- (d)Neither 1 nor 2
Correct — D, neither 1 nor 2. The item has swapped the two descriptions. The empirical approach asks what is the case and builds its knowledge from observation, measurement and testable propositions, so it aims at being value-neutral, not value-loaded — statement 1 attaches the wrong label to it. The normative approach asks what ought to be the case, and it argues from values, standards and ideals such as justice, liberty and equality, so it is by its nature value-laden and cannot be called objectively neutral — statement 2 attaches the wrong label to that one. Each statement carries the correct description of the other approach, so both fall together and the answer is 'Neither 1 nor 2'.
- (a)1 only — Statement 1 is the wrong one to keep — empirical enquiry is the fact-seeking, observation-based side of political analysis and is precisely the one that claims value-neutrality.
- (b)2 only — Statement 2 is equally wrong — normative enquiry is built out of value judgements about what ought to be, so 'objectively neutral' is the one thing it is not.
- (c)Both 1 and 2 — Accepting both means accepting a straight inversion of the two definitions; neither statement survives on its own, so both together certainly do not.
Political analysis is conventionally split along the is/ought line. The normative tradition, which runs from Plato and Aristotle through to modern political philosophy, evaluates institutions and arrangements against ideals and asks what a good political order should look like. The empirical tradition describes and explains political behaviour as it actually occurs, using observation, survey data and testable hypotheses. The mid-twentieth-century behavioural movement in political science pressed hard for the empirical side, insisting that the discipline could and should be value-free and scientific.
Two-statement items of this kind very often work by swapping the labels rather than by inventing anything, and that is what has happened here. Read the pair against a single anchor — empirical means fact-based, normative means value-based — and both statements collapse at once. Worth adding honestly: the claim that empirical enquiry can ever be wholly value-free is itself contested. David Easton's post-behavioural turn, set out in his 1969 presidential address to the American Political Science Association, argued that relevance and action must come before technique and that the discipline's choice of questions is never innocent of values. The exam, however, is testing the textbook contrast, and on that contrast both statements are plainly inverted.
- Empirical analysis asks what is the case; it rests on observation, evidence and verification, and claims value-neutrality.
- Normative analysis asks what ought to be the case; it argues from values, ends and standards, and is therefore value-laden.
- The behavioural movement in political science pushed the discipline towards empirical, testable, value-free enquiry.
- David Easton's post-behaviouralism, announced in his 1969 APSA presidential address, reopened the place of values by putting relevance before technique.
Both statements carry the other approach's description, so neither is correct.
- Being misled by the word 'normative' sounding like 'norm' and therefore like 'standard practice'; in political analysis it means value-prescribing.
- Treating 'empirical' as a synonym for 'true' rather than for 'based on observation'.
- Answering 'both' because both statements sound like textbook sentences — they are textbook sentences, attached to the wrong approaches.
Asked as a two-statement item in which the definitions have been swapped; the same is/ought contrast is also asked as a straight one-liner.
No directly related past PYQ was found.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which one of the following best describes the normative approach in political analysis?
- (a)It explains political behaviour using survey data
- (b)It evaluates political arrangements against ideals such as justice and liberty
- (c)It measures voting patterns across constituencies
- (d)It avoids all value judgements
Answer(b) It evaluates political arrangements against ideals such as justice and liberty — the normative approach is concerned with what ought to be.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The behavioural movement in political science is chiefly associated with which one of the following demands?
- (a)That the discipline return to classical political philosophy
- (b)That political enquiry be empirical, testable and value-free
- (c)That political theory be replaced by constitutional law
- (d)That the state be studied only through its legal texts
Answer(b) That political enquiry be empirical, testable and value-free — behaviouralism sought to make political science scientific in method.