Legal–Institutional Approach

The legal–institutional approach is concerned, first, with the study of political institutions such as the State, legislature, executive, judiciary, office of the prime minister, cabinet, etc. And, second, it deals with the study of constitutional law, legal position of institutions, and concepts with juridical implications, such as legal sovereignty, separation of powers, rule of law,… Continue reading Legal–Institutional Approach

Historical-Analytical Approach

If history is the narrative of past events, a systematic record of what happened, then it is also the story of how political institutions came into being, how they evolved, what principles went into organizing them and how they changed over time. The historical approach attempts to present a historical account of political thought and… Continue reading Historical-Analytical Approach

Traditional Approaches and Methods

Philosophical Approach The philosophical approach, as the name suggests, treats political issues as philosophical concerns. Its main concern is to find out what should be or ought to be the principles, ideals and organizing criteria of political and human society. The Greek thinkers espoused, and enquired into, philosophical issues. In the writings of Plato and Aristotle we find philosophical… Continue reading Traditional Approaches and Methods

Approaches and Methods

Notwithstanding the flexibility with which the two terms, approaches and methods, are employed in the study of the social sciences, particularly political science, they must be differentiated to clearly understand their usage and scope. According to J. C. Charlesworth, we must differentiate ‘between an approach as a method and an approach as an objective’.10 Some approaches… Continue reading Approaches and Methods

Analysis of Recent Studies

While the classical and traditional political studies focused on universal principles and ideals, and legal–institutional arrangements, a new stream of studies in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, focused more on the processes—both formal and informal, which influence and condition the working of political institutions and decision-making in the political arena. An important development… Continue reading Analysis of Recent Studies

Analysis of Traditional Studies

In the traditional approach, the main focus is on exploring the ideals and principles of organizing society, and defining the relationship of the individual and the State in terms of political and public relationships. Plato’s The Republic explores the principles of an ideal State, virtues of the philosopher king, principles of justice and education, and so on. Aristotle’s Politics seeks… Continue reading Analysis of Traditional Studies

Creativity is key

Writing property-based tests requires a lot of creativity from the developer. Finding ways to express the property, generating random data, and being able to assert the expected behavior without knowing the concrete input is not easy. Property-based testing requires more practice than traditional example-based testing: get your hands dirty as soon as possible. I hope… Continue reading Creativity is key

Example-based testing vs. property-based testing

Property-based testing seems much fancier than example-based testing. It also explores the input domain much better. Should we only use property-based testing from now on? In practice, I mix example-based testing and property-based testing. In the testing workflow I propose, I use example-based testing when doing specification-based and structural testing. Example-based tests are naturally simpler… Continue reading Example-based testing vs. property-based testing