CPT essay
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Dec 6, 2023
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Joshua St.Juste-Ellis
POT 2000: Global CPT
Dr. Rebecca LeMoine
February 14
th
, 2023
Reflection Paper #1
What is Global Comparative Political Theory (CPT)? This question has been the essence of the
first section of this course along with all the readings and ideas that have been presented. To my
understanding, the Global CPT model allows us to compare non-western political alternatives
through cultural, empirical, and historical aspects to potentially create an “ideal” model for
global politics. In their 2014 article, political scientists Williams & Warren state that CPT helps
to provide the architecture for translation to enable self-constituting publics to form across
boundaries of linguistic and cultural difference. CPT itself has many different aspects, however,
the two aspects that interest me the most would be the Normative and Interpretive approaches of
CPT. Rather than argue for either approach, I believe that the two are connected and should both
be implemented to achieve a foundation of political knowledge of questions and issues to create
an objective morality.
Normative and Interpretative CPT are two sides of the same coin, however, while similar in a
certain aspect they are ideologically different. Normative CPT has the goal of achieving some
sort of moral end via combating Western hegemony (Godrej), fostering dialogue between
historically unequal parties (Dallmayr), and by justificatory means as to why we should practice
certain ideals (March). Through each of these avenues, Normative CPT seeks to create a
prescriptive objective moral system that is universally accepted on a global scale.
In
comparison, Interpretative CPT seeks the advancement of political knowledge and issues,
without having a prescriptive objective. From a historical view, this is the ideology that the
“great” political thinkers of the past have adopted. By having a scholarly approach to politics,
these political minds have been able to understand and decode the true nature of politics by
comparing different concepts, discourses, and ideologies to one another (Freeden & Vincent).
These two sides of CPT pique my interest because of the potential they both have if dually
implemented. As a student, I see immense value in historical and scholastic aspects when it
comes to political science, which is one of the aims of Interpretive CPT. Also, as a human being,
I see where the need for dialog between unequal parties is necessary to create a moral end on a
global scale, regardless of culture or “equality,” which is one of the aims of Normative CPT. As
we view history, we notice that no matter what era we look at, there is a party that is unequal to
another. For example, in the Western world, established scholars usually live and study within
prestigious institutions and engage in discourse with their peers, disregarding the “non-
scholarly.” A strictly scholastic approach biases an individual’s thinking about the problems
present in a culture’s politics to only a scholar’s viewpoint, however, the foundation that it
provides for understanding politics is vital. The real results would occur when these scholars act
and establish discourse with citizens, for insight into the transcendent experiences of the two
parties.
Although I agree that Interpretive and Normative CPT are linked together and provide an
excellent framework for establishing a truly objective morality, there are challenges to achieving
this goal. One major challenge is the idea that as we make political science more widely
accessible how do we prevent overgeneralization and loss of complexity? Certain topics cannot
be simplified into more general terms due to their complexity and the complexity of culture
itself. When these complex political ideas are overgeneralized, this leads to dangerous
assumptions and confusing interpretations that can lead to division within a country’s politics.
Many political scientists already believe that true objectivity is one of the major problems with
CPT, stating that it cannot be achived. Another major issue that is highlighted is the denigration
of Western political thought. A reading by Freeden and Vincent states that Western political
thought is seen as a “noxious and polluting phenomenon from which decent societies ought to be
protected from.” Freeden and Vincent highlight that Western political thought tends to be
excluded in CPT as if it’s toxic, however, they argue that this is harmful as it strays from the idea
of decentering political thought from the Western canon and more so excludes it from CPT.
Exclusion of the Western canon is not one of the aims of CPT, using other foreign political
canons and understanding them while subjecting them to comparative politics is the goal of
Global CPT.
In conclusion, while there are many critiques and issues with both Normative and Interpretive
CPT, I especially resonate with them both as a student and as a human being, seeing that one
cannot be without the other. I realize of course that this world is not perfect, and neither are its
citizens, however, in this modern day and age information is readily available to almost any and
everyone to study. While everyone may want to engage in political discourse, without any
foundation of knowledge their viewpoint is extremely biased toward personal feelings, and
likewise, if a person simply relies on their academia, they lose their understanding of the human
experience.
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References
Dallmayr, Fred. “Beyond Monologue: For a Comparative Political Theory.”
Perspectives on
Politics
, vol. 2, no. 2, 2004, pp. 249–57.
JSTOR
,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/3688438
.
Accessed 14 Feb. 2023.
Freeden, Michael & Vincent, Andrew (eds.) (2013). Comparative political thought: theorizing
practices. New York: Routledge
Godrej, Farah. “Response to ‘What Is Comparative Political Theory?’”
The Review of Politics
,
vol. 71, no. 4, 2009, pp. 567–82.
JSTOR
,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/25655864. Accessed
14 Feb. 2023
.
March, Andrew F. “What Is Comparative Political Theory?”
The Review of Politics
, vol. 71, no.
4, Cambridge UP (CUP), 2009, pp. 531–65.
https://doi.org/10.1017/s0034670509990672
.
Williams, M. S., & Warren, M. E. (2014). A Democratic Case for Comparative Political Theory.
Political Theory, 42(1), 26–57.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0090591713507934