Evaluation of the Legal Formal Approach

The legal formal approach was the only one whose status approached being a dominant paradigm in Political Science. The rise and fall of this approach teaches that:

It was a paradigm. This paradigm was close the parent discipline of

Political Science. Political Science demanded uniqueness of

research, not only for constitutional, juridical issues but also for organization-institutional

■ The rise and fall of the approach is understandable:A. By what preceded it.B. By the intellectual trends of Political ScienceC. By developments in the surrounding society.D. By the political and ideological facts of life.

■ The fall of the paradigm took place in stages.

■ The legal-formal approach still exists:A. As one of the approaches of Political Science in certain

universities in Israel and internationally.B. As dominant in countries such as India in which socio-political

developments are similar to those which existed in the West dozens of years ago.

Retrospectively, this approach, as a dominant paradigm has almost no significance. However, as an additional aspect of politics, legal-formal questions are suitable for serious research:

A. These questions are decisive facts of life in many political

regime B. The express values and ideals of societies in a most

structured way. C. Obedience/non-obedience to legal authorities- behavior which must be designed.

D. The rules of obedience in certain cases, and non- obedience in others, corresponding to the type of organization and general political culture of the society require serious research.

E. The legal systems affect individuals and groups in situations of political competition.

In its downfall, this approach was replaced by the group approach which stressed the importance of pressure groups, lobbies and other similar groups.

Following this approach came the elite approach which centered on the idea of the asymmetry of political life on both the national and the international levels.