Post-behavioralism also known as neo-behavioralism (or neo-behaviouralism) was a reaction against the dominance of behavioralist

Behavioralism

Behavioralism is an approach in political science which seeks to provide an objective, quantified approach to explaining and predicting political behavior. It is associated with the rise of the behavioral sciences, modeled after the natural sciences...

 methods in the study of politics. One of the key figures in post-behaviouralist thinking was David Easton

David Easton

David Easton is a Canadian political scientist who was born in Toronto, Ontario, went to the United States in 1943, and is currently Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Irvine.He is a former President of the American Political...

who was originally one of the leading advocates of the "behavioural revolution". Post-behaviouralists claimed that despite the alleged value-neutrality of behaviouralist research it was biased towards the status quo and social preservation rather than social change.

Key tenets

• Post-behaviouralism challenged the idea that academic research had to be value neutral and argued that values should not be neglected.
• Post-behaviouralism claimed that behaviouralisms bias towards observable and measurable phenomena meant that too much emphasis was being placed on easily studied trivial issues at the expensive of more important topics.
• Research should be more relevant to society and intellectuals have a positive role to play in society.

Criticism

Eulau describes post-behaviouralism as a 'near hysterical response to political frustrations engendered by the disconcerting and shocking events of the late sixties and early seventies.

Further reading

• Easton, David (1969) The New Revolution in Political Science, The American Political Science, 63/4: 1051-1061