Political analysis and development studies

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Abstract
Political science is not nowadays making a substantial, cohesive and distinctive contribution to development studies as it once did. The main reason appears to be a growing inter‐disciplinarity in the study of development, such that political analysis is being absorbed into more far‐reaching conceptualisations. This absorption has had many salutary intellectual effects. Nevertheless inter‐disciplinarity can incur significant analytical costs. The article argues that in both conventional and radical studies it remains important to comprehend the ‘specificity of the political’. To that end there is much work still to be done in development studies.