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Political Science: Politics

Political science is a social science that deals with systems of governance and political behavior. It comprises numerous subfields including comparative politics, international relations, and political theory. Political science uses diverse methods from other social sciences and draws upon fields like economics, law, sociology, and history. It seeks to understand the allocation and transfer of power in decision making through institutions like governments and policies. Political scientists provide frameworks to analyze issues and can work in government, politics, think tanks, and private enterprises. The discipline aims to advance both positive descriptions of politics and normative policy recommendations.

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68 views4 pages

Political Science: Politics

Political science is a social science that deals with systems of governance and political behavior. It comprises numerous subfields including comparative politics, international relations, and political theory. Political science uses diverse methods from other social sciences and draws upon fields like economics, law, sociology, and history. It seeks to understand the allocation and transfer of power in decision making through institutions like governments and policies. Political scientists provide frameworks to analyze issues and can work in government, politics, think tanks, and private enterprises. The discipline aims to advance both positive descriptions of politics and normative policy recommendations.

Uploaded by

Lawrence Decano
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Political science

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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"Political Analysis" redirects here. For the academic journal, see Political Analysis (journal).

"Political Science" redirects here. For other uses, see Political Science (disambiguation).

"Political Studies" redirects here. For the academic journal, see Political Studies (journal).

Not to be confused with Politicization of science.

Part of  a series on

Politics

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Politics Portal
 v
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 e

Political science, occasionally called politology, is a social science which deals with


systems of governance, and the analysis of political activities, political thoughts,
associated constitutions and political behavior. [1]
Political science comprises numerous subfields, including comparative politics, political
economy, international relations, political theory, public administration, public policy,
and political methodology. Furthermore, political science is related to, and draws upon,
the fields
of economics, law, sociology, history, philosophy, geography, psychology/psychiatry, an
thropology and neurosciences.
Comparative politics is the science of comparison and teaching of different types
of constitutions, political actors, legislature and associated fields, all of them from an
intrastate perspective. International relations deals with the interaction between nation-
states as well as intergovernmental and transnational organizations. Political theory is
more concerned with contributions of various classical and contemporary thinkers and
philosophers.
Political science is methodologically diverse and appropriates many methods originating
in psychology, social research and cognitive neuroscience. Approaches
include positivism, interpretivism, rational choice
theory, behavioralism, structuralism, post-structuralism, realism, institutionalism, and
pluralism. Political science, as one of the social sciences, uses methods and techniques
that relate to the kinds of inquiries sought: primary sources such as historical
documents and official records, secondary sources such as scholarly journal
articles, survey research, statistical analysis, case studies, experimental research, and
model building.

Contents

 1Overview
o 1.1Behavioral revolution and new institutionalism
o 1.2Anticipating of crises
o 1.3Soviet Union
o 1.4Recent developments
 2Education
o 2.1Cognate fields
 3Research methods
 4History
 5See also
 6References
 7Further reading
 8External links
o 8.1Library guides

Overview[edit]
Political science is a social study concerning the allocation and transfer
of power in decision making, the roles and systems of governance
including governments and international organizations, political behavior and public
policies. They measure the success of governance and specific policies by examining
many factors, including stability, justice, material wealth, peace and public health. Some
political scientists seek to advance positive (attempt to describe how things are, as
opposed to how they should be) theses by analysing politics. Others
advance normative theses, by making specific policy recommendations.
Political scientists provide the frameworks from which journalists, special interest
groups, politicians, and the electorate analyse issues. According to Chaturvedy,
Political scientists may serve as advisers to specific politicians, or even run for office as
politicians themselves. Political scientists can be found working in governments, in
political parties or as civil servants. They may be involved with non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) or political movements. In a variety of capacities, people
educated and trained in political science can add value and expertise to corporations.
Private enterprises such as think tanks, research institutes, polling and public
relations firms often employ political scientists.[2]
In the United States, political scientists known as "Americanists" look at a variety of data
including constitutional development, elections, public opinion, and public policy such
as Social Security reform, foreign policy, US Congressional committees, and the US
Supreme Court — to name only a few issues.
Because political science is essentially a study of human behavior, in all aspects
of politics, observations in controlled environments are often challenging to reproduce or
duplicate, though experimental methods are increasingly common (see experimental
political science).[3] Citing this difficulty, former American Political Science
Association President Lawrence Lowell once said "We are limited by the impossibility of
experiment. Politics is an observational, not an experimental science." [4] Because of this,
political scientists have historically observed political elites, institutions, and individual or
group behavior in order to identify patterns, draw generalizations, and build theories of
politics.
Like all social sciences, political science faces the difficulty of observing human actors
that can only be partially observed and who have the capacity for making conscious
choices unlike other subjects such as non-human organisms in biology or inanimate
objects as in physics. Despite the complexities, contemporary political science has
progressed by adopting a variety of methods and theoretical approaches to
understanding politics and methodological pluralism is a defining feature of
contemporary political science.
The advent of political science as a university discipline was marked by the creation of
university departments and chairs with the title of political science arising in the late 19th
century. In fact, the designation "political scientist" is typically for those with a doctorate
in the field, but can also apply to those with a master's in the subject. [5] Integrating
political studies of the past into a unified discipline is ongoing, and the history of political
science has provided a rich field for the growth of both normative and positive political
science, with each part of the discipline sharing some historical predecessors. The
American Political Science Association and the American Political Science Review were
founded in 1903 and 1906, respectively, in an effort to distinguish the study of politics
from economics and other social phenomena.

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