Introduction to Political Science

Introduction to Political Science

• Political science is the academic study of power, its sources, its use, and its distribution within political systems.
• It includes: the study of politics and governance in an empirical model, power relations in society, and political behavior.
• Political science investigates the acquisition, demonstration, and sustainability of political power.
• Politics concerns power and resource distribution and can be viewed both as a science and an art of government, determining who gets what, when, and how in society.
• Politics involves power and influence, manifesting in situations involving power, society, hierarchy, and decision-making.
• Politics centers on: civil government, human conflicts, and the sources and exercise of power.

What is political science?

• Political science is the systematic study of the state and government.

Etymology

• “Politics”, originates from the Greek word "politika," which was inspired by Aristotle's observations on the affairs of the city.
• "Political" is derived from the Greek word "polis", referring to a city or sovereign state.
• "Science" comes from the Latin word "scire" which means "to know".

The study of politics provides

• Basic knowledge about the state, including its organization and activities.
• Knowledge about the association of human beings into the body politic or in a political community.
• An understanding of the state, its principles, and ideals.
• Insight into the involvement of people in the political community.
• Understanding of the relations between individuals, groups, and the state, as well as relations between states.

Political science is concerned with

• The relationships between citizens and groups, individuals and groups and the government, groups and the state, and relations between states
• Political theory encompasses doctrines related to the form, behavior, and purposes of the state.

Learning Outcomes

• Studying political science helps discover principles for public affairs and the operations of government.
• Findings and conclusions can be applied for practical use.
• Political science education includes the concerns of officials, citizens, nationality, citizenship, and the understanding of government.

Development

• In the 3rd century BCE, Aristotle was the first scholar to systematically study how different forms of government lead to different political outcomes in Ancient Greece.
• Aristotle wrote "Politics," now considered the first systematic work on political affairs and he is considered the father of political science.
• Main topics of discussion include: state existence, roles of political institutions, type of western government, power, voter's role and a state as structures to govern society.
• Later on, Niccolo Machiavelli wrote “The Prince”, a handbook for rulers in the art of government, and consider the father of modern political Science.

Institutional History

• The first chair in History and Political Science was established at Columbia University in New York in 1857.
• The first institutions and departments with the name 'political science' were: Ecole Libre des Sciences Politiques (Paris, 1871), School of Political Science (Columbia University, 1880), and London School of Economics and Political Science (1895).
• The American Political Science Association was the first professional association of political scientists, established in 1903.
• The first modern political scientists included Max Weber (Germany), Robert Michels (Italy), Lord Bryce (Britain), and Woodrow Wilson (USA) and they focused primarily on political institutions.

Changes in political focus

• Early political science described government institutions and politics.
• Mid-20th century political science shifted to 'political behavior', due to failed democracies and methods for studying behavior.
• The Weimar Republic in Germany was initially considered an ideal democratic constitution.
• Analyzing its collapse, along with the rise of fascism and communism, revealed that citizens' and elites' attitudes and behavior were as important as governmental institutions.
• Political scientists developed representative opinion polls to study behavior however before the 1930s, elections were usually predicted by newspapers.
• George Gallup correctly predicted Roosevelt's landslide victory using a smaller, representative survey and Gallup become famous, as the pioneer of opinion polls.
• Between the 1940s and 1960s, new methods, opinion polls and a new understanding of political behavior led to a 'behavioral revolution'.
• However for most of the second half of the 20th century, political science was divided between various separate theoretical and methodological approaches.

Schools of Political Science

• One group of scholars drew on economics to explain the behavior of voters, parties, interest groups, legislators, assuming the actors were driven by self-interest and this was known as 'rational choice approach'.
• Some leading scholars in this approach: Kenneth Arrow, Anthony Downs, William Riker, Mancur Olson, William Niskanen and Kenneth Shepsle.

Reintegrating the Schools

• In the 1980s and early 1990s these distinct schools of thought began to communicate with each other.
• Rational choice theorists realized their models needed to understand institutional rules and procedures and similarly, sociological tradition scholars realized culture and society shape political institutions.
• Political scientists began to focus again on the function of political institutions, under "institutionalism".
• By the end of the 1990s, political science came full circle, being back to where it started with political institutions.
• The contemporary scientists of politics has the development of a solid body of theoretical ideas, research methods, and empirical observations, which makes up the toolkit

Topics that contemporary political science focuses on

• Empirical regularities
• Political behaviour refers to beliefs and actions of political actors like citizens, voters, party leaders, and ministers and these actors operate under certain political preferences.
• Political behavior takes place within political institutions.
• Policy choices can be restricted for political actors by institutional constraints.
• Political outcomes cover diverse issues such as specific policies, broader political phenomena, or ethnic harmony.
• Political science focuses on that political behavior and institutions interact to produce political outcomes.

Comparative Politics

• Comparative Politics: The study of more than one system of government and/or politics.
• The field studies: varied government systems, administrative systems, the effectiveness of channels of communication and compares country constitutions, violence, coups, etc.

International Relations

• International Relations studies: interactions between states, anything cross-border, international institutions, Organizations and others.
• Paradigm shift: Global warming, terrorism, piracy, due to globalization, innovation in the field of information, communication and technologies.
• Some issues once considered national: international recognition, terrorism
• Study: Multidisciplinary or Metadisciplinary approaches.
• During the time attention had shifted to possible ways of averting any eventuality of a world war.

Public Administration

• The government in action through government policy and feedback. It is manned by bureaucrats, not politicians.
• Some scholars categorize it as a fourth arm of the government.
• Analyze effectiveness of systems of administration, analyse the systems based on the political systems

Political Theory

• Political theory involves: political concepts, anaylzing applications, how public policies apply, overlaps other fields, and dwells on the best forms of governance.

Public Policy

• Public Policy: laws and regulatory measures enforced by the government.
• Presumed to be for the wellbeing of society, draws parallels and improves where necessary.
• Political science overlaps with other fields including international relations in various ways.

Political Behaviour

• Political behavior is a field about the connection between politics and individuals.
• Politics: Requires knowing the reactions of people towards politics to earn their favour.
• This plays a major role during electioneering, informs party makers, civil society, and people's feelings.

Concepts of State and Government

• Definition of the State: organized people in definite territory, persons, occupying a territory with government and habitual obedience.
• The State is: A community of persons, occupying a territory with government and enjoying freedom.

Origin of States:

• Divine right theory is based on: the divine creation of the State.
• Necessity or force theory is based on: great warriors imposing will.
• Paternalistic theory is based on: enlargement of a family.
• Social contract theory is based on: the people agreeing to live under one society through a compact to form society and organize government.

Elements of the state:

• Territory, with a physical location with sacrosanct borders and security, full rights with 3 forces. Russia is the size of 6,592,770 square miles, against Vatican City's area of 0.17 miles, territorial integrity.
• Sovereignty, or having no superiors which means that the state exercises full control in domestic affairs without external influence and has political equality.
• Population, with a population size that was immaterial. China has 1,330,044,600 people vs. Vatican's 1,000 people.
• Government, or the bureaucratic agent of the state which is divided in three arms; the Executive, Legislature and the Judiciary.

Nation

• A nation may: be a group of people who share an origin or are a community of people, a language or in one territory or living under a single government which is not necessarily a single government

Forms of Government

• Democracy: Rule by all.
• Autocracy: Rule by one.
• Oligarchy: Rule by few.

Democracy I

• It comes from two Greek words: Demos and Kratos, meaning people and rule by Democracy: permits ppl 2 live in safety, ppl can be both governors and governed.

Democracy II

• Forms; Direct, Representative Methods; Parliamentary, Presidential Systems; Unitary, Federal

Forms of democracy:-

• Direct democracy is where: citizens makes the majority vote and directly control governance and applied in Athens.
• Representative Democracy also referred to as a republic, is based on elected leaders who overlap the making and enforcing of law and was first used in Roman Republic

Forms of Representative democracy:-

• Voters elect members to a Parliament (Legislature), with a model; British Parliament Parliamentary House of Commons or House of Lords.
• Political Party choose the Prime Minister Presidential Democracy, where voters elect Legislators and the president where Legislative writes , enforced and is interpreted

Characteristics of Democracy

• Equality is democracy's key characteristic and citizens must be able to: 1) Formulate preferences 2) Signify preferences to their fellow citizens, the government and 3) Have equal weight of preferences
• Must be a system based on: Government works in the interest of and open election to give people and parties a chance
• Institutional guarantees: freedom, right/eligibility, information, election

The Soil of Democracy

• Certain conditions favor, countries participation, stable economy, educated and volunteering/independant
• Accepting values like democratic liberty
• Republic must be a system with: Democracy is impossible with many people, where representatives make and enforce

“Democratic Republic is:"

• Nations calling itself neither republic or democracy
• Prone to be for dictatorships term: Vietnam, Korean

B: Autocracy:

• Auto: one.
• Kracie: ruling by power. -A single, single-elite holds absolute power and authority by inheritance/force.
• There's 3 Autocracy like, Dictatorships, Absolute Monarchies, and Constitutional Monarchies Dictatorship

Dictatorship

• Consist mainly by controlling the governance by group or 1 person • A boss always takes control, they never admit that they are dictators Example: Kim Jong II Monarchy: Ruled by leaders may either, limited by the law to take all that's the absolute

Constitutional Monarchy :

• Authority over shared, and a example of this: Britain and the England

Oligarchy

• It's type where: there's a small group power and wealth

theocracy

• A system in which state ruled by a group of religious
• The Vatican, Iran

Influence of Geography:-

• There's mainly of governments.

A: Unitary:-

• The authority. The central or unlimited most government's.

8: Federal:

• The power with regional/state governments

C, Confederate

• The alliance of is separate and independent
• Articles

• Constitutional

III, Introduction/Characteristics of Democracy

• The freedom to expression; Freedom to vote ; Ability run for the officer

• Having freedom votes for the office

• Free and fair elections; • Right

-III Waves of democracy :-

• wave of modernization the people -The 23 August in Germany

Models of Democracy

• Combined
• Test factors
• Classical

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Explore the foundations of political science, from its institutionalist roots to its modern interdisciplinary form. Learn about key figures like Weber and Wilson and the discipline's focus on power, governance, and the state. Discover the meaning of 'polis' in the context of political study.