Political Science: Scope and Methods

• Political science is the study of politics and power from domestic, international, and comparative perspectives.
• It entails understanding political ideas, ideologies, institutions, policies, processes, and behavior, as well as groups, classes, government, diplomacy, law, strategy, and war.
• Political science employs diverse methodologies, i.e., it uses humanistic and scientific perspectives and tools and several substantive theories.

Core aspects

• Political science is methodologically diverse, although recent years have witnessed an increase in the use of scientific methods.
• Subfields include political theory, public policy, national politics, international relations, and comparative politics.
• Political science is frequently used in conjunction with other fields, including economics, law, sociology, history, philosophy, geography, psychology, and anthropology.

History

• Political science is an old discipline.
• A precursor to it could be traced back to the works of moral philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle, as well as those of earlier thinkers such as Confucius and Kautilya.
• Political science only began to emerge as a distinct and independent discipline in the mid-19th century.
• A major impetus was positivism.

Contemporary political science

• Contemporary political scientists study a wide range of phenomena.
• These investigations can be approached using any of the numerous subfields of the discipline.

Political theory

• Political theory is concerned with the foundations of political community and institutions.
• It focuses on the major ideas and debates found in classic and contemporary political writings.
• Political theory is studied in universities and is often connected with moral philosophy.

Public policy

• Public policy is concerned with the assessment, explanation, and evaluation of public policy.
• It's common to see political science used by think tanks and governments.

National politics

• National politics focuses on public opinion, elections, and policymaking at the national level.
• It entails studying topics like political institutions (e.g., legislatures, executives, judiciaries), political behavior (e.g., voting, political participation), and political processes (e.g., lobbying, interest group politics).

Comparative politics

• Comparative politics is the study of domestic politics around the world.
• It entails comparing and contrasting political systems, institutions, and behaviors across countries.
• It employs either qualitative or quantitative methodologies to investigate trends and develop generalisations or hypotheses regarding politics.

International relations

• International relations is the study of relations between countries, including the roles of states, intergovernmental organizations , international non-governmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, and multinational corporations.
• It encompasses topics such as diplomacy, war, international security, international political economy, and international organizations.

Methodology

• Social science, like political science, is concerned with developing statements of general tendencies, or probabilities, concerning political phenomena.
• Political scientists seek to explain why things are the way they are, based on objective analysis.
• Modern political science is usually divided between positivists pursuing essentially an epistemological approach and interpretivists who are more inclined to subjectivism.
• Positivists believe that the study of politics should be objective and value-free.
• Interpretivists believe that the study of politics should be subjective and value-laden.

Prominent research methods

• Behavioralism seeks to explain political behavior by examining individual and group actions.
• Case studies involve in-depth analysis of specific cases or events.
• Comparative analysis compares and contrasts political systems, institutions, or behaviors across different countries or regions.
• Formal theory uses mathematical and logical models to study political phenomena.
• Game theory uses models of strategic interaction to analyze political decision-making.
• Surveys are used to collect data on political attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors.
• Statistical analysis is used to analyze quantitative data on political phenomena.

Subfields

• A large number of political scientists work in the fields of political philosophy, which is concerned with the study of classic and modern political thinkers and ideas.
• Public administration, which is the study of bureaucracy and public policy implementation, is a field that attracts a lot of attention from political scientists.
• Public law, which is concerned with the interpretation and application of laws, is another field that political scientists study.

Relationship with other disciplines

• Political science is closely related to other disciplines, including sociology, economics, history, anthropology, and psychology.
• Political science also informs related fields such as public policy, public administration, political economy, and political communication.