Week 1a - Politics and Political Science 2024-2025 PDF

WHAT IS POLITICS AND WHY POLITICAL SCIENCE? Introduction to Politics PROF. MAT THEW LOVELESS UNIVERSITY OF B OLOGNA 2024-2025  Lecture Outline  The Course Outline  What is Politics?  Political Science oThe Scientific Method oTheory  The Chall...

WHAT IS POLITICS AND WHY POLITICAL SCIENCE? Introduction to Politics PROF. MAT THEW LOVELESS UNIVERSITY OF B OLOGNA 2024-2025  Lecture Outline  The Course Outline  What is Politics?  Political Science oThe Scientific Method oTheory  The Challenges of studying Politics  Course Information Office: via dei Bersaglieri 19 (Bologna) Email: [email protected] Office hours: by appointment [Thursday 13-15] Electronic Support: Virtuale: https://virtuale.unibo.it/ The final mark has 2 parts: 50% of the final grade is the average 8 assignments. 50% of the final grade is a final exam covering material from all parts of the course.  The Course This course is designed to introduce you to the core debates in Political Science centered on the two key elements: institutions and individuals The readings are important but the class is more important. Format of the course: ◦ Lecture 1: ◦ [Monday] 14:30-16:30: AULA MAGNA (Via Andreatta 4) Via Belmeloro, 10-12 ◦ ‘Seminar’ (or ‘Lecture 2’): ◦ [Thursday] 13-15: AULA MAGNA (Via Andreatta 4) Via Belmeloro, 10-12 ◦ Aim for more activity and question-based lecture  What is Politics? Big Question - depends on who’s asking. 1. A way to make decisions 2. Power (and the authority to wield power) 3. A joke 4. Everything The politics of high school, work, social networks…  What is Politics? 1. A Way To Make Decisions Politics is the contest of differing ways to organize ourselves The search for a mechanism to resolve problems Collective problems rather than individual ones  What is Politics? 1. A Way To Make Decisions A collective action mechanism for solving collective problems. The questions are therefore: What is the best way? From what authority? What are the boundaries of politics?  What is Politics? 2. Power ◦Politics is about outcomes: The ability to distribute the resources ◦Robert Dahl (1961) power is when “A has power over B to the extent that he can get B to do something that he would not otherwise do.” ◦Or, power is controlling “the dominant values and the political myths, rituals, and institutional practices which tend to favour the vested interests of one or more groups, relative to others” (Bachrach and Baratz 1962, 950). ◦In 1963, Harold Lasswell: politics is ‘who gets what, when and how’ ◦Some battles are for literal life and death  What is Politics? 2. Power From what authority (to wield power)? Who holds the ability to distribute the resources? If we can assume a defined community and (some form of) a common good (or worldview), progress - in the name of politics - is to resolve conflict without bonking you on the head with a stick. Negotiation and compromise vs. Domination  What is Politics? 3. A joke 4. The very opposite: Everything ◦What is not politics? ◦What is (still) not political?  What is Politics? 4. Everything Why do we consider some issues political - rather than practical - problems? ◦Climate change ◦Famine/Starvation ◦Inequality ◦…  What is Politics? Big Question: 1. A way to make decisions 2. Power (and the authority to wield power) 3. A joke 4. Everything Given all of this, do we think of Politics as something noble and purposeful? ◦ Why or why not? What is Political Science? Should we study it? Can we study politics? If so, can we study it scientifically? Scientific Approach in All PS Fields International Relations Comparative Politics Political Theory Political Methodology Area specialization (i.e. ‘American politics’).  What is Science? It is a means to understand the world. At the core is the assumption that the world is ultimately knowable and that we can converge on that knowledge through the application of an agreed upon and rigorous methodology. The Scientific Method is an objective and replicable analysis of data which results in evidence which can be used to assess proposed explanations for a relationship and whether we can export the resultant explanation to other similar or related phenomena. So what? One (Big) Reason: A lot of what we know about the world is discovered - and often explained - in the language of empirical and scientific studies. ◦e.g. Voting: A, B, & C and X, Y, & Z  Voting ◦e.g. Conflict: D, E, & F and R, S, & T  Conflict ◦Why let other people explain the world to you? More ‘So what?’ ◦Be in the Big Game ◦e.g.: Address Big Burning Questions ◦Influence Outcomes ◦e.g.: Evidence-based Policymaking ◦To be Taken Seriously ◦I think, I feel, I believe  I can demonstrate  What’s wrong with Common Sense? The first time someone sees the moon. It might not jump to our minds that it is a round rock that is in a near perfect orbit around this planet – which is also round – and is held in place by the same invisible force that keeps you from falling into outer space. ◦While common sense appeals to logic (inasmuch as it makes sense) and may even be empirical as it does not contradict actual observation, there is a limit to the validity of common sense. ◦Without the means of scientific investigation, common sense is more likely to be subject to the errors of inaccurate observation, overgeneralization, selective observations, and illogical reasoning. SM is good in that it is formal: ‘Disciplining our thought’  The Scientific Method Or what makes research scientific? 1. A transparent and replicable description of the research design and analysis 2. An attempt to identify and explain the relationship under investigation 3. The ability to make appropriate inferences from the results of the research  Principle Number 1 The scientific method requires a transparent and replicable description of the research design and analysis. The Scientific Method is not a tool. A large part of scientific study is to provide an accurate, comprehensive, and objective description the analysis so that others can replicate the work.  Principle Number 1 Because choices must be made, scientific study must be a public procedure; that is, transparent and replicable. e.g.: ‘peer-review’ ◦The results of research are nearly secondary to how you arrived at them. Thus, the Scientific Method doesn’t describe what we study, it describes how we study it.  Principle Number 1 Objectivity an attempt to eliminate or minimize the influence of our own prejudices, biases, etc… Non-normative vs. Normative ◦Political, social, and economic phenomena often represent an event as well as the significance of that event. ◦e.g.: Political Participation ◦Politics is inherently value-laden.  Principle Number 2 The Scientific Method attempts to identify, isolate, and explain the relationship under investigation. In order to do this, we use: ONE: Control for other explanations We are challenged not only to determine whether this relationship exists but also whether it continues to exist when we consider all of the other possible explanations  Principle Number 2 The Scientific Method attempts to identify, isolate, and explain the relationship under investigation. In order to do this, we use: ONE: Control for other explanations TWO: Theory to explain Theory in the Social Sciences Theories are necessarily simplified models of reality ◦“All models are wrong, but some models are useful” ◦All models are simplifications of the universe as they must necessarily be. ◦e.g.: Models of planes, trains, or automobiles Theories are not right or wrong, they are weak or strong. For Emphasis and Clarity: Causation and Theory X Y Theo A Conclusion on the Use of Theory Therefore, a theory’s validity is determined through observation tested against competing theories which – over time - make an explanation more probable or more ‘correct’ than others. ◦IOW, which ones are more ‘more likely’  Principle Number 3 The Scientific Method seeks to derive and make proper inferences from the results of our research. One of the elements of the scientific research methodology is the ability to be confident about our findings It is important to understand the difference between a statement of certainty and a statement that we have a great deal of  The Scientific Study of Politics is Crucial Scientific Method is a methodology to accumulate (and discard) information in order to understand an observable and ultimately knowable world. ◦We seek probabilistic, general knowledge about political and social phenomena.  The Challenges of studying Politics Key and current challenges to PS’s scientific pursuits: ONE: ‘Know-ability’ Not necessarily anti-science but that is not excluded The continuum between fully knowable reality and rendering the world unknowable Causality debate TWO: Explanation versus prediction THREE: Objectivity is TOUGH  The Challenges of studying Politics ONE: ‘Know-ability’ ◦A great deal of what Social Scientists aim to study simply cannot be subjected to the controls needed to make confident causal claims. Thus, a continuum exists between: ◦Evidence accumulate to theories but the actual causal mechanism is never directly assessed. Versus: ◦Causation can be identified by the application of the correct techniques (research design, sufficient data, analytical tools). Many phenomena have potentially many correct answers.  The Challenges of studying Politics TWO: Explanation versus prediction Data Science: Predictive models: techniques aim to produce accurate predictions of Y given X. ◦Predictive models are only models of association, not models of causation. In PS, applications revolve around estimation: estimating an effect of X on Y ◦in order to accumulate evidence aligned with a causal theoretical model and thus make causal inferences.  The Challenges of studying Politics THREE: Objectivity is TOUGH Objectivity Politics can include intensity, apathy, passion, enthusiasm, disdain, unexpectedness, division, joy, and madness of ‘real life’ or politics. How neutrally can we investigate inequality, war, poverty, bias, class, corruption, ethnic conflict, gender disparity? And there are fiercely competing visions of what constitutes a ‘better’ or ‘worse’ way of  Final Slide ◦Questions?