Fundamentals of Political Science PDF

POLSCI lol LESSON 1: POLITICS AND POLITICAL SCIENCE  a noble and enlightened activity Politics precisely because of its “public”  Derived from the Greek word “polis” character. meaning “city-state”.  The affairs...

POLSCI lol LESSON 1: POLITICS AND POLITICAL SCIENCE  a noble and enlightened activity Politics precisely because of its “public”  Derived from the Greek word “polis” character. meaning “city-state”.  The affairs of the polis “what concerns Hannah Arendt the polis” or “what concerns the state”.  “Politics is the most important human  Deals with both state and power. activity because it involves interaction  A process whereby individuals, groups, amongst free and equal citizens.” or communities seek to achieve their specific but conflicting goals. Jean Jacques Rousseau  Seeks to allocate resources.  “Only through the direct participation  Includes physical coercion or force by of all citizens in political life can the the government. state be bound to the common good,  The study of structures, institutions, on the ‘general will’.” processes and activities, recognizes the possibility of the use of power. John Stuart Mill  The science and art of government.  “Involvement in public affairs is  The technique of compromise or the educational, in that it promotes the method to capture power and retain it. personal, moral and intellectual  Refers to the actual happenings in development of an individual.” society and in institutions.  Politics as a compromise and consensus. Harold Laswell  Politics as power  Politics is the study of influence and the influential or the study of the Faces of Power: shaping and sharing of power. a) As decision-making  Politics as a public affair. b) As agenda setting c) As thought control David Easton: authoritative allocation of values Karl Marx  Politics encompasses the various  “used politics in a conventional sense to process through which government refer to the apparatus of the state.” respond to pressures from the larger  Views politics as a study of society, in particular by allocating irreconcilable conflicts between the benefits, rewards or penalties. two classes: ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’,  Politics as a public affair. the exploiters and the exploited.  “The emancipation of the have-nots Aristotle: man is by nature a political will come only through a revolution animal (Politics) which would put an end to the  Politics is an ethical activity concerned institution of private property, thus with creating a “just society”. changing the class society to the classless society.  POLSCI lol  Politics, together with law and culture, Political Science are part of a superstructure that is  “Political science as the study of the distinct from the economic base that state". is real foundation of social life.  It studies the state and power in all  Economic is political: class struggle is their aspects. the very heart of politics.  Deals extensively with the analysis of  Political power is rooted in the class political systems, the theoretical and system. practical applications to politics, and  Predicted that class exploitation would the examination of political behavior. be overthrown by a proletarian  It is a field that intersects many other revolution. branches like, sociology, economics, history, anthropology, psychology, Vladimir Lenin public policy among others.  “Politics is the most concentrated form  Concerned with the study of the global of economics.” political economy.  A classical discipline that deals with the Marxists study of political phenomena.  Politics in a capitalist society is  Has a symbiotic relationships between characterized by the exploitation of political science and other sub- the proletariat by the bourgeoise. disciplines of social sciences as they  Believe in class politics will end with the have a common ground in their quest establishment of a classless to understand how political systems communist society which will lead to work and how politics and governance the withering away of the state, also play themselves out. bringing politics in the conventional  The study of governments, public sense to an end. policies and political processes, systems, and political behavior. Radical Feminists  A part of social science which deals  Politics is about oppression and with the foundations of the state and subjugation. the principles of the government.  Holds that society is patriarchal, in  Deals with those aspects of individuals that women are systematically in society which relate to their subordinated and subjected to male activities and organizations devoted to power. seeking of power, resolution of  The need for gender relations to be conflicts and all these, within an overall reordered through a sexual revolution. framework of the rule and law as laid  Look to an end of sexual politics down by the state. achieved through the construction of  The study of shaping and sharing of non-sexist society, in which people will power (Harold J Laswell and Abraha, be valued according to personal worth, Kaplan). rather than on the basis of gender.  Deals with empirical facts and normative issues; deals with empirical  POLSCI lol statements and also evaluates the 3) Ideological power existing political institutions, practices and focuses on how to improve them. Why choose Political Science as a course?  A study of the state in the past,  An excellent major for students present and future; of political interested in learning how groups of organization, political processes and people govern themselves, how policies political functions; of political and are made, and how we can improve political theories. our government policies at the local, state, national, and international levels. Importance of the Study of Political  Prepares students for jobs in many Science: fields, from business to law to a) Study of state and government research. b) Study of associations and institutions  Political science majors qualify for c) Study of national and international many different careers in private and problems public sector organization including d) Study of political behavior of man careers in business, law, local and e) Study of the past, present and future national government, journalism, of development international organizations, and f) Study of the concepts of power, teaching. authority and influence  Political science training also provides valuable preparation for participating Perspectives on Politics: in community organizations, electoral a) Politics as a human activity politics, movements on behalf of b) Politics as art of government specific policies, or even seeking c) Politics as public affairs elected appointed positions in d) Politics as compromise and consensus government. e) Politics as the study of power LESSON 2: APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF Power POLITICS  The ability to determine the behavior 1) Philosophical Tradition of others in accord with one's own  Political philosophy tradition involved a wishes. preoccupation with essentially ethical,  Consists fundamentally of prescriptive or normative question relationships, of subordination, of reflecting a concern with what “should", dominance and submission, of the “ought", or “must" be brought about, governors and the governed and the rather that with what “is". study of politics involves the study of  Plato and Aristotle are usually these relationships. identified as the founding fathers of this tradition. Three Dimensions of Power:  Central theme of Plato's work: an 1) Political power attempt to describe the nature of the 2) Economic power  POLSCI lol ideal society, which in his view took the research methods such as voting form of a benign dictatorship behavior, the behavior of legislators dominated by a class of philosopher and the behavior of municipal kings. politicians and lobbyists.  Normative questions: Why should I  in 1870s, political science courses were obey the state? How should rewards be introduced in the universities of Oxford, distributed? What should the limits of Paris and Columbia and by 1906, the individual freedom be? American Political Science Review was being published. 2) Empirical Tradition  The empirical approach to political 4) Rational Choice Theory analysis is characterized by an  “institutional public choice theory" attempt to offer a dispassionate and  A useful analytical device which may impartial account of political reality. provide insights into the actions of  The approach is descriptive: it seeks to voters, lobbyists, bureaucrats and analyze and explain. politicians, as well as into the behavior  The doctrine of empiricism advanced of states within the international the belief that experience is the only system. basis of a knowledge, and that therefore all hypotheses and theories 5) New Institutionalism should be tested by a process of  Institution: a well established body with observation. a formal role and status; a set of rules  Spread from the seventeenth century that ensure regular and predictable onwards through the work of theorists behavior. such as John Locke and David Hume.  Political institutions are no longer equated with political organizations; as 3) Behavioralism set of rules which guide or constrain  the belief that social theories should be the behavior of individual actors. constructed only on the basis of  Institutions are “embedded" in a observable behavior, providing particular normative and historical quantifiable data for research. context.  gave politics reliably scientific credential because it provided 6) Critical Approaches objective and quantifiable data  New critical perspectives: antipathy against which hypotheses could be towards mainstream thinking. tested.  Feminism, critical theory, green politics,  political analysts like David Easton constructivism, postcolonialism. proclaimed that politics could adopt the methodology of the natural Characteristics: sciences that gave rise to the  Seek to contest the status quo by proliferation of studies in areas best aligning themselves with the interests suited to the use of quantitative of marginalized or oppressed groups.  POLSCI lol  Tried to go beyond the positivism of  Examples: Conservatism, Liberalism, mainstream political science, Communism emphasizing instead the role of consciousness in shaping social 6) Civil Liberties conduct and the political world.  These are natural rights or our ability to do certain things that must be LESSON 3: MAJOR CONCEPTS OF POLITICAL protected from government.; include SCIENCE freedom of speech, thought and 1) Public Goods, the Tragedy of the actions, freedom of religion, the ability Commons and Free Riders to own and possess firearms, and the  These are goods that are available for right to be free from unwarranted and consumed by all individuals. search and seizure. 2) States 7) Civil Rights  Refer to groups of people living under  These are our freedoms to be treated a single governmental system. fairly and equally and these rights must be enforced by government 3) Government rather than protected from it; include  The style and structure of the the right to vote and have that vote institutions that make authoritative count; freedom from discrimination decisions for a society. by law. 4) Power 8) Human Rights  The ability to have one's will carried out  These are rights we have simply despite the resistance of others. because we exist as human beings - they are not granted by any state. Examples: These universal rights are inherent to  Legitimate authority - just and us all, regardless of any other status. appropriate power  Traditional authority - rooted in 9) Representation traditional, long standing beliefs and  It is the idea that even though they practices of a society are not there, the views of all the  Rational-Legal authority people in a society are considered  Charismatic authority when decisions are being made. To be truly represented, they must at least 5) Ideology have been thought about and  A consistent and coherent set of ideas considered. concerning any number of things from religion and morals to theories 10) Political Culture about politics and how states should  It consists of those political ideas, be run. norms, beliefs, and actions in which a group of people generally believes.