political science
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What is political science?
Political science is the systematic study of governance through empirical and scientific methods. It examines the state, its institutions, and societal, cultural, and psychological factors influencing government and the body politic.
Political science focuses on power at international, national, and local levels and uses varied approaches, as reflected in its organization in some countries under the plural form sciences politiques or ciencias politicas. Although it overlaps with political philosophy, political science focuses on institutions and behavior, favoring descriptive approaches based on empirical observations.
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What is the main purpose of government?
The main purpose of government is to secure the rights to life and liberty, ensuring the safety of citizens and preserving the country from external threats. It also aims to create conditions for people to pursue happiness, though this is considered a private matter beyond governmental control.
Modern governments actively guide social and economic development, with responsibilities ranging from economic behavior in command economies to business regulation in social democracies. Even in free-market economies, some government regulation is accepted.
Additional key functions include supervising conflicts, providing essential goods and services, and protecting the political and social rights of citizens. Governments also focus on self-preservation by maintaining armed forces, conducting intelligence activities, and fostering ideological attachment and national unity through civic education.
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What is democracy and how does it work?
Democracy is a system of government where laws, policies, leadership, and major actions of a state are decided directly or indirectly by the "people". The word democracy comes from the Greek words dēmos (“people”) and kratos (“rule”).
Because direct democracy is impractical in most modern societies, democratic government is conducted through elected representatives accountable to the electorate. Elections enable voters to choose leaders and hold them responsible for their actions. Democracy works best when governments have incentives to pursue encompassing policies that benefit the citizenry as a whole.
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What are some types of political systems found around the world?
Political systems vary widely, each with unique structures and principles. Democracy is a system where eligible citizens participate in decisions, often through elected representatives. In contrast, a monarchy vests power in a single ruler, often through hereditary succession, while an oligarchy is rule by a few, typically a privileged group. A dictatorship concentrates absolute power in one person or a small group, often maintained through force. These systems differ in how power is distributed, decisions are made, and rights are protected.
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How do elections allow citizens to participate in political decisions?
Elections are vital to democratic governance, bridging the gap between citizens and their elected leaders. Because direct democracy is often impractical in modern societies, elections allow citizens to choose representatives and hold them accountable. Regular elections ensure leaders address public concerns, fostering political education and responsiveness to the public will. This process reinforces political stability and legitimacy, integrating citizens and confirming their worth. By voting, people constitutionally voice their opinions, influencing their communities and country.
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What role do political parties play in shaping government policies?
Political parties play a crucial role in shaping government policies by participating in the exercise of political power, either by forming a government or functioning as the opposition. They offer citizens a clear indication of each candidate's political orientation, which helps them make informed choices.
Parties synthesize diverse opinions into a representative stance and ensure some correspondence between promises and performance through party discipline. While they can be prone to manipulation by inner circles of leaders, political parties are essential for representative democracy in large industrialized societies. These parties consist of political elites that are open to all with political ambition.
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political science, the systematic study of governance by the application of empirical and generally scientific methods of analysis. As traditionally defined and studied, political science examines the state and its organs and institutions. The contemporary discipline, however, is considerably broader than this, encompassing studies of all the societal, cultural, and psychological factors that mutually influence the operation of government and the body politic.
Although political science borrows heavily from the other social sciences, it is distinguished from them by its focus on power—defined as the ability of one political actor to get another actor to do what it wants—at the international, national, and local levels. Political science is generally used in the singular, but in French and Spanish the plural (sciences politiques and ciencias políticas, respectively) is used, perhaps a reflection of the discipline’s eclectic nature. Although political science overlaps considerably with political philosophy, the two fields are distinct. Political philosophy is concerned primarily with political ideas and values, such as rights, justice, freedom, and political obligation (whether people should or should not obey political authority); it is normative in its approach (i.e., it is concerned with what ought to be rather than with what is) and rationalistic in its method. In contrast, political science studies institutions and behaviour, favours the descriptive over the normative, and develops theories or draws conclusions based on empirical observations, which are expressed in quantitative terms where possible.
Although political science, like all modern sciences, involves empirical investigation, it generally does not produce precise measurements and predictions. This has led some scholars to question whether the discipline can be accurately described as a science. However, if the term science applies to any body of systematically organized knowledge based on facts ascertained by empirical methods and described by as much measurement as the material allows, then political science is a science, like the other social disciplines. In the 1960s the American historian of science Thomas S. Kuhn argued that political science was “pre-paradigmatic,” not yet having developed basic research paradigms, such as the periodic table that defines chemistry. It is likely that political science never will develop a single, universal paradigm or theory, and attempts to do so have seldom lasted more than a generation, making political science a discipline of many trends but few classics.
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Fields and subfields
Modern university departments of political science (alternatively called government or politics at some institutions) are often divided into several fields, each of which contains various subfields.
- Domestic politics is generally the most common field of study; its subfields include public opinion, elections, national government, and state, local, or regional government.
- Comparative politics focuses on politics within countries (often grouped into world regions) and analyzes similarities and differences between countries.
- International relations considers the political relationships and interactions between countries, including the causes of war, the formation of foreign policy, international political economy, and the structures that increase or decrease the policy options available to governments. International relations is organized as a separate department in some universities.
- Political theory includes classical political philosophy and contemporary theoretical perspectives (e.g., constructivism, critical theory, and postmodernism).
- Public administration studies the role of the bureaucracy. It is the field most oriented toward practical applications within political science and is often organized as a separate department that prepares students for careers in the civil service.
- Public law studies constitutions, legal systems, civil rights, and criminal justice (now increasingly its own discipline).
- Public policy examines the passage and implementation of all types of government policies, particularly those related to civil rights, defense, health, education, economic growth, urban renewal, regional development, and environmental protection.