HERITAGE

By: Phoenix

Political Science is the systematic study of and reflection upon politics. Politics usually describes the processes by which people and institutions exercise and resist power. Political processes are used to formulate policies, influence individuals and institutions, and organize societies.
Many political scientists study how governments use politics. But political scientists also study politics in other contexts, such as how politics affects the economy, how ordinary people think and act in relation to politics, and how politics influences organizations outside of government. The emphasis upon government and power distinguishes political science from other social sciences, although political scientists share an interest with economists in studying relations between the government and economy, and with sociologists in considering relations between social structures in general and political structures in particular. Political scientists attempt to explain and understand recurrent patterns in politics rather than specific political events.
Political science is important because politics is important. During the 20th century, tens of millions of people were murdered by regimes devoted to particular political ideologies. All peoples’ lives are affected in many ways by what governments do or choose not to do, and by the power structures that exist in society.
The specific ideas of political scientists are only occasionally implemented by policy makers. Political scientists usually influence the world in more indirect ways: by educating citizens and political leaders, by contributing to debates on political issues, and by encouraging different ways of looking at the world. The study of political science is motivated by the need to understand the sources and consequences of political stability and revolution, of repression and liberty, of equality and inequality, of war and peace, of democracy and dictatorship. The study of political science suggests that the world of politics is complex and cannot be reorganized by simple ideological schemes without unintended consequences.
Most professional political scientists work in colleges and universities where they teach, conduct research, and write articles and books related to their specific research interests. Political scientists also work in policy-related think tanks, privately funded organizations that conduct and publicize research on public policy issues.
Political science is organized into several fields, each representing a major subject area of teaching and research in colleges and universities. These fields include comparative politics, American politics, international relations, political theory, public administration, public policy, and political behavior.
Political scientists are divided on the extent to which their discipline should follow methods used by traditional sciences. Some argue that political science should follow the research model of natural sciences such as physics and chemistry, which use quantitative analysis and repeated observation to establish scientific laws. These political scientists aim to discover general laws of politics, although few such laws have been discovered. One such law is Duverger’s law, which asserts that countries that conduct elections through proportional representation (such as Germany and the Netherlands) will have many political parties, while countries that decide elections on the basis of a simple plurality of votes (such as Britain and the United States) will have only two primary parties. But Duverger’s law is itself faced with a need to explain many contradictory real-world cases—for example, why India does not have a two-party system.
Political scientists who attempt to develop scientific laws favor quantitative methods or explanations of politics that are derived from deductions based upon simple assumptions about human behavior. All else is regarded as transient, unfounded, and unreliable.
Political scientists who oppose this scientific emphasis argue that politics is highly complex and variable, continually changing as new events unfold, and driven by unpredictable human actions. They argue that any rigidly scientific approach can only yield trivial results. They point out that their more scientific colleagues have not had much success in developing general laws of political science, let alone making predictions based on such laws. For example, not one political scientist predicted the breakup of the Soviet bloc in 1989 and end of the Soviet Union. Political scientists who favor less scientific approaches tend to pursue single-case studies—for example, a study of the presidency of Ronald W. Reagan—or examine specific social problems.
The systematic study of politics dates to ancient times. The oldest legal and administrative code that survives in its entirety is the Code of Hammurabi, inscribed on a pillar of black basalt. Hammurabi, a Babylonian king who ruled from 1792 to 1750 BC, described the laws in his code as enabling “stable government and good rule.” Hammurabi’s justification indicates that the reasoning behind the code was political as well as legal.
The first political scientist known to analyze information systematically was the Greek philosopher Aristotle. He compared the constitutions of Greek city-states during the 4th century BC and generalized about the political consequences of the different constitutional systems. The study of political science flourished in ancient Greece during the 5th and 4th centuries bc, in the Roman republic from 509 to 31 bc, in the republics of Italy during the 15th and 16th centuries, amid the political turmoil of 17th century Britain, and during the French and American revolutions toward the end of the 18th century. While the specific methods employed by political scientists throughout the centuries varied tremendously, their common concerns have been to provide useful advice to rulers and to organize governments more effectively.
During the 1980s and 1990s increasing numbers of political scientists studied democracy and its development in societies that had formerly been ruled by authoritarian governments. The wave of democratization that followed the end of the Cold War inspired political theorists to develop new models of democracy, and political scientists to study the role of citizenship and citizen education in democratic governments.
Marxists challenged conventional political science through most of the 20th century, charging that the discipline overlooked oppressive political relationships in the capitalist economy. According to Marxists, formal democracy is a sham because the dominant economic class in society always controls the government.
Since 1970 feminism has influenced most fields of political science. Feminist critics contend that both governments and political science have been organized along male-dominated lines and have ignored and repressed the perspective of women. Political scientists’ responses to feminism have ranged from attempts to study the political behavior of women more closely to the development of comprehensive feminist political philosophies.

SOURCE: John Dryzek
Microsoft Encarta 2004