Overview and Definition of Political Science
Political science is one branch of the social science that studies the state, politics, and government.
Political science deals extensively with the analysis of political systems, the theoretical and practical applications to politics, and the examination of political behavior.
The Greek thinker, Aristotle, defined political science as the study of the state. Political science is not a standalone field and it intersects many other branches like sociology, economics, history, anthropology, public policy among others.
Political scientists are much sought after these days because of the changing landscape of politics across the world and since the society wants to understand how political world works, they need someone to explain nuances of the political economy. Any casual perusal of the newspapers and the television channel reveals that political scientists are at the forefront of debates and discussions for their knowledge and expertise.
Scope of Political Science
The scope of political science is vast and experts have divided the field of political science into five sub-disciplines that are political theory, public administration, comparative politics, international relations, and public law. It needs to be noted that these sub-disciplines cover the entire gamut of the modern political economy and provide the basis for the study and understanding of how the global political economy works.
The study of the matters concerning the allocation and distribution as well as the transfer of power is one of the main preoccupation of political scientists. The success or otherwise of the governance structures is gauged by political scientists who examine the multifaceted and multilayered factors at work that contribute to good or bad governance.
The scope of political scientists has now been broadened to include the realm of the study of the democratic elections across the world. In other words, with the explosion in the political system all over the world, political scientists, and their scope of study has been considerably enhanced.
Nature and Scope of political science. Political Science is known by several names is “politics” (Aristotle),‘political science’ (William Godwin & Mary Wollstonecraft), ‘science of state’ (R.G.Gettel), and ‘science of polities’ (Sir.Fredrick Pollock). However, it lacks aprecisenomenclature. Jellinek remarks that is on science which is so much in need of a good terminology as is political science. Lowell holds that the study of politics ‘lacks the first essentials of modern science, a nomenclature incomprehensible to educate men’.
The English word ‘politics’ originates from there Greek world like ‘polis’ (City state), ‘polity’ (Government) and ‘politeia’ (Constitution). Thus, in the original Greek sense, politics is a study of the city state and is administration in practical as well as philosophical terms. The term ‘politics’ has been taken by the lexicons and the writers of text books both as a science and an art. The original Greek meaning of ‘politics’ became outdated ever since Hobbes identified it with ‘power’. Hence, Gilchrist maintain that the term ‘politics’, when used in its original Greek sense, is unobjectionable, but modern usage has given it a new meaning, it is useless as a scientific term.
The Importance of Political Science
The importance of political science lise in the fact that all of us live within political systems and we are effected by the changes in the global political economy. With the advent of globalization, there has been a concomitant rise in the interest taken by the people of the world in understanding the political systems of other countries. Hence, political scientists become valued and important as they provide the lens through which we can understand the global political economy. There are the universities that provide graduate and higher-level degrees in political science and in recent years, because of the renewed interest in political science as a field of study, there are many takers for these courses.
This article sets the context for the subsequent discussion on the various aspects of political science and its relevance to the modern political economy.
Association in Paris in 1948 to delineate its scope. It classified the same in to four zones, namely, Political Theory, Political Institution, Political Dynamics and International Relations. We many attempt to describe its scope as follows.
1. Political Theory 2. Political Philosophy 3. Political Institution 4. Political Dynamics
5. Public Administration 6. International Relations and International Law 7. Relation between the State and the Individual
Thus, the scope of Political Science has been expanding in recent times. The social life of man has a direct or indirect influence on his political life. Political Science enters any sphere of life which has political implication.
Modern Political Science in the era of post-behaviouralism deals with both empirical facts and value preferences. It is a combination of both science and philosophy. Hence it is a dynamic social science and its scope is ever expanding.