What exactly is Political Science?

All these may directly and indirectly affect our lives as citizens.
A major in political science prepares students for law school, government employment on the local, state and national levels, foreign service, teaching, business, journalism, or leadership in civic and political activities.

All these may directly and indirectly affect our lives as citizens.
A major in political science prepares students for law school, government employment on the local, state and national levels, foreign service, teaching, business, journalism, or leadership in civic and political activities.

The definition that can be found in Van Dale's dictionary reads as follows: ‘study of political phenomena'. Not very clearly put. When it comes to ‘politics' the very same dictionary states that it involves ‘a whole system of fundamental principles set down by an administrative body', the ‘policy of a ruling government', ‘how law is enforced' or ‘the whole governing body'.

We do not learn much from these references either. You soon discover that politics and political science involve far more than what is seen on the surface.  For example, power and the distribution of wealth, justice and all of the other issues that do not make it onto the political agenda. Political science goes beyond the politics carried out in a national parliament.

It should be evident that politics can be defined in both a broad and narrow sense. Narrow: The politics carried out in a national parliament and a bit of foreign politics. Broad: All types of power relationships that exist in human interaction. Political scientists are specialized in power and different types of power relationships. Political scientists study politics in a broad sense of the word, because politics is everywhere.

Wherever you find people living together, you will find power relations: a certain individual or organization sees to it that another individual or organization carries out a certain action that it otherwise would not carry out. The first individual has power. In order to make this clearer, just imagine that you are sitting on a sofa together with, for instance, your partner. You both would like to watch tv, but you would like to watch a programme on Politics whereas your husband or wife would rather watch a game show.

Political science, the systematic study of governance by the application of empirical and generally scientific methods of analysis.

Which channel it will be is a decision that is based on the result of a power process. Your partner, might say: ‘Ok, we'll watch your programme, cosy wosy with just the two of us on the sofa, but then you'll have to spend the whole evening on this same sofa'. The choice might be made quickly and you will learn a lot of trivial information watching the game show. Hence, power is everywhere, and because politics is about power, politics is everywhere.

Political science, the systematic study of governance by the application of empirical and generally scientific methods of analysis.

They also investigate the power relationships between countries and international organizations (the study of International Relations), and how the power relationships should be (the study of Political Philosophy). These power relationships can be found at various levels.

As traditionally defined and studied, political science examines the state and its organs and institutions.

At the local level, the national level, the European level, the global level and perhaps in the future at an inter-galactic level. Politics is something that is not only done in Washington or Brussels but also in companies, in the sports club, in the pub and even in the case of couples, there is power and politics going on in the relationship. Political scientists pose many different questions, and they try to answer each of these questions in a scientific way.

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.

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.

The word ‘doctrine' sounds indeed as if it were a religion or as if a set of rules had been indiscriminately applied. Science begins where doubt sets in concerning rules or firm convictions. Hence: Be critical about the explanations given pertaining to political phenomena.

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.

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.

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.

political science, like all modern sciences, involves empirical investigation, it generally does not produce precise measurements and predictions.

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.