Political
Science
The modern word
‘political’ derives from the Greek politikos,
‘of, or pertaining to, the polis’. (The Greek term polis will be translated here as
‘city-state’. It is also translated as ‘city’ or ‘polis’, or simply anglicized
as ‘polis’. City-states like Athens and Sparta
Contemplative science
(including physics and metaphysics) is concerned with truth or knowledge for
its own sake; practical science with good action; and productive science with
making useful or beautiful objects. Politics is a practical science, since it
is concerned with the noble action or happiness of the citizens (although it
resembles a productive science in that it seeks to create, preserve, and reform
political systems). Aristotle thus understands politics as a normative or
prescriptive discipline rather than as a purely empirical or descriptive
inquiry.
Political science is the study of governments, public
policies and political processes, systems, and political behavior. Political
science subfields include political theory, political philosophy, political
ideology, political economy, policy studies and analysis, comparative
politics, international relations, and a host of related fields.
Some intellect persons
defections are given below
According to
Professor Gilchrist “Political science deals state and
government”
According
to Lass well “Polities is the study of influence and influential”
According to
Catlin “Political science deals with activities of man, society and
their
different socials roles”
According to
Paul Janet “political science is that part of social science which
treats
of the foundation of the state and principles of
the
government”
According to
Professor Gettel “Political science is the study of the state I the
past present and future”
According to
Garish “Political science deal with the origin, development
purpose
and all other political problems of the state”
Subject matter of political science
There is some subject matter on
political science. The main two feature subject matter on political science.
i) Speculative
on political science
1)
Political thought:
Comparative
study of political thought and institutions of East Asian countries emphasizing
problems of modernization and interaction of economic, cultural, and social
forces.
2)
Political theory
Political Theory (PT), peer-reviewed and
published bi-monthly, serves as the leading forum for the development and
exchange of political ideas. Broad in scope and international in
coverage, PT publishes articles on political theory from a wide range
of philosophical, ideological and methodological perspectives. Articles address
contemporary and historical political thought, normative and cultural theory,
the history of ideas, and critical assessments of current work. The journal
encourages essays that address pressing political and ethical issues or events.
3)
Political philosophy
Political
philosophy is the study of such topics
as politics, liberty, justice, property, rights, law,
and the enforcement of a legal code by authority: what they are,
why (or even if) they are needed, what, if anything, makes a government
legitimate, what rights and freedoms it should protect and why, what form it
should take and why, what the law is, and what duties citizens owe to a
legitimate government, if any, and when it may be legitimately overthrown, if
ever. In a vernacular sense, the term "political philosophy"
often refers to a general view, or specific ethic, political belief or
attitude, about politics that does not necessarily belong to the technical
discipline of philosophy.
4)
Political
ideas:
This is the
formal institutional structure and processes of a society by which policies are
developed and implemented in the form of law, binding on all. The government
has legislative (law making), executive (law enforcing) and judicial (law
interpreting) functions, with decision power exercised by a majority within
Parliament.
ii) Institutional/ structural on
political science
1)
Government
Government
usually operates under the restrictive nature of a constitution whether it be
written or not. A constitution often puts limitations on government, telling
the incumbent government what it can do but, more importantly, what it cannot
do. Within Britain , the Law
Lords in the House of Lords have the final say in interpreting our
unwritten constitution though the European
Courts are likely to play a more
increased role in this aspect as Europe
becomes more integrated.
The word
"government" refers to the party in power in the House of Commons and
also to individuals who have specific power within certain fields - such as the
government of transport, the government of education etc.
Another aspect
of government in a democracy is
that everybody accepts what a democratically elected government wishes to
introduce. As a majority of the electorate voted in the government, it is
accepted convention that its policies are accepted by the people on whose
behalf they run the country. For the period of time the government is in power,
the way the country is run is effectively handed over to the government by the
people. In recent years, there have been successful challenges to government
policy outside of the law courts : the Poll Tax was abandoned because of actual
physical challenges to it by street demonstrations; the issue of bannig fox
hunting in Britain, may or may not be pushed through because of street
demonstrations.
There has been a
trend in recent years for unpopular bills to be challenged by the public - one
could argue that this is pure democracy if
the number of people involved represented a majority of the people in the
country who believed that the government had got it wrong.
2)
Political
parties:
A political party is a political
organization that
typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own
candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties
participate in electoral
campaigns and
educational outreach or protest actions. Parties often espouse an expressed ideology or
vision bolstered by a written platform with
specific goals, forming a coalition among
disparate interests.
3)
Pressure
group
A pressure
group can be described as an organized group that
does not put up candidates for election, but seeks
to influence government policy or legislation. They can also be described as
‘interest groups’, ‘lobby groups’ or ‘protest groups’. Some people avoid using
the term ‘pressure group’ as it can inadvertently be interpreted as meaning the
groups use actual pressure to achieve their aims, which does not necessarily
happen. In Britain ,
the number of political parties is very small, whereas the number of pressure
groups runs into thousands; as the membership of political parties has fallen,
that of pressure groups has increased.
4)
International laws:
International legal principles concerning international legal personality,
jurisdiction over persons and places, diplomatic and consular relations,
treaties, war, and relations at sea and in space.
5)
International
organization:
Nature,
structure, and functioning of international organizations, with a focus on the United
Nations system, as a means to maintain international
peace and security, and promote international and social cooperation.
6)
Constitution:
An
analysis of how the U.S. Supreme Court interprets the Constitution, focusing on
the issues of how much power the U.S. Congress, president, and courts should have
and how the U.S.
7)
Public opinion:
A study of the origins, content, and impact of citizen attitudes
on the U.S.
8)
Central
and local administration:
Supervised field
experience in a public agency or an agency involving public affairs; readings
and an analytical paper integrate theory with experience in public administration
and politics. May be repeated for credit; no more than six credits may be
counted toward the major.
9)
International
relation:
Perspectives
on the World: Social Sciences-Content an
examination of contemporary patterns of international interaction and their
historic roots with attention to competing theoretical perspectives. Topics
studied include foreign policy, international law and organization, and
international political economy.
10) International Relations Theories and Methods :
Various approaches to analyzing international politics including
rational choice, game theory, and regime
theory in addition to realism, liberalism, and Marxism.
11) Internship
in Public Affairs:
Supervised field experience in a public agency or an agency
involving public affairs; readings and an analytical paper integrate theory with
experience in public administration and politics. May be repeated for credit;
no more than six credits may be counted toward the major.
12) Seminar in Political Science:
The options are
designed to have students take challenging
courses outside their majors that will contribute to their understanding of the
law as a discipline. Students interested in pursuing this minor should contact
one of the advisers listed above to obtain information regarding approved
options for their majors.
CONCLUSION
The modern citizenship is a
legacy of 2500 years of political thinking, popular pressures and educational
preparations. The Greek city-states of Plato and Aristotle, Imperial Rome, renaissance,
industrialization, French revolution, and process of decolonization provided
the most power emerging forces for the development and consolidation of the
citizenship idea. At the turn of the century, we are perhaps in another period
of comparable political creativity. While citizenship has been legally extended
to a very large extent, a large majority of mankind has to live under regimes
which have no idea of citizenship. Again how to remove poverty in societies marred
by inequalities of wealth, property, income and ownership; the questions posed
by unprecedented over-population and relentless destruction of nature are the
problems which pose a great threat to citizenship. Hence the direction in which
citizenship will evolve in the coming generations will depend on the extent to
which mankind will be able to come to grips with these problems.