Page 12 - DLIS407_INFORMATION AND LITERATURE SURVEY IN SOCIAL SCIENCES

Unit 1: Introduction to Social Science Disciplines

1.3 Political Science Notes

Political science is a social discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics.
It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems
and political behaviour. Political scientists "see themselves engaged in revealing the relationships
underlying political events and conditions. And form these revelations they attempt to construct
general principles about the way the world of politics works." Political science intersects with other
fields; including anthropology, public policy, national politics, economics, international relations,
relations comparative politics, psychology, sociology, history, law, and political theory. Although it
was codified in the 19th century, when all the social science were established, political science has
ancient roots; indeed, it originated almost 2,500 years ago with the works of Plato and Aristotle.
Political science is commonly divided into three distinct sub-disciplines which together constitute the
field: political philosophy, comparative political and international relations. Political philosophy is
the reasoning for an absolute normative government, laws and similar questions and their distinctive
characteristics. Comparative politics is the science of comparison and teaching of different types of
constitution, political actors, legislature and associated fields, all of them from an intrastate perspective.
International relations deals with the interaction between nation-states as well as intergovernmental
and transnational organizations.
Political science is methodologically diverse and appropriates many methods originating in social
research. Approaches include positivism, interpretivism, rational choice theory, behavioralism,
structuralism, post-structuralism, realism, institutionalism, and pluralism. Political science, as one of
the social science, uses methods and techniques that relate to the kinds of inquiries sought: primary
sources such as historical documents and official records, secondary sources such as scholarly journal
articles, survey research, statistical analysis, case and model building.
"As a discipline" political science, possibly like the social science as a whole, "lives on the fault line
between the two cultures in the academy, the science and the humanities." Thus, in some American
colleges where there is no separate School or College of Arts and Science per se, political science may
be a separate department housed as part of a division or school of humanities or liberal Arts. Whereas
classical political philosophy is primarily defined by a concern for Hellenic and Enlightenment thought,
political scientists are also marked by a great concern for "modernity" and the contemporary nation
state, along with the study of classical thought, and as such share a greater deal of terminology with
sociologists (e.g structure and agency).

Self Assessment

Fill in the blanks:
7. …………..is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government
and politics.
8. …………..is the reasoning for an absolute normative government, laws and similar questions
and their distinctive characteristics.
9. ……………….deals with the interaction between nation-states as well as intergovernmental
and transnational organizations.

1.4 Summary

y Social Sciences include various disciplines dealing with human life, human behaviour, social
groups and social institutions.
y They consist of Anthropology, Behaviour Science, Commerce, Demography, Economics,

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