Page 20 - DLIS407_INFORMATION AND LITERATURE SURVEY IN SOCIAL SCIENCES

Unit 2: Historical Development of Economics and Political Science Disciplines

the movement argued for a plurality of methodologies and approaches in political science and for Notes
more relevance of the discipline to those outside of it.

Subfields

Most political scientists work broadly in one or more of the following four areas:
y comparative politics, including area studies
y International relations
y Political philosophy
y Public administration
In some political science departments, methodolgy is also classified as a subfield, and some countries
political science professions count scholarship on their national politics as a distinct subfield. In contrast
to this traditional classification, some academic departments organize scholarship into thematic
categories, including political philosophy, political behaior (including public opinion, collective
action, and identity), and political institutions (including legislatures and international organizations).
Political science conferenes and journals often emphasize scholarship in more specific categories. The
American political science Assocition, for example, has 42 organized sections that address various
methods and topics of political inquiry.

Self Assessment

State whether the following statements are True or False:
4. Political economy had been taught as part of the curriculum in ‘moral philosophy’ in UK’s
schools.
5. Aristotle was one of the first Greek thinkers to engage in a logical, although idealistic,
reflection on the nature of the state and politics.
6. According to R.G. Gettel, political science is concerned with the life and acts of man in
relation to organised states.

2.3 Summary

y The relation of political economy or since Marshall’s Principles of Economics (1890) simply
‘economics’ to history and political science is complicated.
y The theoretical issue was joined when in 1884 Richard Ely published ‘Past and Present Political
Economy,’ in Adams’ Johns Hopkins University Studies in History and Political Science
(Furner, 1975: 60).
y The ‘new’ political economy, anchored in concrete history, had a firm grip on reality and it
could show how the state could be used to advance the interests of people in society.
y According to the Oxford English Dictionary, political science refers to that branch of knowledge
concerned with political activity and behaviour.
y Aristotle was one of the first Greek thinkers to engage in a logical, although idealistic, reflection
on the nature of the state and politics.
y According to J.H. Hallowell, political philosophy is not so much concerned with political
institutions as with the ideas and aspirations embodied in these institutions.

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