This document provides an overview of the scope of political science. It discusses how the scope has widened over time as new phenomena have emerged. The scope includes:
1) A study of the state and government.
2) Political theory and the study of foundational concepts.
3) Political institutions like constitutions and governments.
4) Political dynamics such as parties, public opinion, and interest groups.
5) The relationship between individuals and the state.
6) International relations and international law.
The scope refers to the subject matter studied in political science, which has grown increasingly broad to incorporate new global and theoretical issues.
This document provides an overview of the scope of political science. It discusses how the scope has widened over time as new phenomena have emerged. The scope includes:
1) A study of the state and government.
2) Political theory and the study of foundational concepts.
3) Political institutions like constitutions and governments.
4) Political dynamics such as parties, public opinion, and interest groups.
5) The relationship between individuals and the state.
6) International relations and international law.
The scope refers to the subject matter studied in political science, which has grown increasingly broad to incorporate new global and theoretical issues.
This document provides an overview of the scope of political science. It discusses how the scope has widened over time as new phenomena have emerged. The scope includes:
1) A study of the state and government.
2) Political theory and the study of foundational concepts.
3) Political institutions like constitutions and governments.
4) Political dynamics such as parties, public opinion, and interest groups.
5) The relationship between individuals and the state.
6) International relations and international law.
The scope refers to the subject matter studied in political science, which has grown increasingly broad to incorporate new global and theoretical issues.
This document provides an overview of the scope of political science. It discusses how the scope has widened over time as new phenomena have emerged. The scope includes:
1) A study of the state and government.
2) Political theory and the study of foundational concepts.
3) Political institutions like constitutions and governments.
4) Political dynamics such as parties, public opinion, and interest groups.
5) The relationship between individuals and the state.
6) International relations and international law.
The scope refers to the subject matter studied in political science, which has grown increasingly broad to incorporate new global and theoretical issues.
The primary objective of this article is to understand, what is of Scope political science?
What is Scope of political science?
Political science is the most important branch of social science and its chief concern is with the political behavior of individuals, groups of individuals, agencies, institutions, organization. Since all these are subject to change and they are changing continuously the subject matter of political science is bound to change, so also the scope of Political Science.
Now the interesting fact is that various scholars and political scientists have made sincere attempts to view its scope from their respective angles and perspective resulting in wide variations in the treatment of scope.
A renowned author has analyzed the scope of Political Science from four different angles and these are: Politics as the art of government, politics as public affairs, politics as compromise and consensus, politics as power and distribution of resources. But this categorization of scope of political science cannot be treated as final because the emergence of new phenomena and situation will Impact the decision making process of government, government and governed relation, attitude of people towards politics and government, people’s ideas about the functions of state etc.
The scope of Political Science implies its jurisdiction or subject matter. Political Science is a very wide and comprehensive subject. There is no agreement among the Political Scientists as regard to the scope of Political Science. Despite this disagreement, we may make an attempt to define the scope of Political Science which includes the followings:
1. A study of the State and Government:
Political Science primarily studies the problems of the State and government. The state is defined as a group of people organized for law within definite territory. The State possesses four characteristics, viz. Population, territory, government and sovereignty. Government is an agent of the Stale. Political Science studies the activities of the State and explains the aims and objectives of the State and government. A large number of people are unwilling to call politics as a science, (since it is controversial we abandon it for the purpose of present analysis.) The general opinion is that politics is an art and the art is closely related with the management of government.
According to Aristotle a polity is a type of social organization (and also a political organization) where political authority was exercised by large number of people whose main concern was to achieve general welfare. Researchers have found that in ancient Greek polity politics took place and in those days politics meant management and administration of Polity.
2. A Study of Political Theory:
Political theory is a major branch of Political Science. On the basis of the political ideas or thoughts of political thinkers, political theory formulates definitions or concepts like democracy, liberty, equality, grounds of political obligation, etc. A student of Political Science must start his lessons with political theory. Political theory explains the rudimentary concepts of Political Science. It also includes the study of political philosophy.
3. A Study of Political Institutions:
The field of Political Science is rather vast. It includes the study of political institutions. This covers a study of constitutions and comparative government, explains their merits and demerits, their structure and working and arrives at different conclusions on comparative basis. Besides, the study of public administration and local government may be included in this area. These institutions are useful to the nation and hence they are studied along with the State.
4. A study of Political Dynamics:
The study of political dynamics has become significant in the 20th century. It means the current forces at work in government and politics. It covers a wide range and includes the study of political parties, public opinion, pressure groups, lobbies, etc. A scientific study of the working of these political dynamics helps to explain the political behavior of individuals and different groups. The study in this field is often done in collaboration with other social sciences like sociology, anthropology and psycholosiy.
5. A Study of Adjustment of the Individual with the State:
The scope of political science also includes a study of the nature of relationship between the individual and the State. It examines how man should adjust himself with the society. Man is the root of politics. The process of adjustment of men with the society is an important aspect of Political Science.
6. A study of International Relations and international law
Lastly, the scope of Political Science includes a study of international relations which has become significant since the first quarter of the 20th century. It covers a wide range and includes diplomacy, international politics, international law, international organizations like the United Nations, etc. The States are the subjects of international law. International law has assumed greater importance in recent times. The above contents show the wide range of subjects that come under the fold of Political Science. Broadly speaking, political science contains the topics dealing with both empirical facts and philosophical values. Questions of facts are concerned with “what is” and those dealing with values are concerned with “what should be”. The contents of political science fall in either of these two broad categories.
No serious thinker can neglect all “these issue whilst analyzing politics. Two or three decades ago even a well-versed political scientist paid little thought and attention to globalization and neo-liberalism. But today these two concepts have covered a significant portion of the subject while analyzing the scope, we must note it.
The scope of political science refers to its subject matter. There has been tremendous increase in the number of issues which is now being analyzed under the realm of Political Science. There are discussions on the theories of state origin, sovereignty, law, liberty, rights, forms and organs of government, representation, state functions, political parties, pressure groups, public opinion, and ideologies such as capitalism, socialism, communism etc., international relations and institutions
The international Political Science Association meet in Paris in 1948 classified the scope of Political Science into four zones:
Political theory, political institution, political dynamics and international relations. Political theory deals with the fundamental concepts of political science like state, government, justice, liberty, equality, law, sovereignty, separation of power, modes of representation, forms of government, grounds of political obligation and various ideologies.
Political philosophy takes a theoretical and speculative overview of these fundamental concepts.
Political institution is concerned with the study of formal political institutions like the state and the government, the legislature, the executive, the judiciary, the electorate and the administration.
Political dynamics refers to the forces and processes which operate within the government and politics such as political parties, pressure groups, interest groups, lobbies, public opinion, propaganda etc.
Apart from these four zones political science also deals with three other areas which are public administration, international relations and international law and relations between the state and the individual. Public administration deals with the organization, control and coordination of administrative machinery, personnel administration, financial administration, public relations, management, administrative law and adjudication etc. It also covers the study of local self-governing institutions like corporations, municipalities and Panchayati Raj institutions.
Conclusion
Therefore, broadly speaking Political Science deals with two sorts of topics, one which is based on empirical facts and the other which is value based. There has been a long tradition in Political Science of dealing with value based issues or things as they ought to be based on the preferences of individual philosophers. Based on value preferences, philosophers have sought to make generalisations regarding state, government as well as the structures and processes associated with them. However such generalisations aren‟t being made without any consideration to the political realities. Therefore it would be wrong to say that all traditionalists have ignored empirical facts at the altar of value orientations. The fact is that it was only after industrialization and behavioral revolution that empirical methods came to occupy centre-stage in Political Science. The primary focus here is on the actual nature, structure and working of the political systems so as to derive factual propositions and generalizations. However both traditional and empirical methods have their limitations.
Therefore a third kind of approach which is basically a combination of the traditional and empirical approach have emerged which is basically prescriptive in nature and seeks to bridge the gap between what is and what ought to be. For example, proposals for political reform such as anti-defection measures and prescriptions for improving the political system like parliamentary versus presidential form of government are generally based on normative considerations. At the same time these also involve examination and evaluation of factual data. Discussions with such an evaluative overtone can be called as prescriptive. All the above discussions together constitute the scope of political science.
