Nature and Scope of Political Science
What the exam tests
This domain asks you to define Political Science, separate it from political philosophy and everyday politics, and explain its scope and relations with other social sciences. Questions often use the phrase 'Is Political Science a science?' or ask for the traditional and modern approaches.
Core rules and concepts
- Traditional view: study of the state, government and institutions; normative and institutional.
- Modern view: study of power, authority, influence, decision-making and behaviour; empirical and behavioural.
- Scope: political theory, comparative politics, public administration, international relations and public policy.
- Allied disciplines: history supplies evidence; economics explains material interests; sociology explains groups; psychology explains motives; law supplies norms.
- Politics is the activity; Political Science is the systematic study of that activity.
Worked example
Question: 'Political Science is a science, but not an exact science.' Reason it out: it uses observation, comparison, hypotheses and generalizations, so it is a science in method; but human behaviour is unpredictable, values intrude, and experiments cannot be controlled, so its conclusions are probabilistic, not exact. This earns the 'science but not exact' mark.
Traps
Do not reduce the discipline to current affairs or to government alone. Do not call it purely normative; modern Political Science is both normative and empirical. Do not claim it is a natural science with laboratory proof. Do not confuse 'political theory' with 'political thought': theory analyses concepts; thought is the history of ideas.