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political science
Columbia Encyclopedia entry: political science
Political science, the study of government and political processes, institutions, and behavior. Government and politics have been studied and commented on since the time of the ancient Greeks. However, it is only with the general systematization of the social sciences in the last 100 years that political science has emerged as a separate definable area of study. Political science is commonly divided into a number of subfields, the most prominent being political theory, national government, comparative government, international relations, and special areas shared with other social sciences such as sociology, psychology, and economics. In practice, these subfields overlap. Political theory encompasses the following related areas: the study of the history of political thought; the examination of questions of justice and morality in the context of the relationships between individuals, society, and government; and the formulation of conceptual approaches and models in order to understand more fully political and governmental processes. The study of national government focuses on the political system of the researcher's particular country, including the legal and constitutional arrangements and institutions; the interaction of various levels of government, other social and political groups, and the individual; and proposals for improving governmental structure and policy. Comparative government covers many of the same subjects but from the perspective of parallel political behavior in several countries, regions, or time periods. International relations deals both with the more traditional areas of study, such as international law, diplomacy, political economy, international organizations, and other forms of contact between nation states, and with the development of general, scientific models of international political systems. None of the political science subfields can be clearly separated. All of them, for example, deal with questions closely associated with political theory. Valuable and sophisticated discussions of almost all the areas of political science, including the areas now generally classified under such titles as political sociology, can be found throughout intellectual history as far back as Plato and Aristotle. Through the centuries, the questions of political science have been discussed in contexts varying with the changing perspectives of the time. During the Middle Ages, for example, the major concerns revolved around the problem of where the state stood in relation to man and his God. Karl Marx, on the other hand, viewed political questions in the context of society's economic structure. Modern political science stresses the importance of using political concepts and models that are subject to empirical validation and that may be employed in solving practical political problems.

See V. O. Key, Politics, Parties, and Pressure Groups (5th ed. 1964); G. Almond and G. B. Powell, Comparative Politics: A Developmental Approach (1966); J. Rawls, A Theory of Justice (1971); B. Crick, The American Science of Politics (1982); G. Shakhnazarov, Contemporary Political Science in the U.S.A. and Western Europe (1985).

The Columbia Encyclopedia. Copyright © 2001-09 Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

Wikipedia search results for: Political science
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Political science is a social science concerned with the theory and practice of politics and the description and analysis of political systems and political behavior. It is often described as the pragmatic application of the art and science of politics defined as "who gets what, when and how", leaving out of the picture most of the "why". Political science has several subfields, including: political theory, public policy, national politics, international relations, and comparative politics. Political science is methodologically diverse, to the discipline include classical political philosophy, positivism, interpretivism, structuralism, and...more »
Columbia Encyclopedia search results: political science
Results 1 - 10  of 217
  • secession, in political science

    Secession, in political science, formal withdrawal from an association by a group discontented with the actions or decisions of that association. The term is generally used to refer to withdra...

  • liberty, in political science

    Liberty, term used to describe various types of individual freedom, such as religious liberty, political liberty, freedom of speech, right of self-defense, and others. It is also used as a gen...

  • London School of Economics and Political Science

    London School of Economics and Political Science, at London, England; founded 1895, recognized as a school of the Univ. of London (see London, Univ. of) in 1900. It publishes many periodicals,...

  • science

    Science [Lat. scientia=knowledge]. For many the term science refers to the organized body of knowledge concerning the physical world, both animate and inanimate, but a proper definition would ...

  • social science

    Social science, term for any or all of the branches of study that deal with humans in their social relations. Often these studies are referred to in the plural as the social sciences. Although...

  • science fiction

    Science fiction, literary genre in which a background of science or pseudoscience is an integral part of the story. Although science fiction is a form of fantastic literature, many of the even...

  • Vienna University

    Vienna University, at Vienna, Austria; founded 1365. It was reorganized in 1377, 1384, and 1850. It has faculties of Roman Catholic theology, Protestant theology, humanities, law and political...

  • aristocracy

    Aristocracy [Gr.,=rule by the best], in political science, government by a social elite. In the West the political concept of aristocracy derives from Plato's formulation in the Republic. The ...

  • Rome, University of

    Rome, University of, at Rome, Italy; founded 1303 by Pope Boniface VIII. It has faculties of jurisprudence; political science; economics and commerce; statistics, demography, and actuarial sci...

  • Naples, University of

    Naples, University of, at Naples, Italy; founded 1224; transferred to Salerno 1252 but returned to Naples 1258. It has faculties of law, economics, letters and philosophy, medicine, pharmacy, ...

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