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|Politics and political science | |
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| | |Political science is the study of politics in all its aspects. Occasionally politics is used as a synonym for political science: sometimes| | |
| | |as the title of university departments of political science. This may be confusing. Although a few political scientists have become | | |
| | |politicians, and even more rarely politicians have become political scientists, the activities of the two, despite impinging on each | | |
| | |other, are quite different. | | |
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| | |1.1 What is politics? | | |
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| | |Politics can be regarded in at least four ways. | | |
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| | |1.1.1 Politics as an activity | | |
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| | |Politics is an activity indulged in, either full-time or part-time, by politicians. They are concerned with some or all of the collective | | |
| | |decisions that affect the political unit they live in. It could be a small sub-unit like a parish, or it could be the central government. | | |
| | |In most societies there is a divide between politicians and the rest of the citizenry who choose to play only a minimal part in | | |
| | |decision-making for the collectivity. The politicians have become professionalized - they are professional politicians. But hypothetically| | |
| | |there is no reason why there should be such a divide. There are small communities in existence where all adults participate in making | | |
| | |decisions for the whole body politic. | | |
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| | |Yet to say 'politics is an activity' is merely the beginning of wisdom. The activity is pursued quite variously in different contexts. In | | |
| | |some it is the occasion of great antagonisms. Not all politicians, by any means, want every proposal adopted: on the contrary, they may | | |
| | |try to prevent most of them succeeding. In some societies policies will be imposed by rulers and opposition may not be allowed. Here there| | |
| | |will be only a few politicians imposing their own decisions. Hence there are numerous | | |
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| | |types of political regime (see Chapter 4 below) and numerous kinds of political activity. | | |
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| | |1.1.2 Politics as 'current affairs' | | |
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| | |To much of the non-political public, politics is a part of life with which they do not want to be involved. Indeed, to some it is | | |
| | |disreputable and dangerous. Contention must be avoided: 'politics and religion are two things one should not talk about' is a much-quoted | | |
| | |adage. But some citizens are quite interested and view political goings-on as they might a spectator sport. They support political parties| | |
| | |as they support football teams, cheering from the sidelines. Students who take up political science often start from the angle of current | | |
| | |affairs, a very useful approach to the subject. Another compendious and similar term is 'political life'. Foreign wars, what politicians | | |
| | |do and say, praise and abuse of them, commentaries in the papers and on radio and television about their personal lives, gladiatorial | | |
| | |argument between them, elections and party politics - all these may be included under the rubric of politics as current affairs. | | |
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| | |1.1.3 Politics as what the government does | | |
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| | |To govern is to control and all communities at an early stage of development will be concerned with the problem of control. The actions of| | |
| | |those who control - the rulers, the incumbent government - may be perceived as politics. Where dissent is not possible this will be the | | |
| | |only manifestation of politics. | | |
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| | |1.1.4 Politics as conflict and the resolution of conflict | | |
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| | |Conflict is here used in a wide sense to mean contestation, including any form of disagreement. Indeed, all group interrelationships will | | |
| | |be involved with differences, even when compromise between the parties is regularised and institutionalised. Physical contestation is an | | |
| | |extreme form of conflict. An initial assumption is that disagreement is very common. People disagree about objectives to be reached and | | |
| | |they disagree about how to reach them. If there were no disagreement there would be no need for politics: to use old-fashioned terms, | | |
| | |people disagree about ends and they disagree about means. Problems are likely to be resolved sooner or later and the role of the | | |
| | |politician is to participate in the resolution. | | |
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| | |Disagreement, of course, may occur at a personal level about quite trivial matters. Indeed, S. E. Finer, Professor of Political | | |
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| | |Keele, used to begin his lectures with the parable of two dogs fighting over an indivisible bone. One would eventually get it and the | | |
| | |other dog would be dissatisfied with the outcome. But combat is not the only method of resolving disagreement. Brian Barry also lists | | |
| | |contests (running a race or a boxing match), drawing lots, authoritative determination by setting up an arbitrator, bargaining, discussion| | |
| | |on merits and voting.1 While most of these are not appropriate to dogs they are all possible with human beings. Collective social | | |
| | |objectives are not analogous to bones and people who disagree about them can choose several other methods of resolving their disputes. | | |
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| | |This does not rule out combat, but many will feel that this is a risky and unpleasant way of resolving conflict. Foes defeated in war may | | |
| | |replenish their arsenals, reinvigorate their morale and attempt revenge. Thus a victor in war should perhaps kill all enemies to be | | |
| | |secure, which is not always very practical. Hence a sensible way of settling conflict may be one that maintains a certain stability, peace| | |
| | |and order in society. Many see this as the basic problem in politics. It is also the best justification for politics that it is concerned | | |
| | |with the resolution of conflict with as little disorder as possible. As Bernard Crick points out, this is something that Aristotle was | | |
| | |aware of when he said politics was the 'master science'.2 It is an activity that calls for great skill, flair, experience and knowledge to| | |
| | |be used in the service of resolving social conflicts that will destroy society if they are not resolved. This also includes, in the last | | |
| | |resort, dealing with the allocation of scarce material resources. Markets cannot do this if people draw guns in them. A framework of law | | |
| | |must be maintained if markets are to allocate freely. Thus political activity determines the continuation or discontinuation of all other | | |
| | |activities and studies. That politics may be a necessary activity for a decent existence is something only anarchists will disagree with, | | |
| | |though some forms of political activity may end in a very indecent existence. | | |
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| | |If conflict is to be resolved rationally and peaceably on a regular basis, conditions must be devised allowing discussion and consultation| | |
| | |with compromise, possibly, as the final end. Once such procedures are stabilised we have a set of institutions a political system. (see | | |
| | |Chapter 6) Structures of this kind can only exist within a framework of order. For them to exist for long, rules must be drawn up at first| | |
| | |they may be accepted customs but later they will be written and promulgated and steps taken to see they are observed. Law can only be | | |
| | |sustained where there is a framework of order. This explains why the term 'international society' (see Chapter 25) is only a hope and an | | |
| | |aspiration: international law cannot be enforced because there are no effective forces of order. | | |
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| | |To sum up: politics is a term with several usages. Fundamentally | | |
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| | |however, political activity is concerned with conflictual activity and its resolution in the widest sense. | | |
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| | |1.2 What is political science? | | |
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| | |Political science is the study of politics in all its dimensions. At least four can be distinguished. | | |
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| | |1.2.1 Political science as philosophy and theory | | |
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| | |Early study of politics took place in small communities. The ancient Greeks who asked many of the important questions (and answered some | | |
| | |of them well enough to satisfy many people today) lived in city states where rulers and decision-making were not remote. Their primary | | |
| | |concern was with the nature of the good and just society and what the attitude of the citizen should be towards authority. The nature of | | |
| | |our obligation to our rulers became an important theme in the early study of politics. Why do we obey the state? (see Chapter 3). | | |
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| | |The easy answer to this question is that people obey out of habit. It does not occur to them to disobey. In modern times the question | | |
| | |might be answered by anthropologists studying primitive societies, or by psychologists studying small groups of people and their response | | |
| | |to leadership in laboratory situations. The ancient philosophers believed the answer lay in the nature of man. Aristotle perceived man as | | |
| | |an animal of the polis: outside society people could not attain true happiness. The real nature of man could only be realised by | | |
| | |associating with others. He assumed that the good life lay in the polity and that legally constituted government was the natural form, so | | |
| | |that corruptions of good government were aberrations. Hence harmony was more natural than conflict. Neither Plato nor Aristotle seems to | | |
| | |have conceived that disagreement could be irreconcilable. Christian philosophers believed that authority came from God and, therefore, | | |
| | |should be obeyed. Later dynastic rulers transformed this into the claim that hereditary rulers were appointed by divine law and so | | |
| | |disobeying them was unthinkable. | | |
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| | |Once the acknowledgement of basic disagreement arose the question of political obligation either disappeared or became far more | | |
| | |complicated. The Scientific Revolution, the Renaissance, the Reformation and finally the eighteenth-century Enlightenment removed many of | | |
| | |the old certainties. Machiavelli (1469-1527), who had been imprisoned and tortured by rulers' commands, believed people were fickle and | | |
| | |prone to evil. He was the holder of high office at the period of the expulsion, and then reinstatement, of the Medici in Florence. | | |
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| | |he held, could always be round the corner. When the safety of the country is ultimately in question, he wrote, there must be no question | | |
| | |of justice or injustice, of mercy or cruelty, of praise or ignominy. It was not a matter of obligation, but of success or failure. | | |
| | |Similarly Hobbes (1588-1679), writing in the period of the English Civil War and religious intolerance, perceived man's nature as fearful | | |
| | |in consequence of the struggle for survival. People battled against one another to achieve their ends and in consequence life was 'nasty, | | |
| | |brutish and short'. Hence a sovereign was needed to enforce law and order. We obey the sovereign because if people start disobeying | | |
| | |everyone will be miserable in a state of mutual conflict. It is not a moral obligation, it is a necessity. | | |
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| | |From the late seventeenth century onward the question of the relationship between the individual and the state generally shifted from the | | |
| | |obligation to obey to the circumstances in which one could disobey. It was argued by John Locke (1632-1704) that rulers rule with the | | |
| | |consent of their people with whom they have a contract. If the ruler breaches their individual rights the people have a right to replace | | |
| | |him. This justification of the English Revolution of 1688, when Parliament replaced a hereditary monarch it disapproved of, became an | | |
| | |inspiration for the American Revolutionaries. Thus the study of political thought turned to constitutional liberalism and the need to | | |
| | |control powerful government. Montesquieu (1689-1755) believed that this could only be done by separating the powers of the judiciary, | | |
| | |legislature and executive from each other. Rousseau (1712-1778), with his belief in equality and sovereignty belonging to the people, | | |
| | |challenged all previous ideas about authority. | | |
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| | |After the American and French Revolutions obedience was no longer either a habit or an accepted and expected pattern of behaviour. | | |
| | |Conflict among the people, who were rarely even 90 per cent in favour of any proposal, had to be assumed. The arrival of the Common Man | | |
| | |and the pluralistic society meant that philosophic thinking about politics could no longer be the simple matter of the relationship | | |
| | |between the individual and the state. | | |
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| | |This is only the briefest summary of that part of most political science syllabuses known as political philosophy or political theory. (In| | |
| | |Chapters 2 and 3 more recent developments are discussed.) It is possible to make a distinction between these two rubrics. Political | | |
| | |philosophy is more concerned with implicit assumptions and internal logic, while political theory tends to be more related to intellectual| | |
| | |influences and to cultural and historical environments, but the terms are sometimes used interchangeably. | | |
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| | |1.2.2 Political science as the study of conflict | | |
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| | |At its core political science is concerned with the study of conflict. This can take place at several levels. Personal conflict, usually | | |
| | |studied by psychologists, can be of service to political scientists. The study of aggressive instincts, for example, or the ability to | | |
| | |compromise are obvious examples and these themes can also apply to group conflict. | | |
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| | |Collective conflict is obviously the main field of investigation. It is of a different order from personal conflict because it involves | | |
| | |all sorts of considerations about group coherence and group fragmentation. Political sociologists investigate for what reasons and to what| | |
| | |extent people identify with others and to what degree they emphasise their distinction from those in other groups. When a group achieves a| | |
| | |level of continuous existence, develops rules and decision-making procedures and systematically begins to recruit members, it is called an| | |
| | |'association'. | | |
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| | |The part of the subject variously called political institutions or comparative institutions (see below) is involved with the study of | | |
| | |conflict within the framework of a set of institutions. A political institution is a public body with formally designated structures and | | |
| | |functions intended to regulate defined activities applying to the whole population. Governments, parliaments and the law courts are | | |
| | |political institutions. Their interrelationships are defined in constitutions. | | |
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| | |Collective conflict may take place at three levels at that of local associations, at that of national associations and at that of nation | | |
| | |states. Often collective conflict takes the form of a clash between those associations and interests involved in the government and those | | |
| | |outside it. In authoritarian regimes (see Chapter 4), however, where governments rule virtually unchallenged, conflict at the first two | | |
| | |levels is submerged or likely to be repressed. Unless there is one-man rule, however, there will be conflict in private cabals. Such | | |
| | |situations are not easy for the researcher to examine. Conversely, the study of politics in democracies, where conflict is permitted and | | |
| | |even encouraged and where it often takes place publicly, is so much easier. | | |
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| | |The study of conflict between local groups may be made at the community level. It may be about the building of a new bypass or the closing| | |
| | |of a footpath. Increasingly nationwide groups associate themselves with such matters, but there may be other local issues, such as a | | |
| | |dispute between travellers and local landowners, which proceed no further than local government. In the Western world physical conflict at| | |
| | |this level is rare, but there are areas where internal disputes, especially ethnic rivalries, deteriorate into armed conflict. | | |
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| | |A very large proportion of the literature of political science is con | | |
| | |cerned with conflict between nationally organised associations. There are two kinds of political association: pressure groups and | | |
| | |political parties (see Chapter 10). Pressure groups do not want to participate in governing, although they do want to obtain access to the| | |
| | |decision making process and to influence its outcome. Unlike parties they usually have a specific political objective. Parties tend to be | | |
| | |coalitions of interests with many objectives concerned to govern or share in the task of governing. Political scientists sometimes study | | |
| | |one of these organisations separately as a political system in itself: usually within large pressure groups and parties there are factions| | |
| | |in conflict. At other times relationships between different groups are examined. | | |
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| | |It should be said that increasingly pressure groups operate on an international scale and lobby at international conferences the so called| | |
| | |non-governmental groups (NGOS). This is particularly the case with women's and environmental groups. (see Chapter 5). | | |
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| | |Collective group conflict of this kind would usually be included in the study of comparative institutions where the role of associations | | |
| | |in relation to political institutions, especially legislatures and executives, is clearly a necessary component (see Chapters 6-10) Wider | | |
| | |study of the social and cultural backgrounds of association memberships and leaderships is likely to be dealt with under the heading of | | |
| | |political sociology. | | |
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| | |1.2.3 Political science as international relations | | |
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| | |Conflict between states is the core of international relations (see Chapter 21). This is sometimes taught in departments separate from | | |
| | |political science. It can be argued that the subject matter is quite different because there is no such thing as international society | | |
| | |(see Chapter 25) or world government. A world system does not exist: world society is an unregulated state of nature. On the other hand, | | |
| | |as Michael Sheehan argues, some societal elements international courts of law and world declarations of human rights can be seen and are | | |
| | |growing in importance. | | |
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| | |1.2.4 Political science as the study of institutions | | |
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| | |Political scientists are also involved with the resolution of conflict in policy-making and decision-making and the imposition of | | |
| | |decisions once they are finalised. Here there is scope for numerous fields of study. | | |
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| | |In most developed states a good deal of decision-making, certainly the most visible part, is standardised by procedural rules, | | |
| | |institutional processes and constitutions. The study of political institutions is a major part of the discipline. Frequently the political| | |
| | |institutions of | | |
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| | |one country are studied, but quite as often countries and their political institutions are compared under the heading of comparative | | |
| | |institutions. The subject may require knowledge of constitutional law, historical background and social and cultural environment. It is | | |
| | |the framework which shapes the political life of countries and within which decision-making takes place. | | |
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| | |The imposition, or implementation, of decisions once they are made is another wide field of study. The modern state has a large apparatus | | |
| | |of administrators concerned with applying the numerous laws which modern legislatures produce (see Chapter 4). This apparatus, or | | |
| | |bureaucracy, needs coordination and supervision. As its officials are often appointed for life while the incumbency of democratic | | |
| | |politicians is transitory, the bureaucracy may also wield some power. All these themes come under the heading of public administration | | |
| | |(see Section Four) which was one of the early foundations on which university political science was built. It has always been concerned | | |
| | |with management and in recent years management studies has partly developed from it. In addition, the study of policy-making has become | | |
| | |important because of the increasing degree to which specialised administrators, or technocrats, have moved away from the role of the | | |
| | |neutral administrator as a mere implementer of policy. | | |
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| | |Political scientists are also concerned to study reasons for the maintenance and breakdown of political systems. Rebellions and | | |
| | |revolutions are, after all, not uncommon and even apparently stable regimes have been known to collapse. The Russian Revolution in 1917 | | |
| | |and the dramatic and sudden collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989-90 are both evidence of political forces erupting in authoritarian | | |
| | |states. Even more alarming to liberals are instances of the collapse of democracy as in Germany in the late 1920s and early 1930s and, | | |
| | |more recently, in Greece in 1967. Thus the conditions underlying stability are a natural subject of study. This leads to the investigation| | |
| | |of social and other cleavages within states their depth and intensity and how to deal with them. Surprisingly, political scientists have | | |
| | |not been active in studying political skills. The art of diplomacy in both domestic and international settings has been somewhat | | |
| | |neglected. Only in the area of international relations has crisis management received any attention. | | |
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| | |In recent years attention has turned to the environments which affect conflict and its resolution. Especially the economic and social | | |
| | |environments of the political system have interested political scientists, leading them to study the areas where the polity overlaps with | | |
| | |the economy and society. These two areas are known repectively as political economy and political sociology. | | |
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| | |Political economy | | |
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| | |This was a seventeenth-century term meaning the public management of the affairs of the state. The contemporary mercantilist doctrine | | |
| | |implied that those with political power controlled the economy. There are several reasons why interest in relations between politics and | | |
| | |the economy have revived in recent decades. The most obvious is the importance of the economy for democratic politicians. A perception of | | |
| | |prosperity is a great help towards winning elections and the reverse is true: a feeling of depression is bad for incumbent governments at | | |
| | |the polls. Consequently governments are bound to be tempted to manipulate the economy. Political scientists have identified a 'political | | |
| | |business cycle' showing that boosts to the economy are often administered in the months before elections. | | |
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| | |The influence, however, is not all one way. An unstable political system can ruin an economy. Visible examples from the developing world | | |
| | |are not difficult to find. Political scientists who study development perceive political development as part of the process of | | |
| | |modernisation. For the political system this implies the development of specialisation, structural differentiation, accommodation with | | |
| | |pluralism and secularisation. It presumes the growth of a bureaucracy and, perhaps, democracy in the end. | | |
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| | |There have also been attempts by political scientists to borrow economists' models. (Models are dealt with in Chapter 6). One wellknown | | |
| | |example is the analogy between oligopoly, a market with few sellers, and a state with only a few political parties. Another more | | |
| | |fundamental one is the claim that the individual voter, faced with an array of policy options to choose from, is in an analogous situation| | |
| | |with the sovereign consumer in the market. | | |
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| | |Political sociology | | |
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| | |The relationship between political science and sociology proceeded in rather the same fashion, from empiricism towards model-building. It | | |
| | |was the study of electorates and their motives which led to the conceptualization of political culture (culture is a term whose origins | | |
| | |are in anthropology see Chapter 6). This is the set of beliefs, attitudes and values which people hold towards their political system. | | |
| | |Then the concept of socialisation, the process through which people are prepared to participate in social systems, was borrowed to | | |
| | |construct the concept of political socialisation, the process by which people become aware of their political systems. Other political | | |
| | |scientists studying public opinion became interested in propaganda and mass behaviour (on the margins of psychology, though political | | |
| | |psychology, as yet, is an infant social science). | | |
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| | |A further borrowing from sociology relates to social systems as integrating and stabilising agents, a notion first advanced by Talcott | | |
| | |Parsons. 3 David Easton produced a more sophisticated model with input and output functions that owed much to computer systems (see | | |
| | |Chapter 6). | | |
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| | |1.3 Is political science a science? | | |
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| | |Natural scientists sometimes complain about the description of the study of politics as a science. They argue that it cannot be a science | | |
| | |because, unlike the natural sciences: | | |
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| | |1. The variables in political science are not all subject to measurement. Its elements are not like matter whose weight, volume, | | |
| | |temperature and so on can be quantified. | | |
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| | |2. Unlike natural scientists, political scientists cannot set up experiments with what are apparently the same ingredients, in the same | | |
| | |conditions and produce the same results. Environments cannot be controlled as in a laboratory. The ingredients change because they are | | |
| | |human. For example, there can be contagion in that they can learn from each other. They also learn from their experiences and may behave | | |
| | |quite differently from one situation to another that appears to be similar. | | |
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| | |3. Therefore political scientists can never accurately predict. (Of course, this may also apply to some natural sciences such as | | |
| | |meteorology, seismology, zoology.) | | |
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| | |Most political scientists accept these objections. They believe the best reason for calling their subject political science is to | | |
| | |distinguish it from politics. (Incidentally, no one seems to object to domestic science as a term to cover the culinary and home-building | | |
| | |arts.) Science is merely a derivation of the Latin word for knowledge. The argument began with the political behaviouralists who saw | | |
| | |numeracy as the key to science and believed quantification of data and analysis by statistical testing would allow them to test the | | |
| | |validity of hypotheses. Unfortunately although hypotheses can be presented the results only have validity within a small space and a short| | |
| | |time. Moreover, much political data cannot be quantified and the number of variables, anyway, is enormous. Political scientists may claim | | |
| | |they are value-freethere is objectivity in their approach but they cannot make authoritative statements of the same universal validity as | | |
| | |natural scientists. | | |
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| | |'Man is a political animal.' Discuss. | | |
| | |‘If there were no disagreement there would be no politics.' Discuss. | | |
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