1. Introduction to Political science (1)

1. 1. Introduction. Political science as science.

1.
INTRODUCTION.
POLITICAL SCIENCE AS
SCIENCE.
POLITICAL SCIENCE
YERKEBULAN AKBERDIYEV
SENIOR LECTURER
MULTIDISCIPLINARY EDUCATION

2. TABLE OF CONTENT

WHAT IS
POLITICAL
SCIENCE?
FIELDS AND
SUBFIELDS
HISTORICAL
DEVELOPMENT
APPROACHES OF
POLITICAL
SCIENCES
REFERENCE

3. Introduction

INTRODUCTION
POLITICAL SCIENCE IS THE ACADEMIC DISCIPLINE THAT STUDIES THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF
POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT. IT SEEKS TO UNDERSTAND THE FUNCTIONING OF POLITICAL
SYSTEMS, THE BEHAVIOR OF POLITICAL ACTORS, AND THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES AND
IDEOLOGIES THAT SHAPE POLITICAL LIFE.

4. What is Political Science?

WHAT IS POLITICAL SCIENCE?
• POLITICAL SCIENCE FOCUSES ON THE THEORY AND
PRACTICE OF GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS AT THE LOCAL,
STATE, NATIONAL, AND INTERNATIONAL LEVELS.
• POLITICAL SCIENCE, THE SYSTEMATIC STUDY OF
GOVERNANCE BY THE APPLICATION OF EMPIRICAL AND
GENERALLY SCIENTIFIC METHODS OF ANALYSIS.
• AS TRADITIONALLY DEFINED AND STUDIED, POLITICAL
SCIENCE EXAMINES THE STATE AND ITS ORGANS AND
INSTITUTIONS.

5. What is politics?

WHAT IS POLITICS?
• ALTHOUGH POLITICAL SCIENCE BORROWS HEAVILY FROM
THE OTHER SOCIAL SCIENCES, IT IS DISTINGUISHED FROM
THEM BY ITS FOCUS ON POWER—DEFINED AS THE ABILITY
OF ONE POLITICAL ACTOR TO GET ANOTHER ACTOR TO
DO WHAT IT WANTS—AT THE INTERNATIONAL, NATIONAL,
AND LOCAL LEVELS.

6.

THE TERM POLITICAL SCIENCE, FORMED FROM TWO GREEK WORDS "POLITIKE"
AND "LOGOS" AND LITERALLY MEANS "POLITICAL SCIENCE".

7. Fields and subfields

FIELDS AND SUBFIELDS
MODERN UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENTS OF POLITICAL SCIENCE ARE OFTEN DIVIDED INTO SEVERAL
FIELDS, EACH OF WHICH CONTAINS VARIOUS SUBFIELDS.
DOMESTIC POLITICS IS GENERALLY THE MOST COMMON FIELD OF STUDY; ITS SUBFIELDS
INCLUDE PUBLIC OPINION, ELECTIONS, NATIONAL GOVERNMENT, AND STATE, LOCAL, OR
REGIONAL GOVERNMENT.
COMPARATIVE POLITICS FOCUSES ON POLITICS WITHIN COUNTRIES (OFTEN GROUPED
INTO WORLD REGIONS) AND ANALYZES SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN
COUNTRIES.
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS CONSIDERS THE POLITICAL RELATIONSHIPS AND INTERACTIONS
BETWEEN COUNTRIES, INCLUDING THE CAUSES OF WAR, THE FORMATION OF FOREIGN
POLICY, INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL ECONOMY, AND THE STRUCTURES THAT INCREASE OR
DECREASE THE POLICY OPTIONS AVAILABLE TO GOVERNMENTS. INTERNATIONAL
RELATIONS IS ORGANIZED AS A SEPARATE DEPARTMENT IN SOME UNIVERSITIES.

8.

Political theory includes classical political philosophy and
contemporary theoretical perspectives (e.g., constructivism,
critical theory, and postmodernism).
Public administration studies the role of the bureaucracy. It is the
field most oriented toward practical applications within political
science and is often organized as a separate department that
prepares students for careers in the civil service.
Public law studies constitutions, legal systems, civil rights, and
criminal justice (now increasingly its own discipline).
Public policy examines the passage and implementation of all
types of government policies, particularly those related to civil
rights, defense, health, education, economic growth, urban
renewal, regional development, and environmental protection.

9. Historical development

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT
• ANCIENT INFLUENCES
• ANALYSES OF POLITICS APPEARED IN ANCIENT CULTURES IN
WORKS BY VARIOUS THINKERS, INCLUDING CONFUCIUS
(551–479 BCE) IN CHINA AND KAUTILYA (FLOURISHED 300
BCE) IN INDIA.
• WRITINGS BY THE HISTORIAN IBN KHALDŪN (1332–1406)
IN NORTH AFRICA HAVE GREATLY INFLUENCED THE STUDY
OF POLITICS IN THE ARABIC-SPEAKING WORLD.

10.

• PLATO (428/427–348/347 BCE), WHOSE IDEAL OF A STABLE
REPUBLIC STILL YIELDS INSIGHTS AND METAPHORS, AS THE
FIRST POLITICAL SCIENTIST, THOUGH MOST CONSIDER
ARISTOTLE (384–322 BCE), WHO INTRODUCED EMPIRICAL
OBSERVATION INTO THE STUDY OF POLITICS, TO BE THE
DISCIPLINE’S TRUE FOUNDER.
• PLATO AND ARISTOTLE FOCUSED ON PERFECTING THE POLIS
(CITY-STATE), A TINY POLITICAL ENTITY, WHICH FOR THE
GREEKS MEANT BOTH SOCIETY AND POLITICAL SYSTEM.

11. Early modern developments

EARLY MODERN DEVELOPMENTS
• THE FIRST MODERN POLITICAL SCIENTIST WAS THE ITALIAN
WRITER NICCOLÒ MACHIAVELLI (1469–1527).
• HIS INFAMOUS WORK THE PRINCE (1531), A TREATISE
ORIGINALLY DEDICATED TO FLORENCE’S RULER, LORENZO
DI PIERO DE’ MEDICI, PRESENTED AMORAL ADVICE TO
ACTUAL AND WOULD-BE PRINCES ON THE BEST MEANS OF
ACQUIRING AND HOLDING ON TO POLITICAL POWER.

12.

Machiavelli’s political
philosophy, which completed the
secularization of politics begun
by Marsilius, was based on
reason rather than religion.
Machiavelli introduced the
modern idea of power—how to
get it and how to use it—as the
crux of politics, a viewpoint
shared by today’s international
relations “realists,” rational
choice theorists, and others.

13. Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679)

THOMAS HOBBES (1588–1679)
• THE ENGLISH PHILOSOPHER THOMAS HOBBES (1588–
1679) ALSO PLACED POWER AT THE CENTRE OF HIS
POLITICAL ANALYSIS.

14. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78)

JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU
(1712–78)
• IF HOBBES WAS THE CONSERVATIVE OF THE
“CONTRACTUALISTS” AND LOCKE THE LIBERAL, THEN THE
FRENCH PHILOSOPHER JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU (1712–
78) WAS THE RADICAL.

15.

Rousseau’s The Social Contract
(1762) constructs a civil society in
which the separate wills of
individuals are combined to govern
as the “general will” (volonté
générale) of the collective that
overrides individual wills, “forcing
a man to be free.”
Rousseau’s radical vision was
embraced by French
revolutionaries and later by
totalitarians, who distorted many
of his philosophical lessons.

16. Montesquieu (1689–1755)

MONTESQUIEU (1689–1755)
• MONTESQUIEU (1689–1755), A MORE PRAGMATIC FRENCH
PHILOSOPHER, CONTRIBUTED TO MODERN COMPARATIVE
POLITICS WITH HIS THE SPIRIT OF LAWS (1748).
MONTESQUIEU’S SOJOURN IN ENGLAND CONVINCED HIM
THAT ENGLISH LIBERTIES WERE BASED ON THE SEPARATION
AND BALANCE OF POWER BETWEEN PARLIAMENT AND THE
MONARCHY, A PRINCIPLE LATER EMBRACED BY THE
FRAMERS OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES
(SEPARATION OF POWERS; CHECKS AND BALANCES).

17. 19th-century roots of contemporary political science

19TH-CENTURY ROOTS OF
CONTEMPORARY POLITICAL
SCIENCE
• CONTEMPORARY POLITICAL SCIENCE TRACES ITS ROOTS
PRIMARILY TO THE 19TH CENTURY, WHEN THE RAPID
GROWTH OF THE NATURAL SCIENCES STIMULATED
ENTHUSIASM FOR THE CREATION OF A NEW SOCIAL
SCIENCE. CAPTURING THIS FERVOUR OF SCIENTIFIC
OPTIMISM WAS ANTOINE-LOUIS-CLAUDE, COMTE DESTUTT
DE TRACY (1754–1836), WHO IN THE 1790S COINED THE
TERM IDÉOLOGIE (“IDEOLOGY”) FOR HIS “SCIENCE OF
IDEAS,” WHICH, HE BELIEVED, COULD PERFECT SOCIETY.

18.

• THE SUBJECT OF RESEARCH (THOSE
OBJECTIVE PROPERTIES,
CONNECTIONS AND RELATIONSHIPS
THAT ARE INCLUDED IN THE PROCESS
OF COGNITION);
• METHODS (COGNITIVE TECHNIQUES
AND METHODS) WITH THE HELP OF
WHICH KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE
SUBJECT IS OBTAINED;
• CATEGORIES (CONCEPTS) IN WHICH
THE CONTENT OF A GIVEN SCIENCE
IS EXPRESSED.

19.

• HOW SHOULD WE ORGANIZE GOVERNMENTS? CONFLICT IS A PART OF IT, BUT ALSO
COOPERATION. PEOPLE HAVE TO WORK TOGETHER TO CREATE THE KIND OF SOCIETY THEY
WANT
COOPERATION.

20.

- PLURAL AND INFINITE WANTS, NEEDS, OPINIONS AND INTERESTS
- SCARCITY IN RESOURCES
- POLITICS
CONFLICT
COOPERATION

21. Three approaches of political sciences:

THREE APPROACHES OF POLITICAL SCIENCES:
Philosophical: how society should be and
should be rules
Plato, very restricted, how
it ought to be.
Empirical: Machiavelli is considered to be the
first empirical philosopher in pol. Science. Early
16th century, he wrote a book, The Prince,
about how rulers can acquire and keep power.
A big difference with how politics was before.
It is about power, how you can keep the power,
how does it work.
Scientific: Easton and Karl Marx. This is a
subcategory of the empirical approach, they
want hypothesis directed research and data.
Why Marx? He wanted to look at the driving
forces of historical development. He looked at
general principles, how does history work?

22. Object of Political science

The object of political science stands political reality, and political spheres
of society.
OBJECT OF
POLITICAL
SCIENCE
In the broadest sense, the political sphere is the sphere of social relations
associated with the interaction of the various communities of people social groups, strata, classes, nations and peoples.
It includes a number of social institutions and organizations that mediate
this interaction.
The most important of these institutions is the state. It participated in the
affairs of the state, the direction of the state, the definition of forms,
objectives, content and activities of the state is the main content of people
in the political sphere.

23. Subject of Political science

SUBJECT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
POLITICAL SCIENCE - THE SCIENCE OF POLITICS AND THE
EMERGENCE OF PATTERNS OF POLITICAL PHENOMENA
(INSTITUTIONS, RELATIONSHIPS, PROCESSES), THE WAYS AND
FORMS OF THEIR FUNCTIONING AND DEVELOPMENT OF
METHODS OF CONTROL POLITICAL PROCESSES OF POLITICAL
CONSCIOUSNESS, CULTURE, AND SO ON.

24. overall

POLITICAL SCIENCE IS CRUCIAL FOR UNDERSTANDING HOW
SOCIETIES ARE GOVERNED AND HOW POLITICAL DECISIONS
AFFECT OUR LIVES. IT EQUIPS INDIVIDUALS WITH THE
KNOWLEDGE TO ENGAGE IN INFORMED CIVIC PARTICIPATION
AND TO CRITICALLY EVALUATE POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS.
THROUGH ITS VARIOUS SUBFIELDS, POLITICAL SCIENCE HELPS
EXPLAIN THE COMPLEXITIES OF POLITICAL LIFE AND
CONTRIBUTES TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF EFFECTIVE
GOVERNANCE AND PUBLIC POLICIES.
OVERALL

25. Reference

• HTTPS://WWW.BRITANNICA.COM/TOPIC/POLITICALSCIENCE/HISTORICAL-DEVELOPMENT
REFERENCE

26. Thank you!

THANK YOU!