Introduction to political science

October 9th

Political Science belongs to social sciences

Why are social sciences recent? (the end of the 19th century)

Phenomena which caused the appearance of the social sciences:

1) The Industrial Revolution (communication, social mobility, education,
urbanization)
2) Scientism = the idea that society and the human being can be understood
scientifically
3) Individualism - we are free as individuals as long as we do not interfere in the
freedom of others
4)Development of academic institutions - libraries, printing press, scientific
journals

Causes of the appearance of the Political Science:

1) The possibility of political participation - the common folk has political rights =
democratisation
2) Development of modern administration = the increase in administrative
institutions and employees (=civil servants, white collars) => centralization,
unification of all issues related to administration (i.e. there is only one body who
can raise taxes). Police is part of the administration.
3) The separation between the discipline of economy and the study of political
phenomena

- thinking/ writing about political phenomena is old; what changes is the 19th
century: new institutions, new tools, methods, objects; the old is introduced in
the discipline under the name of "political thought"

Institutionalization in the US:

-1880 - University of Columbia - the School of Political Science
-1886 - University of Columbia - first political scientific journal: The Political
Science Quarterly
-1983 - The American Political Science Association (APSA)
-1986 - The American Political Science Review Journal (belongs to the APSA)
-most studied topics in the 20s: Government, Public Administration

The World War II was beneficial for Political Science => the American Political
Science is a developed discipline, autonomous, undisputed, mostly because of
the technology and the storing information technique.

-behaviourism (1950)
- political behaviours

Lasswell (!)

-1932 - Literary Digest magazine - questionnaire for voting preferences &

estimations were close to the actual results
-polls, interviews

Traditional study of politics:

-political philosophy
-Thomas d'Aquino
-law
-institutions
-treatings
-formal government legal aspects) + diplomacy

Key concepts: government, constitution, state, sovereignty

1920-1930:
-political thought as the focus of political science
-comparative politics
-diplomacy

1) Germany had a longstanding tradition of social philosophy - Academies, the

German Historical School.
2) Max Weber = the founding father of sociology
3) Tradition of law - legal theorists
-an old German tradition (the sciences of the state in Prussia - 17th century)
helped the development of the political science - Staatswissenschaften: there is
a science of governing.

Subdisciplines of political science:

-Political theory and/or philosophy and/or thought
-Comparative politics
-International politics/relations

What political scrience is NOT:

1) journalism (facts, investigations, information etc)
-political science has indirect contact with events, while journalism has direct
contact with them
2) political commentators
-political commentators do not have the same scientific background as political
scientists
-political commentators do not conceptualize; they make predictions and express
their own perceptions on things
3) ideology
4) political participation (which is an object of political science)