Name: Maricel Bajet Raguindin Date: October 14, 2021

Section: BAPS 1A

According to the American Political Science Association, “political science” is the

study of governments, public policies and political processes, systems, and political
behavior. Whereas a political scientist Harold Lasswell explained “politics” as the
process of determining who gets what, when they get it, and how they get it. This is why
Aristotle viewed political science as the master science, because politics affects pretty
much every other human social endeavor. He added also that “ political science helps
us understand politics.” If you can understand something, you have a better chance of
making it work in the manner you want.

On the other hand, Ramsay Muir states that a nation may be defined as a body of
people who feel themselves to be naturally linked together by certain affinities, which
are so strong for them to live together, they are dissatisfied when disunited and cannot
tolerate subjection to people who do not share the same ties. However, Weber defines
the state as a political institution that claims successfully on the monopoly of violence.
The chapter shows that this definition is a result of Weber’s historical studies revealing
the monopoly as the decisive criterion, which distinguishes the modern occidental state
from all other historical forms of domination.

Moreover, The concept of power is the key to understand and analyze politics,
political institutions and political movements of the systemic process, both in the
national and international arena. It is the center of political theory. As H.D.Lasswell and
A. Kaplan declared, “ The concept of power is perhaps the most fundamental in the
whole of political science: the political process is the shaping, dissolution and exercise
of power.” It is the concept of power that political science is primarily concerned with.
Thinkers like Machiavelli and Hobbes advocated the study of power also as the central
theme of politics. Hobbes wrote: “ There is a general inclination of all mankind, a
perpetual and restless desire of power after power that ceased only in death.” A few
decades ago, Frederick Watkins suggested, “The proper scope of political science is not
the study of the state or of any other specific institutional complex, but the investigations
of all associations in so far as they can be shown to exemplify the problem of power.”
Perhaps this view was further strengthened by William A. Robson when he suggested, “
It is with power in society that political science is primarily concerned – its nature, basis,
processes, scope and results. The focus of interest of the political scientist is clear and
unambiguous; it centers on the struggle to gain or retain power, to exercise power or
influence over others, or to resist that exercise.”

SOURCES:

https://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-political-science.html

https://nios.ac.in/media/documents/srsec317newE/317EL2.pdf

https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/page/subscriber-services/24

https://egyankosh.ac.in/