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POLITICAL SCIENCE
Type Notes

Lesson 2nd Grading

🗒 Content

Subject of inquiry and goals of political science

Concept of power as an aspired value in a society

Value of political science in the 21st Century

POLITICAL
SCIENCE
DEFINE POLITICAL SCIENCE

The political system started accordingly from Greece

Came from 2 Greek words:

scire - to know

polis - (city-state in ancient Greece); but the political

activities within a polis are later termed as
politikus(Latin)

in combining the 2 meanings:

it means that political science aims to know the

activities within the state

example:

human interaction and conflict

is it important to have human interaction?

conversations, physical touch, shared moments—
they bring vibrancy to life; not only physically
beneficial but also imperative for mental health—
loneliness and social isolation are twice as
harmful as obesity (Julian Holt-Lunstad, 2015)

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 how can we consider conflict as political? — is a
contradiction of two parties; when it relate to a
public issue it become political

it relates as a public issue when 2 conditions

are met in the first place it must relate to
the decision making of a group— must concern
group organizations, leadership or the
regulation of intergroup relationship (own,
others and all groups— what are the
differences)

human and state relations

power distribution

Political science solely Specific locations are within

focuses on the theory and a community and outside the
practice of the government and country
politics at the local state,
national and international
levels.

According to American Political Science Association:

It is a study of governments, public policies and

political processes, systems, and political behavior
(2013)

These topics are covered by the sub-disciplines of political

science such as:

Political theory

comparative politics (leadership, political system of an

area according to political science)

international relations

political behavior

public policy

is a set of laws, guidelines, actions that is decided

and taken by the government in order to work in favor
of the public in terms of safety, comfort, and interest
of the state

according to John Dye public policy is simply what

government or any public official who influences or
determines public policy; including school official,
city council members, county supervisors that does or
does not do anything about a problem that comes from
them for consideration and possible actions— different
influences depending on a location

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 Officials work in order to come up a better system for
us to live a harmonious way; to defy conflict

Thomas Dye defined 'public policy' as “anything a

government chooses to do or not to do”

public administration

POLITICAL
THEORY
It examines the contemporary application of political
concepts such as human rights, equality, peace and justice

It seeks to address the variance of its implementation in

societies with the aim of understanding the nature of these
concepts and the elements that affects it

the difference of each societies in their implementation

impact

This field is significant in furthering theory building in

the discipline as much as it provides a conceptual critique
of commonly held concepts

conceptual critique- things that we can criticize in a

specific concept; it is also linked to cultivation theory
(George Gerbner- proposed the idea of cultivation theory
(1969) that is linked to conceptual critique in response
to the tradition of media effects research which was
focused on the short term effects of media exposure that
can be found in lab experiments as a result effects
research ignored the long term exposure to media; proposed
that over time repeated exposure to media cultivated the
belief that the messages conveyed applied to the real
world as peoples’ perceptions are shaped by media exposure
their belief values and attitudes are shaped as well)

example:

The Global North concept of justice is not universal; in

some societies in the Global South, conflicts are not
resolved by meeting justice in the context of punishment
but in the form of reconciliation of parties

conceptual critique is habitual— has a pattern; can be

critiques in the form of cultivation theory

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 GLOBAL NORTH AND GLOBAL SOUTH

COMPARATIVE
POLITICS
A branch of political science that aims to provide context to
the differences in government and political systems

It examines the parallelism and divergence (pagkakapareho at

pagkakaiba) of political systems to provide analysis on the
factors that make governments efficient and the factors that
make them fail

it provides a scientific comparison of governments and

political institutions that could help aid policy formation
that is locally relevant

example:

the practice of democracy in the most members of the

Global North is oftentimes different from how it is
practiced in democratized countries of the Global South as
it is embedded in local political structure; hence,
campaigns for the democratization of all societies may be
perilous for some, whose local culture is at odds with the
framework of democracy

safety and transportation fees:

Gensan → Mahal pamasahe, nagapanakit pagid if di nila

gusto ibayad mo (experience ahmn)

Davao → safest place, their government is doing

something

INTERNATIONAL

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 RELATIONS
The study of state-to-state and the wider margin of the
impacts of globalization and climate change such as
terrorism, piracy, and democratization of non-Western
territories fall into the category of international relations

This field covers the interaction between states and non-

state global actors such as international organizations and
human groups

example:

Duterte about china and Covid-19 that they should pay

for the affected countries so that they would be more
careful next time on what they are studying

India Bidding for the farmers crops

The case of China and Philippines on the Scarborough

Shoal is an example of an internal relations issue in
the Philippines as much as the 9/11 attacks on the
World Trade Center that spawned transnational campaign
of the United States against terrorism

Provides an understanding of the motivations of global actors

is made possible, and this understanding provides a basis for
political decisions of the parties involved

in the case of the campaign against terrorism, a country

that aims to win the favor of the United States ought to
rally behind this campaign and dissociate with blacklisted
countries or political actors

POLITICAL
BEHAVIOR
This field covers the attitudes, knowledge, and actions of an
individuals response to political variables such as policies
created by the government, behavior of politicians, and
general political environment.

Works on the political action repertoire of individuals are

categorized under this field as it examines their psychology
toward the system

According to Alfred McCoy, an American political scientist,

the Philippines has strong families that influence in regions
of the country, allowing for the perpetuation of political
dynasties

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 These types of studies are important for drafting election
campaigns and gauging the electorates’ inclination to support
a policy

example:

The political orientation of Filipinos toward elections is

a subject of this inquiry. Political commentaries have
highlighted the fanfare in the Philippine elections, from
the campaign materials to unabashed promotion of every
political activity and public service made by the
candidates

mas nagiging matalino and critical ang mga tao as time

goes by

The presence of political dynasties is also enabled by the

political culture of the country

In the Philippines, where political affiliations are

mostly due to not political parties but on personalities,
the costs and benefits of a political action are always
administered from a personality to his/her
supporters/detractors

PUBLIC
POLICY
This field inquires on the types of governmental policies and
the underlying motivations for their enactment and
implementation

IT operates with other sub-disciplines to create a

comprehensive analysis

The general perspective that policies are created to better

the living conditions within a territory is at times
inaccurate, as political actors behind policy-making are also
motivated by personal interest

It is significant for evaluating the efficiency of enacted

policies and the possible revisions that it can accommodate

example:

Controversial Policies such as RH Law and the HIV/AIDS Law

(Philippine AIDS Prevention and Control Act of 1998)
provide a window for analysis on the actors and the
factors at play in the Philippine political environment

Both laws were received with strong opposition from

religious sectors and pro-family groups, while it rallied

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 to support family-planning advocates

PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION
It examines the various administrative schemes implemented
by the government officials

It analyzes the strategies applied by the administrative

units in implementing the existing policies and the
feedback mechanism that they use to gain the opinion of
the public

It provides scientific evaluation of the efficiency of

administrative units in fulfilling their functions and the
factors that affect them in pursuit of accomplishing their
deliverables

Given the scope and nature of the discipline of political

science, it is oriented toward an applied and
interdisciplinary approach

Applied orientation pervades all of its sub-disciplines as

they all address contemporary issues on politics, ethics
and governance

It is interdisciplinary as it uses the frameworks of other

social science disciplines, such history, sociology,
anthropology, psychology, philosophy, and even demography,
to provide contexts to a political phenomenon

Its methods in gathering data is highly inclusive as it

uses both the quantitative and qualitative approaches

DAVID EASTON
Political System Model (1957): A conceptual model
may be used in analyzing the political dynamics
within a society

pagkakaiba and fluctuations

He presented 5 primary variables in this model:

environment, input, political system, output, and
feedback

1. Environment

It consists of the historical, social, and economic

conditions of the society that affects he types of
policies accepted and declined by the electorate

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 In this category, you should consider the following
questions:

Is the country from the Global North or the Global

South?

Is the country culturally pluralistic or homogenous?

Does the country have a colonial past?

These are pertinent inquiries as these would yield a

background on the type of responses to the system a
society will have

2. Input

This refers to the forms of political events or

products that are needed by society from its
government. This is divided into 2 categories; demand
and support

DEMANDS - perceived needs of the population that

could better their lives; this may include better
wages, equality in the workplace, and lowered taxes;
this is affected by the environment as the needs of
the electorate vary per environmental condition

SUPPORT - mechanisms within the system that would

allow for such demand to be facilitated; for
example, a demand wage for wage hike for public
school teachers may have support from related
sectors such as the working class political parties
and the public school teachers; a demand should also
have support from existing structures (support one
another to have agreeable solutions)

3. Political System

It acts like a black box through which every form of

demand is sifted and decided upon

It could either be democratic or socialist,

parliamentary or presidential, and unitary or federal

Based on the nature of the political system, the demand

are either acted upon or neglected

4. Output

The decision of the government toward and input

this includes policies, rules, laws, regulations and

projects

example:

wage hike for teachers, the government could grant it

by creating a law that would increase their wages or

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 provide an alternate solution such as de-loading
teachers of working requirements to enable them to
indulge in other occupations

5. Feedback

Whichever the government decides on, opinions and

response would be made by the affected sectors

It is important for the system to gauge the efficiency

of its response to a public need

It also provides the government a basis for improving

its response to public demands

The feedback on decisions made by the system can also

affect the types of demand and support that will be
made later by the public

David Easton’s Model of a Political System

POLITICAL
SCIENCE
CONCEPTS
Politics

The central concept of political science

Definition of politics by different theorists:

(Curtis, The great Political Theorists, 1976)

Alfred Boyer - politics is the interaction between

the civil society and the government in the
activity of governance

Max Weber - politics is the exercise of power

within a state

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 David Easton - politics is the authoritative
allocation of scarce values

Power

Robert Dahl: It is the ability of person A to make

person B do what person B would not otherwise do
(American Political Science Association, 2013)

In Weber’s definition corresponds to the interplay of

power relations within a political system

State

It is a political concept which makes it intangible

(not easily held) unlike its elements

2 of the defining characteristics of a state are the

following:

It is dependent from external control

It may consist of many nations

It is the political entity that consists of 4

elements: territory, government, people, and
sovereignty

Government

The set of personnel who manages the affairs of

the state in its act of allocating scarce
values (scarce value — economic factor
describing the increase of an items relative
price by a low supply)

Its existence is dedicated by the political

system that it revolves on

For democratic systems, the aim of the

government is to advance the welfare of the
general public

Aristotle - provided a system of classification

of governments based on the number of rulers
and its efficiency in governance (Curtis,
1981)

Different Governments:

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 Sovereignty

Capacity of a political system to make

independent decisions within its territory

It can be classified in terms of its scope:

INTERNAL SOVEREIGNTY: refers to the capacity

of a political system to implement its
rules and policies within its territory

EXTERNAL SOVEREIGNTY: it refers to the

recognition of that system’s existence and
authority by other actors and systems

The capacity of the government to quell

rebellion by separatist groups is a marker of
its internal sovereignty

When a government’s internal sovereignty is

perceived by other global actors as weak or
even non-existent, its external sovereignty
may be challenged

Territory

This is the geographic space in which the

sovereignty of a state is exercised

It includes the terrestrial, fluvial, and

aerial domains, including its territorial
seas, the seabed and subsoil, the insular
shelves, and other submarine areas (De Leon,
2005)

In the Philippine context, Article I of the

1987 Philippine Constitution declares the
following:

parameters of our territory

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 People

It is the crucial of all, asit is through the

existence of the people that concepts on
government, state, territory, and sovereignty
take shape

In the context of political science, it is

synonymous to a nation

nation: a concept that is related to

ethnicity; as people within it are bound by
cultural and historical ties

A state can consist of many nations

example:

the pluralistic societies such as United

State, Singapore, and the European Union
have multicultural populations under one
administration

In the same way, a nation can be frames within

different forms of government

example:

The Aran nation which is distributed

around the world, is subjected to
varying forms of government; hence the
Arab nation in the Global South
experiences a different form of
government from those who are in the
Global North

When a state is composed of people who w=share

the same culture and history, it gains the
compounded identity of being a nation-state:
not all state can be considered as such due to
the lack of shared identity among its people

“A community of persons more or less

numerous, permanently occupying a definite
portion of territory, having a government
of their own to which the great body of
inhabitants render obedience, and enjoy
freedom from external control” - De Leon,
2005

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