Political science is one of the social sciences, which is devoted to the study of the regularities of the functioning and development of political relations and political systems, the peculiarities of the life of people associated with power relations. Its final consolidation as a separate science received in 1948, when the subject and object of political science was determined at the congress of political scientists under the auspices of UNESCO.
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Step 1
Political science is one of the social sciences that is aimed at studying the political component of the life of society. It is closely related to other social sciences. In particular, such as sociology, economics, philosophy, theology. Political science integrates certain aspects of these disciplines, because the object of her research intersects in the part that is associated with political power.
Step 2
Like any other science, political science has its own object and subject. The objects of research include the philosophical and ideological foundations of politics, political paradigms, political culture and the values and ideas that form it, as well as political institutions, political process and political behavior. The subject of political science is the patterns of relationships between social subjects about political power.
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Political science has its own structure. It includes such sciences as the theory of politics, the history of political doctrines, political sociology, the theory of international relations, geopolitics, political psychology, conflictology, ethnopolitical science, etc. Each of them focuses its attention on a separate aspect of political science.
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Political science has its own methodology (conceptual approaches to research) and methods. Initially, political science was dominated by the institutional approach, which was aimed at studying political institutions (parliament, parties, the institution of the presidency). His disadvantage was that he paid too little attention to the psychological and behavioral aspects of the political sphere.
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Therefore, the institutional approach soon replaced behaviorism. The main emphasis was shifted towards the study of political behavior, as well as the specifics of the relationship of individuals about power. Observation has become a key research method. Behaviorism also brought quantitative research methods to political science. Among them - questioning, interviewing. However, such an approach has been criticized for excessive enthusiasm for the psychological aspects and insufficient attention to the functional aspect.
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In the 50-60s, the structural-functional approach became widespread, which focused on the relationship between economic and political systems, political activity and the regime, the number of parties and the electoral system. For the first time, the systems approach began to consider politics as an integral self-organizing mechanism that aims to distribute political values.
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The theory of rational choice and the comparative approach have gained popularity in political science today. The first is based on the selfish, rational nature of the individual. Thus, any of his actions (for example, the desire for power or the transfer of power) are aimed at increasing their own benefit. Comparative political science involves comparing phenomena of the same type (for example, the political regime or the party system) in order to identify their advantages and disadvantages, as well as to determine the most optimal development models.
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Political science performs a number of socially significant functions. Among them - epistemological, involving the acquisition of new knowledge; value - the function of value orientation; theoretical and methodological; socializing - helping people to understand the essence of political processes; predictive - forecasting political processes, etc.
