Introduction To Political Science

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What is Political Science?

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Politics from “polis” - city; sovereign state Science from “scire” - to know; study

Political Science is the study of state and government.

  1. Studying political behavior (behavior list approach)
  2. Studying political structure and functions (structural-functional approach)
  3. Studying political phenomena (phenomenological approach)
  4. Studying political ideas (philosophical approach)
  5. Studying political documents
  6. Studying political futures
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Politics and Power

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Authority

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  1. Traditional authority - political order is maintained by the constant reference to customs, traditions and conventions.
  2. Rational legal authority - political order is maintained by a regard of legality in the eyes of the population
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Legitimacy

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Source of Legitimacy

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Points to Ponder

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What is the Scope of Political Science?

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Concept of State and Government

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State – a community of persons more or less numerous permanently occupying a definite portion of territory, having a government of its own to which the great body of inhabitants renders obedience, and enjoying freedom from external control

Element of the State:

  1. People – mass of population living within the state
  2. Territory – fixed portion of the surface of the earth inhabited by the people of the state
  3. Government – agency through which the will of the state is formulated, expressed and carried out
  4. Sovereignty – the supreme power of the state to command and enforce obedience

Origin of the State:

  1. Divine Right Theory – holds that the state is of divine creation and the ruler is ordained by God to govern the people
  2. Necessity or force theory – maintains that states must have been created through force
  3. Paternalistic theory – attributes the origin of states to the enlargement of the family
  4. Social Contract theory – asserts that the early states must have been formed by deliberate and voluntary compact among people to form a government of their own.
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Political Science in the Soviet Union

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In the Soviet Union, political studies were carried out under the guise of some other disciplines like theory of state and law, area studies, international relations, studies of labor movement, "critique of bourgeois theories", etc. Soviet scholars were represented at the International Political Science Association (IPSA) since 1955 (since 1960 by the Soviet Association of Political and State Studies).

In 1979, the 11th World Congress of IPSA took place in Moscow. Until the late years of the Soviet Union, political science as a field was subjected to tight control of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and was thus subjected to distrust. Anti-communists accused political scientists of being "false" scientists and of having served the old regime.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, two of the major institutions dealing with political science, the Institute of Contemporary Social Theories and the Institute of International Affairs, were disbanded, and most of their members were left without jobs. These institutes were victims of the first wave of anticommunist opinion and ideological attacks. Today, the Russian Political Science Association unites professional political scientists from all around Russia.

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