Nature and Scope of Political Science

Sub-fields of political science

Political Science
The branch of social sciences that
control people, elect leaders, opinion
their voters and also help citizens to
know their responsibilities in the
society is called political science

Introduction

The great Greek political philosopher,

Aristotle was the first thinker to use

the term politics. The term Politics
is derived from the Greek word Polis
which means city state.

Introduction

It begins from the time of Aristotle

and Plato, in ancient Greek.

It was introduced almost 2500 years

ago.

Definitions
Political science is a branch of

social science.
It is the study of the state.
Political science begins and ends with

the state.

 It may be defined as the study of man

in the process of governing himself.

Political science deals with general

problems of the state and government.

Nature of Political Science

There are different views on the nature
of politics:
Political Science has Scientific nature.
Politics can be studied in a systematic

manner.

Nature of Political Science

Political Science, like other Sciences,

has absolute and universal laws.

It is possible to make predictions in

politics.
It is said that experimentation is

possible in politics.

Scope of Political Science

Scope of political science is to study

the past things that happened and use

it correctly in the present and
determine what the future will say
about.

Scope of Political Science

Normally, a lay man associate politics

with the party politics. But we should

know that politics is much larger than
that.
The scope of political science implies

its area of study.

Scope of Political Science

It is classified into four zones:
Political theory
Political institution

Scope of Political Science

Political dynamics
International relation

The Four Zones

Political theory
It deals with the definition and

fundamental concepts of political

science like state, government, law,
liberty, equality, justice and
sovereignty.

Political institution

It is concerned with a study

of formal political institution

such as the state and
instrument through which it
runs the government.

Political Dynamics
The term refers to the forces and

process at work in government and

politics. They influence and explain
political action. They include the
study of political parties.

International Relations
International Relations (IR) is the

study of relationships among countries.

International relations draws

intellectual materials from the fields of

technology, engineering, economics
and history.

Elements of State
The state consists of four elements:
The people.
The territory.
The government.
The sovereignty.

People
It is a people who make the state. Population
or people are essential for the state.
According to Aristotle, the number should
neither be too large nor too small. It should
be large enough to be self sufficing and
small enough to be well governed

Territory
It is a fixed area that rightly belongs to the
population. There can be no state without
fixed territory.
It may be remembered that the territory of
state includes land, water and air-space.
It should be permanent and large enough to
be self-sufficing.

Government
It is the third element of the state.
Government is the agency through with the
force of the state is formulated, expressed
and realized.

Sovereignty

The fourth essential element of the state is

sovereignty. The word Sovereignty means
supreme and final legal authority above
and beyond which no legal power exists.

 Sovereignty has two aspects:

Internal Sovereignty
Means that the state is supreme over all its
citizens and associations.

External Sovereignty
Means that the state is independent and free from
foreign or outside control.

Scope concerning with State

Scope of political science concerns
with the state as :
Present Form of the state.
Historical Form.
Ideal Form of the state.

Ideal form of a State

The state should act as trustee of the

people means that it should hold
people power as a trust for welfare of
people. It should not consider people
as helpless subject, but as co-rulers in
its governance.

Sub-fields of Political Science

Following are the sub-fields of

Political Science :

Sociology
Economics
Anthropology
Psychology
History

Sociology
The word Sociology is a combination
of Two words; Socio means
Society and logy means to study.
Thus sociology means the study of
society.
It involves both formal and informal
behaviors of people.

Economics
Economics is the social science that
studies economic activity to gain an
understanding of the processes that
govern the production, distribution
and consumption of goods in a
country.

Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humans
past and present.
To understand the complexity of
cultures across all of human
history, anthropology draws knowledge
from the social and biological sciences as
well as the humanities and physical
sciences.

Psychology

Psychology is an academic and

applied discipline that involves the
scientific study of mental functions and
behaviors.

History
The branch of knowledge that records a

nd analyzes past events , is known as

history.
"History has a long-range perspective"

(Elizabeth Gurley Flynn).

Conclusion

In conclusion, we will say that the

scope of political science comprehends
globalization, state sovereignty,
international security, and ecological
sustainability of a state.

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