All about - Political science

All About Political science Political science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, nation, government, and politics and policies of government Aristotle defined it as the study of the state It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems, political behavior, and political culture Political scientists "see themselves engaged in revealing the relationships underlying political events and conditions, and from these revelations they attempt to construct general principles about the way the world of politics works." Political science intersects with other fields; including economics, law, sociology, history, anthropology, public administration, public policy, national politics, international relations, comparative politics, psychology, political organization, and political theory Although it was codified in the 19th century, when all the social sciences were established, political science has ancient roots; indeed, it originated almost 2,500 years ago with the works of Plato and Aristotle Political science is commonly divided into distinct sub-disciplines which together constitute the field: political theory comparative politics public administration international relations public law political methodology Political theory is more concerned with contributions of various classical thinkers such as Aristotle, Niccol� Machiavelli, Cicero, Plato and many others Comparative politics is the science of comparison and teaching of different types of constitutions, political actors, legislature and associated fields, all of them from an intrastate perspective International relations deals with the interaction between nation-states as well as intergovernmental and transnational organizations. Political science is methodologically diverse and appropriates many methods originating in social research Approaches include positivism, interpretivism, rational choice theory, behavioralism, structuralism, post-structuralism, realism, institutionalism, and pluralism Political science, as one of the social sciences, uses methods and techniques that relate to the kinds of inquiries sought: primary sources such as historical documents and official records, secondary sources such as scholarly journal articles, survey research, statistical analysis, case studies, experimental research and model building