History and Scope of the
Discipline
Agenda
Political Science from Ancient to Modern
Separate Tables? The subfields of Political
Science
Discussion: Settling Contesting
Hypothesis
Government/Politics
What is Political?
What is Government
The organization that holds a monopoly on
legitimate violence in a particular territory
The authoritative allocation of resources and
values
A location for settling conflicts
Justin’s Broad Definition- any factor that may
have an impact on conflict resolution, decision
making, policy outputs
Three Broad Classes
Inputs



Culture
Information
Public Opinion
Institutions



Branches of Government
State and Local Government
Parties/Interest Groups
Outputs



Policies
Conditions
Outcomes
Plato and Political Philosophy
Plato’s Republic
What is Ideal State?
Philosopher kings
Focus on ought rather
than is
Method: Reasoning
By Analogy
Political Science
Student of Plato’s
Aristotle- First
Political Scientist?
Typology of
Constitutions
Concern over what
makes good
government
Method: Observation
Political Science as a Discipline
1857- Francis Lieber named first professor
of History and Political Science
1880- Columbia University first deparment
of political Science
1903- Founding of American Political
Science Association
Early American Political Science- Focus
On law
Early American Political Science
Focus


Law
Institutions
Methods:



Observation
Text Analysis
Comparison
Behavioralism
Focus on observations of behavior
More “scientific”
Distinction between ethics and knowledge
Merriam and Gosnell (1924) Non-Voting
Focus more on individuals and systems
Methods


Survey
Greater quantification
Post Behavioralism
Behavioralism never really goes away
Resurgence of values/advocacy
Questioning of significance of work
Questioning of scientific enterprise
Other Developments
Cognitive revolution


Focuses on mental process
Not altogether different from Behavioralism
Rational choice theory

Deductive rather than Inductive
Political Science as a Borrowing
Discipline
Psychology



Personality
Motivation
Cognition
Sociology


Groups
Culture
History
Economics



Methodology
Political Economy
Rational choice theory
Subfields of Political Science
Discipline divided into 4 (or 5 or 6)
subfields
American Politics
Comparative Politics
International Relations
Political Theory
Research Methodology?
Public Policy
Types of Research/Methods
Basic- research for research’s sake
Applied- research to solve some problem
Methods
Empirical- based on observation
Quantitative- based on mathematical
analysis of large amounts of data
Qualitative- based on less formal analysis,
often more in depth
American Politics
Broad field
Two main branches
Institutions


How do rules impact outcomes
Development of structures
Mass political behavior


Public opinion
Voting behavior
Comparative Politics
Focus on differences among countries
Can look at institutions or behavior as well
Area studies sometimes lumped in
Often more qualitative than studies of
American Politics
International Relations
How countries relate to one another
War and Peace
Political Economy
Political theory
Normative rather than Positive
Defining concepts
Non-empirical
Methodology
Sort of a separate subfield
Focus on how to do research
Technique rather than content
Public Policy
Applied research
Focus on outputs
Focus on consequences of policy choices
Separate departments
Discussion questions
What are some examples of conflicting
predictions from readings?
How do we evaluate claims?
How do we know what is correct method
to use?
For Next Time
Shively Chapter 1
Johnston and Reynolds Chapter 2