lecture 1 - Introduction

Question 1

Plato’s republic

Answer 1

ideal state
- justice as first virtue of politics

shows core question politics = applied ethics = what should politics be
*not empiric or descriptive
*political science is at its core normative

Question 2

Daniel Heinsius

Answer 2

1580-1655
first endowed chair of politics (1612 Professor Politices)

Question 3

Anderleg article

Answer 3

mainly: political science has for long time been in the law + philosophy + behavior discipline

*don’t memorize

Question 4

modern day political science

Answer 4

tracks historical developments in politics
development -> change in political science + other sciences

• comparative politics = creation of states
• international politics = interactions between states
• transnational politics = movement across state borders
• beyond US & Europe = globalization
• study of citizens = process and waves of democratization

developments in other disciplines also shape the study of political science

• behavioral revolution = sociology and psychology, impacting political science on how to think (e.g. more focus on predicting)

Question 5

what is political science
- in broad

Answer 5

study of one aspect of human behavior/life from different theoretical perspectives. a social science of politics

no one theoretical approach completely dominates the field (LMS: celebration of diversity)

political science is by definition pluralistic

distinct = subject focus in the discipline itself, it’s not a methodological approach, but it designates a subjective area focus
- criminal science has the same: already a clear subject

Question 6

celebration of diversity

Answer 6

LMS only highlights the positive

lecture mentions that there are also negative points

political science is by definition pluralistic

Question 7

disciplinary influences on political science

Answer 7

ideas about human behavior that can be applied to the subject/substance of political science

• philosophy, law, anthropology, sociology, psychology, (micro)economics

in practice: theoretical approaches to political science
- behavioralism
- rational choice
- neo-institutionalism
- constructivism
- marxism
- feminism
- normative political theory

these are all different sets of assumptions, questions, research designs, etc.

Question 8

reading material

Answer 8

encouraged to go back to it regularly, as we go through it, it will be a summary, it will make sense

study table 1.1 as summary and as overview

Question 9

What is political science?
- definition possible?

Answer 9

different answers with different theoretical approaches

theories determines research puzzle, research question, conceptualization, operationalization into variable, research design, research method

different theories don’t talk about the same thing if they talk about politics
- necessary to understand why different theorists look at different thing: from extremely niche to really broad, from government to movements

Question 9

textbook: ideal (social) types of politics

conceptualization of politics

Answer 9

ideal (social definition) = shared notion that doesn’t necessarily work in the real world, not a perfect thing, but a category that helps to understand reality

arena definition = political parties, elections, etc.
- definition for people that don’t study political science
- definitions most people don’t care about
- traditional view
- arena, because: specific place for politics

proces definition = politics embedded in all sort of social relations
- e.g. in the family, bedroom, marketplace, class room, the streets

arena conception can be seen as narrow -> risk of ignoring, overlooking, misunderstanding (e.g. only focusing on in parliament, not on lobbying, then the behavior is sometimes hard to understand/explain)

process conception can be seen as to broad -> risk of conceptual overstretching + not everything is equally important

Question 10

defining politics - LMS

Answer 10

constrained use of social power

means:
- enabling collective choice and action, without simple resort to (threat of) force or violence (but not excluded)
- politics enables some, but constrains others
- politics has intended + unintended consequences
- politics is active and passive (passive: shared norms governing behavior)
- most political scientists focus on collective and public elements of power struggles

Question 11

extinction rebellion

Answer 11

demand that Dutch government away from fuel subsidies

= social movement, civil disobedience
but a strong political focus

both arena and proces c of conception political science

! in practice, categories don’t exist
in practice phenomena don’t fall in one or another category

Question 12

the essence of conceptualization

Answer 12

'’Categories don’t exist in practice’’

conceptualization/language is applied and imposed on happenings
- concepts can be good and bad

old categories can become out of use

it is important to be clear what we talk about

it doesn’t matter in what concept you place something, it is important to explain where you stand and how you understand it
- you have to work within the same framework to have a good understanding

Question 13

what is political SCIENCE

Answer 13

minimalist approach = ordered knowledge based on systematic enquiry

ontology = what can we know
epistemology = how can we know

Question 14

ontology

Answer 14

what can we know

Question 15

epistemology

Answer 15

how can we know

Question 16

concepts, theories and hypotheses

Answer 16

• to conduct science, is to compare
• to compare, we need points of reference: concepts
• conceptualization is (to a large extent) determined by theoretical perspective (theory)