UNIT 1 - Identifying Political Science

Question 1

who is the father of political science?

Answer 1

Aristotle

Question 2

which time period did political science come into being?

Answer 2

Ancient Greece (4 - 5 Centuries B.C) [~2500 y/a]

Question 3

what is the traditional interpretation of political science?

Answer 3

politics was the state administration. it’s a much more philosophical study

Question 4

what is the modern interpretation of political science?

Answer 4

Americans came and introduced Behavioralism. they said that political science was about behavior. it’s a much more scientific study

Question 5

what did Aristotle say about Political science?

Answer 5

“The human is a political creature”

therefore no human can be excluded from politics

Question 6

what is the book and educational institute introduced by plato?

Answer 6

Book - The Republic
Institute - Academy

Question 7

what is the book and educational institute introduced by Aristotle?

Answer 7

Book - Politics
Institute - Lyceum

Question 8

what was Aristotle’s book “politics” about?

Answer 8

it was a comparative study of 158 Greek city-states

Question 9

what is the greek word for politics?

Answer 9

politicos (roughly translates to “affairs between cities)

Question 10

who were the contributors to political science in the roman and medieval eras?

Answer 10

Roman Era - Polybius, Cicero, Seneca
Medieval Era - St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas

Question 11

what did Niccolo Machiavelli say about politics?

Answer 11

he said that politics was a power struggle. his book “The Prince” [1516] mainly focused on the element of power

Question 12

who followed the power politics theory after Niccolo Machiavelli?

Answer 12

Thomas Hobbs, Max Weber, Harold Laswell, Friedrich Nietzsche

Question 13

how do humans study politics on a daily basis through informal sources?

Answer 13

family, media, political parties, government, elections, peer groups etc

Question 14

who are the chinese and indian philosophers of political science?

Answer 14

Chinese - Confucius
Indian - Kavtilya/Chanakya

Question 15

what is political science?

Answer 15

politics is a social process, the subject which studies that in an academic and theoretical level is political science

Question 16

what are political institutions? give example.

Answer 16

politically established institutions which handle the process of governance.

eg : Legislature, Executive, Judiciary, local gov bodies etc

Question 17

Examples for what political science studies?

Answer 17

Political institutions
Governance
Political behavior
Political theories
Political uses and Practicalities

Question 18

what are some examples for political theories?

Answer 18

Liberalism
Marxism
Separation of powers

Question 19

what are the two meanings of politics?

Answer 19

1. a concept about the state, state administration and governance
2. a social practice which includes every citizen

Question 20

what is philosophical approach?

Answer 20

studying politics through philosophy, good and bad values of a political concept is examined in a normative POV

Question 21

what are the 3 main features of philosophical approach?

Answer 21

1. questioning and answering fundamental questions about the world.
2. attempting to define those basic concepts that are used.
3. focusing on normative goals.

Question 22

who are the pioneers of philosophical approach?

Answer 22

Aristotle & Plato

Question 23

who is the pioneer of comparative approach?

Answer 23

Aristotle

(used this approach to write the book “politics”, it comparatively studies 158 greek city states)

Question 24

who wrote “foundation to comparative politics” and what are the 2 reasons to study politics comparatively?

Answer 24

Kenneth Newton & Jan Van Deth

1. the importance of understanding politics in other countries to understand politics in your own country
2. the difficulty to obtain proper understanding of politics in a country without a comparative study of political histories, BGs and institutions in several countries

Question 25

what are the 3 main eras of comparative approach?

Answer 25

1. Classical comparative approach
2. 20th century comparative approach (behaviouralism
3. contemporary comparative approach

Question 26

what is classical comparative approach?

Answer 26

the initial stage of comparative approach, aristotle followed this approach to compare greek city govs based on the facts of

1. number of members
2. corruption level etc,

Question 27

what is the 20th century comparative approach?

Answer 27

developed in the 1950s and 60s, this era of comparative studies provided that political comparisons should be based on human behavioural patterns similar to natural sciences.

Question 28

an example for a pioneering role in introducing comparative political science inquiry?

Answer 28

The politics of the developing areas (1960)

by Gabriel A. Almond & James S. Colman

Question 29

what are some new areas focused on by contemporary comparative approach?

Answer 29

political conflicts
citizen activities
ethnic politics
human rights

Question 30

what is multi-disciplinary approach?

Answer 30

political science is connect to alot of subjects, to study political science you need to connect it to other subjects.

learning politics on a multi subjective path is multi-desciplinary approach.

Question 31

what are normative goals?

Answer 31

normative goals are value oriented, so judging political concepts based on whether they are good or bad according to your values are normative goals

Question 32

what subjects contributed to political science throughout greek, roman eras, 19th and 20th centuries?

Answer 32

Greek era : philosophy
Roman era : Divinity, History & Law
19th century : Economics, Law & History
20th century : Social science, psychology, Anthropology, Art & literature

Question 33

how was multi-disciplinary approach emphasized by behaviouralism?

Answer 33

a. applying sociological and anthropological methods to examine the connection between voting and the caste system

b. applying psychological and biological methods to examine the reasons behind the human political behavior

Question 34

what are the main fundamentals behind the multi-disciplinary approach?

Answer 34

1. the connection between politics and other social elements despite studying politics being an independent subject
2. political theories and concepts being enriched by other theories and concepts of other social sciences
3. methods in political science being enriched with the contributions of other subjects

Question 35

what is scientific / behavioural approach?

Answer 35

in traditional approaches they mainly focused on structural and legal foundation of concepts such as state, gov, power etc.

Introduced in the late 19th century & early 20th century, behaviouralism mainly mentioned that an approach to study political science should find new ways to study a vast area of political concepts. behaviouralism criticized the fact that traditional approaches avoid the content that does not fall into the territory of political science.

behaviouralism suggested to follow natural sciences method in order to study political science in a better way.

Question 36

Why did the Americans put forward the concept of behaviouralism?

Answer 36

Behaviourism believes that in terms of political studies a valid and trustworthy knowledge
should be developed on social and economic facts. Therefore, observations should be done on
objective knowledge.

Free of personal beliefs

study should be entirely guided
by theory and based on observable & verifiable data.

The knowledge gathered in behaviourism is strictly objective and it must be value free. A
political concept or scenario should be studied without judgements such as good or bad

Question 37

What are modern day trends in behaviourism?

Answer 37

1. Behaviourism was practically keen on studying the political participation of citizens
2. After being properly organized and established in 1950’s behaviourism had a dominant role in
   political science during 1960’s however due to heavy criticisms behaviourism faced a setback in
   1970’s.
3. The basic foundation of mostly every criticism was the fact that behaviourism limiting the scope
   of political science to a single element of the subject.
4. Due to set back in the 1970’s the importance of traditional approaches such as philosophical,
   historical, social scientific were emphasized again.

Question 38

who criticized behaviorism and what did they say?

Answer 38

Marxist, neo-marxist, philosophical, feminist & post-modernist followers

because behaviorism limits the scope of political science only to the element of behavior

1. marxism focused on historical political process, state & it’s application, the connection between these social classes etc.. marxism points out through mere behavior studies it is not possible to explain such advanced political concepts.
2. canadian political scientist Christian Bay points out that behavioralists have excluded politics from political science studies by focusing on positive & negative features of politics

Question 39

what is political economical approach?

Answer 39

brought up in the 18th century, this approach is mostly based on communist theory. since communist theory is heavily attached with economical factors, it is not possible to study the communist political theory by excluding economics.

hence viewing political science in a political economical manner.

Question 40

why did political economical approach come up?

Answer 40

the private property system, the open market, the free entrepreneurship allowed the capitalists to rob labour from poor workers. Karl Marx believed that the human society has 6 eras and that the initial era was in fact equal classes period (stone age). according to marx ever since the second era, the dominating minority has been suppressing the majority using the state as a class instrument.

so to stop that he brought up communism, this system with equality includes a poor class dominance, a public property system & a fair profit division among the citizens.

Question 41

what did the economic phase of politics study?

Answer 41

this included analyzing economic concepts of production, sales, national income, the market etc. it also studies the process of economic system being linked to the politics of the gov.

contributions to this phase was done by Adam Smith, David Ricardo, J. S. Mill & Thomas Mathews.

as material the book “wealth of nations” by adam smith and “the fundamentals of political economics” by david ricardo laid the foundation of this theory.

Question 42

what is said in the capitalistic theory?

Answer 42

that every person is capable of taking care of themselves, hence he state should simply secure law and order to allow the people to handle economic affairs in their personal preferences. especially the capitalistic economy is expected to function properly when the state stays away from the market competition and allow the competitors to compete in the market.

Question 43

why was the capitalistic theory a flop?

Answer 43

due to the free competition itself eventually different financial outcomes were generated which created class division.

THEY GAVE TOO MUCH FREEDOM

Question 44

what is the historical materialism and how did it come to being?