Wikipedia source excerpts
criptive and explanatory means of articulating what is (the de facto, status quo, lex non scripta, etc.) and favors empirical evidence over ethical judgements.
Political science emerged as a distinct academic discipline in the late 19th century, influenced by the rise of empiricism and positivism. It emerged from history, philosophy, and law amid university professionalization and the founding of bodies such as the American Political Science Association in 1903.
Political science is methodologically diverse and appropriates many methods originating in psychology, social research, political philosophy, and many others, in addition to those that developed chiefly within the field of political science.
Political scientists approach the study of politics from a host of different ontological orientations and with a variety of different tools. Because political science is essentially a study of human behavior, in all aspects of politics, observations in controlled environments are often challenging to reproduce or duplicate, though experimental methods are increasingly common (see experimental political science). Citing this difficulty, former American Political Science Association President Lawrence Lowell once said "We are limited by the impossibility of experiment. Politics is an observational, not an experimental science." Because of this, political scientists have historically observed political elites, institutions, and individual or group behaviour to identify patterns, draw generalizations, and build theories of politics.
Like all social sciences, political science faces the difficulty of observing human actors that can only be partially observed and who have the capacity for making conscious choices, unlike other subjects, such as non-human organisms in biology, minerals in geoscience, chemical elements in chemistry, stars in astronomy, or particles in physics. Despite its complexities, contemporary political science has advanced by adopting a variety of methods and theoretical approaches to understanding politics, and methodological pluralism is a defining feature of the field.
Empirical political science methods include the use of field experiments, surveys and survey experiments, case studies, process tracing, historical and institutional analysis, ethnography, participant observation, and interview research.
Political scientists also use and develop theoretical tools such as game theory and agent-based models to study a wide range of political systems and situations. Other approaches include the study of equation-based models and opinion dynamics.
Political theorists approach theories of political phenomena with a wide range of positions and tools, including feminist political theory, historical analysis associated with the Cambridge School, and Straussian approaches.
Political science may overlap with topics of study that are the traditional focuses of other social sciences—for example, when sociological norms or psychological biases are connected to political phenomena. In these cases, political science may either inherit its methods of study or develop a contrasting approach. For example, Lisa Wedeen has argued that political science's approach to the idea of culture, originating with Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba and exemplified by authors like Samuel P. Huntington, could benefit from aligning more closely with the study of culture in anthropology. In turn, methodologies that are developed within political science may influence how researchers in other fields, like public health, conceive of and approach political processes and policies.
The most common piece of academic writing in generalist political sciences is the research paper, which investigates an original research question.
Education
Political science, possibly like the social sciences as a whole, can be described "as a discipline which lives on the fault line between the 'two cultures' in the academy, the sciences and the humanities." Thus, in most American colleges, especially liberal arts colleges, it would be located within the school or college of arts and sciences. If no separate college of arts and sciences exists, or if the college or university prefers that it be in a separate constituent college or academic department, then political science may be a separate department housed as part of a division or school of humanities or liberal arts. At some universities, especially research universities and in particular those that have a strong cooperation between research, undergraduate, and graduate faculty with a stronger, more applied emphasis in public administration, political science would be taught by the university's public policy school.
Most United States colleges and universities offer BA programs in political science. MA or MAT and PhD or EdD programs are common at larger universities. The term political science is more popular in post-1960s North America than elsewhere while universities predating the 1960s or those historically influenced by them would call the field of study government; other institutions, especially those outside the United States, see political science as part of a broader discipline of political studies or politics in general. While political science implies the use of the scientific method, political studies implies a broader approach, although the naming of degree courses does not necessarily reflect their content. Separate, specialized, or, in some cases, professional degree programs in international relations, public policy, and public administration are common at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. However, most, but not all, undergraduate-level education in these sub-fields of political science is found in academic concentrations within a political science academic major.
Political science, possibly like the social sciences as a whole, can be described "as a discipline which lives on the fault line between the 'two cultures' in the academy, the sciences and the humanities." Thus, in most American colleges, especially liberal arts colleges, it would be located within the school or college of arts and sciences. If no separate college of arts and sciences exists, or if the college or university prefers that it be in a separate constituent college or academic department, then political science may be a separate department housed as part of a division or school of humanities or liberal arts. At some universities, especially research universities and in particular those that have a strong cooperation between research, undergraduate, and graduate faculty with a stronger, more applied emphasis in public administration, political science would be taught by the university's public policy school.
Most United States colleges and universities offer BA programs in political science. MA or MAT and PhD or EdD programs are common at larger universities. The term political science is more popular in post-1960s North America than elsewhere while universities predating the 1960s or those historically influenced by them would call the field of study government; other institutions, especially those outside the United States, see political science as part of a broader discipline of political studies or politics in general. While political science implies the use of the scientific method, political studies implies a broader approach, although the naming of degree courses does not necessarily reflect their content. Separate, specialized, or, in some cases, professional degree programs in international relations, public policy, and public administration are common at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. However, most, but not all, undergraduate-level education in these sub-fields of political science is found in academic concentrations within a political science academic major.